Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Inside Apple's iPhone SDK Gag Order

Posted by samzenpus on from the the-first-rule-of-iPhone dept.

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Tom Yager takes a closer look at Apple's iPhone SDK confidentiality agreement, which restricts developers from discussing the SDK or exchanging ideas with others, thereby leaving no room for forums, newsgroups, open source projects, tutorials, magazine articles, users' groups, or books. But because anyone is free to obtain the iPhone SDK by signing up for it, Apple is essentially branding publicly available information as confidential. This 'puzzling contradiction' is the 'antithesis of the developer-friendly Apple Developer Connection' on which the iPhone SDK program is based, Yager contends. 'You'll see arguments from armchair legal analysts that the iPhone developer Agreements won't stand up in court — but those analysts certainly won't stand up in court on your behalf.' Anyone planning to launch an iPhone forum or open source project should have 'a lawyer draft your request for exemption, and make sure that the Apple staffer granting it personally commits to status as authorized to approve exceptions to the iPhone Registered Developer and iPhone SDK Agreements,' Yager warns."

7 of 495 comments (clear)

  1. no sale, here, then by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I had no idea about this. I don't follow apple things (...) but given how sue-happy they are, they can certainly live without MY buying any of their gear.

    simply because of this, alone; I vow not to buy an iphone. I was not really in the market but now I know for sure that apple is on my blacklist (at least the evil phones).

    apple: are you trying to dislodge MS as the most hated computer company around? keep it up, mate....

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    1. Re:no sale, here, then by loganrapp · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, that's one more reason to wait and see how the HTC Dream and other Android-using devices work out.

    2. Re:no sale, here, then by Bones3D_mac · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Apple charged iPod owners $10 for the 2.0 software update. There is some claim that business law requires them to do this, which is nonsense as Sony routinely give the PSP new features for free. MS released their 2.0 Zune update for free for older Zune's etc... So I'm not sure why Apple is defended in this practice when Sony and MS are possibly two of the most evil companies out there.

      Yeah, this is the same crap they pulled on their customer base who purchased 802.11n-ready hardware, then charged them to turn it on. Their reasoning, a bunch of meaningless jargon that somehow seems to lack any basis in reality outside of Apple:

      Apple said it is required under generally accepted accounting principles to charge customers for the software upgrade. "The nominal distribution fee for the 802.11n software is required in order for Apple to comply with generally accepted accounting principles for revenue recognition, which generally require that we charge for significant feature enhancements, such as 802.11n, when added to previously purchased products,"

      Needless to say, this ploy has been affectionately dubbed the "Apple Tax" by those who were duped by it.

      --


      8==8 Bones 8==8
  2. I had assumed this would be lifted Real Soon Now. by w3woody · · Score: 4, Interesting

    After all, the iPhone SDK cannot remain a "beta" forever, and once it's no longer a beta, I presume the SDK will show up side-by-side with the MacOS X Cocoa SDK from which it was derived.

    Most of Apple's beta stuff has the same confidentiality agreement, so I presumed this was just a bug.

  3. Message Received. by mkcmkc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple doesn't want me to program their hardware. I hear and will obey...

    --
    "Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
  4. That's amazingly stupid! by zullnero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I first got into Palm development 10 years ago, there was a vibrant and amazing community...I used to participate heavily in the mailing list and forums back then. If you wanted to do something that wasn't explained in the manual, you could post a question...and there was a good chance the person giving you a reply was one of their top OS design engineers. Microsoft started doing some of that later on when they had so many employees with free time on their hands...but you couldn't put a price on that kind of interaction. It seriously helped me pick up the platform so quickly, and that helped me build a pretty good career for myself. Even now I'm still a Palm OS hobbyist for mainly that reason.

    I can't see that happening with iPhone. What a stupid, stupid way to go about things. Palm didn't even have a robust platform, and they kept a huge market dominance way longer than they should have by making it easy to develop for their platform by keeping things out in the open. You had to sign agreements, but it wasn't this fascist Apple crap for sure. I'll take on any Apple fanboy on that point.

  5. Re:If this is the computing model of the future by Meneth · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's a big, fat lie, of course.

    Not only is Symbian closed-source, bug-ridden and otherwise horribly hard to write for.

    All programs must also be digitally signed by Symbian Inc. to be installable on consumer phones. And if you use certain "protected" APIs, you'll have to shell out some 20 USD per signing.

    Yes, documentation is freely available, but it's so lacking in important details that it might as well not be.

    Furthermore, I think that the comment edit box should be enlarged.