Rogue Amoeba Quits iPhone Development in Frustration

Rogue Amoeba has quit iPhone development due to the terrible treatment and policies of the Apple App Store team.

Their story has become one of an increasing number of developers who have become disenchanted with Apple due to their "tyrannical" management of the App Store. The most famous example being Facebook developer Joe Hewitt.

Rogue Amoeba's experience begins with an attempted bug fix to their existing Airfoil application. The fix was submitted to Apple in July and rejected for using “Apple Logo and Apple-owned Graphic Symbols”.


Airfoil Speakers Touch displays an image of the sending Mac, with a screenshot showing the source application. If you’re sending from an iMac with Safari as your source (as pictured), it shows your iMac running Safari. If you’re sending from a MacBook Pro, it shows a MacBook Pro, and so on. These computer images are provided by Mac OS X itself, using a public function expressly for this purpose.

Needless to say, after multiple submissions and multiple phone calls, Apple refuses to allow Rogue Amoeba to use device and application icons which represent Apple products. There is no legal basis whatsoever for preventing their use.

Over three months later Rogue Amoeba has given up on the update. Now, when you receive audio on Airfoil Speakers Touch, you’ll see a generic computer screen, not your specific Mac. Further, if you’re receiving audio from an Apple app, such as Safari, QuickTime Player, or iTunes a generic icon directs you to a page which explains the situation and prompts for donation to the EFF.

Rogue Amoeba has discontinued development on the app and all future iPhone projects.


The chorus of disenchanted developers is growing and we’re adding our voices as well. Rogue Amoeba no longer has any plans for additional iPhone applications, and updates to our existing iPhone applications will likely be rare. The iPhone platform had great promise, but that promise is not enough, so we’re focusing on the Mac.

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