Apple pulls emoji apps, culls unfair reviews
This morning a significant number of emails swept in from developers of applications that enable emoji -- the useful and expansive collection of icons used in Japan for text messaging -- communicating that Apple as of today is no longer accepting any apps that enable Emoji, and wilrequire all apps that currently do to receive an immediate update removing any such functionality.
The developers also warned that this leaves only a few days left to enable emoji, so those outside of Japan wanting to use the feature have a limited time to buy or download the necessary software.
In addition, the company has taken further action to clean up the App Store by removing all reviews made by users who have never downloaded the application they reviewed; the goal is to prevent comment spam from rival firms, self-promotion by developers, or simply inaccurate ratings from those that have preconceptions about given apps.
Apple had previously stopped these non-owners from reviewing the software, but until now had left the existing reviews in place and thus let the ratings affect the final score.
The developers also warned that this leaves only a few days left to enable emoji, so those outside of Japan wanting to use the feature have a limited time to buy or download the necessary software.
In addition, the company has taken further action to clean up the App Store by removing all reviews made by users who have never downloaded the application they reviewed; the goal is to prevent comment spam from rival firms, self-promotion by developers, or simply inaccurate ratings from those that have preconceptions about given apps.
Apple had previously stopped these non-owners from reviewing the software, but until now had left the existing reviews in place and thus let the ratings affect the final score.
Comments
Maybe now Apple will just enable emoji for everyone, as one of the keyboards you can enable. Off by default, but easily available. Sounds pretty harmless to me!
We don't know, but maybe Apple was pressured to do that. If they don't own the rights to the system then they probably need to do a good-faith effort to remove the unauthorized enablers to comply with their license. I went and nabbed an enabler just for the sake of doing it before it is gone. It's a cute way to pass a bit of time, but it isn't something that should be fussed over in my opinion. I don't see anything about it that's anything other than a novelty.
I hate all the reviews that are little more than "This is not a $5.99 app it's more of a $.99. This costs too much ... whine whine whine".
It sounds like that will clean up a lot of the complaints. I don't think the App store is the appropriate forum for that sort of comment. I think the typical buyer wants an impression from people that have actually used it. Then the prospective buyer can make a decision for themselves whether it is worth the money, rather than from the rabble that may not know anything about the program.