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

Apple's Mistake

paulgraham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 285 posts

Re: Apple's Mistake

#81

Post by augustus »

I have now two published apps in the App Store. Both business apps - one in finance and the other in business.

The biggest change they have made that took me off their platform was their recent policy to not show updated applications along with new releases.

Let me explain. For the longest time, if you looked under released applications you could see applications that were recently updated. This was a great incentive for developers of existing applications to keep updating their applications and getting it easily noticed by users.

Apple no longer allows updated applications to be displayed in the released applications list.

There is now no way for users to discover your application except for about one or two days when it is first released.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#83

Post by chollida1 »

elblanco wrote: post #69
chollida1 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> , hold constant that Microsoft didn't vet DOS/Windows apps and imagine that every DOS/Windows machine had access to a cellular network owned by a some other company. Well most windows machines do have access to a network controlled by someone else. And with the proliferation of cellular usb accessories more and more windows machines do have access to a cellular network owned by some other company.

They don't? I don't know about how you connect to the internet, but my ISPs owns the networks I tend to connect to.

> They don't?

I don't think you correctly read my post:) No worries

Re: Apple's Mistake

#84

Post by [deleted] »

raintrees wrote: post #48

I am about to show my ignorance of developing for the iPhone, so please forgive any incorrect assumptions and mistaken conclusions. It is my understanding that apps can also be installed directly from third party websites... If so, is there a way to create an app for the App Store that is a shell to a website where a conglomerate of listings can be offered? It seems this would give the value of having everything fair…

[deleted]

Re: Apple's Mistake

#86

Post by nickpp »

nickpp wrote: post #72

Laptops displaced desktops?! You are deluded. We develop on 8GB i7s with dual 24" screens. We have one at home and one at work, Remote Desktop-ing from each other. Gigabit ethernet and optical fiber internet. No molasses wifi here. We work FAST, we work HARD. But we use Windows 7 too, so we're not limited to Apple's crappy hardware either...

Oh, and we write web apps and desktop apps, in php, java and c++.

We test on iMacs and we serve from Ubuntu.

But we develop on Windows Desktops. Our Mac Airs are for browsing. And reading Hacker News.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#87

Post by Psyonic »

raintrees wrote: post #48

I am about to show my ignorance of developing for the iPhone, so please forgive any incorrect assumptions and mistaken conclusions. It is my understanding that apps can also be installed directly from third party websites... If so, is there a way to create an app for the App Store that is a shell to a website where a conglomerate of listings can be offered? It seems this would give the value of having everything fair…

With a few awkward exceptions, it's not possible to install apps directly from third party websites.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#88

Post by samlittlewood »

onewland wrote: post #32
tptacek wrote: post #29

Though I can't marshall any evidence to support this claim, it was specifically not my impression that Apple was a company pro developers loved working with before the iPhone.

In high school, I thought that the CodeWarrior IDE (which was, as far as I knew, the dominant development environment) was absolutely terrible. I'm not sure how good my judgment at that time was. That said, with OS X they really became a lot more developer friendly just because they adopted a UNIX base. At this point, I'd say they're the default platform for ruby/web development. Look at all the rails job postings fo…

Unfortunately, CodeWarrior was still way better than MPW (Macintosh Programmer's Workshop) - that was pure pain.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#89

Post by rythie »

I see a lot of apps in the app store that could just be optimized iPhone web apps. However discovery of iPhone web apps on the iPhone is very poor - Apple have a site but it's not optimized for the iPhone and there are no ratings.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#90

Post by tshtf »

pohl wrote: post #18
jgrahamc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly disagree with your conclusion. Both smack of 'religious' thinking. Your point 1 is essentially 'be thankful to the merciful god who has ended the drought'. Your point 2 doesn't solve the problem, it just throws more priests at it. The solution is to open the platform to all developers. Imagine if Microsoft had vetted every DOS and Windows app, or if we had to submit Linux apps to Linus for review.

Imagine if Microsoft had vetted every DOS and Windows app Or, hold constant that Microsoft didn't vet DOS/Windows apps and imagine that every DOS/Windows machine had access to a cellular network owned by a some other company. I agree that the review process is completely broken, but I don't think the solution is as easy as having no controls whatsoever.

I've owned two Windows Mobile phones over the past 5 years. Both allowed me complete access to install any third-party applications, in spite the fact they were on third-party cellular network. Same for Nokia. No application vetting whatsoever. Mobile platforms tend to separate critical functions in the radio from what a developer can do with the exposed APIs.

Of course neither had an app store, but there were no controls in place for these platforms, and the cellular networks are still up.

Post reply on HN