Earlier this morning we told you that Apple had fixed the bug in the App Store that caused several recently-updated apps to crash on launch. The problem apparently originated with an Apple server responsible for adding DRM code to apps. The code that was getting added was corrupt, causing the apps to crash on launch – in fact, if you tapped the icon for an affected app, it would crash before the home screen had completely disappeared.
As you might expect, users were not at all happy about the problems. What’s more, many – probably most – didn’t realize that the problem was Apple’s fault and not the developers. And so, of course, these users did what users do when they’re upset about something: they left nasty reviews. Several of the affected apps received numerous negative reviews before Apple got their fix in place.
Fortunately, Apple recognizes the amount of harm a whole bunch of negative reviews in a short time can cause, especially to an app that’s struggling to gain popularity in the App Store. With that in mind, Apple extended the affected apps a peace offering. They removed all of the negative reviews left during the period the bug was in effect. In some cases, they even appeared to have removed all reviews, not just the negative ones.
With the bug fixed and most users having installed the new, corrected versions of the apps, removing the negative reviews is pretty much the last step toward fixing the problem. Kudos to Apple for making the situation right.