Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple brings App Store to Mac OS X

engadget.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 229 posts

Re: Apple brings App Store to Mac OS X

#131

Post by YooLi »

jonhendry wrote: post #75
dunk010 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that apple will be offering big players a better revshare deal on account of their volume. I'm sure their respective legal departments will have their hands full in the coming months. I think what is more interesting is what will happen to new apps built on the app store which subsequently become big; apple will have no incentive to split the revenue more favourably when they already have lock-in. Reg…

The big players have their own licensing systems, and have their own licensing deals with big customers. I don't see why they'd go through Apple. They don't need help with collecting payments, or file distribution, or bandwidth.

No one really says they have to. As Jobs said it won't be the only way to get Apps. But smaller devs benefit greatly. You can go from 0 to collecting payments worldwide, having distribution, updates, a 'store' to display your product, etc. with very little work (in comparison to doing it all yourself).

Re: Apple brings App Store to Mac OS X

#132

Post by danilocampos »

tlrobinson wrote: post #112
danilocampos wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not so excited about this... this might be the first step in locking down the platform. Of course you're not excited about this. You're a brilliant nerd who founded a startup that invented a new programming language . This isn't for you. Or for me. Getting to be Nerd Jesus every time a computer runs into trouble is gratifying. We get to be important. We get to trick out our gear to do all kinds of goofy, custom…

Absolutely, I understand I'm in the minority. I just hope if it does happen there will be a suitable replacement to switch to by then (and no, Linux is not there yet). That means both hardware and software, since by then all Apple hardware will likely only run Apple software.

I'm not so gloomy, though – I suspect that Apple will continue to serve us and mainstream users through some middle ground. There's money in both.

Apple dedicated a huge chunk of today's talk, and consequently a huge chunk of development resources, to their creative tools. The whole bicycle for the mind stuff – this is very important to Apple's overall mission, history and perception.

And in the end, being technically creative is something I think they'll always want to support. I don't know what form it will take but I do not think Apple is going to turn its backs on the sort of people who can help them make the very best stuff for their platforms.

It reminds me of At Ease, actually. When I was a kid, I was tired of the rest of the family breaking the computer in one way or another. So I set up At Ease for a couple of years and everything was great. When I needed the Mac, I'd log into the desktop proper.

I doubt the final mainstream outcome will be as draconian in its limitations as was At Ease. But I think it will be just as simple. And hopefully, just as opt-out for everyone who needs more.

Re: Apple brings App Store to Mac OS X

#133

Post by jackolas »

goatforce5 wrote: post #38
jcromartie wrote: post #28

There has been something like this for indie devs for a while. http://appbodega.com/

The big difference being that the App Store will be preinstalled, and probably have a default place on the Dock and a permanent home under the Apple menu in the top left of the screen.

They're going to support people who didn't install 10.6?

Re: Apple brings App Store to Mac OS X

#134

Post by johnrob »

Years ago, my boss at the time told me that every 5 or so years, the hot trend switches between client-based and server-based architecture. It was probably 2004 at the time, and web apps were getting hot.

He was definitely right. ~6 years later, and we're about to see a bunch of web apps re-written as desktop software.

Re: Apple brings App Store to Mac OS X

#135

Post by mkramlich »

YooLi wrote: post #123
mkramlich wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You touched on a good point that I haven't seen brought up elsewhere yet. If Apple brings the same kind of Big Brother censorship to the content of Mac apps as they currently do to iOS apps, that's going to have a chilling effect. There are plenty of big companies and small shops that sell media and software with 'adult' content, and if the Mac becomes locked down for them, that's going to suck. Both by reducing cons…

They aren't censoring Mac apps, they are choosing what gets sold in their Mac software store. Same way Best Buy isn't censoring porn by not stocking it on the shelves of their stores. If you are tin-foil-hatting this and thinking soon the Mac App Store will be the only way to get software on the Mac, then guess what, you can use Linux or Windows. If they do something stupid the market will let them know about it by l…

Censorship is censorship even if it's possible to get a thing through some other means. For example, if a library banned books by Mark Twain, yet you could get it from another library or from Amazon, or in another country, most reasonable people would still call that censorship. If all the governments on Earth got together and outlawed Mark Twain, that would be censorship even if in theory you could fly to Mars, and buy/possess/read Mark Twain there.

