mac diddy

The “free memory” apps are either changing or disappearing from the App Store quickly. I first noticed this a few days ago when I updated iStat and the handy feature was gone from the new version.

For those who don’t already know, memory-freeing apps free up runtime memory on your iPhone, making it more readily available to other apps. Sometimes the results are dramatic on a phone which is running low on memory resources, upping the free memory from 2MBs to 40MBs in seconds.

According to iStat developer Bjango, their “Free Memory function was removed at Apple’s request.” Recession Apps confirmed that Apple is demanding app developers remove this feature. Rather than remove the feature from their app, aptly named Free Memory, they removed it from the App Store entirely.

Apple’s reasoning behind these demands remains a mystery, which is not entirely surprising given the oft secretive nature of their App Store related decisions. It is especially strange after a long enough history of Apple approving free memory apps and the move is sure to hurt some developers who built their apps around this feature. Personally, I will be reverting iStat – one of my favorite apps – to the previous version in order to retain the feature.