Updated Jun 25, 2009 by samuelv0304

Submission

History of submission.

Introduction

I would like to write the process to submit one application for AppStore. For the moment, Siphon was submitted six times.

19th april

Apple's guys work Saturday and Sunday, it's a great news but here is their message :

"Thank you for submitting Siphon to the App Store. We've reviewed Siphon and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because its business model is in violation of section 3.3.3 of the iPhone SDK Agreement:

"Without Apple's prior written approval, an Application may not provide, unlock or enable additional features or functionality through distribution mechanisms other than the iTunes Store."

Apple took 3 months to answer and between this two dates Apple changed his license :-(

9th april

2.5 months after submission, I received this message :

The April 9th, Apple informed me, he need more time to finalize the review:

"Your application, Siphon, is requiring unexpected additional time for review. We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your patience."

Sixth (25/01/2009)

I submitted Siphon 2.0.3 (25/01) with some new functions that you can see here, but mainly I changed the icons.

Fifth (06/01/2009)

I submitted Siphon 2.0.1 (06/01) with some new functions that you can see here.

The January 13th, I received an answer: negative, why i give you the test of his mail:

"Your application, Siphone, cannot be submitted to the App Store because it uses the Recents button from the iPhone's phone application for an action other than that for which it is intended. Applications must adhere to the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines as outlined in iPhone SDK Agreement section 3.3.5."

I don't understand because I use SDK features (copy below):

UITabBarSystemItemHistory
  The history system item. [http://siphon.googlecode.com/svn/images/Apple%20UITabBarHistory.png]

  Available in iPhone OS 2.0 and later.

  Declared in UITabBarItem.h.

UITabBarSystemItemRecents
  The recents system item.

  Available in iPhone OS 2.0 and later.

  Declared in UITabBarItem.h.

Effectively, I use this button and it allows to see call history. If the developers mustn't use this icon, why is it available in the SDK ?

So I give you the end of message:

"The Recents button is to be used to display recent calls made using the Phone application. Implementing this button to refer to calls made from your app will lead to user confusion. We recommend using another button to refer to the recent calls made from your application."

When I will change the icon, it won't be able submitted to AppStore because the user will be able to not understand. And after it will the favorites icon, and then keypad icon, etc...

Fourth (02/12)

I submitted Siphon (02/12) for iPhone and iPod Touch 2.

The December 7th, Apple informed me, he need more time to finalize the review. I never received an answer.

Third (27-29/11)

I submitted Siphon (27/11) but I found a bug so I re-submitted Siphon (29/11) before Apple review.

Apple refused "because the VoIP service is active over the cellular network". Like you can see on the screenshot that I received, they tested on iPod touch. So the test was not complete.

In fact when SIP is unreachable or Wi-Fi is unavailable, Siphon asks to users to make a cellular call. Maybe in USA, GSM is unknown.

Second (~13/11)

I submitted Siphon (~13/11) with new functionalities.

Apple refused because GUI was too close to MobilePhone application of iPhone.

In fact, with my compilation problems the GUI didn't work correctly. So I understand now why Apple refused Siphon.

I corrected these problems and now Siphon displays the status of connection.

First (25/10)

I submitted Siphon (25/10) before I leave in holiday with my family in Spain (Galicia).

Apple refused because I didn't give a SIP account (27/10).

So When I came back, I create a new SIP account and I gave them it.

Comment by thybigfoot, Jan 15, 2009

The latest rejection really is ridiculous. Did you check the other provider-dependendt VoIP apps on the store? Don't they use the same button?

Comment by christopher.g.white, Jan 15, 2009

Keep trying !

If this continues, then pretty soon it's going to make big Internet news and give Apple some negative press. I doubt They'd want that.

I'm sure it'll be accepted in the end.

Good luck !

Chris

Comment by michal.mirski, Feb 03, 2009

I really hope, you soon can make it! It is incredible, how apple acts:(

Comment by mristroph, Feb 04, 2009

The "Recents" icon issue is not one they are simply using to slow you down, and they actually are at least a bit consistent on this issue. Our application, which allows you to place calls with calling cards, was rejected once with the same feedback. We changed the icon to be distinctive, and then it was accepted.

