Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#181

Post by random28345 » Thu, Apr 23, 2015, 3:50 PM UTC

blumkvist wrote: post #119

zak_mc_kracken wrote: post #52

A good reminder of what it would be like if we lived in a world where there is no Android and iOS is a monopoly. Apple's anti competitive behavior puts Microsoft of the 90s to shame.

Nowhere near...

> Nowhere near...

You're right, Apple is significantly worse.

Microsoft went out of it's way to make sure that competitors applications didn't work (DOS isn't done until Lotus 123 won't run). This sparked a development arms race wasting hundreds of hours of development time working around intentional compatibility bugs.

On the other hand, Apple sometimes just doesn't let your software run at all. No matter what. Because fuck you, that's why. Your company plays by Apple's rules and tithes to Apple or it dies on iOS. Oh, and Apple reserves the right to kill your compay's sales on iOS for any time, any reason, including stealing all your ideas and competing with you.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#182

Post by JohnTHaller » Thu, Apr 23, 2015, 3:51 PM UTC

From the forum comments, this is new behavior. It seems connected to Apple entering Pebble's space with their new Apple Watch. The existing Terms of Service about competing platforms is now being interpreted to consider Pebble a competing platform. The developer appealed and Apple told them that they specifically can't mention Pebble anywhere in their app description or metadata. Other developers have confirmed that Apple is now forcing them to remove existing screenshots in the App Store that demonstrate a given app's functionality tied to the Pebble.

So, yes, it is Apple being anti-competitive now that they have entered the same space as Pebble. Apple are attempting to kill off Pebble support within the iOS ecosystem. It appears Apple will only allow mentions of Apple Watch within the App Store and in screenshots, no other smart watches going forward.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#183

Post by soylentcola » Thu, Apr 23, 2015, 3:54 PM UTC

cybrox wrote: post #41

alanscarpa wrote: post #20

Makes sense. Apple doesn't want you using their app store in a way that could be promoting their competition. For example, maybe I'm browsing the app store for new apps and I come across this app in question. Reading the description I see it says something about the Pebble watch...hmmm..I've never heard of this. Now I look it up, it looks cool, I like it, now I want to buy the Pebble instead of the Apple watch. Their…

While I technically agree with this, it is absolute nonsense from a user point of view. As the provider of an important host system, you might want to consider allowing people to list supported platforms in order to make it possible for the user to see which apps he can use with the equipment he has. It might be right from an objective point of view but it's a plain out dick-ish behaviour towards user friendly app ma…

Yep. If I was an iPhone user and just bought a Pebble, I'd go to the App Store and search for "Pebble" to see what apps I could buy that work with my Pebble. It's the same thing I did when I got a Moto 360. I went to the Play Store and searched for "Android Wear" to find apps that make use of it. If I'd gotten a Pebble, I would've done the same thing.

It sucks for the developers of iOS apps that are meant to integrate with Pebble (or other similar devices). I assume this means you can't create an iOS app whose sole purpose is doing something with a Pebble watch since otherwise there's no real way to describe it in the app store (not one that would make for easy discoverability at least).

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#184

Post by happyscrappy » Thu, Apr 23, 2015, 3:56 PM UTC

anaptdemise wrote: post #176

happyscrappy wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Ford has a monopoly on F-150s. Apple hate is quite blinding.

> Apple hate is quite blinding. So is Apple fanboyism. There are laws that prevent Ford from requiring you to only service your vehicle at Ford dealerships. There are also laws that prevent Ford from restricting sales of third-party after market parts in franchised dealerships. Not a good comparison.

Claiming Apple is a monopoly because only they make iDevices, what I was responding to, is just as ignorant as saying Ford is a monopoly because only they make F-150s. Is that hard to understand?

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#185

Post by hluska » Thu, Apr 23, 2015, 3:56 PM UTC

jackweirdy wrote: post #63

Someone1234 wrote: post #15

This forum appears to have an invalid certificate: Domain: forums.getpebble.com CN = *.vanillaforums.com If you use HTTPS Everywhere, you'll want to uncheck this specific site, remove the HTTPS part of the URL and reload. PS - I love HTTPS Everywhere but it always surprises me just how many sites have broken HTTPS implementations.

And surprises me how few SSL-deploying sysadmins use HTTPS Everywhere! (Or perhaps, how few browse their own site...)

