Apple has removed Camera+, a popular iPhone camera app, from the App Store after a hack enabling an unauthorised feature was widely propagated on the internet.
The hack involved entering an address in Safari which turns the phone’s volume buttons into a shutter release for the camera.
It was distributed after Apple had rejected an update to the app which integrated this feature, called VolumeSnap by developer Tap Tap Tap.
At the time Apple explained that the update had been rejected “because it uses iPhone volume buttons in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion” and in violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.
However, Tap Tap Tap’s John Casanta says that there are other camera apps that use the volume buttons. It doesn’t name names and suggests that “Apple suspects that these slipped through the review cracks because the developers intentionally hid the feature from their app descriptions”.
Ironically Casanta goes on to say that Apple tends to “crack down pretty hard” when it does discover such disingenuity.
Tap Tap Tap hasn’t commented on the withdrawal of Camera+. To date the company has sold 400,000 copies of the app.