Comment by moistyman, Feb 04, 2009

any updates?

Comment by christopher.g.white, Feb 09, 2009

Any news ?

Comment by macinfosys, Feb 09, 2009

I keep waiting and now I see another app added to the App store but still no SiPhon?. :-(

Comment by zoc.fra, Feb 10, 2009

I would like to know why the "SipPhone? for iPhone" has not been rejected by Apple : It uses the famous "Recent" icon for the call history...

Comment by macinfosys, Feb 10, 2009

One thing I notice is that SiPhon? is VERY similar to the built in iPhone dialer. Where as SipPhone? is not. I personally hate the look and dialing buttons of SIPPhone and like the clean interface that SiPhone? is using. BUT that may be the reason for the current hold up. I really am getting sick of using Fring and if SiPhon? cannot get released into the AppStore? then I may be forced to go buy the new SipPhone?. :-(

Comment by moistyman, Feb 15, 2009

dude cmon give us some love here whats the news? :)

Comment by sbul...@gmail.com, Mar 25, 2009

when will you submit it again to AppStore??

Comment by zoc.fra, Apr 20, 2009

This is a real mess !!!

Which Siphon feature or function are they talking about this time ?? !!

Comment by thybigfoot, Apr 21, 2009

What does the latest update mean? Do they mean that you may not distribute it also via Cydia?

Comment by contik32, Apr 21, 2009

Looks like Apple doesn't really want the application to be available for users of regular (not jailbraked) devices. And I see a big business reason why. Mature version of Siphon (and I hope it will be there some day) is extremely dangerous for iphone dealers, because they make most of their money by charging ridiculous fees for voice calls. iPhone is oriented to young people, and these people do not pay much of attention on how long they stay on the call or whether they can call from land line if fee is too high (during business hours, for example). As the results, parents are kinda stuck with bills, but the bills are being paid. Providers are happy. However, imagine if iPhone is able transparently switch to voip if it is able to connect to a wifi network (everybody has wifi net at home, as minimum, and most of downtown areas get more and more covered). Kids will continue making and receiving calls but through free or inexpensive wifi/voip connection. Ooops, sorry, number of used airtime sharply drops, so do the bill amounts. Providers do not want this to happen. And the will press Apple with all their money preventing from such applications reaching Apple store.

Though if there are some features get developed, I would consider buying even jailbreaked version, as soon as it will save me bunch of money on cell phone bills.

And here are the features:

1) Receiving calls while the app is in background

2) Tracking wifi connection with the purpose of informing voip server whether forwarding to my cell number should be switched on or off. The idea is that I will give people my voip number, and when wifi is accessible, calls go to the voip number directly, and received by siphon, but if siphon is inactive, voip server is instructed to forward calls to my cell number, so that they will come to the same iphone but via cellular network. From user point of view, that would be pretty much transparent.

Comment by jerome.martinent, Jun 12, 2009

Well, the last rejection from Apple (though it's their right as per SDK) is ridiculous because there is an application on the appstore which provides SIP calling. It's from a chinese company selling it 5 to 6EUR and the same application is also sold on cydia with a different name, different company name. The GUI and feature set is exactly the same even the text in the dialogs... Siphon from a GUI point of view respects much better the apple iphone guidelines whereas this app is kind of visually ugly

Comment by ambi...@dreaming.org, Jun 21, 2009

irt. comment by by contik32, Apr 21, 2009:

I would also pay for a version of Siphon that could run in the background, but understand that this is officially impossible. There is a 'backgrounder' app hack but it as yet does not work on 3.0.

Comment by jpapers, Jun 22, 2009

Have you had any luck resubmitting this app to the app store? would really like to get this working :) GL!

Comment by Masterle2k, Jul 13, 2009

Hmm i do not understand why apple reject you app. There are many other SIP Apps like yours in the Appstore. Even the SipPhone? is like yours

Comment by kaiwei, Oct 16, 2009

I really wish this can really be approved.