A website app gets banned from the App Store for just mentioning jailbreaking, iTunes Movies has 4K HDR bundles for Christmas, and a lot of new banks are supporting Apple Pay worldwide:
- AppleInsider’s app was updated for iPhone X…and then rejected from the App Store because a headline showed the word “jailbreak”
- Getting an Apple TV 4K for Christmas? There’s a sale on 4K HDR bundles in the iTunes Movie store
- Apple Pay expands to more banks and credit unions in the USA, as well as in China, Finland, France and Ireland
The text version of the podcast can be read below. To listen to the podcast here, click the play button on the player below. Apple News readers need to visit Apple World Today in order to listen to the podcast.
Text Version
This is Steve Sande for Apple World Today, and you’re listening to the AWT News Update podcast for December 19, 2017. We’ll start off today’s podcast with a short note — we’ll be taking a break from the podcast between December 21st and January 2nd. Thank you for listening this year, and we’ll be back with more news in 2018.
Neil Hughes is the editor-in-chief at AppleInsider, a well-respected Apple site that is huge in our business. Well, Hughes reported that the website found that it’s not exempt from the odd rules that seem to be in place in the App Store approval process when an iPhone X update to its app was rejected from the store. The cause of the rejection? The app just happened to show an article about jailbreaking that was published last Friday. Jailbreaking, which allows iPhones to run unauthorized code, is forbidden by Apple, as are any apps in the App Store that might help people jailbreak their phones. Well, the news story wasn’t providing any details on how to jailbreak a phone, but apparently the fact that AppleInsider was even reporting on the fact that iOS 11.2.1 had been hacked was enough to get the app kicked out of the App Store. As Neil Hughes noted, this rejection came on the heels of a “completely bogus, scam version of the game ‘Cuphead’” launching on the App Store on Monday. When the App Store approval process lets a bogus app in and keeps another app out simply because it reported a story about jailbreaking, that process needs to be fixed. Hughes says that they’ll still try to get their app through the process for those iPhone X users who are hounding them about having a compatible version of the app.
Are you getting an Apple TV 4K for Christmas? Apple has launched an iTunes Movie sale focusing on 4K HDR bundles to allow Apple TV 4K owners to start or expand their 4K film collections. The bundles start at $19.99 for three movies and are divided up by studio and then by four major genre groups — Action and Adventure, Comedy, Drama, and Sci-Fi and Fantasy. For example, 20th Century Fox provides a Drama bundle for $24.99 that includes “Life of Pi”, “The Martian”, and “The Revenant”, all in 4K HDR format.
Apple Pay keeps expanding both on the bank side of things and in terms of places that accept the touchless payment system. Today, Apple announced a big list of 43 more banks and credit unions in the United States that work with Apple Pay, as well as expansion to new partners in China, France, Finland and Ireland. In China, Bank of Quanzhou and YangQuan City Commercial Bank are backing Apple Pay, and in Finland, Edenred Ticket Restaurant Cards now work. France has added Arkéa Banque Privée, Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne, Crédit Mutuel du Sud-Ouest, Crédit Mutuel Massif Central, Fortuneo Banque, Lydia and Max. Finally, Irish banks Hype and Nexi (including cards issued by CartaSi and ICBPI) are live. On the acceptors list, I’m happy to report that my local Safeway grocery stores are now supporting Apple Pay.
That’s all for today; I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with another edition of the AWT News Update.
