Hockenberry: Apple Needs Priority Update Approval In Case Of Emergencies

If you spent any time on Twitter last Friday, then you probably heard about the Twitocalypse, and how it caused a bunch of the most popular Twitter clients to stop working. In the aftermath, Craig Hockenberry, developer of the popular client Twitterrific, explained on his blog the need for Apple to have a system in place for important updates that need priority approval, should a more serious event happen in the future.

In case you didn't hear already, the Twitpocalypse was a bug related to how Twitter clients store the ID numbers assigned to each tweet. To make a long story short, when that number got too big (2,147,483,6471, to be exact), most of the popular Twitter clients, including Twitterrific, stopped working immediately.

The problem was, as Hockenberry pointed out, even though finding and fixing the flaw in the app only took a matter of minutes, the update still had to get through Apple's infamously lengthy and unpredictable approval process.

While everything worked out in this case, Hockenberry says Apple should have a system in place in the event of a more serious problem relying on the developer's ability to get an update out as quickly as possible.

Incidentally,many of the affected apps have been updated, so if you haven't already, check for updates in the App Store.