IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes • Hacker News Board

Re: IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes

#101

Post by chris_wot » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:39 PM UTC

glenra wrote: post #82

chris_wot wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple antenna happened because Johnny Ives and Steve Jobs loved the design look and feel of the metal around the edge of the phone, and told the engineers to make it happen. Unfortunately, this time hey couldn't bend the laws of physics. I suggest looking up "Steve's Folly"...

There was nothing wrong with the Apple antenna. It was a perception issue, not a flaw. People kept buying that phones even after Apple stopped giving away the free cases and people kept giving it a higher customer satisfaction rating than any other phone on the planet at the time...because the benefits of the new design generally outweighed the costs - it was a good design given the constraints faced at the time. > I…

Ah. Obviously more than one of Steve's folly!

Try this one: http://www.cultofmac.com/125623/the-best-revelations-quotes-...

"Steve Jobs’ obsession with aesthetic details could be taken to ludicrous extents. For example, when they built a state-of-the-arty factory in Fremonth to manufacture the Macintosh, Jobs wanted all the machines repainted in bright colors. Apple’s manufacturing director, Matt Carter, fought him on it, because this was precision equipment, and repainting them could make them not work right. Steve persevered, and one of the most expensive machines broke, being known as Steve’s folly."

Re: IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes

#102

Post by illumin8 » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:40 PM UTC

plasma wrote: post #35

antirez wrote: post #5

The problem is that "app approval" does not scale well, for a very simple reason: it is hard. Applying guidelines like the ones Apple uses, requires a very skilled individual that is able to evaluate at the same time a set of rules in a flexible way, and really understand if the app is good for the apple store or not. You can do that if you have a team of 20. Finding 300 people doing this work very well is going to b…

I don't agree that its a super hard job and that's why this problem has occurred. Surely the review team should hear the iKamasutra's concerns and realise that the app has been in use for years already, and that the sudden reason to reject it is confusing and obtuse.

Unfortunately, it sounds like it might be time for the iKamasutra team to have a lawyer write a letter to Apple. It seems like they have a pretty clear cut case of unfair treatment towards their app. Sometimes, a letter from a lawyer is all it takes to get things moving in the right direction.

Re: IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes

#103

Post by rbarooah » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:41 PM UTC

gcheong wrote: post #87

There really needs to be a way to sell outside of the apple appstore without needing to jailbreak of your device. If the DOJ can sue Apple and the book publishers over an apparent attempt to destroy competition in the retail market, why wouldn't they be interested in how Apple is destroying developers' ability to freely publish apps and consumers to have choices besides Apple in the marketplace? How do we start a cam…

Why not just buy an android phone?

Re: IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes

#104

Post by wpietri » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:43 PM UTC

mistercow wrote: post #68

kodisha wrote: post #44

Is it possible that Ikamasutra developer sue Apple and win in court?

I think that really depends on what you mean by "possible". For all practical purposes, it's pretty unlikely given the comparative legal resources of the two companies.

Exactly. In a lot of things in the US, you get as much justice as you can afford.

Re: IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes

#105

Post by excuse-me » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:43 PM UTC

batista wrote: post #65

excuse-me wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

App stores should do what is good for their shareholders Apple is trying to move from being the cool kids counter-culture creative types alternative to the PC to being the corporate acceptable alternative to the Blackberry. A story about karmasutra apps or ifart in the WSJ could cause a CEO to change their mind about allowing users to use their iPhone on the corp network. And of course the best way of preventing such…

>Apple is trying to move from being the cool kids counter-culture creative types alternative to the PC to being the corporate acceptable alternative to the Blackberry. A story about karmasutra apps or ifart in the WSJ could cause a CEO to change their mind about allowing users to use their iPhone on the corp network. Only this has nothing to do with it. iOS made inroads into the enterprise DESPITE the plethora of far…

"Apple could care less about the hypothetical CEO you mention"

The old fringe player Apple could - the new $trillion corporate Apple might "think different".

Remember once upon a time Microsoft was a cool fashionable young persons software company fighting against the established corporate monopolies

I'm sure this was just a new employee who was probably still in high-school when the Appstore launched and thinks anything not on the front page of reddit is ancient. But it does show a certain attitude inside Apple. Iconoclast thinking different and "we can do no wrong" is great when it's Jobs deciding you only need one mouse button - it's different when it becomes an unwillingness to even talk to your customers and users.

