Apple Pulls iFixit's App After it Tears Down the New Apple TV

Apple Banned iFixit Developer Account

After the announcement of Apple TV recently, Apple had provided developers with Apple TV Developers Kits for use in the creation of tvOS apps for the device. Teardown site iFixit had taken apart one of Apple TV units which was meant for the developers and had faced some consequence in doing so. The team at iFixit is learning a lesson on the importance of abiding developers’ agreements.

Apple it is said had banned iFixit developer account the repair-it-yourself outfit in violating a re-release Apple TV sent out to the developers and its terms and conditions.According to a post on the iFixit blog, the teardown that had unveiled the internal components of the new Apple TV had violated the terms and conditions of Apple resulting in iFixit’s developers account being banned resulting in the removal of the iFixit app from the App Store.

With the new Apple TV, iFixit revealed a few interesting changes, like the USB-C port towards the back, an Apple A8 processor and 2GB of Hynix RAM and 32GB on integrated storage. The power supply was changed from 1.75A at 3.4V to .917A at 12V. However the amazing part is that iFixit is of the belief that the current drawn is transmitted to the logic board through its screw terminals, eliminating a small tangle of wire.

iFixit Ignored Fine Print

Moreover, they also engaged in the 4th generation Apple TV’s new remote. The iFixit’s Apple TV unit had been sent from Apple directly with similar restrictions that were applicable to Apple TV units sent to the other developers.

However, iFixit choose to ignore the fine print. The blog post read, `we weighed the risks, blithely tossed those risks over our shoulder and tore down the Apple TV anyway. Some days later we had received an email from Apple informing that we had violated their terms and conditions and the offending developers account was said to be banned.

 However, the app of iFixit was linked to the same account and hence Apple pulled the app also. Their reasoning was that we had taken action which could have stalled the performance or intended use of the App Store, B2B Program or the Program’.

iFixit app being removed from the Apple Store is instead planning to restore its mobile website with no plans to rewrite the app. The decision to aim on the iFixit mobile site came up prior to the app being pulled by Apple and hence not a big loss to iFixit. iFixit’s Chad Wien does not seem to be upset about the app being pulled.

He stated that it was out-dated and the company would be more focused on developing their mobile website. However he seemed to be upset or confused with Apple’s reason of sending a new Apple TV to iFixit if they had no intention of tearing it down.

They presumed it to be a part of some plan marked in Cupertino or someone needed Wiens and his crew to tear down the device to get it banned. The site has informed that the app seemed to be out-dated and damaged with bugs due to iOS 9.

After the release of Apple TV Developers Kits, several other developers shared featured titbits, photos etc. regarding the device. It is not known if Apple had got in touch with the developers regarding the non-disclosure violations.