Apple takes down all Emoji enabled apps

Ars technica has learned that Apple issued a sitewide takedown for all apps that enable Emoji:

…Apple has pulled all existing applications that do not provide functionality beyond Emoji enabling. We were told that Emotifun and iEmoji have already been removed from the store. Unlike other apps that provide a core program with Emoji features, these two titles existed solely to enable that hidden iPhone preference that lets any iPhone access Emoji.

Existing applications that offer Emoji enabling beyond their base functionality have been ordered to remove Emoji support. Fung told us that Apple has required an immediate update to his Typing Genius program with the Emoji support removed. This same order appears to have gone out to all developers whose App Store marketing text mentions an Emoji feature.

Apple finally removes old reviews from non-owners in the App Store

MacRumors reports that Apple has finally started deleting the old, mostly negative reviews from non-owners in the App Store.

No purchase was required at that time. As a result, many critical “reviews” came from those who had never bought those applications. Developers, of course, were particularly unhappy with this system which brought down the average score for almost all paid applications.

This is great news for apps that have been in the store for a while.

Several long standing apps have seen dramatic decreases in their review counts. SEGA’s Super Monkey Ball count dropped from 4197 reviews down to 3710 while Namco’s Pac Man dropped from 395 to 122.

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