We wanted to update everyone on the status of both Darkroom and Darkroom Premium. For those who attended or saw the news coming out of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference 2009 last week, you have no doubt learned iPhone OS 3.0 will be available on June 17. You’ve seen how the new OS 3.0 is packed with great features, but with these great features, comes bad news for developers and more importantly, users.
Last month, we did exactly that, updated to support OS 3.0 but was rejected on different occasions. We have exchanged emails but have yet to hear back anything solid from Apple.
Since being rejected, we have heard from at least few other developers of photography apps having the same issue with Apple. All this could have a huge impact not on us developers, but the iPhone users, since there’s a chance that these apps will be removed from the iTunes store, as described in this article.
Unlike Darkroom, there are other developers, of apps like NightCamera, QuadCam, ToyCamera, to name a few, lucky to have their apps approved before what appears to be Apple’s stricter control of their custom camera view in their API. This is what we assume from Apple’s email. Sure, iPhone users can continue to download and use those photography apps even after June 17. However, we predict those apps might eventually lose its popularity because even though they support the OS 3.0 now, these apps will have difficulty with publishing new features. Apple will reject them because they use the custom camera view just like Darkroom. In other words, we suspect all these photography apps that uses a custom camera interface will experience a slow death.
To give an idea of the numbers, there has been over 700,000 users who have downloaded Darkroom and that excludes those who downloaded Darkroom Premium. Other photo app developers are affected too, one being QuickShot (from a comment on previous post), they too should have solid download figures with both their Lite and Paid version as their Lite version is included in iTunes Top 20 Free Apps (as of this post). Based on our numbers and some guesstimates, the total number of users and paying customers affected could approach a few million. If those popular apps mentioned above do slowly fall to the bottom, the number of users affected could easily double or triple.
Is Apple going to abandon all these users? And is it fair for Apple to force users to give up an app they have purchased?
Ontwikkelaars mogen foto-apps niet updaten voor iPhone OS 3.0 > Nieuws > iPhoneclub.nl
June 20th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
[...] de nieuwste firmware. De ontwikkelaars van de applicatie Darkroom (voorheen Steadycam) denken nu de oorzaak gevonden te hebben. Het probleem is alleen: de aangepaste bugvrije versies van Darkroom en Darkroom Premium, die wel [...]
Vince
June 20th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Port Darkroom to Android.
Those morons at Apple are shooting themselves in the feet and will be sorry when Android has become the bigger platform.
Carlos
June 21st, 2009 at 8:04 am
Give us DarkRoom back Apple!
Is there any petition we can sign?
Brian
June 21st, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Look, I love my iPhone, and I credit apple for such a great device, but I refuse to be limited, unless it’s for a good and solid reason! Apple refused to give MMS in the 2.0 OS, so I jailbroke my iPhone, and have enjoyed MMS ever since! If Apple does not want to approve a great app like Darkroom, cause they are afraid it is better then their camera app, I say bring Darkroom to the jailbroken community were it can shine!
codist
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I feel your pain, my app Bailout Bucks was rejected three times and didn’t even make it into the store, now I’ve updated it for 3.0 and a stupid API I need is broken.
Your situation is even worse, pissing off 700,000 customers is not something anyone at Apple should be doing, but then again even inside Apple the Review Team is considered a ghetto.
Sean007
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Bull shit just another money making scheme!
jigme
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:48 am
as an avid DR Premium user, i’m very disappointed w Apple.
set your App free – jailbreak!
to avoid legal issues, change a line of UI code or something & rename slightly (“Darkroom Plus”?).
ckilkelly01
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:28 pm
What can we do to help – I WANT MY DARKROOM back!! The APPLE camera app does not deliver – I am LOST without Dark Room!!!!
Tell us what to do!!!
josey4628
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:34 pm
If the app is approved, please email me and I’ll purchase it. It’s a shame Apple’s not acting on your update.
Shafter
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:00 pm
I believe what apple is doing is illegal. Have you contimplated a class action lawsuit on behalf of the people who paid for the app? It may be worth looking into.
hagbard
June 24th, 2009 at 1:46 am
my darkroom does not work anymore under 3.0. i’ts a shame, that apple rejected the update! without a good working camera i wouldn’t have a frakkin’ iphone!
the whole process of admitting an app in the app-store is quite obviously a cheek.
Mikr
June 24th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Allow darkroom to update to 3.0!!!!!
Mike
June 25th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Ge’ez. …. Complain to APPLE!!!!!
Andy Watson
June 25th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I have an iPhone and a Blackberry. In my opinion, the camera on my iPhone is useless without Darkroom. Apple’s policies are making it very simple for me to make a decision with which I have been wrestling up until now. It’s clearly time to give up on the iPhone, which is becoming a dead end of mediocrity, with inexplicable enforcement of that mediocrity.
When there is a better Google phone than the crappy hardware shipped by T-Mobile, I will evaluate whether to replace my iPhone with it, or just collapse together my personal and professional phones into a single platform with a single nextgen Blackberry. Whatever I do next, it will not be an iPhone.
TfZ50
June 25th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
The jailbroken iphone community is waiting. Why bother with the rotten Apple store? Many, many would pay for this excellent and useful camera that is 100% better than than the original iphone camera. This app free, of course, is just as welcome.
Pegasus7
June 26th, 2009 at 5:28 am
With having a family plan I am the tester for the newest phones out there, so I too was struggling between the new Blackberry and the iPhone for the rest of my family. Apples lack of fairness to it’s developers an ATT lack of support, MMS, has pushed me to go back to a Blackberry, for me an my family ( five phones total). Sorry Apple and ATT ya’ll screwed up again.
jj
June 26th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
The iPhone / Apple experience is like being married to a super-model; but living in her fathers house where he dictates every aspect of your relationship. I am seriously thinking about a divorce from Apple. The iPhone camera is almost useless without your application, and my iPhone is almost useless without a camera.
Marcelo
June 26th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
And now? i want my darkroom mr Apple.
misnomer
June 27th, 2009 at 7:18 am
I’m pretty irked. I love Darkroom and use it often. I had the free version at time of upgrade and when it didn’t work I opted for the Premium version to “fix” it before I knew of all of this.
It is lame of Apple to leave up apps they know they broke. Now, they won’t refund and say to go to the app devs for refund… when really? I just want it to work!. I agree.. take it to the jailbreak community. I was satisfied, but I am not any more. I am going to jailbreak. The limits are ridiculous.
Why does Apple take down some iPhone apps, but not others? — iphonephotovideo.com: iPhone Photo Video
June 27th, 2009 at 11:15 am
[...] in the app, a practice that Apple approved initially, but is now cracking down on (see the blog entry by Stepcase, the maker of Darkroom, whose iPhone 3.0 updates has not been approved. A list of photo [...]
Carlo
August 16th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Con il nuovo aggiornamento di iPhone 3 non funziona piu’ il programma
Rohit
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:37 am
“The Best Camera” app for the iPhone by Chase Jarvis. It’s brilliant! http://retwt.me/bonr
RV
October 5th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I’m pretty irked. I love Darkroom and use it often. I had the free version at time of upgrade and when it didn’t work I opted for the Premium version to “fix” it before I knew of all of this.
It is lame of Apple to leave up apps they know they broke. Now, they won’t refund and say to go to the app devs for refund… when really? I just want it to work!. I agree.. take it to the jailbreak community. I was satisfied, but I am not any more. I am going to jailbreak. The limits are ridiculous.