41–50 of 118 posts
I wonder if Apple's policy changes are from worries about Windows Phone 7. They largely eliminated Microsoft's biggest selling point to app developers and redirected a lot of development talent that may otherwise have spent the next two months building apps for the WP7 launch.
Isn't VLC GPL? I thought the AppStore was not compatible with the GPL.
Is there a reason there isn't an iPhone version?
Fairly recently Steve Jobs defended Apple’s old App Store policy [+] – just imagine the hearts and minds Apple could have won if Jobs had announced their big policy change right then and added a big mea culpa. Why didn’t that happen? This seems a lot like some sort of last minute decision, something happened and caused Apple to move quickly. Ah, well, we will probably never know.
[+] D8 interview, july this year
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are tons of VLC authors, only one needs to complain. This sounds like it's going to happen sooner or later.
What is there to complain about? The source code is available for anyone to download.
Thus authors of GPL software might have a basis to object to other people distributing their software through the App Store, even if full source is provided. ...at least, this was the rationale given by the FSF when they objected to GNU Go in the App Store:
I would be really interested to know what triggered that massive policy change. (Not just VLC but also all the other stuff.) It came out of nowhere. No advance warning, no step by step relaxation, no big reveal. Fairly recently Steve Jobs defended Apple’s old App Store policy [+] – just imagine the hearts and minds Apple could have won if Jobs had announced their big policy change right then and added a big mea culpa…
I would be really interested to know what triggered that massive policy change. (Not just VLC but also all the other stuff.) It came out of nowhere. No advance warning, no step by step relaxation, no big reveal. Fairly recently Steve Jobs defended Apple’s old App Store policy [+] – just imagine the hearts and minds Apple could have won if Jobs had announced their big policy change right then and added a big mea culpa…
The risk of government intervention seems the most likely reason to me. Better to maintain control and relax restrictions on your own terms than risk having the terms dictated to you by a judge.
I wonder if Apple's policy changes are from worries about Windows Phone 7. They largely eliminated Microsoft's biggest selling point to app developers and redirected a lot of development talent that may otherwise have spent the next two months building apps for the WP7 launch.
I doubt WP7 is even on Apple's radar. My favorite theory is that now everyone can see that Flash for phones sucks so there's no need to ban it; it will fail on its own. That and the FTC investigation.