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Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

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Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#111

Post by elai »

thwarted wrote: post #84
vaporstun wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those non-registered developers, here is a link to a pdf posted by Engadget: http://stadium.weblogsinc.com/engadget/files/app-store-guide...

2.11 Apps that duplicate apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them I wonder how quality of the current apps vs quality of the new app applies here.

You have to make it a bit better/different and then they can't argue it's duplicate. You can say, oh we can't compete now. Only 3 car manufacturers are allowed?

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#112

Post by bruceboughton »

statemachine wrote: post #54

In other news, hell freezes over, and Microsoft embraces open source.

You'd be surprised how much MS code is getting released under OSS licenses these days. That just leaves hell freezing over...

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#114

Post by elai »

mambodog wrote: post #60

I really hope this doesn't result in a flood of Flash-based apps. And I say that as someone who's been developing Flash content for the web for quite some time.

With the nature of the app store, it won't really be noticeable unless you specifically search for it, or it actually has some merit.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#116

Post by illumin8 »

nlogn wrote: post #102
loewenskind wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's their platform. Maybe they don't care today but how do you know they, or the carriers wont care tomorrow? That risk seems at least as big as Apple going back on today's announcement (for the record, I would view both small).

The difference is that Apple has enacted many policies that limit developers while Google has, to my knowledge, never done anything of the sort. In fact, it seems like they go out of their way to be fair to developers (for instance: every app they built for Android uses only the APIs that are available to everyone). Edit: My point is that Google has never shown an inclination towards policies like these, and I think…

Google doesn't let you release an app that allows wifi tethering without rooting your phone. I'm sure there are other examples. Google/Apple = the same. They all bow before the carrier gods.

Edit: I can't reply to the child for some reason (too deep), but I just wanted to let you know that you're wrong: 2.2 as distributed by Verizon does not have tethering unless you use their carrier replaced version which bills your account for additional fees.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#117

Post by what » 

    12.3 Apps that are simply web clippings, content aggregators, or a 
         collection of links, may be rejected
Does this mean you can't just wrap your website in a native app and try to charge for it? What about feed readers?

Also interesting, they say the more you charge for an app the more thoroughly they review it. Maybe you can sneak things through if you make it free. :b

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#118

Post by statictype »

Some of the app review guidelines seem weird:

Apps larger than 20MB in size will not download over cellular networks (this is automatically prohibited by the App Store)

Don't many games cross this threshold?

Apps that browse the web must use the iOS WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript

Opera Mini - which was accepted by the App Store - would seem to fail this rule.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#119

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

gaiusparx wrote: post #107

What is the pros for Apple beside being able to fend off FTC probe? If company starting to look at cross-platforms tools (such as one that develops for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile), and abandon Obj-C and XCode, will this weaken Apple strategically?

The pros are are happier developer community.

Apple is many things but it's not a developer tools company - I doubt it even covers costs on the developer programme if you include XCode development and so on. It produces those so people can write software to allow it to sell it's other products.

The only way this move weakens it is if, as a result, the quality of apps declines. I'm guessing that they'll look to head that off by pushing non-XCode apps that little bit harder, at least in the short term, to ensure that they're up to spec.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#120

Post by kd5bjo »

jacquesm wrote: post #21

So, how about all those people that were supporting apples' right to run their app store the way they see fit and who said that there is no point complaining about it? I think this proves that complaining about stuff like this is well worth the effort, assuming that that - and not some backroom pressure - is what caused them to back off. They mention it in their release so I figure it must have been a major factor. e…

There are a lot of items worded like this:

> Apps that do not use the MediaPlayer framework to access media in the Music Library will be rejected

That sounds like apps that don't access the Music Library at all will be rejected.

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