Hector retweeted
Apple nuked my developer account that I've had without any problems since the developer program was first started for Mac a long time ago.
Even before iOS was released.
I made an app that lets users bring their own xAI API key and hook it up to the xAI voice API to translate text into spoken voice and voice recording into written text.
I researched and found that Grok was not a registered trademark at the time, and no trademark was filed. So I named the app GrokVoice, to demonstrate the function to the customer.
Then Apple rejected my app and said I was "app squatting". I replied and said no way am I app squatting, my app is totally different from the Grok app. I don't see how you could mistake my app for squatting, because nothing was similar to the Grok app at all. And even then, I could have simply renamed the app and reuploaded.
Apple then nuked my entire developer account and said I was "fraudulent". But they never bothered to actually read my app... it was not trying to be a voice agent, it had totally different functions and design.
When I tried to launch one of MY OWN Mac apps that I hadn't even notarized (only for running on my own Mac), I got an error message from macOS saying "this app contains malware. It will be automatically removed".
And my own app was deleted from my own Mac.
I can assure you there was no malware in that app. I wrote the code myself, how could there have been malware in it? That would have been some sophisticated injection malware pushing its code into my app during compilation?
So it seems that my app somehow made it on Apple's macOS malware blacklist... but I never got an email or call about it. It seems this would be a serious security violation and I should be informed?
Apple also kept all the money from my entire account.
Now I get phone calls every day about customers asking where my apps went...
Hector retweeted
Replying to @Apple
@Apple @AppStore 2 ASSOCIATED ACCOUNTS, MULTIPLE SCAM APPS.
WHO APPROVED THESE APPS MULTIPLE TIMES?
Both SOFTIQ EOOD and HYPER DEV LTD EOOD shared a common address and both were registered under same name: Marinel-Mugurel Lăcuștianu
Preserved listings from SOFTIQ show three Mac apps marketed around recognizable services:
🔍 App for TikTok
apps.apple.com/us/app/id6761…
🔍 App for Facebook Messenger
apps.apple.com/us/app/id6761…
🔍 Trading View – AI Stock Charts
apps.apple.com/us/app/id6799…
Their promotional screenshots prominently feature TikTok, Facebook Messenger and TradingView names, interfaces or recognizable visual branding, impersonating as official apps.
@facebook @tiktok_us @tradingview
Associated SOFTIQ and Hyper Dev developer pages still appear in App Store searches without apps. A visible page does not establish whether membership remains active. Apple should clarify whether these accounts were terminated, suspended, or simply had their apps withdrawn.
Potentially relevant App Review Guidelines:
2.3, 2.3.7, 4.1(b), 4.1(c), 5.2.1, 5.2.2.
Developer Code of Conduct:
5.6, 5.6.2.
Apple’s rules provide for account removal over repeated misleading conduct. What enforcement occurred here?
#MacAppStore #AppStore #ConsumerProtection #scamapps
Apple, this deserves closer look and review.
These Apps are impersonating @MicrosoftTeams and @Zoom by calling them "Join for" Teams/Zoom.
- Both apps use same naming format < Join (Verb) for Teams/Zoom >
- Apps are misleading users into downloading, by using similar looking App icons, Graphics, trademarked terms, colour schemes, screenshot formats and text.
- At one point the Teams app literally had "Microsoft Teams" in title and screenshots. App review team can confirm this on their end.
- All updates on both apps are submitted for review with "critical bug fixes" as review notes, to bypass or subvert the regular app review process.
- Both apps show hard paywall and ask for rating right at launch so users can't realise that its not an official app before paying
- There are hundreds of user reviews where users are bashing actual @MicrosoftTeams and @Zoom which shows that these apps are misleading users.
App Review Guidelines: 4.1(a), 4.1(b), 4.1(c), 5.2.1, 2.3.7, 2.3.3, 2.3.9, 2.3.1(a), 5.2.2
Developer Code of Conduct: 5.6, 5.6.2
@Apple @AppStore
Apps 🔍:
Teams: apps.apple.com/us/app/join-f…
Zoom: apps.apple.com/us/app/join-f…
#MacAppStore #AppStore #teams #microsoft #zoom #ScamApps #ConsumerProtection #CyberSecurity
Hector retweeted
Inside the Creation of the Apple App Store with Phillip Shoemaker - the Genius Behind It All | 007
youtu.be/7uUrSLEyDyc
With all the stuff with the App Store, this is a good video to watch.
Hector retweeted
“Apple doesn’t just delete your developer account overnight.”
Here’s how it happens.
You spend 10+ years building apps. Apple reviews and approves them.
Over the years, the guidelines change. Some new submissions get rejected. You make changes, follow their feedback, and get approved.
Apple might even feature those same apps, bringing you paying users.
You build a business around that approval. You earn a steady income. People depend on you. Years go by.
