Apple is starting a crackdown on iPad apps that use widgets, suggesting that a formal ban is on the way, according to a developer affected by the cull.
Groundhog Software staffer Russell Ivanovic says Apple has informed his company that it is culling any application that presents widgets to end-users, and has already pulled the firm’s My Frame application from the App Store.
The developer, who had a month ago defended Apple's approval process, said the photo frame application was “removed for a very murky reason, one which is nowhere to be found in any documentation that Apple gives us developers,” in a fresh blog post on Australian MacWorld
Ivanovic said Groundhog received no information from Apple regarding potential changes to the app, or who to contact to discuss the matter, when a spokesman called to say it had been pulled.
“All we got out of him was that Apple no longer liked ‘widgets’ and wanted all widget apps removed.”
Pleading his case to CEO Steve Jobs, he received a reply to the effect that Apple is “not allowing apps that create their own desktops.”
Ivanovic said he was starting to agree with the anger expressed over the way Apple handles approvals to the App Store. “A month ago I wrote a blog post about how Apple was not actually evil...Little did I know that a month later that blog post would come back and smack me in the face.”
The move is the latest in a series of Apple culls, after it recently barred content ranging from Wi-Fi sniffers, to racy content including girls in bikinis, and any app developed with cross-compilers .