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Avoid public figures, celebrities, and Apple

Via Mobile Orchard’s Avoiding iPhone App Rejection From Apple, Part 2:

Brian’s original article included “political lampooning.” I’ll extend that to include association or portrayal of public figures. Two examples: around Obama’s inauguration, CodeMorphic created an app called Obamify that manipulated photos to appear like those iconic posters from the campaign; the app went into infinite review. Yak Apps had to remove imagery containing Mr. and Mrs. Obama before their “First Dog” app was approved.

This rule is very likely to be the explanation for the “game-changer” rejection: it was all about Chuck Norris.

Mentioning Steve Jobs is also prohibited: (submitted by Jon Keaty)

Apple will reject any app that mentions Steve Jobs in any context, such as a clue in a puzzle. It does not matter how trivial the reference, just the name is enough.

Furthermore, reader James tipped us off about a problem he hit when mentioning the street address of the Apple campus:

The loading screen for [the app] used the address for Apple’s Cupertino campus, and was rejected (Apple actually said “This app is taking more time to review”, then the developers received a call from Apple). The address was changed, and the app was approved.

It’s safest to avoid mentioning Apple, its corporate information, or any of its personnel directly in the app or description, even if it’s well-intentioned.