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No iPhone Apps, Please — We're British

Posted by samzenpus on from the none-for-us-thank-you dept.

GMGruman writes "The BBC has stirred up quite a row in Britain about a shocking use of taxpayer funds: creating iPhone apps to provide citizens services. As InfoWorld blogger Galen Gruman notes, it's apparently bad in Britain for the government to use modern technology during a recession, a mentality he likens as a shift from 'cool Britannia' to 'fool Britannia.'"

4 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah, they should shut down TV and just do radio by gig · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    The hysteria around iPhone is fucking ridiculous. iPhone apps are written in either C or HTML5. C is cross-platform, apps are easily ported to any other C platform, e.g. any Unix, Windows, PlayStation, Wii, Xbox, and even many set-top boxes potentially. That is why Pac-Man and DOOM run on iPhone even though both were written many years before iPhone existed. If any phone maker other than Apple had any fucking clue, iPhone apps could easily be ported to other phones. Native apps could be written for iPhone and other handsets like for many years apps have run on both Mac and Windows, like for many years all Unix systems have run the same apps. But nobody else offers a C API yet other than Apple, in spite of most phones running Unix. HTML5 of course can be authored in such a way that it installs and runs on everything, although you'll need to use a 3rd party browser on Microsoft platforms.

    So iPhone apps are not an exclusive club which you can only enter by buying an iPhone. The BBC writing an iPhone app is not forcing you to buy an iPhone, or even encouraging you. And they can easily charge and make the cost of development back. Tell your non-Apple handset maker to provide a fucking C API and if they don't then buy a phone that does next time or STFU. Your destiny is in your own hands.
     

  2. Re:Typical cuts behaviour... by tehcyder · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The BBc is not a government ministry, dipshit.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  3. Get off your anti-British highhorse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Cutting the deficit means saving money everywhere. iPhone apps don't improve anyone's life and the Government can't afford them. The (socialist) Messiah, Obama, should give it a try.

  4. Gaylen Jewman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    What kind of a fucked up name is Galen Gruman? I bet pound to a pinch of pigshite that he's a yid.