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Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

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

#221
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…

Would you support antitrust action against Apple forcing them to open up the app store?

Would you be willing to speak about your experience and the total apathy you received from Apple?

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

#222
post #70

Lol they having million of reviews rating on app which cost 400$ a year which is $$$ for Apple (they get 30% of that). But Apple wont pay someone for looking through these apps and assure the app at least do something similar to what is advertised.

No, the app is free and so you can rate it without paying anything. The In App Purchase to make the app usable is 400$/year.

That does not change anything.

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

#223

Lol they having million of reviews rating on app which cost 400$ a year which is $$$ for Apple (they get 30% of that). But Apple wont pay someone for looking through these apps and assure the app at least do something similar to what is advertised.

I guarantee this app went through review and that none of the scam screens appeared then.

If they push changes, Apple knows it.

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

#224

This might be "old man shaking fist at clouds", but was crapware this bad before centralized app stores? I know it was out there - most famously stuffed into SourceForge downloads - but it didn't seem to be as prevalent. Though perhaps it's more a reflection of increased ROI from doing things like this in 2021 vs 2001.

It was even worse back then. At least with the App Store, I can set my parents free on it and they won’t get a keylogger or remote access tool installed unwittingly. Not to mention malware back then slowed the computers down to a crawl and was a pain in the ass if not impossible to remove. Now it’s just holding it and pressing the little x.

I remember that reinstalling Windows was a regular thing to do to get rid of the garbage.

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

#225

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

Sounds like the review-system (that is, user reviews) that needs vetting.

It's not unique to Apple of course — Amazon customers could benefit from honest reviews as well.

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

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Posting here on the assumption the parent comment will likely stay at the top] What about... a service, that helps walk you through these kinds of situations, handles country-specific implementation details, can help figure out the best approach for a given scenario, and give you the best chance of getting things sorted out... ...and... ...is NOT a "welcome, welcome, one and all" type of environment, and requires Tw…

That sounds suspiciously like a "union rep."

Hmmm. What about the second aspect of the GP though? A union is the epitomization of welcome-all/accept-all. I'm imagining something that imposes restrictions on who can apply for assistance, both to ratelimit overall demand and also to make it incredibly hard for scammers to get anywhere.

On the surface (ie, legally speaking), it would absolutely be an exclusive environment. The idea (and probably secret sauce) would be figuring out how to delineate between scammers and legitimate devs.

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

#227
post #195
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try Amsterdam, for example. €1000 is your rent.

For a room or a whole apartment?

Rooms range from 500 to 800 in amsterdam, I just checked the facebook group and the first post is student housing available for 317 euros.

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

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which "elsewhere" is there for someone developing an Apple Watch keyboard?

Apparently developers can develop more than one kind of app.

This sounds almost like the developers should be permanent, pardon my French, bitches to both Apple who can boot them for any petty reason, and to scammers who copycat them and make money with straightaway fraud, then to Apple again, who won't do anything about the scammers (I wonder what percentage of App Store revenue comes from those, once you look past the biggest players like Microsoft/Adobe/whoever else is in the top 20), and then to Apple again, who will incorporate your app's functionality into the core of their OS offering and then boast how they were the first to come up with the idea.

And not only should be the developers bitches, they should, according to you, accept and enjoy this dubious "honor".

Right?

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

#229
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I'm sure Apple would love this idea and wouldn't try to penalize union developers in the least...

Sure, but that's par for the course in any unionization effort

Totally down for this. Walled gardens should have unions. That seems like a perfectly logical way to keep them in check.

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

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> App stores can't spend too many hours on each app because there's tons of them, In this specific case it seems they didn't even spend one minute, since the app is not working. If at Apple they don't have the resource to at least try to open every app (I doubt it, they are swimming in cash), they could at least find a way to decide which apps to test first, like complaints from other developers, reviews telling that…

And this is another example of why Apple is too focused on short-term profit over long-term user experience. I think we all know that the app reviewer's top priority is making sure the monetization strategies in the app are "compliant". Whether it works or not probably won't get you fired as an app reviewer. But miss some IAP workaround that an app is using and I'd bet it could be your job.

You’re exactly correct and is why Apple should be taking action on this problem — it’s in their long-term self interest to do so.

Having customers distrust their App Store is really bad for them in the long run, and would be a competitive advantage over Google if their store was less crammed with garbage.

As it stands now, I usually find apps by looking for solid reviews outside of the App Store app, and am very wary about purchasing anything.

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