Comments on: The Darker Side Of iPhone App Development

By: Amazing Resources for iPhone Development | Amazing and Inspiring Design

Amazing Resources for iPhone Development | Amazing and Inspiring Design — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:55:21 +0000

[...] The Darker Side of iPhone App Development An article that covers some of the restrictions and limitations imposed by Apple for iPhone apps. [...]

By: Online Business Management Software and Services » Blog Archive » The Ultimate Toolbox for iPhone Development

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:55:22 +0000

[...] The Darker Side of iPhone App Development An article that covers some of the restrictions and limitations imposed by Apple for iPhone apps. [...]

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:19:19 +0000

Any suggestions for software to make my own Apps? Preferably easy?

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:39:48 +0000

I’m interested in developing apps for the iPhone, but I don’t have a Mac. Can I develop iPhone apps with a Windows Vista Box? Will I be able to sell them on Apple’s Store? If not, what is the “cheapest” configuration of a Mac that I can get away with?

Thanks
Jason
jason.wu001@gmail.com

By: Jim Lynch

Jim Lynch — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:40:24 +0000

Just a heads up that the URL for the iPhone Software Reviews Blog has changed. Here’s the new URL:

http://iphoneappreviewsblog.com

I changed the name to the iPhone App Reviews Blog.

By: Easy to use cellphone

Easy to use cellphone — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:08:58 +0000

Regardless of the darker side, its amazing that open source technology has allowed anyone to write an app that anyone can buy and use.

By: Update: More on the Apple Ecosystem | Oh Wow ... a Blog

Update: More on the Apple Ecosystem | Oh Wow ... a Blog — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:21:45 +0000

[...] ago I marveled at the cleanliness of the integration of Apple’s whole line. I recently read this posting about which seems to succinctly package the issues dealing with the downside to the upside of app [...]

By: Al Meier

Al Meier — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:08:47 +0000

Wow folks… This is amazing, you have people that want a 100% hackable platform, and believe that they can always develop code better than any Apple developer or OS developer… Imagine if you could HACK into the GSM code stack, and completely cripple the entire local GSM network… wouldn’t that be a cool task? No… There should be restrictions and guide lines…. I’ve been in the business for 36 years… IBM protected the machine language Assembler because it gave programers access to the kernel functions, or course, people complained that IBM was being restrictive.

I for one am glad someone is over-seeing the iPhone applications, I have high expectations of my iPhone as a tool that accesses the GSM network, and safe guards my data. I’m glad I don’t have to buy “tools” to verify that “hackers” haven’t figured-out a method to steal information, de-stabilize my GSM connection or high-jack my Mobile-Me.

I do have issues about people complaining about Steve Jobs / AT&T rights and charges. If you’re reading these notes, you obviously have an above average intelligence, and more likely are able to write applications for a career. No one forced an intelligent person to buy an iPhone, sign-up for an iPhone developer account, or spend your evenings and weekends developing code.

Look at the near thousand of FREE and for FEE application on iPhone… I would be willing to bet that if you develop a successful application and Apple feels the application is of value, and is well behaved, then you get paid, and potentially well paid for your efforts by the thousands of iPhone subscribers that purchase your wares.

I’m sure you or your company don’t want to be know as developers of code that purposely “CRACK” an iPhone or leak personal information into the wrong hands….
Unless that is your plan… To that I say what a waste of talent and resources…

Steve Jobs’s team developed a desirable and innovated mobile device… Does it do everything, have hundreds of megabytes of storage, is it wide-open, totally free, nope…
Nor would you if you had the talent and resources to build your own version of an iPhone.

Oh, by the way, I’m NOT kissing-up, and I don’t work for Steve or AT&T… I just want people to stop complaining so much and being so negative about any rules or guidelines that THEY didn’t create… Lets just look at the iPhone as current technology programmers can develop cool applications that people are willing to pay for…

Peace everyone…. Turn that negative energy into a new, well behaved application that makes you a successful application developer… and all those features and ideas… send them to Apple as well thought out design features, and you might make a positive difference.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:14:06 +0000

iPhone developers looking to have their apps reviewed on the iPhone Software Reviews Blog are welcome to contact me:

http://iphonesoftwarereviewsblog.com/index.php/request-an-iphone-app-or-game-review/

By: Steve Says Your Noses Are Giving Him a Wedgie

Steve Says Your Noses Are Giving Him a Wedgie — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:47:23 +0000

It amazes me how you suckers rush to defend profiteers who cripple your hardware. $30/month…$360/year…just to use the Internet connection I’M ALREADY PAYING FOR?!

Why don’t you stick your noses even higher up the cracks of both Apple’s and AT&T’s CEOs?

By: BP

BP — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:42:57 +0000

Microsoft was sued for doing that exact same thing with IE.

