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Apple Censors App Store Rejection Notices
isBandGeek() writes "After a few reasonable App Store bans, such as the ones on I Am Rich and NetShare, developers started complaining about excessive restrictions on applications like Podcaster and MailWrangler, supposedly because they provided 'duplicate functionality.' In response, Apple rubbed salt in their wounds by slapping non-disclosure agreements on application rejection notices. Now developers are not even allowed to tell their fanbase that Apple decided to withhold approval for an application. Is Apple confident that Google's open platform Android won't be much of a threat?"
apparently they are not worried
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
What happens if you don't agree to a non-disclosure agreement on the rejection notice you receive?
Usually NDAs have to be signed before you get access to see cool secret stuff. But what if the only thing you're agreeing to is to be rejected?
How was banning a tethering application reasonable?
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
Because they make cool *looking* equipment? If M$ did this, people would be all over them. Jobs is not known for working and playing well with others, but people just wink at the silliness because they like the shiny gadgets.
Add to the developer sites a line like:
The following applications have not been removed from the AppStore: [item] [item] [item] .... ...and just delete when required.
-- Soruk
It may be just me but I really don't get why apple has such a big fanbase, seeing as how they treat their customers...
Manuals are your last resort only
I hear that the Apple NDAs are sent in glossy white envelopes to the developers, with the Apple logo on the outside and a grouping of pointless logic on the inside. But at least it looks good, so let's blame it on Microsoft anyways.
Always proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
It's all about ©The Experience!
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Apple needs to fix this. It should never have been allowed to get this bad.
"I'm a Genius!"*
*Not an actual Genius
I'm waiting for Slashdot to update its category image for Apple with the "Bill of Borg" image reserved for Micro$oft stories. Apparently, Jobs and his minions are really stealing back concepts of "Squash the User and Their Rights" in exchange for the UI thefts of years past. I'll admit that I wasn't much of an Apple Fainboi over the years, and it was only last Christmas that I broke down and bought an 80GB iPod Classic over my USB Mass Storage models I've always used. I just never thought that Apple would stoop so low as to say, "Here is a development platform to create ANYTHING you think there would be a demand for," and then turn around and say "Oh, no.. You can't make that. WE'RE doing that. Oh, BTW... don't tell anyone what Jerks we are. We have a reputation to uphold." I thought Apple's main goals were to innovate and empower the people, and turn a nice profit while doing so.
Aparrently, empowerment doesn't apply to [snootytone]"Those programmer people...UGH!"[/snootytone]
You're not paranoid if they really ARE out to get you...
Apple? Abusing their power to keep people from talking about their product in any way that is not authorized by the Apple marketing department? Why, I can't tell you how long it's been since I've heard a similar story about them doing this sort of thing!
No, I don't mean it's been a long time. I mean I literally can't tell you. I'm not legally allowed to.
Sorry.
(Joking . . . mostly.)
Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
Presumably you agree to some T&Cs before you submit an application to the Apple Store which could be interpreted as allowing them to do this.
In practice, it's probably unenforceable. If Apple sued you for disclosing the reasons for the rejection they wouldn't be able to show any damages, and since Apple aren't doing anything, you might even be able to argue that the contractual arrangement ended with apple's rejection.
"Fuck it, we're evil," said Steve Jobs to an audience of soul-mortgaged thralls. "But our stuff is sooo good. You'll keep taking our abuse. You love it, you worm. Because our stuff is great. It's shiny and it's pretty and it's cool and it works. It's not like youâ(TM)ll go back to a Windows Mobile phone. Ha! Ha!"
It's foolish to have expected anything else. As Neal Stephenson put it in In The Beginning Was The Command Line:
It's as applicable now as it was in the late 1990s. That bit of Apple's corporate culture is straight from Steve Jobs.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Look the number of developers for Apple apps has to be finite. Pretty damn finite relative to other markets. Yes some of them are making some bank but these developers should just stop updating their apps. Or better yet, all agree to place a notice in their next update in protest. This could be stopped if they worked together.
An analysts opinion isn't worth the paper it is printed on, and this opinion ain't even printed.
Both phones are less then perfect and missing some "we don't think you need this, so you don't get it" features.
But the analyst is an idiot because he talks about the lack of iTunes. Yeah, because people care about that. Oh, they don't. First off, most music on digital players is ripped from CD's, or obtained through other means in mp3 format. iTunes is very small potatoes in the global music industry and even Apple knows that the iPod a far bigger player in the digital music player isn't always going to be used for iTunes content, which is why Apple gives you the tools needed to convert iTunes music to MP3 format or burn it to a CD.
