A few weeks ago I said that there would be a new app, Yummy for Mac, coming along very shortly. What happened? Has the window for “very soon” not passed?
Well, yes, is the short answer. Those familiar with the Apple app ecosystem may well be able to predict what happened: App Review.
I did not expect Yummy to pass App Review on the first attempt, but since the iPhone and iPad versions have passed the same process many, many times over the years I did not anticipate what did happen. They said that they were unable to review the app since they can’t see what it does. As a third-party Pinboard client, I am not able to provide a sample username and password.
As App Rejections go… this is not entirely unreasonable. It does make me wonder how they’ve been reviewing the iPhone app. But it does present a problem. How can Apple see the app if I am unable to provide valid credentials?
The solution comes from the product’s history. Those with long memories may recall that Yummy used to be a client for a site called Delicious (hence the name). For a while after that, it supported both Delicious and Pinboard and, now that Delicious is defunct, it only allows Pinboard accounts.
With Yummy 3.6.0 for Mac, this changes again. The new version now also supports local accounts. You can now add bookmarks to your Mac and they won’t be uploaded to the cloud at all. I’ll be honest: the main motivation for this is to pass App Review. However, I have had requests for something like this in the past so hopefully, it will prove useful for some users rather than just Apple.
Since the Mac and iPhone apps both share a common code base, this feature will be coming to iOS in the next version, too.
With this additional account option, Yummy should be able to enter App Review proper and, with any luck, will actually be approved. There’s no guarantee that further obstacles will not be created, so please cross your fingers!
