It has been revealed by Wired that Apple’s App Store Director who over sees the app store application approval process, runs his own sideline business selling fart and urination apps.
Phillip Shoemaker, director of applications technology at Apple, and who is responsible for the App Store process, sells iPhone apps in the App Store under the company name Gray Noodle.
It also seems that shoemaker updated and deleted some of his social networking profiles when informed of Wired’s story. Purging his Twitter account cited throughout the story and updated his LinkedIn profile to remove mention of Gray Noodle.
However, Wired archived the webpages and also, a cached version of his LinkedIn profile and multiple iPhone app aggregation websites pointing to Shoemaker as the owner of Gray Noodle.
Apple’s statement on the discovery states: “Phillip’s apps were written, submitted and approved before he became an Apple employee,”
But Wired has discovered that seven apps in the App Store owned by Gray Noodle were published after March 9, 2009, when Shoemaker tweeted he had started working at Apple.
The app iWiz was published April 17, 2009, and Medical Poetry and 101 Cocktails were published March 27, 2009, according to iTunes.
Apple has always been an icon for quality products but its app store has taken criticism lately for the amount of bad apps that have made their way onto the store, burying quality app’s in hard to find places within the store.
Personally I think any poorly coded or under-par apps should be removed form the App Store. It not as if Apple are short of a few application for the store after all. What are your thoughts.
Via Wired
Filed Under: Apple