Wi-Fi detectors banned from App Store

Apple has removed all applications that actively search for Wi-Fi connections from the App Store in iTunes, saying that they use a “private framework” and therefore violate a store regulation.

Not all apps dealing with Wi-Fi location have been banned. The apps that have been removed from the App Store are those which actively scan for Wi-Fi connections near the user. Still allowed in the store, apparently, are those apps which simply catalog known Wi-Fi locations in a database using GPS coordinates. Of course, the phone itself will still automatically look for network locations, and you can still use the basic iPhone Wi-Fi functionality to locate and select connections. But the use of that same functionality in an application somehow violates one of the regulations which govern the store’s policies.

There were not many of these apps in the store anyway, perhaps only a half-dozen or so, according to a Softpedia article. The developer of one of them, WiFi-Where, says that they were informed by email from Apple that their app had been pulled, and continued by saying “It also appears that all other competing Wi-Fi enabled apps have been removed as well. This is very unfortunate as the past two to three months have seen a handful of new Wi-Fi apps get approved. Hopefully Apple will allow this functionality in a future SDK.”

The WiFi-Where developer explains the banned functionality as follows: “WiFi-Where uses both the location capabilities (GPS and cellular triangulation) of the iPhone platform as well as the built in 802.11 radio to let you find any and all hotspots wherever you go.” His guess on the ban is that the use of the 802.11 radio band may be the reason for the ban, although in the case of WiFi-Where there is one additional complication: the app also allowed users to upload found Wi-Fi locations to the Wigle.net online database.

Given the recent ban on apps with sexual content, this most recent selection of apps to be removed may be part of a general rethinking and cleanup of the App Store in iTunes. It has also been suggested that the reason could involve the upcoming release of the iPad. This theory says that the portion of the development framework used for Wi-Fi detection may not be available in the iPad SDK, though that makes little sense since the SDK appears to be shared. Whatever the reason, Apple continues to mystify developers with sudden changes in the rules for the acceptance and sale of apps.

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