The danger comes partly in the so-called tyranny of the majority. Just because the majority prefers something over the minority doesn't necessarily mean it's right. Also, just because the iOS App Store has a heavy-handed approach to adult content and yet it's doing well financially, it doesn't mean (1) that it couldn't do even better if it didn't have the heavy-handed approach, and (2) that all markets/channels should adopt the same approach. Those conclusions just do not follow, in my judgment.

Also, while Apple does many smart things, they are not perfect. I would not rule out them doing something you or I might consider as monumentally stupid. They are human. They make mistakes, and they have a different perspective, and their interests are not always aligned with ours.

Re: Apple brings App Store to Mac OS X

#136

Post by JofArnold »

bad_user wrote: post #89
JofArnold wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is on OSX you have a choice; Mac App Store or adhoc/old way. Besides, Apple are being much more liberal re iOS approval of late - the old times are long gone except the odd mistake here and there. EDIT: I wonder if this will act as a proving ground for apple re dual App Store + adhoc distribution ala android market? EDIT2: I'm just going to come out and say it... At times I worry about installing rando…

> At times I worry about installing random dmgs I find on the web. You must be terrified by all things in general. Hint: there's an easy fix for that. Search for people reviews on that download service or app ;)

Ok, you caught me - I was exaggerating for effect. Nonetheless, this is a real problem for OSX security - I'm happy looking at the md5 to double-check etc etc but my granny? She thinks the internet has gone down when she gets a popup because "I can't get on to Yoohoo" (which means in granny-speak: this window is obscuring my web-based mail client).

Remember, OSX is mainstream now. And mainstream is not sourceforge/github/aptitude/macports

Re: Apple brings App Store to Mac OS X

#138

Post by JofArnold »

there wrote: post #87
danilocampos wrote: post #21

This is very exciting. The problem of distribution and monetization for desktop software is significant and largely unsolved. Steam is already proof that a digital store can make desktop users really happy, but it addresses gamers, who are cheerful early adopters. Most other people who don't game only know this model through their mobile device, but now they're ready for more. As for developers? For more than half of…

it also provides iphone-style copy protection for these 3rd party apps (the last bulletpoint on the slide was "apps licensed for use on all your personal macs"). that could be a draw to some developers.

They'd better streamline the DRM then - XCode/submitting drives me crazy!

Re: Apple brings App Store to Mac OS X

#139

Post by JofArnold »

YooLi wrote: post #137

I guess next will be iAds availability for desktop Apps? I am not seeing anything about Free apps in the description of the Mac App Store, but free with iAds makes sense.

Good spot! In the deep dark recesses of my memory I'm fairly sure Apple applied for a patent on desktop iAd integration...

Re: Apple brings App Store to Mac OS X

#140

Post by chc »

lzw wrote: post #120
lzw wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you're just spreading FUD, and it is a dead horse. One thing Apple has over most other businesses is a much higher level of integrity.

Speak the truth on hacker news and get voted down. Here's the truth: Facebook: promised your data was private so you could open up with friends, then made data public by default, allows friends to leak your data. now spreading data all over the web. Google says "do no evil" yet arbitrarily punishes websites with ranking, cancels people's adwords and adsense accounts, and employes (apparently) zero customer service an…

Yes, you could go on — to include Apple.

Apple brands itself as "different" and progressive, using '60s counterculture icons, then turns into the most prudish schoolmarm imaginable and bans any app that could offend anyone — including a Pulitzer-winning political satirist, and any book-reading app that doesn't explicitly block you from reading the Kama Sutra. I swear I am not making that second example up.

Apple proceeds to promise developers that adult-oriented apps will be accepted once parental controls are in, accepts a bunch of them at that time, then retroactively removes all of them from the store with no recourse for the developers. Apple also arbitrarily rejects apps (much more viciously than Google rejects Web pages — Google around and you'll read horror stories), and kept Google Voice in approval limbo for more than a year.

Post reply on HN