I just wish I had the capital to do it myself as I’m very disappointed in the way they have crippled the iPhone.

The *only* reason I can see to limit things is because the mobile carriers would balk at a phone that could bypass their network (with something like VoIP) and would not sell it to their customers… however I didn’t buy the phone in order to bypass my carriers service, I bought it because I wanted a good innovative phone OS.

I was mortified to learn how it had been crippled and can’t even do the basic set of things my little Nokia could… in fact I just took it for granted that those features would be available.

Now I’m a bit miffed and think its high time someone took Apple to task.

By: cirque

cirque — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:01:24 +0000

You bunch of whiners! Nothing will ever be perfect enough for you.

By: zato

zato — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:37:03 +0000

Falkirk wrote: “Many of the things which people point to as “flaws” are not really flaws but are, instead, trade offs.”

You’re wasting your time, Falkirk. This is an Apple hate site. It’s about killing Apple sales.

By: Chris Pratt

Chris Pratt — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:06:09 +0000

It has been confirmed 100% that the infamous blacklist that was found is *not* a kill switch. It’s part of the CoreLocation module, i.e. is a blacklist of apps that are not allowed to use your GPS. This is a security feature. Think of the potential maliciousness the wrong person could commit given your nearly exact physical location. Apple has merely built in the ability to disable just such a thing if it happened to break into the wild. Nothing more, nothing less.

This was all revealed last week (http://daringfireball.net/2008/08/core_location_blacklist), so stirring the pot here again seems like little more than an attempt to get pageviews. Heck, I guess it got me here, but I hate this type of irresponsible gossip-spreading.

Agree with Apple or don’t, but you do realize that you don’t *have* to use an iPhone, right?

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:05:32 +0000

This is a process people like me — who lack the Coding Gene — look at with a great deal of envy. For all the problems, there is a real chance that millionaires are going to be made here. Keep that in mind.

By: Goobi

Goobi — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:19:17 +0000

I think the restrictive nature of the App store is the perfect way to go. It keeps the junk out so you don’t ever have to bother about whether this certain app is going to junk your phone. Plus, all of them are in one place! So there’s no question of an app being left out cause of poor pagerank. App store rocks, and you know it.

By: Corey

Corey — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:18:49 +0000

Really?

Do you need hits that much that you keep mining the NetShare App story?

Null River knowingly developed an application in direct conflict with the terms of use for AT&T/App Store. I’m not saying I agree with the rule, but Null River knew full well during development that this app would get pulled, and it did. They tested the waters and now we know Apple will indeed enforce its terms of use.

So back to your point of a 1984 draconian app store, No developer who abides by the few rules of the platform need fear the wrath of Jobs and can safely develop on their free IDE and publish to the almost free App Store, with free advertising and free distribution.

Please site some examples of apps that were pulled because someone at Apple just wanted to have some fun, as if some engineer randomly shuts off apps just because he’s trying to stay awake on the midnight shift.

Please keep to real stories and don’t write headlines solely to drive readership. I know its the internet, but journalistic integrity is still nice from time to time.

By: punkcoder

punkcoder — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:15:57 +0000

From what I’ve read, everyone is blowing the blacklisted application thing out of proportion, making it into something it’s not. It’s a list of application’s on your phone that you’ve stated you don’t want to have GPS tracking enabled; it’s not a kill switch. If you start an application on your phone that has GPS tracking enabled, you will be asked the first time if you want to enable that or not. If you don’t it will get added to the blacklisted applications.

By: Fred Brunel

Fred Brunel — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:58:55 +0000

Seriously, this is no different than developping for a console device (e.g., xbox 360, wii, ps3).

Firms like Sony or Nintendo gives a lots of constraints to the developers (i.e., about quality of content, playability). It’s really tough and Apple is very loose in comparison.

You’re not yet used to it :)

By: Falkirk

Falkirk — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:42:31 +0000

While I think it’s important to point out flaws in Apple’s new App store, I think it’s also important to keep things in perspective. Many of the things which people point to as “flaws” are not really flaws but are, instead, trade offs. Apple provides the iPhone with a rich operating system and the tradeoff is that developers have to restrict themselves to creating applications using only sanctioned API’s. Apple guarantees that the iPhone is stable and not susceptible to virus attacks and the trade off is that Apple gets to review and reject developers applications. Apple provides a simple, cheap and incredibly accessible way to review and buy applications and the tradeoff is that there is no other way to distribute iPhone Apps and there for no competition to the one and only App store.

Are the tradeoffs worth it? Hell yeah. Today Steve Jobs announced that the App store was pulling in 1 million dollars a day. And that’s counting all the value that’s coming from free Apps. Minus Apple’s cut that’s $700,000 in income PER DAY that didn’t exist 30 days ago.

Does the App Store have flaws? Absolutely. Is it broken? Absolutely not.