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Apple Refusing Any BitTorrent Related Apps?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the ignorance-is-bliss dept.

jamie pointed out what appears to be an unfortunate policy for Apple's app store that is refusing anything to do with BitTorrent. The example is a remote control app that allows a user to interface with their Transmission BitTorrent client. This certainly isn't the first complaint over app store policy. Issues from the return policy to the "objectionable content" of Nine Inch Nails have some developers concerned over what Apple is doing to the market. Of course, many are quick to remind that it is Apple's store and they are free to do whatever they want with it.

24 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Jailbreak by googlesmith123 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you want torrent you can always jailbreak it.

    --
    Say NO to unpaid Internships!
    1. Re:Jailbreak by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Jailbreaking: "It may be your store, but it's my goddamn phone".

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    2. Re:Jailbreak by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Funny

      So ... you photoshop your porn before a late night wank session?

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    3. Re:Jailbreak by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, I like to airbrush my mpegs frame by frame...the move to HD porn is killing me!

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    4. Re:Jailbreak by aristotle-dude · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unless if you bought an iPod touch, bought the iPhone at full price or you paid out the contract termination fee, it's not your phone until your contract is up.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  2. Web UI by moniker127 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Isn't this what web UIs are for?


    I think ittl be a few years before people realize that bittorrent is perfectly legal, and a great distribution method.

  3. Apple is free to do whatever it wants... by Anita+Coney · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The purpose of these stories, involving Apple refusing to sell apps, is not to debate the rights of Apple to do so. Everyone recognizes that Apple has a right to sell or not sell anything it so desires.

    The purpose of these stories is to warn people to stay away from Apple, because Apple does not have your best interests in mind, only its bottom line.

    --
    If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
    1. Re:Apple is free to do whatever it wants... by bennomatic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The purpose of these stories is to warn people to stay away from Apple, because Apple does not have your best interests in mind, only its bottom line.

      Or another way to put it might be that they are not trying to be everything to everyone, and while we do not necessarily know all the reasons for all of their decisions, anyone who is going to make a significant purchase ($200+ dollars plus ongoing fees) should have this information in order to make an informed decision.

      If you're going to "warn people" to stay away from Apple because they're interested in their bottom line, you're going to have to warn people to stay away from pretty much all corporations. Of course, that means not having any sort of computing device...

      --
      The CB App. What's your 20?
    2. Re:Apple is free to do whatever it wants... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Informative

      The difference isn't between companies interested in their bottom line and companies not so interested(all of which are dead); but between companies whose bottom line is bolstered by controlling you and companies whose bottom line is bolstered by serving you.

    3. Re:Apple is free to do whatever it wants... by caitsith01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you're going to "warn people" to stay away from Apple because they're interested in their bottom line, you're going to have to warn people to stay away from pretty much all corporations. Of course, that means not having any sort of computing device...

      Or to put it another way, if Apple are going to continnue to present themselves as the fun, shiny, easy, nice answer to everything, and both explicitly and implicitly suggest that everyone else is a bunch of crusty old business-oriented, consumer-hating corporations, then it will be totally legitimate and arguably even necessary for there to be a continued awareness campaign about the fact that they are behaving in this way.

      Maybe we need a revised iphone advertisement:

      "The great thing about the iphone is, if you want to find the nearest restaurant, there's an app for that... and if you want to use a spirit level thingo, there's an app for that... and if you want to use useful software developed by someone Apple doesn't approve of, you can go to hell... and if you want to use technology which Apple is nervous about, you can also go to hell... and if you think you actually own that phone you got when you handed over money, you are living in a fantasy world.

      The new iphone. It's whatever Apple says it is."

      --
      Read Pynchon.
  4. They'd better stop approving Safari then by Stuart+Gibson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Looking at the Transmission control interface through Safari on my iPhone right now. I guess now that Safari might be used to facilitate "this category of application" Apple will be pulling it from the OS?

    I'm as much of a fanboy as the next guy, but Apple really need to get the house in order over the app store.

    --
    It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
  5. Re:Apple's store by compro01 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From what I heard, corporations are able to be criticized for their actions.

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    upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
  6. Re:What the heck do they expect? by Stuart+Gibson · · Score: 4, Informative

    It was an app to remotely control your desktop client. In other words the main utility was in starting your download again once you're on the bus and realise you forgot to unpause it.

