Under the terms and conditions of the iPhone SDK, developers are required to only use APIs provided in the developer’s kit. Google violated the SDK guidelines further by linking to Private Frameworks. The spokesperson who confirmed the violation added that this was done on the basis of pushing “innovative and useful applications” to consumers.

As you may recall, the way Google introduced and promoted the new feature might have lead Apple to close-one-eye when approving the application. The feature was first introduced via a blog post with an accompanying video, indicating that the application would be available on November 14 in the App Store. However, the application did not materialize throughout the weekend, which later sparked rumors indicating that Apple might be the one “delaying” the application. The application finally arrived on the App Store on November 18.

Apple spokespersons are not available for comment when this report hit the streets.

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• Google Voice Search – Ready, Set, Go!
• Google Voice Search to iPhone: Hold Your Horses
• Google to iPhone: Say Your Search
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Now, we all know that lifting the iPhone towards to the ear actually triggers a proximity sensor which is built next to the speaker at the top of the iPhone. What we do not know is, there are actually no APIs available to use the proximity sensor in such a way.

An API, which is the abbreviation of Application Programming Interface, is a set of routines, protocols and tools for building software applications. Most APIs are provided by the operating environment manufacturer. A good API makes it easier to develop programs for the target operating environment by providing all the necessary building blocks. A programmer then simply puts these blocks together to form the software application.

The iPhone SDK’s API only allows applications to turn the proximity sensor on and off. Majority of the applications available on the App Store leaves the proximity sensor turned off by default. Switching the proximity sensor on would turn the screen off and disable the touch input, useful when holding the phone to the ear especially during phone calls.

Gruber summarized that:

If you use something like the command-line strings utility to examine the UIKit framework, you can see that there’s an undocumented (and therefore private to Apple) method named proximityStateChanged. And if one were to strip the FairPlay DRM from the current Google Mobile application binary — which, of course, you wouldn’t do, because you’re not supposed to strip FairPlay DRM, but I’m just saying if one were to do this — a class dump of the application binary would show that Google Mobile does in fact implement proximityStateChanged.

Now, the big question(s) here are:

1. did Apple failed to notice that the application is using a private API call
2. they (Apple) knew about it but approved it anyway, or
3. Google leveraged on their partnership with Apple, asked for it, and was given permission to do so by Apple

I’d personally hope that the reason is as #1 above, but that could potentially render the application useless in future firmware updates should Apple do away with the said APIs. #2 and #3 purportedly shows that Google is not playing on the same level as the other developers out there.

UPDATE: the iPhone Blog has an update on the find. Ars Technica investigated and found out that Google did not only use private and unpublicized APIs, they’d also linked to Private Frameworks, which is a further violation of the SDK guidelines. Now, what would Apple do, considering the state that things are now wide open in the public?

Related Posts

• Google Admits to Private API Violation
• Google Voice Search – Ready, Set, Go!
• Google Voice Search to iPhone: Hold Your Horses
• Google to iPhone: Say Your Search
• Apple Tells Google: No Multi-Touch on Android!

iPhone users, feel free to hit the App Store from within your iPhone or follow this link to download and sync via iTunes.

Read more about Google’s Voice Search application here and the official page here.

And here’s a new video clip of Google Voice Search application in action.

Related Posts

• Google Admits to Private API Violation
• Google’s Mobile App and Apple’s Private APIs (UPDATED)
• Google Voice Search to iPhone: Hold Your Horses
• Google to iPhone: Say Your Search
• Apple Tells Google: No Multi-Touch on Android!

Further updates from TechCrunch reported that the app might finally make its appearance on Monday, 17 November 2008. I did a quick check for “Google Mobile App” over at the App Store but noticed no new changes. It seems that there was quite a misunderstanding here on Google’s part, where they were under the impression that the application would be approved and live on the App Store last Friday and had went all out with their press efforts. Further to that, sources reported that the development team at Google were only kept update-to-date by Apple via the standard iPhone developer tool channel.

Now nobody knows if and why the application was delayed by Apple. We know both companies are quite close to each other, but it seems that to Apple every application developer are equal, in terms of treatment.

One thing for sure is, Google decided on launching the amazing, if not revolutionary application for the iPhone first instead of its on Android platform. They know what users want and are willing to give what’s right to the users, so why not Apple?

Related Posts

• Google Admits to Private API Violation
• Google’s Mobile App and Apple’s Private APIs (UPDATED)
• Google Voice Search – Ready, Set, Go!
• Google to iPhone: Say Your Search
• Apple Tells Google: No Multi-Touch on Android!

Google will be releasing a free application for iPhone users, which allows the user to search the Internet by simply asking a question. Its as simple as placing the phone to your ear and asking “Where is the nearest Apple Store?” or “When was the Great Wall of China built?”. The application converts the captured voice into a digital file that gets sent to Google’s servers, which will then determine the exact words spoken and pass it to the Google search engine.

Leveraging on the iPhone’s location based services, search results may also at times include local information.

Currently, the application is only available for iPhone users, but Google promised that it will soon be available for other phones as well.

“We are dramatically increasing value to the advertiser through location and voice,” said Vic Gundotra, former Microsoft exec who is now heading Google’s mobile businesses division.

This new search capability is actually not the first speech search offering by Google. The firm has recently announced another service, GOOG-411 in March. GOOG-411 is an experimental directory information service, which is now a real product. Specifically, the service allows users to ask for business phone and address contact information. The iPhone application is a result of the company’s experience and from the data it had collected through the GOOG-411 service.

The free application is expected to appear in Apple’s App Store on Friday.

Related Posts

• Google Admits to Private API Violation
• Google’s Mobile App and Apple’s Private APIs (UPDATED)
• Google Voice Search – Ready, Set, Go!
• Google Voice Search to iPhone: Hold Your Horses
• Apple Tells Google: No Multi-Touch on Android!