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Apple has locked me out of my developer account

rambo.codes

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Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#271

Post by landryraccoon »

FussyZeus wrote: post #149
femto113 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple rakes 30 cents off of every dollar spent In the App Store. Their end totals billions of dollars a month. They absolutely could do this “at scale”.

Actually you're right, it is possible, but it's also not remotely worth it. I've been working with online communities for decades, and every person who hasn't done so has wanted to provide reasons, to provide explanations, and I will tell you in exactly every single interaction I've had when someone's account on whatever platform had to be terminated, that all they do is argue. I didn't do that. It wasn't that bad. B…

You're totally mischaracterizing the relationship between Apple and the community.

The Apple app store isn't free. I've paid thousands of dollars to Apple for Apple products. They brand themselves as a premium outlet. It's not just some free web service or ad driven where you can leave and go to some other community with no cost.

They're being paid, a lot of money. Being able to talk to a human being is not a big ask; it's perfectly reasonable and they can afford it. The Apple store has tons of retail employees who are willing to spend half an hour addressing the concerns of any customer (and retail customers can be the worst), they should be able to do the same for the app store as well.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#272

Post by logfromblammo »

This is a great argument for union-like organization of independent Apple-ecosystem developers. If one member gets banned in an arbitrary and capricious manner, the others can strike, by pulling their programs from the App Store.

If hitting the front page of HN is really the best way to get a substantial response from Apple after a drawn-out runaround, that cries out for a counterweight organization to Apple that can punch back and actually make it hurt.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#273

Post by saagarjha »

zepto wrote: post #266
saagarjha wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see anyone here that really knows anything about the situation. Just because a hundred people have speculations here doesn't make it fact; it's completely possible that he just failed to sign a Brazilian legal form or something.

Not really. We actually do know quite a lot about the situation . We can see he has very likely violated the NDA. By not mentioning this, and presenting himself as just another developer trying to make nice apps, we can see that he clearly has the capacity to be disingenuous. Most developers don’t reverse engineer Apple software and supply the results for publication. We also know that if Apple froze people’s account…

I am "just another developer" who has probably violated the NDA as well. Reverse engineering beta OSes and distributing information about it totally OK, the problem is when you take screenshots.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#276

Post by saganus »

ouid wrote: post #219
pcroh wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple doesn't even have 50% of market share in any country, how are they in "complete control" of anything?

They are in complete control of the programs that you can install on your iphone, and take 30% of all transactions that occur through that marketplace. Are you a lawyer for apple?

I think the point is that there are other app stores in other platforms, so monopoly rules don't apply.

Their app store is their monopoly, sure, but if you don't want to use Apple products you are not barred from using other cellphones and app stores.

This is different than, e.g. saying that there is a monopoly with the electricity provider. If you don't want to use company A for that, you have absolutely no access to electricity at all.

The question is instead, I think, if after some size, companies wield so much power that they should be regulated as if they were monopolies, just because of the sheer amount of people that depends on their services.

But that's a whole other can of worms and a different discussion than "Apple is a monopoly"

I.e. the term "monopoly" has a very specific legal definition which is not met by whatever behavior Apple is having.

Does that make it ok? not necessarily and the nuance is debatable. But the fact is that as per the current definition, it's not a monopoly.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#277

Post by saagarjha »

lol768 wrote: post #268
Answerawake wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and all the other replies are missing the whole point. The computer is a tool to get work done. I just want a computer that allows me to get my work done in the least amount of pain as possible. I don't see how Apple gets dethroned in a few years time if this is the state of the competitors. This computer in its current configuration worked fine with last year's Ubuntu distro. Next year I suspect this will be fix…

> You and all the other replies are missing the whole point. The computer is a tool to get work done. I just want a computer that allows me to get my work done in the least amount of pain as possible. I don't see how Apple gets dethroned in a few years time if this is the state of the competitors. With respect, macOS "allows you to get your work done in the least amount of pain as possible" precisely because you are…

> the keyboard shortcuts are entirely unintuitive

IMO, Xcode has the most sane shortcuts of any IDE I have ever used.

> Apple's store literally doesn't accept screenshots generated by its own simulator

But…you can? I have a UI test that generates screenshots in the simulator and I upload those.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#278

Post by lol768 »

saagarjha wrote: post #277
lol768 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You and all the other replies are missing the whole point. The computer is a tool to get work done. I just want a computer that allows me to get my work done in the least amount of pain as possible. I don't see how Apple gets dethroned in a few years time if this is the state of the competitors. With respect, macOS "allows you to get your work done in the least amount of pain as possible" precisely because you are…

> the keyboard shortcuts are entirely unintuitive IMO, Xcode has the most sane shortcuts of any IDE I have ever used. > Apple's store literally doesn't accept screenshots generated by its own simulator But…you can? I have a UI test that generates screenshots in the simulator and I upload those.

>But…you can? I have a UI test that generates screenshots in the simulator and I upload those.

It complained about the alpha channel, and I needed to open (in GIMP) all of the screenshots created by the Xcode simulator in order to strip it out.

I'm not making this up, countless other developers have wasted time on this sort of nonsense: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25681869/images-cant-con...

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#279

Post by pdonis »

rootusrootus wrote: post #156
FussyZeus wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can. But why should they? What's the benefit?

Goodwill. Just because you're the big gorilla and can act as such with impunity doesn't mean you ought to constantly remind people of that. One developer doesn't matter in the grand scheme, but every time they get to the front page of HN with a story like this it chips away at Apple's (or Google's, or whoever's) reputation. Collectively that does have value.

> every time they get to the front page of HN with a story like this it chips away at Apple's (or Google's, or whoever's) reputation

I know we who post here on HN would like to believe this is true, but I have seen no evidence that it actually is.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#280

Post by pdonis »

pgaddict wrote: post #209
FussyZeus wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has tons of goodwill with their users, and that's what matters. That's who pays the bills, and that's who funds the App Store. From the beginning Apple has had a very standoff-ish relationship with their developers. Their rules are clear from the outset: Play by them, or don't publish on our platform. To be honest I think developers occasionally still got entirely too much leeway to break their guidelines and g…

Sure the primary concern for Apple is users. But it's not like the platform could exist without the ecosystem around it, which largely depends on developers publishing apps. And it's not as if the dev accounts are not subscription-based - it's not expensive and Apple does not make a ton of money on this, but it's not free either. And I don't think anyone suggests Apple should get rid of all the rules and accept anarc…

> it's not like the platform could exist without the ecosystem around it

We developers would like to believe this is true, but I'm not sure it is. I don't think Apple would care if the third party developer ecosystem went away. They don't depend on it to sell their products.

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