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Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

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Re: Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

#81

Post by goldenkey »

School-Cotton wrote: post #75
goldenkey wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked there as well and recently left, I'm super surprised as well to see them considered with the likes of Google or Facebook, etc. Shitty middle managers are rampant. The engineering culture is defined by Levels..Level 3, 4, 5 etc. Consistency is promoted over quality. Codebases were so horribly not DRY it makes me want to vomit. Unit tests for constants -- unit tests for specific code inside of functions.…

Out of curiosity, what team did you work on?

Sorry, I do not feel like divulging that kind of information. I've actually probably said too much in my above post.

Re: Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

#82

Post by jamespo »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #53
cwyers wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that Google's fault? Amazon could use the Play Store to update the app, the same way that Netflix, Hulu, etc. does. Amazon doesn't want to because they want people to use their own Android platform. Except their Android platform is awful. They have no idea how to run a store (which is a hell of a liability for an ecommerce company, but their infrastructure and fulfillment processes are so top notch and their m…

It's more that google's main benefit with their store is not having arbitrary restrictions, so the ones they do have stick out. Oh you want to make a youtube player that acts like every browser in the world, with the ability to minimize? Banned.

Are you really surprised that Google has policies like this?

Re: Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

#83

Post by erikpukinskis »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #29
dgemm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost like stock price and reputation among tech people are somehow completely unrelated.

Your stock price is typically inversely proportional to how well you treat your employees (except Google).

Is there some evidence of that, or just a casual observation? That a really good fact to know if that's something someone has measured!

Re: Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

#84

Post by erikpukinskis »

cm2187 wrote: post #59

The amazon music application is also one of the most appalling software too, it is messy, it keeps flashing, there doesn't seem to be any logic in how the screens are organised, it's impossible to know where you are or how to go back to one place. I love amazon, I buy half of my music on amazon music, but downloading the music is an unnecessary painful step. Also they need to improve the quality of the samples vs itu…

I just wish it could play back music without a gap between songs. I cringe sometimes listening to an album.

I mean, audio players could do that in the 90s.

Re: Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

#85

Post by Dylan16807 »

jamespo wrote: post #82
Dylan16807 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more that google's main benefit with their store is not having arbitrary restrictions, so the ones they do have stick out. Oh you want to make a youtube player that acts like every browser in the world, with the ability to minimize? Banned.

Are you really surprised that Google has policies like this?

Disappointment is not surprise.

Re: Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

#86

Post by erikpukinskis »

meesterdude wrote: post #49

Not surprised by this at all. >However, the Amazon system is so broken that it potentially offers a fix for itself. When the Certification Team rejects your app, you don’t need to change the app. You do not need to respond to their requests. You do not need to make any of the changes that they demand. Since a new person reviews each submission, and since there is no limit on submissions, one way to get through the ce…

> They also have started sucking in buying things, with things like "pantry" which require you to buy a box for $5 so you can get things like soap.

Delivering batches of household goods of arbitrary size profitably is a hard problem that no one has figured out. Everyone is fiddling with business models trying to make it work.

I think at the end of the day shipping is expensive and trying to hide that from customers without incentivizing profit-negative transactions is nigh impossible.

Things will probably change when we have droids roaming the sidewalks, but until then these strange charges are going to keep popping up.

Re: Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

#87

Post by JoshuaJB »

cm2187 wrote: post #59

The amazon music application is also one of the most appalling software too, it is messy, it keeps flashing, there doesn't seem to be any logic in how the screens are organised, it's impossible to know where you are or how to go back to one place. I love amazon, I buy half of my music on amazon music, but downloading the music is an unnecessary painful step. Also they need to improve the quality of the samples vs itu…

I've had a good experience with the web app [1]. It's a surprisingly well designed piece of software compared to it's competitors (e.g. Spotify or Pandora). The library could definitely use better curation though.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/cloudplayer/player

Re: Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

#88

Post by cm2187 »

JoshuaJB wrote: post #87
cm2187 wrote: post #59

The amazon music application is also one of the most appalling software too, it is messy, it keeps flashing, there doesn't seem to be any logic in how the screens are organised, it's impossible to know where you are or how to go back to one place. I love amazon, I buy half of my music on amazon music, but downloading the music is an unnecessary painful step. Also they need to improve the quality of the samples vs itu…

I've had a good experience with the web app [1]. It's a surprisingly well designed piece of software compared to it's competitors (e.g. Spotify or Pandora). The library could definitely use better curation though. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/cloudplayer/player

I am referring to the windows app.

Re: Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

#89

Post by bananaboy »

dahart wrote: post #69

Apple's review process also sometimes felt arbitrary, especially early on, and there's been a long list of complaints over the years that sound just like these. I used to work in games, and the approvals for Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft were all super, ridiculously frustrating at times. We had experiences very much along the same lines of failing again for doing the very thing they asked of us in the previous reject…

My experience in games has been the opposite. As opposed to Apple and Amazon, the console certification requirements are set in stone. The documents are very clear about what you have to do.

Re: Amazon has no idea how to run an app store

#90

Post by dakth »

School-Cotton wrote: post #77
toomuchtodo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your stock price is typically inversely proportional to how well you treat your employees (except Google).

Citation needed...

Goddamn HN comment quality has absolutely plummeted since reddits chooting.
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