I'm getting the sense that QA means something dramatically different to the web developers of today...Seldom a day goes by when I don't find major errors (that I would fire people for not catching) on major web apps!!

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#186

Post by bentcorner » Thu, Apr 23, 2015, 3:56 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #90

toxican wrote: post #2

I think I want to see more information before I grab my pitchfork. From the replies, > are you sure you're a developer? because this has been part of iOS submission guidelines for 4 years. (developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#metadata) I mean I really wouldn't put it past Apple to start enforcing this more aggressively because of the iWatch, but a forum post by some dev is hardly proof that Apple is inte…

"By that logic" doesn't belong anywhere near a discussion of Apple review guidelines or behavior. The only thing they are consistent about when reviewing iOS apps is being completely inconsistent. You cannot point to the acceptance of one app as evidence that some rule isn't being applied to another app. Apple constantly rejects apps for claimed rule violations while allowing other apps through with identical violati…

Do we know how the app approval process works internally?

I've never been involved with iOS, but from the various articles I've read, it sounds like there is a large team involved with approvals, their process is largely manual, their internal documentation is lacking, and they're probably missing simple things like checklists.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#187

Post by higherpurpose » Thu, Apr 23, 2015, 4:00 PM UTC

d0m wrote: post #76

It's a bit tricky. I agree with most comments here that Apple is in the right to control what appear in the description and metadata. Not just from a competitive standpoint but in a way to make the it better for the user experience. That being said, in the Pebble case, I think it makes the user experience worst for the user. I.e. if I have a pebble watch and am looking for an iphone app that play well with it, I'd wa…

> saying it's on another smartphone doesn't add value to the description

Except for all the cross-platform IM apps out there where it does add value. People want to know whether their friends could also use a certain app so they can talk to each other.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#188

Post by Bahamut » Thu, Apr 23, 2015, 4:04 PM UTC

91bananas wrote: post #162

marincounty wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I got tired of that 2 years ago and switched to android, haven't looked back since." And you just made my decision easier.

Meh. Android has come a long way, the Google flavor of it is the most well thought out and put together experience... But all in all, the experience sucks compared to iOS coupled with an iPhone. There are a lot of neat little widgets and gestures that come with Android, but the phones aren't as good. The software is no where near as good. I made the switch, I came crawling back to iOS.

I find that it depends on the person - I loathe Apple's restrictiveness in general, including the sometimes poor UX (no back button on the phone is extremely annoying and I have to make extra taps in out of the way places instead of quickly hitting back, as one example, or the mindboggling restrictiveness to manually created 30 second snippets for ringtones instead of allowing me to just use my mp3s, or the horrific text selection/editing on the phone).

My experience with both has me missing Android overall, the only reasons I am on an iPhone currently is for mobile development and because I am on a legacy family plan on Verizon combined with Verizon Android phones being polluted with garbage software & being more locked down than their counterparts on other providers.

Some prefer Apple's curation of the experience though. Some don't like configuring their devices to their liking and want an out of the box ready experience, even if it means sacrificing on some UX.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#189

Post by kryptiskt » Thu, Apr 23, 2015, 4:07 PM UTC

zak_mc_kracken wrote: post #55

th0waway wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a clear violation of Anti-trust laws.

I don't think you understand anti-trust laws.

They are abusing their position in the smart phone market to squash competition in the watch market, which has been a lightning rod for bringing down anti-trust action before. They will be quivering before the FTC before too long (I say as very much a non-lawyer). They have a history of overreaching before backtracking, like when they wanted Objective-C only on the appstore to lock out Flash and cross-platform toolkits.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#190

Post by XJOKOLAT » Thu, Apr 23, 2015, 4:08 PM UTC

LordKano wrote: post #155

rrss1122 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It seems like Apple is doing that as a way to kill competition and promote their own watch, which is fair from a business standpoint." It's nowhere near fair. It's extremely anticompetitive. This is the kind of behavior that gets a company in trouble with the FTC.

This is the kind of behavior that gets a company in trouble with the FTC. Indeed but Apple is aware that the FTC isn't likely to punish them enough that the behavior will be a net negative. If only the Federal Government would be as serious about "Sending a message" on antitrust as they are about low-mid level drug dealers, this kind of thing would be a lot more rare.

"Indeed but Apple is aware that the FTC isn't likely to punish them enough that the behavior will be a net negative."

If we believe in what we write, then we should punish them.