If he'd like to work on a much more open app platform (where market update time is less than 24 hours) Facebook's Android app needs some love.
Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
31–40 of 66 posts
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
From a developer standpoint, immensely so.
huh!? O_o
What matters here isn't "Are Apple and Facebook soulless and oppressive corporations?" (I'd argue no, lots of people would argue yes; either way it's not important.) What matters is how each is treating its developers. Facebook is open to developers and their publications; Apple isn't.
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#33Aside from obvious quality benefits, the review process is a good thing because it results in users having more trust in apps developed by relatively unknown developers/companies.
Apple having a repository of approved apps is fine. Denying the ability to run other apps isn't.
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#34I find the irony of a developer working for one of the biggest walled gardens on the internet complaining about walls around someone else's garden to be very deep into the pot/kettle/black territory...
Agreed. It rings even more hollow given the recent revelation about widespread scams in Facebook apps.
If his company was doing as good a job at protecting users as Apple had, I'd be more inclined to listen to him. The position he's taken is a purely self-interested one, asking for more developer freedom without even acknowledging the difficult challenge Apple faces, and without admitting that maybe his company could learn something from them.
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
One with a link that says "Click here to download all your data."
I know Facebook API and could make that without too much effort. Do you think the demand is there? What format would users want such data in?
they're getting closer but they're not there yet. they have an API method in beta that allows you to pull the last 50 posts of a user's mini-feed, and then you can grab comments for each post in the mini feed, but that's not going to get you all user contributions.
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#36I personally dont find the app very well made. Interesting outcome for the developer nonetheless.
It is the most popular free iphone app. That wouldn't be the case if it weren't well made.
What don't you like?
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ummm, Facebook's wall is quite a bit less ominous than Apple's. You may want to return that irony to the store, they cheated you and watered it down.
The walls are still there. Facebook is still a roach motel for data and now they are going to be spanking platform developers whose apps are proving to be detrimental to Facebook's reputation and user experience. Same tune, different band.
Almost everything in facebook is openly accessible via API if you've granted permissions to an applications to do so. We've seen services like Tweetdeck and Seesmic and Brizzly act like portals to the data.
Things get complicated with friends' data of course. Facebook has a collection of your friends phone numbers, and data access permissions and storage rights get complicated.
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#38Aside from obvious quality benefits, the review process is a good thing because it results in users having more trust in apps developed by relatively unknown developers/companies.
I'm not sure all of us see the quality benefits quite so obviously. Are you implying that dictionaries with censored words are better quality?
I challenge you to find a popular dicionary that isn't carefully curated. You can't just call up Webster and get a word added to the dictionary, there's a vetting process it has to go through.
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#39crybaby
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ummm, Facebook's wall is quite a bit less ominous than Apple's. You may want to return that irony to the store, they cheated you and watered it down.
The walls are still there. Facebook is still a roach motel for data and now they are going to be spanking platform developers whose apps are proving to be detrimental to Facebook's reputation and user experience. Same tune, different band.
It's not really surprising in either case I feel. For Facebook, their social network is their greatest value. For Apple, it's their experience.
It takes more courage than I can imagine to put your golden egg on a pedestal for anyone to touch, study, steal.
Sucks for developers, sure, but at some point devs start to sound kind of greedy. In both cases, you're getting the privilege to play in a very, very market. At the very least, you should respect the risk these companies take.