The idea that a new platform needs to be compatible with iTunes is silly.
The bigger problem is lack of office compatibiltiy. While MS does offer you ways to export your documents in more general formats, that could be the real killer. The iPhone is bought by people who buy Apple and so accept that it is NOT going to be all that compatible with MS software. But android doesn't have the Apple logo, what is its excuse for not being MS compatible?
In a way, I don't think the iPhone and Android are even competitors. iPhone is a single product offered by a company that has no other phones. Android is a platform that any phone maker can use. It would be like saying the Smart Car competes with Honda Engines. Does the iPhone compete with Windows Mobile or Symbian? No, it competes with other phones, specific models, not OS/Platforms. if this google phone fails, there are plenty of others coming out soon, while Apple can hardly afford to start making dozens of phones and a new one every season to suit the tastes of the customer. Neither can google, but the phonemakers can.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Android may or may not provide competition for Apple. What is providing competition for Apple, however, is the growing pool of independent developers writing jailbreak applications for the iPhone; catering to an even larger open development pool and more reasons to jailbreak your device. A year ago, 30% of the market was jailbreaking. Today, that number's got to be much higher. Open developers distributing through Cydia (the third party software repository) are able to compete with AppStore developers, because they can take advantage of otherwise restricted APIs to write better software, and can write apps that Apple deems to be otherwise a threat.
Hate to break it to you fanboy, but most of the rest of the world doesn't use iPhones either.
What's that?
Sounds like a Star-Tac killer to me, but my 5 year old PalmOS-based Treo trumps the iPhone in almost every single feature. The iPhone does not provide any new functionality, not revolutionary in any way, and there were plenty of full-screen, touch handsets out before the iPhone hit the market.
The one, the ONLY thing Apple has going for them is marketing. That's it.
I'm a PC
And I'm a Mac
I run almost all business software and games
AND I'LL SUE YOUR ASS IF YOU TELL ANYONE!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Other sites report the incident differently. The main point being that it appears to be a clarification of the NDA that developers already agreed upon, and not an additional restriction.
Compared to game consoles, Apple's requirements are very tame, but you don't hear much complaints about the rejections that Nintendo regularily sends out.
What it does do, however, is make it clear (again), that the iPhone is not a general-purpose computer, but a device.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Interviewer: So it says here you've been developing for the iPhone for 2 years
Developer: Yup that's right
I: So what applications have you written
D: I've written applications around complex gene folding, stock prediction and a massively multi-player online game
I: Great, can I get them from the App Store
D: I can't say
I: Why not?
D: I can't say
I: Why?
D: There is an NDA covering whether I submitted them and whether they rejected them
I: Can you show me the code?
D: Err no
I: Why?
D: Because I'm not allowed to share things with other developers
I: Why?
D: That's in the NDA too
I: So in summary you say you've written some amazing applications but can't prove it and they aren't on the app store
D: Correct
I: So why should I believe you
D: Would anyone who hadn't done iPhone development have bothered to read the NDA?
I: Good point, you're hired.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Actually, if you keep up on the Apple blogs and such, even a lot of long-time Apple fanboys are having trouble understanding Apple's play here. It's less a question of whether or not they're legally entitled to do what they're doing (it is their App store afterall), but more just a general wonder what Apple is trying to accomplish with the arbitrary nature of restrictions that they've created.
Long time and successful mac developers are wondering what the hell is going on. They see Apple rejecting well designed iPhone applications for reasons that haven't been previously disclosed, and it makes them hesitant to produce applications of their own for fear of having it rejected over some rule that they were never told about.
And looking at this from another angle, the NDA has meant that there aren't good forums or anything online for developers to share iPhone programming tricks or issues or whatever. Not to mention that you can't go buy a book about it to help you learn. That's just another wall that Apple has built that developers have to find their way over in order to make applications.
Again, Apple is probably fully within their legal rights to reject any application for any reason. But that still doesn't make it smart for them to do so. If they want to create a mobile platform, which it seems fairly obvious is a goal of theirs, then nobody is really sure how Apple's actions so far have helped. They're still selling the phones by the truckload, so maybe it doesn't matter that much to them, but taking the longer view, a lot of people who had been very excited about the iPhone are having a hard time seeing where Apple is going with this.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
As for the "sex appeal"... is that what you're after in a phone? Really?
