EyeTV App pulled from App Store for Ability to Stream over 3G

Less than a month after debuting at the App Store, EyeTV from Elgato Systems has disappeared from the store’s virtual shelves.

Elgato says its mobile app for letting users of the EyeTV desktop TV software watch live TV and recorded programs on their iPhones was pulled by Apple on Saturday morning. The reason? Elgato had left some test code in the app that enabled users to stream live TV over the 3G cellular network.

That’s a big no-no, as far as Apple and wireless partner AT&T are concerned. Apps that can stream live TV are generally limited to doing so over Wi-Fi, and not AT&T’s 3G network. Sling Media’s SlingPlayer Mobile, for example, doesn’t support video over a cellular connection, though a prerelease version of the streaming app did.

Apple requested that Elgato remove the code from its EyeTV app, and the developer is complying. “The code was removed and a 1.0.1 version of the EyeTV app was submitted,” Elgato said in an e-mail statement sent to Macworld. “We expect EyeTV to return to the App Store when the 1.0.1 version is approved.”

Update, October 18: On Sunday morning, a representative of Elgato Systems e-mailed Macworld to report that EyeTV had returned to the U.S., UK, and German App Stores among others. What's more, the EyeTV app available in the store was listed as the 1.0.0 version—the one containing the code that allowed users to stream live TV over the 3G network.