Apologies to my iPhone users

Well I'd like to apologize to the users of my iPhone apps, My.tel and Superbook.
I know that there's a critical crashing bug in My.tel version 1.0.1 as it currently stands on the app store. I'm sorry that I missed that bug when testing the app. It triggers when you're updating a contact record and change its type (say from "Skype IM" to "Skype Voice").
As soon as I was told of the crash, I fixed it. It's a simple 3-line change. I re-uploaded a new version, 1.0.2, to the app store right away. At that time Apple added a new feature when uploading apps, called "Keywords". You can now add keywords to your apps for better searching on the app store (that's assuming search works properly, but it doesn't). Well, I added a few keywords like ".tel, telnic, unified messaging, AIM, Skype". Things that I thought were relevant.

Fast forward to today, which is 21 days after I submitted my 3-line change. The app still isn't approved. Of course I had zero feedback from Apple. I sent emails, and I know that some of my users sent emails as well. So now I have to figure out why in the nine hells it's taking so long, without any feedback. Welcome to the world of the Apple AppStore.

I also have a big update to Superbook will a bunch of new features that's also in limbo. That one has been lingering for over two weeks. So I decided today to reject my uploaded binaries, get rid of the keywords, and re-upload them. This also reset the clock for approval time, so in the best of cases, it will have been one month to get a 3-line change through the Apple process.

Lovely.

Sorry my dear users, but all I can say is "it's out of my hands".

Update sept 5 2009: Less than 24 hours after I wiped the keywords and resubmitted a new binary, Apple approved My.tel. But Superbook is still in the process.

Moral of the story: Don't even try to guess what Apple is doing, I don't think Apple even knows itself.