Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#21

Post by djxfade » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:28 AM UTC

1_player wrote: post #8

I never understood the App Store rating figures. Here's the scam app: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/keywatch-watch-keyboard/id1499... Apparently the paid for 5 stars comments have been deleted, all that's left are comments in the 1 star range but the app is still rated 4.1/5. It's not the first time I see this discrepancy and makes it very hard for a user to understand who to believe: the 1 star comments or the very…

The app store allows you to submit a rating without a review. That's what you are seeing here.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#22

Post by thomaspaulmann » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:31 AM UTC

It’s easy to blame Apple here and to some degree they are responsible for scammers aren’t banned from the App Store. However, why isn’t somebody complaining who got scammed? Don’t they want $400 back? Maybe they do a simple refund and that’s enough for them but there should be some feedback loop to detect scams quickly before they climb the App Store charts.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#23

Post by Hamuko » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:31 AM UTC

hmottestad wrote: post #15

matsemann wrote: post #9

" But I like Apple's walled garden because they verify and quality check everything on there "

Hits extra close to home when Apple enforces some arbitrary rule for one app (like Amphetamine) and then doesn't even bother to test other apps.

It's just bike-shedding. Enforcing names or the fact that you mention subscribing to the app on a website is easy whereas testing every app that comes in is hard.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#24

Post by dariosalvi78 » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:32 AM UTC

speedgoose wrote: post #4

Meanwhile Apple block our iOS app update because we dare mentioning Android somewhere.

hehehe happened to me as well! you can scam people as much as you want, but do not dare to mention any competitor or you're out

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#25

Post by Jnr » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:32 AM UTC

yarcob wrote: post #5

Oh my god, they don't even bother implementing the app any more... It reminds me of my first App Store experience. I made an app that was somewhat successful (about 2000€ a month, enough to pay for a students living expenses). Within short time, a chinese speaking developer cloned it. They copied the icon (slighlty different color), they copied the UI, they even copied all the text in the dialog boxes. They released…

You can go the DMCA route, they will probably take it down.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#26

Post by Hamuko » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:35 AM UTC

orasis wrote: post #19

yarcob wrote: post #5

Oh my god, they don't even bother implementing the app any more... It reminds me of my first App Store experience. I made an app that was somewhat successful (about 2000€ a month, enough to pay for a students living expenses). Within short time, a chinese speaking developer cloned it. They copied the icon (slighlty different color), they copied the UI, they even copied all the text in the dialog boxes. They released…

You can submit a DMCA takedown request for them copying any of your images or text. I have successfully done this on Google Play.

Can you submit a DMCA request if you're not American?

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#27

Post by cheschire » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:37 AM UTC

meibo wrote: post #11

Making a keyboard that has the selling point of "being good on the Apple Watch" seems like a fragile business model to begin with, when Apple's goal should be implementing the best possible keyboard. This has struck custom keyboard vendors in the past(e.g. Gboard stealing basically all custom keyboard market share by implementing stand-out features). Please correct me if I'm missing something. Hope the he can rectify…

A reasonable analogy might be competitive gaming, where the author is trying to be the best of the best and achieve rank 1 on a competitive ladder, but he's losing because the rank 1 player is cheating.

You're suggesting they play a different game because the maker of this game is allowing a cheater to nullify the results of the competitive scene.

Do you see how it might poor form to tell a person trying to be the best in the world at one specific game to simply play a different game?

That's potentially kind of a straw man though. Your suggestion isn't necessarily wrong.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#28

Post by gregoriol » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:38 AM UTC

thomaspaulmann wrote: post #22

It’s easy to blame Apple here and to some degree they are responsible for scammers aren’t banned from the App Store. However, why isn’t somebody complaining who got scammed? Don’t they want $400 back? Maybe they do a simple refund and that’s enough for them but there should be some feedback loop to detect scams quickly before they climb the App Store charts.

As a user, it's not very clear how to complain on the App Store. I did it once and got a refund from Apple, because it was an obvious case. But recently I bought an app that was not obviously problematic: it was meant to do some things, cost a few $, and did indeed do "some" things, however the app actually felt like a tutorial code (maybe even one from Apple) implemented and pushed to the store. Just like that, almost no features, no design or quality. It's difficult to complain, but I clearly couldn't know from the store itself.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#29

Post by gregoriol » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:39 AM UTC

pennyintheslot wrote: post #7

Apple seems to be far more concerned with getting their (30/15) percent cut than with how that revenue was generated. The App Store is full of such examples. As long as you pay the baron his share and don’t upset him with unwelcome thoughts (Parler) or worldly desires (erotica), you are free to reign.

Tim Cook is an operations person.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#30

Post by drcongo » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 9:43 AM UTC

thomaspaulmann wrote: post #22

It’s easy to blame Apple here and to some degree they are responsible for scammers aren’t banned from the App Store. However, why isn’t somebody complaining who got scammed? Don’t they want $400 back? Maybe they do a simple refund and that’s enough for them but there should be some feedback loop to detect scams quickly before they climb the App Store charts.

Literal victim blaming.