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Apple's iPhone Developer Crisis
David Gerard writes "iPhone development sounds closed-shop but simple — apply to be a developer, put application on the App Store, you and Apple make money. Except Apple can't keep up with the request load — whereas getting a developer contract used to take a couple of days, it's now taking months. Some early developers' contracts are expiring with no notice of renewal options. And Apple has no idea what's going on or the state of things. If you want to maintain a completely closed system, it helps if you can actually keep up with it."
Reader h11:6 points out news of a recent study which suggests that "Android's open source nature will give it a boost over Apple's iPhone," and thus take the lead in sales as soon as three years from now. It will be interesting to see how they deal with the flood of proposed apps as their popularity rises.
Irony is seeing And Apple has no idea what's going on or the state of things. and clicking on it and getting a 500 error. Seems more like Ars Technica has no clue what's going on.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's not like Apple could use its 20 Billion dollars in the bank to, you know, hire more people to handle the developer requests. That would just be impossible. Companies never grow by actually applying resources to a problem.
Dude. The GNUphone is the way to go! The only phone any righteous Slashdot reader could use!
Really, weâ(TM)re not out to destroy Apple; that will just be a completely unintentional side effect.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
But, where are the objects? Where are the interfaces? Where has all the programming gone? It's like you are just telling the computer what to do, and it's doing it. Where is the skill in that?
I think that the app store certainly offers choice and diversity! If it's freedom you want, don't buy an Apple product! If you want it to "just work" then buy Apple!
It's alright gramps. The phones aren't going to hurt you any more. You can go back to your room now.
Don't worry. A whole ton of crap programs in the marketplace isn't a symptom of it being open source. You should see the gems on the iPhone Appstore. The choice of fart apps is outstanding.
Thank you! Here's the text. Link.
DEFINED FREEDOM, Gnuisance, Monday (NNGadget) - The Free Software Foundation (NASDAQ: RMS) has announced the Free Software alternative to the evil, DRM-infested, locked-down, defective-by-design iPhone: the GNUPhone.
The key technical innovation of the GNUPhone is that it is completely operated from the command line. "What could be more intuitive than a bash prompt?" said seventeen-year-old Debian developer Hiram Nerdboy. "The ultimate one-dimensional desktop! Just type dial voice +1-555-1212 -ntwk verizon -prot cdma2000 -ssh-version 2 -a -l -q -9 -b -k -K 14 -x and away you go! Simple and obvious!"
The phone will also serve as a versatile personal media player. "I can play any .au file or H.120 video with a single shell command! The iPod could never measure up to this powerful ease of use." Video is rendered into ASCII art with aalib. "If blocky ASCII teletype softcore pinups were good enough for 1970s minicomputer operators, they're good enough for you. Respect your elders."
The KDE project will be bringing its next-generation KDE 4 desktop to the GNUPhone. "You can flip, twirl, dice, blend, fold, spindle and mutilate your terminal windows to your heart's content," said developer Aaron Seigo. "Look at that cool effect! Any complaint that basic functions don't actually work is ignorant of the intrinsic beauty of the Plasma API and is just more FUD spread by haters like Stevie Ray Vaughan-Nichols and Novell Corporation."
Actual successful voice calls are expected by 2011 to 2012. Regulatory approval is proving problematic in the corrupt, corporate-captured US environment. "The FCC said that if we dared switch on this, uh, 'piece of shit' in a built-up area in its present form, they'd break all our fingers with a fourteen-pound cluebat," said Nerdboy. "They're obviously shilling for Apple, Nokia and Microsoft."
The second version of the GNUPhone will run EMACS on the HURD kernel and be operated by writing eLisp macros on the fly. "It's the clearest, most elegant and natural operating environment anyone could conceive of," said Nerdboy. "Really, we're not out to destroy Apple; that will just be a completely unintentional side effect."
http://rocknerd.co.uk
and viola, adblock for MobileSafari.
A viola is a four-stringed bowed instrument tuned to C,G, D and A, one 5th lower than the violin. I fail to see any relevance to phones...
Allow me to summarize Slashdot's record when it comes to predicting Apple's success and failures:
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."