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Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

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Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#121

Post by dawnerd »

dangero wrote: post #61
dawnerd wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years ago I made a similar app for that’s what she said jokes and was rejected due to minimal functionality. This was the same time they were allowing those scam 1000 apps that just showed a diamond. Apple makes no sense.

That's because reviews are done by a single person from a large group of possible reviewers who each have differing perspectives. Do you see a way that Apple could be consistent besides letting every app in?

Well yeah you make the rules in a way that there’s little room for personal opinion on behalf of the reviewer.

As it is now their rules are pretty vague.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#122

Post by wintermutestwin »

yarcob wrote: post #44

I published an app on the App Store, which did quite well in its niche. Soon, a bunch of very similar apps popped up. One app cloned everything about my app -- even the icon. But Apple didn't care. They don't give a shit when people clone apps and try to mislead customers by making apps that have almost the same name as another app. Apple should focus on getting rid of scam apps and blatant rip-offs. Who cares if the…

>Apple should focus on getting rid of scam apps and blatant rip-offs.

Since they have a walled garden, they have a clear responsibility. A system of empowered consumer advocates should have the power to force them to live up to this responsibility.

>It's not like shelf space is limited. Hard disagree. If you add infinite shelves, you make it too hard to find valuable apps.

I am all for the walled garden, but Apple is instead making a walled crapstore.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#123

Post by raydev »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #119
dliff wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While web browsers on iOS are unfortunately just re-skinned Safari, you actually are able to create/download totally custom keyboards. A while back I created a custom keyboard to translate what you type and help you learn a new language.

> While web browsers on iOS are unfortunately just re-skinned Safari, Is that also true for Firefox, Chrome on iOS?

"Re-skinned Safari" is incorrect, but third party browsers must use the version of WebKit that ships with iOS. Third parties are not allowed to use their own rendering or JavaScript engines.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#124

Post by DantesKite »

dehrmann wrote: post #48
DantesKite wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting into the App Store requires a bit of politics and negotiation. Nearly everybody I know gets rejected the first time, unless you have a clearly high quality app. I got mine accepted by submitting screenshots of people saying they were excited about it.

8+ years ago, I made an etch-a-sketch clone and had no problem getting it approved. Not sure if things were easier back then or the app was reasonable enough to approve. https://vimeo.com/81687638

I imagine over time the rules and regulations have become more strict.

Pretty cool app by the way.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#125

Post by bb88 »

ehnto wrote: post #41
bb88 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. What's worse than trying to pick between 10 different apps that do the exact same thing? Trying to pick between 11 different apps.

I have to assume you just haven't thought very hard about this problem yet, as that is a very trivial reason to give up on a free market. I would also like to point out that the ecosystem that gets you ten apps doing the same thing is the reason you get any apps at all. If people thought they were competing for one or two slots in a rigged marketplace then the incentives to participate go way down, they would take th…

> I have to assume you just haven't thought very hard about this problem yet

Your argument is the number one reason HN sucks lately. If you don't agree, the other party must be stupid.

If you want complete free choice about which flowers you should choose for a bouquet, then go to the wilderness. It will take you a while to find what you're looking for and you'll likely come across a lot of crappy looking flowers, but it's a completely free choice.

If you want quality choices in a quick amount of time, then go to the florist.

Apple's app store is a walled garden. So, make that garden as good as possible. They hire "gardeners" for that reason.

In fairness I have an android, and it's worse there. Reviews are faked, and critical bugs or bad ui prevent usefulness. This is with both the free apps and paid apps.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#126

Post by unraveller »

viraptor wrote: post #55
unraveller wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And apple calls itself an innovative company. They say no more lightbulb apps forgetting it took Edison 5000 filaments to find the best one. Naturally if you trust one dev for one job, and not to ruin the app, you will likely trust them for another, category saturation be damned. I don't see much benefit for users when the manufacturer dictates what developers are not to build for users based on some archaic first in…

In many cases it would make sense, but flashlight apps? They're literally an on-off switch for a single system resource. There's nothing that you can add to them to improve the experience.

I had to install my flashlight app outside of the playstore walled garden as it wasn't approved yet. It was a shakelight that used heavy background processing and went against google's background task shakedown. The app gave those of us without it the Motorollo detection chip functionality at the expense of battery. And there is still room to improve. It needs sunset+X hours and off-if-left-on-for-too-long feature to save even more background battery life. The ways innovation happens is not predictable or else it wouldn't be innovation.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#127

Post by ryantgtg »

tqkxzugoaupvwqr wrote: post #95
ryantgtg wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My MIL still uses a flashlight app on her iPhone, because she doesn’t know the difference between a feature and an app, and because each time she gets a new phone all her apps are ported over. Whenever she turns on her flashlight a huge ad blazes across the screen (and the screen doesn’t seem to turn off), and I keep meaning to tell her she doesn’t need that app.

Introduce her to the built-in flashlight (“It’s right on your lock screen and a long press on the symbol turns on the flashlight”) and remove the third-party app.

Maybe you can introduce it to her for me.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#128

Post by fulafel »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #120
fulafel wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allowing other app stores doesn't imply that they are uncurated. And the threat of alternative app store competition would of course also limit the censorship and abuse of power Apple/Google can pull in their app store practices.

>Allowing other app stores doesn't imply that they are uncurated. The point is once they are curated then the people writing yet another garbage horoscope app are still going to be out of luck. >And the threat of alternative app store competition would of course also limit the censorship and abuse of power Apple/Google can pull in their app store practices. Choosing what is in your store isn't an abuse of power.

For an existence proof - an app store without garbage horoscope app problem - see F-Droid.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#129

Post by dehrmann »

DantesKite wrote: post #124
dehrmann wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8+ years ago, I made an etch-a-sketch clone and had no problem getting it approved. Not sure if things were easier back then or the app was reasonable enough to approve. https://vimeo.com/81687638

I imagine over time the rules and regulations have become more strict. Pretty cool app by the way.

Thanks! Maybe someday I'll try to republish it.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#130

Post by ehnto »

bb88 wrote: post #125
ehnto wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to assume you just haven't thought very hard about this problem yet, as that is a very trivial reason to give up on a free market. I would also like to point out that the ecosystem that gets you ten apps doing the same thing is the reason you get any apps at all. If people thought they were competing for one or two slots in a rigged marketplace then the incentives to participate go way down, they would take th…

> I have to assume you just haven't thought very hard about this problem yet Your argument is the number one reason HN sucks lately. If you don't agree, the other party must be stupid. If you want complete free choice about which flowers you should choose for a bouquet, then go to the wilderness. It will take you a while to find what you're looking for and you'll likely come across a lot of crappy looking flowers, bu…

I wasn't implying you were stupid, it just came across as a very shallow opinion based only on your personal desires rather than having considered the effects on the developer ecosystem. Granted I don't exactly know you or your background, so it was an unfair judgement. I could make my point without that line.

I don't disagree with you either, I know exactly what the app store is, perhaps where we differ in opinion is how harmful such a ecosystem will be.

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