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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

#321

Post by parasubvert »

jiofih wrote: post #313
parasubvert wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New grads make a lot these days. Here’s the Netherlands for example: https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/Netherland...

That’s total compensation including stocks and bonuses, and still way beyond the median dev salary. Levels.FYI caters to a niche audience. Sort it by lowest to get a much more realistic picture.

I did. Entry level is around €50k base in Germany. 20-40% more in other EU countries. 100% more in the US (or Canada for certain employers)

If you think Levels.FYI caters to a niche, you’re playing yourself.

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

#322

Post by parasubvert »

yoz-y wrote: post #298
parasubvert wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tuition in France is relatively low if you’re native, (which is one awesome feature of the French state)... if you’re an international student it’s a lot more, and other countries also are a lot more. University of Cambridge in the UK for example estimates on their webpage £22k tuition for an undergraduate arts degree (double for medicine!) and £11k living expenses annually. With GBP/WUR exchange rate that’s €1550 on…

I wasn’t French when I studied here. The tuition was still pretty low, roughly 800€ year including insurance afaik my school did not distinguish between local and foreign students. More known schools like ISEN or EPITA took roughly 5k€/year afaik but I may be wrong. Granted, I didn’t go to a prestigious grande école, rather just a “pretty good” engineering school. Also business schools are indeed more expensive than…

That’s a great counter point, thank you.

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

#323

Post by dikaio »

pjc50 wrote: post #40
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…

Fortunately making an app that does the same thing as an existing app isn't copyright infringement - that would be far worse than the Amazon "one click" patent, as there would only be one company allowed to make a web browser, word processor, spreadsheet, etc.

The problem as I see it is you have developers that are willing to copy ideas, steal text and other IP. Do you really want to be installing apps from devs that have what appears little moral character? What are they doing with your data once you install the app? While this is not a country specific issue it would help if Apple allowed its users to block countries they don’t trust to download apps from the start.

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

#324

Post by jacobp100 »

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…

You can rate without leaving a comment, so there could be a lot of 1 star comments and 5 star ratings without comments.

Also, it won’t show comments in other languages, but probably still does show you their rating in the average.

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

#325

Post by Groxx »

SeanLuke wrote: post #317
Groxx wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The report button doesn't file a valid DMCA takedown request, so probably not.

Pretty sure that's not how the law works.

"The Law" absolutely runs on "when did this piece of paper arrive at this location". I don't know about DCMA specifically, but yes, most cases where one actor claims another actor is doing something wrong require the reporter to follow specific steps or it's not valid.

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

#326

Post by fakedang »

hctaw wrote: post #265
comboy wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people want to create great, useful apps. That's what they want to do. They are willing to give away half of their earnings to different 3rd parties to just not deal with the bullshit. It's unlikely to be their full time job. They probably don't make that much money on it, cloning happens just when the app begins to make any reasonable profit. So dealing with all your described is just not practical. Time is val…

Those people shouldn't be releasing on the App store then, if it's a hobby use hobbyist distribution channels and let users side load the app.

Tell us where the hobbyist distribution channels for iOS are, where you can "sideload". Apple never has, never will.

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

#327

Post by fakedang »

valuearb wrote: post #278
TomSwirly wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Responding to the hundreds of complaints? Periodically testing apps to see they haven't become a scam. Apple takes 30% - one dollar in three goes to them, and the remaining 2 has to go to writing and testing software, design, customer support, advertising. It's ridiculous that so many people think Apple can just take this huge cut and then allow people to be literally robbed by scam apps and just shrug.

It’s ridiculous that you don’t think a good portion if that 30% doesn’t go to writing and testing software, design, customer support, advertising, not to forget hosting, developer services, localization, etc. Apple should figure out a better automated solution for this specific problem, but it’s ignorant to not acknowledge they already do far more than other app stores.

> It’s ridiculous that you don’t think a good portion if that 30% doesn’t go to writing and testing software, design, customer support, advertising, not to forget hosting, developer services, localization, etc.

Google manages all of that with a measly one time $25 developer fee. Clearly $99 of recurring developer charges is the bigger scam here.

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

#328

Post by fakedang »

hctaw wrote: post #202
valuearb wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scammers scammed App Review, it’s not hard to do or understand. What the reviewers saw isn’t what customers see.

If the binary users download isn't the binary you sign and send to app review, what's the point of signing or reviewing anything?

If cloud-stored-flag-variable == 'n', show buffer screen, else show scam screen.

Same binary

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

#329

Post by thisarticle »

majewsky wrote: post #79
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…

I'm entirely sympathetic with your situation, yet I cannot stop thinking "that's just capitalism working normally".

That’s nonsense, even the US has trademark laws. They wholesale ripped off parent’s app.

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

#330

Post by thisarticle »

valuearb wrote: post #274
TomSwirly wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then the app is approved and placed on the store. Now the scam screens appear. This means there's some switch built into the code that changes its behavior, either after a certain date, or on certain known IPs that Apple tests on, or after a certain URL changes value. At this point, the complaints pour in. People ask for refunds and claim it's not as advertised. The $400 subscription fee has to be mentioned in some…

Apple gets thousands of complaints a day. They have to do a detailed investigation or they’ll risk pulling legitimate apps. The apps can also be geofenced so the behavior doesn’t occur in Cupertino. Just because Apple doesn’t immediately remove a scam doesn’t mean they aren’t working to remove it.

So hire more people to get through the backlog faster. These are problems money can solve and Apple has plenty. (Disclaimer: I’m an Apple fanboy, use their products almost exclusively, but I still think it’s ridiculous all the shit apps that get through)
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