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I fear App Review is getting too powerful (2015) [pdf]
141–150 of 369 posts
Re: I fear App Review is getting too powerful (2015) [pdf]
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess I was groveling. This was my livelihood and I was employing 20+ people. I did not want to give up on this and have to tell the team our work and their jobs were over. I tried to be honest and explain the situation, because I believed if Tim Cook understood what happened, he would make it right.
What happened to the company and the 20+ people? Did it indeed just wind down, everyone lost their job?
Pretty much. Site still up, but only one part time publisher making very little to keep it afloat. Site is now loaded with Google ads (we used to have no ads on the site). I'm kind of embarrassed to show the site in its current form. It's 99% old content, and no maintenance is several years. It was the best time of my life in its heyday.
The founders and dev team started a new company unrelated to apps. I tried my best to place our reviewers / curation team at other outlets. I had some success here, but it still pains me knowing that some of my previous team are still looking for something after all this time.
Re: I fear App Review is getting too powerful (2015) [pdf]
#143Wow. I am the author of this email. I have no idea how it resurfaced after 5 years, I was only made aware of this when a friend emailed me the HN link. The sad thing is it was not just my company which was targeted, but Apple removed this entire product category. We never knew the real reason why, or if it was bigger than just a random app reviewer trying to apply Apple policy, until May 2019. That's when Bloomberg i…
My sympathies. That's a really sad story. I don't know if it's any consolation that it was at least discussed among the executives. I don't know why you originally eschewed the web. I've developed on closed platforms in the past: Facebook (when Facebook games like Farmville and Mafia Wars were crazy hot), Silverlight, OpenSocial, Twitter, and now Google Apps Script. My work is always worthless in 2-3 years, and what…
Silverlight? What did you use it for? The only public Silerlight code I ever came across was Netflix’s client for Windows Internet Explorer around 2010-2012, then everyone switched to Widevine.
Re: I fear App Review is getting too powerful (2015) [pdf]
#144Am I the only one that supports Apple here? As a smaller indie dev they have been great to me. The best developer support I've experienced from a company and I don't mind the 30% cut.
I mind it in that I'd like to pay less, but I personally think Apple has every right to control their own ecosystem and charge whatever they want to be listed in their store, on their hardware.
I think it is a tough pill to swallow for larger corps who see much less value in Apple's marketing / support.
Re: I fear App Review is getting too powerful (2015) [pdf]
#145Am I the only one that supports Apple here? As a smaller indie dev they have been great to me. The best developer support I've experienced from a company and I don't mind the 30% cut.
The email wasn't complaining about Apple's cut of profits, but rather having their app being killed seemingly arbitrarily when Apple decided to kill a category of apps from the store.
Folks can have a good experience with the app store, until they don't. There's survivorship bias in creating an app unaffected by the ever changing app review policies.
This isn't exclusive to Apple's walled garden either.
Re: I fear App Review is getting too powerful (2015) [pdf]
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apps and videos pose different security risks, but I assume you know this.
Do you think xCloud copies a binary executable of Halo Infinite on every Android and iOS device?
Do you think it’s possible to enter a credit card number into a steaming video of ‘friends’?
A steaming app (game or not) can pop up a fraudulent credit card payment interface at any time.
Re: I fear App Review is getting too powerful (2015) [pdf]
#147I feel happy that aside of doing couple of small contract things I've never had to deal with App stores and their respective owners. I just can't tolerate that kind of control over my products hence refuse to participate.
Re: I fear App Review is getting too powerful (2015) [pdf]
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you think xCloud copies a binary executable of Halo Infinite on every Android and iOS device?
Do you think it’s possible to enter a credit card number into a steaming video of ‘friends’? A steaming app (game or not) can pop up a fraudulent credit card payment interface at any time.
I don't see the point you are making.
If video streaming is so bad, Netflix should not be on the App Store for "iDevice security". If video game streaming is so bad, Twitch should not be on the App Store for "iDevice security".
Re: I fear App Review is getting too powerful (2015) [pdf]
#149Am I the only one that is creeped out that this email is public?
As the author I was shocked to see it out there, and seeing my emotions out there like that made me feel something, I'm not sure what. But ultimately I am happy that this conversation is finally happening. I have a good feeling things are going to change for the better soon.
Re: I fear App Review is getting too powerful (2015) [pdf]
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I actually think it’s about keeping iDevices safe. How are Hey or xCloud about keeping iDevices safe?
The mechanisms used by Hey and xCloud would clearly be used by less trustworthy companies for nefarious purposes. Hey was able to alter their app trivially to comply with the guidelines, so it actually represents nothing at all here. xCloud can’t be altered to comply, but nevertheless if app steaming were allowed in general, all of App review could be bypassed by bad actors.
> The mechanisms used by Hey and xCloud would clearly be used by less trustworthy companies for nefarious purposes.
Sorry but no.
What mechanism was “Hey” using that could possibly be abused by a malicious app or malicious app author?
If “Hey” advertised themselves as B2B without any self-service option then Apple, by their own words, would have let the app on the store. Being B2C or having self-service (even if the self-service is outside of the app!) means Apple requires you to have a sign-up form in the app - and if you take punters’ money then that means you need to use IAP and so give Apple their 30% rent. The outrage isn’t over this requirement itself, but because Apple arbitrarily carved-out undocumented exceptions for Netflix, Amazon Kindle, and other “reader” apps even though they’re B2C and self-service - which we can tell is because Apple would get into a worse spat and lose public opinion if they tried to pull Netflix or Amazon’s apps for the same reason.