PCalc developer James Thomson from Glasgow, Scotland, took to Twitter this morning to announce his popular app’s iOS 8 widget will no longer be allowed, as Apple has told him to remove it in the next 2-3 weeks:
https://twitter.com/jamesthomson/status/527498251176796160
Image via 37prime
After sharing this news, Thomson explained more on Twitter, saying the news is “extremely disappointing” and that he’s not angry, just sad, since he spent a lot of time working on PCalc’s widgets:
Needless to say, this is extremely disappointing news, and I am very sorry for all PCalc users, including me, who love the feature.
I’m going to try to escalate the decision, but it sounds like it was made high up and won’t be changed.
I’ve basically got 2-3 weeks to remove it, barring a miracle.
I spent a really long time working on the PCalc widgets and making them perfect, so this is pretty crushing news.
I would be allowed to make a widget that let you to “enter a formula” but it couldn’t perform the calculation in the widget.
And yes, Apple is currently featuring PCalc in the “Great apps for iOS 8” section, under Notification Center widgets.
I’m not angry, I’m just really really sad. Sorry if I can’t reply to everybody tonight.
Thomson says his revised widget would allow users to ‘enter a formula’ but not actually use it as a calculator. Maybe this decision was made to push the iOS calculator shortcut found via Control Center?
Oddly enough, PCalc is currently featured under ‘Great Apps & Games for iOS 8’ and is prominently displayed as a suggested app under the Notification Center Widgets section in the App Store:
Not sure what Apple is thinking with this one, but it’s removing functionality of a widget that’s making people’s lives easier. But again, if you want to be in the App Store, you have to live by Apple’s rules, despite how random and arbitrary some may seem.
Click here to download PCalc for $9.99 in the App Store.
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All I can figure is that it’s a feature that is planned (or to be sherlocked) for the iOS calculator in the future.
just another reason to jailbreak.
So people actually pay 9.99$ for a widget that is actually pretty much the same as the calculator in Control Center? SMH…..
Okay so unfortunately this is another example of a great widget design being scrappee by apple. Just like how they had the “launcher” app removed from the app store. Glad I downloaded it before then. Not cool Apple. Glad I didn’t pay 10 dollars for this app just for that feature.
so you pay for a widget or an app and there’s nothing wrong with it but apple pulls it from their store. So shouldn’t apple give consumers their money back for pulling a perfectly functional app? That’s pretty shity of them to do.
kind of pricy and if you were to download it now, it doesn’t mean it won’t still work after he suppose takes it down right?