What it does do, however, is make it clear (again), that the iPhone is not a general-purpose computer, but a device.
lolwut? You people are redefining words, now?
That gagging sound you hear is a black turtleneck chocking a human neck, forever.
What about the Canary approach?
1. "I promise under penalty of Perjury not to actively state a false status of my app. with Apple."
2.
"Today I was not declined by Apple."
"Today I was not declined by Apple."
"Today I was not declined by Apple."
"Today I was not declined by Apple."
3. ( ... Crickets ... )
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Why do they insist on shooting themselves in the foot like this?
Because the gun's not loaded, lets face it, most people will not be upset about this, and if a feature is that freaking cool that it needs to be developed or you're going to have mass panic, then Apple will do it themselves.
The user isn't going to care how the company treats the developer, especially now that the developer is being banned from complaining. Their competition is development on other platforms, and even then, their lack of media text messages or copy-and-paste functionality, must have features of two to three years ago, shows that even if there is big features missing, their consumer base isn't going to care.
Oh honey look... How cute... an angry slashdotter!
Wait.. you actually think the netshare ban, in countries where the telcos don't block tethering, was 'reasonable'? I sure as hell hope you're just trolling and aren't really this retarded!
Studies Say Ideology Trumps Facts
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/25/036232
This comment was very nice: "cognitive dissonance"
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=975171&cid=25148179
Applied to Apple it would mean that people that bought completely overpriced Apple products are now looking for justification and trying to convince other people that it was right to spend so much money.
Holy christ, why am I feeding the troll.
I'm surprised you didn't bitch about no MMS support so you can get billed to send pictures over the proprietary cell network instead of just emailing them.
The situation with Podcaster and MailWrangler quite frankly sucks and no sane person will disagree with that. Apple's stance on this completely sucks. All we can do is complain and hope they'll listen. Generate enough bad press and something is bound to happen...
Kiteboarding Gear Mention slashdot and get 10% off!
As far as their technological integration of products go, they are superior in many ways to most other products. The ownership of the HW, OS and application SW and the integration they do with them out of the box makes them very good.
But, unfortunately, they are totatally, absolutely control freaks, not only of their products, but of their users. Instead of allowing people to do what they wish with something they buy from them, they force you to do anything and everything exactly as they believe is best - regardless of whatever other good ways there are to do something.
This is why, while I like their products, I will never buy one.
Car engines actually have these things, called batteries, that are user-replaceable...
I think it's pretty obvious who the troll is here.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Ok, I'm not sure if that's entirely the right expression, but courts will often refuse to enforce clauses in contracts which are a dramatic expansion of the intended purposes of contract law.
I think in California, non-compete agreements which prevent people from working for any other employer in the same industry were struck down under this principal, and I would imagine that a clause which restricts you from even sharing with other parties that your app was rejected, and under what terms, would be in the same boat.
Non-disclosure agreements are intended to protect true secrets, like the formula or means of production for a product. The knowledge that an application was rejected, man, I can't see *how* that is really a company secret, other than Apple just wanting to silence criticism, which courts do not look favorably upon.
Now, I could potentially see the *why* of the rejection being covered by an NDA, *if and only if* the reason for rejection was a technical reason which would require the disclosure of a technical secret in order to explain. Still, anything that an app developer is doing for a platform shouldn't be a 'secret'.
Anyhow, I for one have started looking at the Android platform, and it's certainly interesting. Still feels a bit immature in terms of lacking some things, but I imagine a lot of the 'missing' stuff will be added with future releases. I'm hoping for, among other things, VOiP support when I'm on a WiFi network (that might, hopefully, come through third-party apps, but I think I saw a quote somewhere that Google has done something to try to prevent Apps from implementing VoIP, but not sure), and Ogg Vorbis & Theora support in the media player component (I've encoded much of my pre-Internet CD collection to Ogg).
As for the "sex appeal"... is that what you're after in a phone? Really?
Having a gadget be good for showing off to others is definitely a selling point, as lame as it may be.
Apple will eventually learn, the same way Microsoft has, that the freedom to innovate does not belong solely to them. If you lock out the masses, they will eventually go someplace else (hear Android calling?)
Think Different, Think of ANYTHING but an Apple product...
--E--
...they'll let that fucking cat and his two little friends into your house and wreck everything...