Then one morning, you wake up to a termination notice.
Suddenly, an app they approved violates their agreement. They accuse you of dishonest or fraudulent activity. Your entire account comes down, taking years of unrelated work with it.
You’re left asking: If there’s a problem, why can’t we fix it? Why does every app, every user have to pay for it?
So yes, building the business takes years.
Losing it happens overnight.
That’s what’s happening to us.
Hector retweeted
Here is some more evidence for the @AppStore team, of the 2 fraudulent apps impersonating @MicrosoftTeams and @Zoom
Forcing users into paying with paywall right after launch, before they realise it’s not the official apps. Review prompt shows right after the launch to get the rating asap.
@AppStore @Apple really need to improve the App review guidelines enforcement. How can an app call itself “Microsoft Teams” or “Zoom”
Reviews shared above are literally bashing the actual software providers, which shows that the users are being mislead by metadata of these apps.
#MacAppStore #AppStore #teams #microsoft #zoom #ScamApps #ConsumerProtection #CyberSecurity
Hector retweeted
Replying to @AppStore
@AppStore @Apple these 2 impersonating and fraudulent apps presenting themselves as @Zoom & @MicrosoftTeams have been removed from sale by the developer.
But their paywall packages are still loading and purchases are working.
Which shows that the fraudulent apps are trying to again cheat the system, continuing to charge users with recurring subscriptions and keep making money. But on the surface they just disappeared from @AppStore
@AppStore This should be investigated,
❓Why removed from sale? What are they hiding?
❓Why the in app purchases and user subscriptions are still active?
❓How were these approved by review team multiple times in last year?
❓What is the loop hole or flaw in appstore review process that was exploited by these apps?
Apps 🔍:
Teams: apps.apple.com/us/app/join-f……
Zoom: apps.apple.com/us/app/join-f……
#MacAppStore #AppStore #teams #microsoft #zoom #ScamApps #ConsumerProtection #CyberSecurity
Apple, this deserves closer look and review.
These Apps are impersonating @MicrosoftTeams and @Zoom by calling them "Join for" Teams/Zoom.
- Both apps use same naming format < Join (Verb) for Teams/Zoom >
- Apps are misleading users into downloading, by using similar looking App icons, Graphics, trademarked terms, colour schemes, screenshot formats and text.
- At one point the Teams app literally had "Microsoft Teams" in title and screenshots. App review team can confirm this on their end.
- All updates on both apps are submitted for review with "critical bug fixes" as review notes, to bypass or subvert the regular app review process.
- Both apps show hard paywall and ask for rating right at launch so users can't realise that its not an official app before paying
- There are hundreds of user reviews where users are bashing actual @MicrosoftTeams and @Zoom which shows that these apps are misleading users.
App Review Guidelines: 4.1(a), 4.1(b), 4.1(c), 5.2.1, 2.3.7, 2.3.3, 2.3.9, 2.3.1(a), 5.2.2
Developer Code of Conduct: 5.6, 5.6.2
@Apple @AppStore
Apps 🔍:
Teams: apps.apple.com/us/app/join-f…
Zoom: apps.apple.com/us/app/join-f…
#MacAppStore #AppStore #teams #microsoft #zoom #ScamApps #ConsumerProtection #CyberSecurity
Hector retweeted
No me canso de decirlo:
A los programadores nos han arrancado de cuajo nuestra identidad de la noche a la mañana.
Que sí, que soy el primero en usar Codex o Claude Code.
Que sí, que shippear features a toda hostia, con las que antes ni soñabas, es dopamina por un tubo.
El problema no es el avance en sí, toda profesión evoluciona con el tiempo.
Pero es que en cuestión de 18 meses, todo lo que habías aprendido durante años, miles de horas de práctica, cientos de horas de estudio dentro y fuera del trabajo, se han esfumado.
Ya dan igual las discusiones sobre patrones de diseño.
Ya dan igual los libros de Uncle Bob.
Ya dan igual las noticias con las novedades en Swift.
Ya dan igual las horas debuggeando o resolviendo un problema que acababan en ese aha moment.
Hasta nos divertíamos cambiando el tema de colores del código.
Ya hace muchos meses que no toco una sola línea a mano, así que ya ni eso nos queda.
Nos hemos quedado sin identidad.
Como decimos en Galicia: A chorar a Cangas (supongo)
No había visto el impacto psicológico que puede tener la IA en los trabajadores hasta anoche, hablando con un amigo.
Un tío muy inteligente que en los últimos años había virado hacia la programación (desde el mundo del VFX) se encuentra con que el trabajo de meses lo ha sacado adelante otra persona del equipo en un día, reemplazando su trabajo previo.
La sensación de sentirse obsoleto de golpe lo dejó tiritando. No es solo el miedo a perder el trabajo, sino el sentir que años de esfuerzo por aprender se han ido por el retrete.
