Daring Fireball Retracts 24-Year First Post, Says Apple Correctly Rejected Asterly
Updated
Updated · Daring Fireball · Aug 8
Daring Fireball Retracts 24-Year First Post, Says Apple Correctly Rejected Asterly
2 articles · Updated · Daring Fireball · Aug 8
Summary
John Gruber fully retracted his article attacking Apple's App Store review, saying the rejected app was actually "Asterly"—an astrology app—not the astronomy app "Dark Hours" he had described.
Apple's rejection was upheld because the original submission included astrology content such as a "Tarot card of the day," fitting App Store rule 4.3(b), which limits new fortune-telling apps unless they offer a meaningfully improved experience.
Gruber said Terry Godier misled him publicly and in private messages, and that he even reviewed a draft before publication without warning that the core premise was false.
The episode widened after Godier's web app "Dark Hours" drew scrutiny from another project with a near-identical name and shared bug; Godier later took the site down and redirected its domain.
Gruber called the retraction his first in 24 years of writing Daring Fireball and apologized to readers and App Store reviewers whose competence he had questioned.