My App Is Dead in the Water • Hacker News Board

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#91

Post by ahmedalsudani » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:46 PM UTC

jmull wrote: post #83

ahmedalsudani wrote: post #48

I'm sure this is an error, and a moronic one at that. Otherwise even safari infringes on Apple's rules. The real maddening thing is that there is no appeal process and no (mainstream) way to distribute your app if Apple has a vague problem with it. I hope for a day we will have mobile devices that are free and usable.

No, Safari doesn't have this problem. One remedy the OP was offered was to require the user to choose the third-party content to display. That's just what Safari does. (BTW, I don't think it's an appropriate remedy in this situation. I'm just saying this isn't inconsistent with Safari.)

It's not so simple. When you load HN on safari, it doesn't prompt you which links on HN you'd like to allow visits to. A tap on the link is what signals your intent. I fail to see how downloading an HN app is any different from visiting HN in safari.

There are probably links to websites that link to the wider Web too on the safari new tab page (though I haven't used a fresh safari in some time so I might be mistaken).

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#92

Post by diego » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:47 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #67

rubinelli wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3. Be John Carmack

He attends conferences and gives talks.

Do you know anyone important who spent 100% of their time programming? That rules out books, talks, blog posts, entrepreneurship, etc. That's your answer.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#93

Post by writepub » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:50 PM UTC

Apple is a monopoly in the apps market, controlling 66% [1] of the $70B annually. It's practices are now going to be litigated at the supreme court level [2]

Apple's only defense, that it isn't a majority of the unit sales in Mobile phones, is a convenient strawman distracting from the fact that they ARE a majority in the app store market. Increasingly, people are finding such excuses misleading and outdated [3]

I hope Apple losses in the supreme court, as their app store process makes a mockery of an individual's ownership of the iPhone they paid for. Imagine if you bought a house, and the builder got to decide what furniture could and couldn't be put in it.

Additionally, it's time for the EU and FTC to regulate Apple and the like, on realistic definitions of monopoly and antitrust

[1]: https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/16/apples-app-store-revenue-n...

[2]: https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17479480/supreme-court-ap...

[3]: https://qz.com/work/1460402/google-facebook-and-amazon-benef...

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#94

Post by Tomte » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:53 PM UTC

everyone wrote: post #75

Tomte wrote: post #49

> Questions like, “How is my app different than all the other Hacker News apps out there?” were ignored. I understand the frustration that leads to this question, but it is wholly irrelevant and only loses you a bit of the reviewer's attention span.

"it is wholly irrelevant" Nonsense. It seems like the developer was willing to make any changes Apple wished in order to conform to their policies. His impediment was that he could not figure out what those changes were . If very similar app X is ok, and my app is not, then asking what the crucial difference is, is a very apt question which may lead directly to the specific issue. If we cant be sensible, ask sensible…

They told him whoch changes they want him to make. He dances around it a lot with "surely I can't get consent from the whole Internet", but he did understand that they want him to use Safari.

I don't agree with Apple here, I think his app should be fine.

But that's what they said, and just because they did not pull the other apps yet (for all we know), doesn't mean he has a point asking about those.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#95

Post by rumori » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:54 PM UTC

I've checked couple of popular apps on the App Store and here are my findings:

- Twitter: uses SFSafariViewController

- Reddit: uses custom in-app web view, shows page title and url on top, provides "open in Safari" option through share button

- Instagram: uses custom in-app web view, shows page title and url on top, provides the built in share-sheet, interestingly disabling open in Safari, but enabling "Add to Reading list"

Your current app on the App Store embeds third party content in an in-app web view, without showing the title or original URL on top and without being able to open the link in Safari.

I suggest you to either use SFSafariViewController for the third party content or mimic something similar with a proper title bar and and share button with Open in Safari option.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#96

Post by foxX » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:56 PM UTC

i_am_nomad wrote: post #82

izacus wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can of course still write software outside app stores and provide best of both. Not every computer in this world is a walled garden.

You are right, and not just technically. But the problem with walled gardens is that they're safe and easy for people unable to navigate the world outside of them. Most people are unable or unwilling to sideload apps onto their devices, and that is not their fault. So when the walled garden becomes too unfree and tyrannical, the companies maintaining those gardens are to blame.

> and that is not their fault

Except for some corporate environment, I don't see how it's not their fault. It's easier than ever to make an informed decision before using one's wallet and it's every living, functioning human's duty to improve, grow and learn.

Totally tired of apps that are nothing else than options-less and incontrolable browsers.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#97

Post by sambeau » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:57 PM UTC

pashabitz wrote: post #68

I think it's important to look at the broader issue: "App stores" are walled gardens, policed by corporations and are the opposite of freedom. The web is open and free. We made a deal with the devil when we collectively decided to write and use apps and not the web. This is just one symptom.

Developers only have themselves to blame. We allowed our technology to be used to spam, cheat and steal from our non-tech family and friends. We made tools that helped the bad-guys and did very little when our non-tech family and friends threw their hands up in confusion and cried for help. We sighed. We called them idiots and rolled our eyes.

We now have to live with a bunch mostly sensible though occasionally over-sensitive rules to make sure we don't try to trick and cheat our non-tech brethren.

We of course still have plenty of other super-techy places we can play—: Linux, Raspberry Pies, Embedded Devices, the whole of server-side internet.

Yet we still moan because someone has walled a bit of it off to protect ordinary people from charlatans.

Boo-hoo.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#98

Post by lawlessone » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 5:01 PM UTC

LeicaLatte wrote: post #87

Why is this an app? seems to be a terrible candidate in the first place. Why don't you make a website?

it's already a website? you're using it right now..

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#99

Post by EpicEng » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 5:07 PM UTC

wild_preference wrote: post #51

> As for their alternatives, kicking the user out to Safari would significantly reduce the usability of the app. Not at all. When you open a website in Safari from an app, the user gets a first class website-browser experience without your chrome, and a "< Back to your app" button in the menuline.

It opens the page in a WebView. What's the problem?

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#100

Post by i_am_nomad » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 5:10 PM UTC

foxX wrote: post #96

i_am_nomad wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right, and not just technically. But the problem with walled gardens is that they're safe and easy for people unable to navigate the world outside of them. Most people are unable or unwilling to sideload apps onto their devices, and that is not their fault. So when the walled garden becomes too unfree and tyrannical, the companies maintaining those gardens are to blame.

> and that is not their fault Except for some corporate environment, I don't see how it's not their fault. It's easier than ever to make an informed decision before using one's wallet and it's every living, functioning human's duty to improve, grow and learn. Totally tired of apps that are nothing else than options-less and incontrolable browsers.

You make a valuable point about personal responsibility that I agree with, so I may have to reconsider my original position. (I upvoted you.) But, I would also point out that while there is much more available information to make such decisions, that info is much less comprehensible to the average consumer, who is almost certainly much less savvy about technology than you are.