An Apple employee has leaked the new rules for app consideration in the OS X App Store, and a certain popular software platform is about to feel very left out. According to PC Pro, the document clearly states that apps using “deprecated or optionally-installed technologies” will be rejected from the App Store. Java is an optionally installed technology, so it looks like Java programmers are out of luck when it comes to OS X software design. New apps aren’t going to be the only victims of this edict either. Apple is no longer supporting future versions of Java in the newest upgrade to OS X – Lion – and will ship with a deprecated version of the runtime.
While rejecting any Java code is a pretty big deal, it seems that the general requirements for apps have also gotten even stricter. Conditions that will necessitate a rejection include apps that “exhibit bugs", “have hidden features", “use non-public APIs," and any app listed as a beta, demo or trial. In one of the more interesting rejection criterions, Apple is forbidding any metadata that “mentions the name of any other computer platform.” Paranoid, are we?
It isn’t all bad news. It also seems like Apple is getting its head back on its turtlenecked shoulders when it comes to political satire in apps. According to the document, "Professional political satirists and humorists are exempt from the ban on offensive or mean-spirited commentary."
The App Store is shaping up to be exactly what Apple CEO Steve Jobs said it was going to be: one more way to bridge the gap between iOS, Apple’s mobile OS, and OS X. These guidelines are all for the actual App Store. No word on whether or not these rules will apply to software installed from external software, but I imagine things will start getting pretty difficult for third-party developers once they realize that Java will no longer be supported in OS X.
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