    --
    It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
  7. Stop gobbling Apple's knob? by Chas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously. If Apple wants to engage in practices that result in a chilling effect on your target market why the fuck are you going to support them?
    Because it's [LOVE]Apple{/LOVE]? Puh-leeze!
    Because it enables you to reach a large market of consumers? Oh wait, they're denying those customers access to your products!

    I'm sure Apple is great and wonderful and really really nice. I'm sure their app platform is the greatest thing since sliced stupid-people. But if they're going to actively interfere with your ability to reach customers FUCK THEM!

    And yes, it's Apple's store. They can sell or not sell whatever they feel like.
    However, it's not JUST Apple's store. It's the sole "legitimate" gateway into the devices you're writing apps for. That's part of the problem.

    To use a baseball-related metaphor. You're a beer-hawker at a ballgame. Heaven help you if you try to sell booze in OTHER than the approved manner or brand.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  8. Re:Apple's store by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    Indeed, I've also heard that it is Apple's store and they are free to do whatever they want with it.

    I've heard this from two different sources now, so I think it's fair to say it's probably true. Off to update Wikipedia!

  9. Re:First Post by nicolas.kassis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm I the only nerd who actually use it for mostly downloading ubuntu and feroda and for WoW patches? Who has time for movies anyway?

  10. Re:Apple's store by Chabo · · Score: 4, Funny

    If that dress code requires top hats, though, it's not terribly reasonable.

    Wow. I'd shop at that store every day of the week!

    Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

    --
    Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
  11. Re:First Post by cptnapalm · · Score: 5, Funny

    People who don't play WoW?

  12. Re:If you don't like it.... by FooRat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why am I starting to wonder if there might not be something a little bit wrong with this form of argument?

    If you don't like that form of argument, don't use it.

  13. Re:If you don't like it.... by hoggoth · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you don't know how to make logical analogies, don't do it.

    --
    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  14. From an engineers perspective: by leoc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Option A) Apple products.
    Option B) The freedom to do what you want with the stuff you buy.

    Pick one and stop complaining.

    --
    STFU about slashdot bias.
  15. Re:Apple's Store, my iPhone by david_thornley · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I fail to see your point.

    If you want to buy an iPhone and jailbreak it, feel free. It's your iPhone, after all. If you want to buy an iPhone and get your apps from the App Store, cool. It's pretty useful that way, also. If you don't want to buy a iPhone, for whatever reason, that's fine too. That's how a healthy market economy works, and the iPhone isn't the only smart phone out there.

    What I don't understand is why you think Apple should sell you precisely what you want in the way you want it. Apple is willing to sell you a product with certain capabilities and limitations. They aren't required to sell something similar but different, although they do have to live with any negative effects on their market share because of that.

    So, buy or don't buy, jailbreak or don't jailbreak, but don't claim Apple is being unfair just because you find them inconvenient.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  16. Android FTW. by Facegarden · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seeing this story elsewhere today prompted me to check the Android Market for a similar app.

    Yup, found one and downloaded it immediately.

    Works with Transmission (like the rejected app in the story) and uTorrent, making it great for users of any platform (i think mac users have one or the other, and Transmission is great on linux, uTorrent rocks on windows).

    Gotta setup my new computer with DYNDNS again, but It looks like a nice app just from the setup options.

    I have started developing a bit (a tiny bit) for Android, and I am really starting to appreciate the platform a lot.

    I switched from windows mobile to the iphone a year ago, and then from the iphone to a G1 a few months ago, and I love my G1, it's the best phone I've ever had, and knowing now that I can develop apps for it easily (and on any platform, no less) for free (if I don't want to distribute them, or for just $25 one time developer's fee if I do) makes me REALLY like the platform.

    Android rocks.
    -Taylor

    --
    Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
  17. Re:If you don't like it.... by Americano · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How this post got a +4, Interesting on the heels of this fumbling, childish attempt to draw a parallel, I don't know. I'd like you to supply examples of anybody legitimately using "this form of argument" in any of the debates you provided. Citations are most certainly needed.

    I'm stunned at the logical gymnastics required to create equivalency between the legality of gay marriage, murder, and buying an app for your cell phone. Breathtaking.