Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#21

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Sep 09, 2010, 1:16 PM UTC

So, how about all those people that were supporting apples' right to run their app store the way they see fit and who said that there is no point complaining about it?

I think this proves that complaining about stuff like this is well worth the effort, assuming that that - and not some backroom pressure - is what caused them to back off. They mention it in their release so I figure it must have been a major factor.

edit:

the plaintext version of the appstore guidelines:

http://ww.com/appstore.html

I've been reading through the guidelines while fixing the markup and it seems to me that it's very reasonable the way it is worded and those terms that are left.

I'd feel pretty good developing under these terms.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#22

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Sep 09, 2010, 1:17 PM UTC

wheaties wrote: post #18

So does this mean they'll actually follow their own review guidelines or is it going to mean you can read them but @#$%!, you're still at the whim of whomever gets your app?

Only one way to know, try.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#23

Post by hswolff » Thu, Sep 09, 2010, 1:17 PM UTC

mcav wrote: post #13

city41 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still doesn't really matter. They can revoke this stance whenever they want. It still remains risky to base your livelihood on a format completely controlled by someone else who ultimately couldn't care less about your needs.

There's no way they could go back on this now. The outcry would be ten times larger than it was when they first restricted it.

Agreed. You give a mouse a cookie, and then he'll want a glass of water. By giving up this ground it would be near impossible and close to PR-suicide to commit any future retraction. About time for sure.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#24

Post by napierzaza » Thu, Sep 09, 2010, 1:19 PM UTC

sant0sk1 wrote: post #3

Welcome, but long overdue.

What's the point of such a comment. It reminds me of the pundits talking about how it was "About time" copy & paste was devised. Be glad that Apple isn't so prideful that they aren't able to make changes like this. A lot of people and companies wouldn't be able to admit things like thing to make the right decision.

Whether it was fast enough for you is entirely besides the point. They couldn't have just opened up the whole deal could they? They make careful decisions. They started out with high restrictions and have become continually more open. How often is the opposite the case?

Every "death knell" for the App Store and the iPhone is being chipped away; not by Android, but Apple itself.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#25

Post by Tichy » Thu, Sep 09, 2010, 1:19 PM UTC

johnthedebs wrote: post #20

mcobrien wrote: post #16

If you're a registered developer, you can read the just-published App Store Guidelines here: http://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guide... For those who aren't registered developers, it's basically a list of 189 rules, most in the form of "Apps that ... will be rejected"

Any chance someone can make that available to non-developers?

Probably not, NDA and all that.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#26

Post by jakewalker » Thu, Sep 09, 2010, 1:22 PM UTC

portman wrote: post #8

Was this story broken here on HN? I can't find any other stories on Google News. If so, well done jakewalker. Makes me wonder if HN can become a primary source for news in addition to an aggregator.

I saw it on a few tech sites (AppleInsider, Gizmodo, etc.) this morning, but linked to the source, since most of their articles were just a copy & paste of the Apple press release.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#27

Post by lurch_mojoff » Thu, Sep 09, 2010, 1:23 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #21

So, how about all those people that were supporting apples' right to run their app store the way they see fit and who said that there is no point complaining about it? I think this proves that complaining about stuff like this is well worth the effort, assuming that that - and not some backroom pressure - is what caused them to back off. They mention it in their release so I figure it must have been a major factor. e…

The thing is most of the complaining about this was not the constructive "hey, Apple have you considered so-and-so", but rather the whiny "waaaa... Apple are Nazis" kind.

And as you point out there is no evidence that it is the complaining that made Apple reconsider. It could very well be something entirely different, e.g. the FTC probe.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#28

Post by DeusExMachina » Thu, Sep 09, 2010, 1:23 PM UTC

This puzzles me. Why did they change them after a couple of months? I'm really wondering.

Maybe now they will raise the bar for quality rejecting apps that do not follow guidelines or do not provide enough functionality? Sounds strange, but I cannot think about any other reason.

EDIT: reading through the just published guidelines, it is exactly like this.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#29

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Sep 09, 2010, 1:25 PM UTC

lurch_mojoff wrote: post #27

jacquesm wrote: post #21

So, how about all those people that were supporting apples' right to run their app store the way they see fit and who said that there is no point complaining about it? I think this proves that complaining about stuff like this is well worth the effort, assuming that that - and not some backroom pressure - is what caused them to back off. They mention it in their release so I figure it must have been a major factor. e…

The thing is most of the complaining about this was not the constructive "hey, Apple have you considered so-and-so", but rather the whiny "waaaa... Apple are Nazis" kind. And as you point out there is no evidence that it is the complaining that made Apple reconsider. It could very well be something entirely different, e.g. the FTC probe.

Plenty of it was very constructive, it pointed out why the choice of tools should be left to the developer and how not relaxing this restriction would make it easier for people to develop for android than for the Iphone.

If the FTC probe (or the rise of android) has anything to do with it then I doubt we'll ever know, but I'm all for taking this on face value and believing them when they publicly admit to listening to their devs. It's a nice thing to be able to hold them to at a future date.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#30

Post by jakewalker » Thu, Sep 09, 2010, 1:25 PM UTC

fierarul wrote: post #11

What happened ? Did Adobe poke some government officials and Apple was starting to get bothered by that ? It just seems incredibly stupid to first ban all tools -- just to mess with Adobe basically -- and then do an 180 and remove said restriction.

There is an active FTC investigation into the terms of the developer agreement, I believe. No idea if it was a direct influence on the change.