Matt Lu has an excellent interview on TUAW with Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software. Ambrosia is the company that created iToner the custom ringtone app for the iPhone.

In the interview, Welch comments on the latest Apple update, which, like every other third-party app on the iPhone, wiped out his program, iToner. When asked, “...do you feel that Apple has wronged Ambrosia in some way?” Welch said:

I’m frustrated, honestly. With iToner, we worked very, very hard to make sure we did things the right way. We didn’t hack into the phone at all, we didn’t “jailbreak” it - we used the same APIs that iTunes uses to put files on the iPhone, and we put those ringtones in the user area of the phone. This is why iToner ringtones survived OS updates.

Then Apple rolled out their iTunes music store sale of ringtones… and they broke iToner. The way they broke it seemed excessive, but understandable from a programming point of view, so we rapidly came out with a fix. The first few weeks of iToner’s life was nothing but coffee, code, and sleepless nights for people here at Ambrosia, so as such, sure, it’s frustrating that it’s broken yet again.

I wish the people at Ambrosia all the luck I can give them because iToner was a great application. I also respect the way in which they respect Apple and Apple’s practices. Read the rest of this insightful interview here.