Y como guinda del pastel, perder algo que tanto placer intelectual le daba como programar.
Se me ha quedado el pobre hombre más vacío que una cáscara de pipa.
Hector retweeted
The old iOS community was more engaged because people still had to figure things out themselves.
Now a lot of the hard parts can be skipped, and the conversations around the work have become thinner.
I really miss the old days of iOS development.
We used to talk about frameworks, new APIs, third-party libraries, architecture, and how to solve real problems.
There was genuine enthusiasm. When someone launched a new app, it felt different.
AI made a lot of things easier, but it also took some of that feeling away.
Apple’s AppStore Review Guidelines have been updated
New guidelines are now available, with a unique and latest clause added
Here is what it is:
4.3 (d) FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT!!
Hector retweeted
Apple just sent me this.
Auto-terminated my entire developer account.
No warning. No call. No human.
18 months of work gone.
Only income.
Tier-3 country.
Broke.
All because of old rejections from 8 months ago.
Anyone else getting these automated 3.2(f) bans?
#terminator #apple
@tim_cook @AppleSupport @Apple
#IndieDev #buildinpublic
Apple, this deserves closer look and review.
These Apps are impersonating @MicrosoftTeams and @Zoom by calling them "Join for" Teams/Zoom.
- Both apps use same naming format < Join (Verb) for Teams/Zoom >
- Apps are misleading users into downloading, by using similar looking App icons, Graphics, trademarked terms, colour schemes, screenshot formats and text.
- At one point the Teams app literally had "Microsoft Teams" in title and screenshots. App review team can confirm this on their end.
- All updates on both apps are submitted for review with "critical bug fixes" as review notes, to bypass or subvert the regular app review process.
- Both apps show hard paywall and ask for rating right at launch so users can't realise that its not an official app before paying
- There are hundreds of user reviews where users are bashing actual @MicrosoftTeams and @Zoom which shows that these apps are misleading users.
App Review Guidelines: 4.1(a), 4.1(b), 4.1(c), 5.2.1, 2.3.7, 2.3.3, 2.3.9, 2.3.1(a), 5.2.2
Developer Code of Conduct: 5.6, 5.6.2
@Apple @AppStore
Apps 🔍:
Teams: apps.apple.com/us/app/join-f…
Zoom: apps.apple.com/us/app/join-f…
#MacAppStore #AppStore #teams #microsoft #zoom #ScamApps #ConsumerProtection #CyberSecurity
Here is some more evidence for the @AppStore team, of the 2 fraudulent apps impersonating @MicrosoftTeams and @Zoom
Forcing users into paying with paywall right after launch, before they realise it’s not the official apps. Review prompt shows right after the launch to get the rating asap.
@AppStore @Apple really need to improve the App review guidelines enforcement. How can an app call itself “Microsoft Teams” or “Zoom”
Reviews shared above are literally bashing the actual software providers, which shows that the users are being mislead by metadata of these apps.
#MacAppStore #AppStore #teams #microsoft #zoom #ScamApps #ConsumerProtection #CyberSecurity
Hector retweeted
Apple, this deserves closer look and review.
These Apps are impersonating @MicrosoftTeams and @Zoom by calling them "Join for" Teams/Zoom.
- Both apps use same naming format < Join (Verb) for Teams/Zoom >
- Apps are misleading users into downloading, by using similar looking App icons, Graphics, trademarked terms, colour schemes, screenshot formats and text.
- At one point the Teams app literally had "Microsoft Teams" in title and screenshots. App review team can confirm this on their end.
- All updates on both apps are submitted for review with "critical bug fixes" as review notes, to bypass or subvert the regular app review process.
- Both apps show hard paywall and ask for rating right at launch so users can't realise that its not an official app before paying
- There are hundreds of user reviews where users are bashing actual @MicrosoftTeams and @Zoom which shows that these apps are misleading users.
App Review Guidelines: 4.1(a), 4.1(b), 4.1(c), 5.2.1, 2.3.7, 2.3.3, 2.3.9, 2.3.1(a), 5.2.2
Developer Code of Conduct: 5.6, 5.6.2
@Apple @AppStore
Apps 🔍:
Teams: apps.apple.com/us/app/join-f…
Zoom: apps.apple.com/us/app/join-f…
#MacAppStore #AppStore #teams #microsoft #zoom #ScamApps #ConsumerProtection #CyberSecurity
Hector retweeted
This is how I used to build iOS apps when I first started out.
We are not the same 💀
Every day, you do the same things, over and over.
Opie puts everything you use at your cursor.
With App rings and custom actions you can chain tons of workflows together One flick, and it’s done without much losing context.
It’s fast, It’s fun and it just works
We love using it daily
opies.io






