Re: IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes

#106

Post by JBiserkov » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:45 PM UTC

glenra wrote: post #82

chris_wot wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple antenna happened because Johnny Ives and Steve Jobs loved the design look and feel of the metal around the edge of the phone, and told the engineers to make it happen. Unfortunately, this time hey couldn't bend the laws of physics. I suggest looking up "Steve's Folly"...

There was nothing wrong with the Apple antenna. It was a perception issue, not a flaw. People kept buying that phones even after Apple stopped giving away the free cases and people kept giving it a higher customer satisfaction rating than any other phone on the planet at the time...because the benefits of the new design generally outweighed the costs - it was a good design given the constraints faced at the time. > I…

Exactly - it was a perception issue - in that the signal strength indicator was showing 5 out of 5 bars with signal strength ranging from 60% to 100%. When you covered the antenna with your hand, the signal strength dropped ~40%. So if you were in an area with strong reception, you would get ~60%, which Apple considered so "good enough" that we might as well show Full bars. If you on the other hand were in an area with weaker reception, say 60% (which still shows as Full bars), and cover the antenna you get 60-40=20% signal strength which resulted in a lot of issues and dropped calls.

Now, about the customer satisfaction rating... did users rate the phone (calling) experience alone, or the overall experience of using a 326dpi, internet-enabled, capacitive touch screen pocket computer with 500 000 "apps" that also happens to have a GSM capability besides Wi-Fi/FaceTime/Skype-video-calling??

Re: IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes

#107

Post by hsuresh » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:48 PM UTC

As a developer, i'd really think hard about developing a native app. I know that some apps cannot go web based, but we need to push the boundaries of what is possible with mobile browsers. I can't think of any other way of keeping the mobile development open.

Re: IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes

#108

Post by ErrantX » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:58 PM UTC

bambax wrote: post #41

antirez wrote: post #5

The problem is that "app approval" does not scale well, for a very simple reason: it is hard. Applying guidelines like the ones Apple uses, requires a very skilled individual that is able to evaluate at the same time a set of rules in a flexible way, and really understand if the app is good for the apple store or not. You can do that if you have a team of 20. Finding 300 people doing this work very well is going to b…

In this case the crux of the problem is that they're deleting an app that's almost as old as the app store itself. Curating content is almost impossible to do; app stores should limit their reviews to exclude: - viruses - blatant spam and copyright violations and THAT'S IT. Assessing the quality of an app is what users' ratings are for (and of course excluding adult content is just childish).

> Assessing the quality of an app is what users' ratings are for

As an app store user I disagree. User ratings in the app store are not really a useful guideline in my experience - and it often takes trying several (reasonably well rated) apps to find one that is actually usable.

For example; it took me the best part of 10 tries to find a working tourist map of a city I was visiting a few weeks ago.

The app store review process is currently broken; as you say this decision is prudish, and other review decisions are idiotic.

But I think it is generally broken too in letting too much cruft go live.

In fact, I'd happily pay a premium for a "curated" store where reviewers judged the utility of apps more strictly.

Re: IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes

#109

Post by JBiserkov » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 3:03 PM UTC

rmc wrote: post #98

biafra wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is possible (without jailbreaking) with an enterprise certificate. But I agree, its ridiculous that you need the manufacturers approval to deploy software _you_ have written on a device _you_ have bought and paid in full.

The Free Software Foundation have been talking about this for years. It's Freedom 0. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

I'm afraid this part of a larger trend - people are trading freedom for the promise of safety left and right.

Re: IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes

#110

Post by bluetshirt » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 3:04 PM UTC

AndrewDucker wrote: post #19

spinchange wrote: post #16

Sergey said that Apple and Facebook are a threat to freedom on the web, but I submit that commercial 'app stores' like Google Play and Apple's AppStore are the real threat. They have all the control and solely get to decide what is acceptable or not (while reserving the right to change their mind later). Google Play won't even let you rent a video from the store if it detects your phone has been rooted. This sucks. W…

I disagree regarding Google Play. Appstore is a threat because if you want software on your Apple phone then it is the only legal method. But with Android you can install software from any app store you like, or directly. Google provide an app store as a service, but it's only one of many.

Jailbreaking your iPhone is NOT illegal.