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The Apple Reaper

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Re: The Apple Reaper

#31

Post by awolf »

mmackh wrote: post #12
billycoover wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I create a new application?

If you resubmit through creating a new app, it goes to a different reviewer. Be sure to change the name of your old app before you delete it, so you can still use the app name under the same account. Sometimes the new reviewers are more understanding/ might not see a problem with apps that have been rejected before. E.g. my HN iphone app was rejected 2-3 times for "webviews stuff" or whatever. Once I resubmitted, it…

You can't change the name of an app without submitting an update (anymore).

Re: The Apple Reaper

#32

Post by stickfigure »

eridius wrote: post #11

There's an app review board. I'm not sure of the exact procedure for getting in contact with them, but it's basically the procedure for appealing a rejection like this. I think there's an email address somewhere in the developer portal. Edit: This trend of running straight to social news sites (e.g. HN) whenever something goes wrong is very strange. There are processes in place for dealing with this problem, processe…

Because this kind of idiocy needs to have light shined on it.

Re: The Apple Reaper

#33

Post by cooldeal »

Well, I am just glad that Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 store apps don't have this stupid restriction if you don't use their payment systems.

Walled garden and 30% forced cut of app sales is one thing, but a forced 30% cut of every in-app sale is like erecting a toll booth on all apps. Gruber's explanation of "Apple does it because it can, and the people complaining are just jealous that Apple can and they cannot" doesn't really fly.

This is one of the reasons that Apple is dragging its feet on making HTML5 web apps work on par with native apps, despite Jobs' anti-Flash memo two and a half years ago.

Edit: Sigh, looks like this submission is sinking on the HN front page due to people flagging it for it being anti-Apple. Be classy, HN.

Re: The Apple Reaper

#34

Post by scheff »

I would have thought the solution is simple - release an extremely primitive Android app of the same name and splash screen that says "Coming soon", and report back to Apple "Yes, I have an Android version of my app."

Re: The Apple Reaper

#35

Post by spaghetti »

Honest question: why hasn't Apple fixed this fucking stupid review process?

They have the resources to pay cheap reviewers who are probably better than this guy. I'm sure college kids with no job prospects would jump to "work at Apple" even if it's making $10/hour reviewing apps.

Why not allow all apps into the store as long as they pass some security checks done by Apple (no downloading executables etc)?

The current review process is just encouraging developers to look at alternatives. Android for starters. I'm even spending time learning about Firefox OS. If Apple would stop rejecting totally legit apps for "having limited entertainment value" when my Mixpanel analytics say otherwise I (unfortunately) wouldn't give a shit about Android or any other mobile OS.

Re: The Apple Reaper

#36

Post by billycoover »

scheff wrote: post #34

I would have thought the solution is simple - release an extremely primitive Android app of the same name and splash screen that says "Coming soon", and report back to Apple "Yes, I have an Android version of my app."

Lots fo suggestions for this one :)

Re: The Apple Reaper

#37

Post by thechut »

asarazan wrote: post #29
thechut wrote: post #25

I don't understand how it is possible that Stripe is not allowed to have this functionality but Square is. Certainly Square does not give 30% to Apple for every swipe. The cross-platform bit is interesting though. This should send a clear message to developers that they should go with ANDROID FIRST.

Square employs a significant number of ex-Apple guys. That might have something to do with it :-)

I'm sure that doesn't hurt...

Re: The Apple Reaper

#38

Post by psychotik »

cooldeal wrote: post #33

Well, I am just glad that Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 store apps don't have this stupid restriction if you don't use their payment systems. Walled garden and 30% forced cut of app sales is one thing, but a forced 30% cut of every in-app sale is like erecting a toll booth on all apps. Gruber's explanation of "Apple does it because it can, and the people complaining are just jealous that Apple can and they can…

"Well, I am just glad that Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 store apps don't have this stupid restriction if you don't use their payment systems."

The Android Developer TOS says that any other in-app payment system isn't legal, and grounds for your app being removed from the app store.

I haven't studied it, but I suspect Microsoft's ToS will say something similar too.

Edit: Android's DDA section 3.3 and 4.5 disallow using other payment processors. http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.h...

Re: The Apple Reaper

#39

Post by recoiledsnake »

cooldeal wrote: post #33

Well, I am just glad that Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 store apps don't have this stupid restriction if you don't use their payment systems. Walled garden and 30% forced cut of app sales is one thing, but a forced 30% cut of every in-app sale is like erecting a toll booth on all apps. Gruber's explanation of "Apple does it because it can, and the people complaining are just jealous that Apple can and they can…

Well, 99.99% of the millions of people queuing up for iPhone 5 don't know about stuff like this and some don't care even if they do.

If the Kindle app lacks the ability to buy books, they will blame Amazon the for lack of that feature and not even linking to the Amazon.com page to buy. This is losing battle regardless of a few HN'ers switching to alternate platforms because of this.

Same as with the patent case against Android, Apple has much more to gain that lose by pissing off some developers. In fact, much of their fan base was cheering on Apple against Samsung and Gruber has ~220K Twitter followers, so I felt that the lawsuits may have the effect to actually legitimizing patents among the sizable segment of Apple aficionados. Like Microsoft in the 90s, Apple has turned into this juggernaut that no power grab can really affect their market sales.

Re: The Apple Reaper

#40

Post by spaghetti »

eridius wrote: post #11

There's an app review board. I'm not sure of the exact procedure for getting in contact with them, but it's basically the procedure for appealing a rejection like this. I think there's an email address somewhere in the developer portal. Edit: This trend of running straight to social news sites (e.g. HN) whenever something goes wrong is very strange. There are processes in place for dealing with this problem, processe…

In my experience the appeal board are just as stupid as the reviewer cited in the post. It was like my app was evaluated by a random different reviewer.

Something is strange about the whole app review process. It's been problematic for years. Apple could fix it if they had the incentive. IMO they do have an incentive (more developers, more sales etc) but something else is preventing the process from improving. Lately it seems like the review process is becoming worse.

Perhaps it's company politics? The VP of whatever group is ultimately in charge of hiring reviewers, adjusting policies etc may be standing in the way. However given the explosion of the mobile ecosystem it seems unlikely that organizational politics would come first.

One side note: for my last app that was reviewed and rejected multiple times (once by the appeal board) it seemed like the reviewers were really trying hard to make the app crash. I log almost everything users do in the app. Since the only people with copies of the app were myself and Apple I could see the reviewer(s) activity. If you've tested iOS apps that use even basic tableViews populated with remote data you know that swiping vigorously, pushing and popping viewControllers quickly etc can wring out some funny corner cases. It seems like the reviewer was trying to find one as a pretense for rejecting the app when the real reason was something they didn't want to say. Apparently they didn't find anything and went with "app is just a re-packaged website without enough native iOS functionality" when the entire app uses native iOS features.

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