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This article or section documents something not included in the current version of Scratch (3.0). It is only useful from a historical perspective. |
The Scratch Viewer was an iOS (An Apple operating system used in products like the iPhone) application which allowed projects to be viewed on these external devices. The projects could not be downloaded. This application no longer exists on the App Store.
History
There has been lots of discussion about Scratch for external devices, such as the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, iPod Touch, iPhone,[1] and so on, so when the Scratch Viewer application came out many users viewed it as the next step towards actually having Scratch on other devices.
It was developed by John McIntosh of Smalltalk Consulting Ltd. He is a Canadian Programmer who had before had had no affiliation with the MIT Media Lab. MIT did not get any compensation for sales of the application.
However, in April 2010 the application was removed by Apple because it violated Section 3.3.1 of the company’s policy against applications that interpret or execute code.
The Scratch Team, and indeed educators around the world, were rather upset about this. Apple did not comment, however John McIntosh said "We are currently negotiating the decision." Since then however, nothing has happened.
Mitchel Resnick, who leads the Scratch project, said:
| “ | I’m disappointed that Apple decided not to allow a Scratch player on the iPhone or iPad. In my mind, there is nothing more important than empowering the next generation of kids to design, create, and express themselves with new media technologies. I hope that Apple will reconsider its policies so that more kids can experience the joys of creating and sharing with Scratch. Our group is planning to make Scratch authoring tools for the iPad in the future, and we hope Apple will allow us.[2] | ” |
– Mitchel Resnick, Scratch Team at MIT | ||
