Steve Jobs allows video streaming app to enter App Store with undocumented API use

Update: Wow, this is a buggy app.  We got it to work..just barely.  More below...

Knocking Live Video (app store link) hit the App Store today.  Its journey there was an unusual one however. The application is simply a peer to peer video streaming app.  IT allows people to connect via social media application Facebook.

The major roadblock was that Knocking Live Video uses undocumented (and therefore unusable APIs) to stream video from iPhone to iPhone.  Naturally, with the automated API checking tool, the app was rejected for this reason initially.

According to Ars, however, the developer sent an impassioned email to sjobs@apple.com....

But Meehan was convinced that his app was worth fighting for. "When it was rejected, I decided not to give up and reach out directly to Steve Jobs via e-mail," he told Ars. "I reached out to Apple to reconsider our application due to its potential to culturally change how people share live moments phone-to-phone."

He made his case "in a way that was not about me or our app, rather about being a life-long user of all Apple products, about how I believed in Apple and that I believed Jobs would respond," Meehan said.

Meehan ended up composing a passionate plea to Apple's CEO, explaining he has been frustrated and disheartened with the app approval process, which often leaves developers wondering and waiting with little or no response from Apple about any potential problems. He pointed out that there are other apps that had been approved using the same private API call—though it was prior to Apple's suspected use of automated analysis software that can comb through code and spot references to unapproved APIs. Meehan even "humbly" requested that Jobs himself review a demo of the app and reconsider it for approval. He then fired off the e-mail to Jobs at 11pm on Saturday, November 21.

An Apple executive, who wishes to remain anonymous, contacted Meehan at 8:30am the following Monday morning to discuss the app and its rejection. He revealed that the order to reverse the app's rejection came "directly from the top." Within three hours of the phone call, Knocking Live Video was approved for sale via the App Store. The app is available for free starting today.

This is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is the first time that El Jobso has pushed an app through the App Store rejection process. It is also a kick in the ... to developers like Qik who have had streaming applications for other platforms (and jailbroken iPhones) for awhile but never got permission to do this at the App Store.  Does this mean that the the Undocumented API is now documented?

Also, it is the first time any legit application (*ahem Cycorder) has allowed the 3G iPhone's camera to do video.  Maybe Apple will allow other apps to turn the original and3G iPhones into camcorders.  We know they can do the job from the success of jailbroken app cycorder.

It also isn't going to help AT&T's last place network now that people are streaming video between iPhones. 

In fact, we're not so sure that this one is going to last.  It might be wise to get it while you can.