Maybe he just burnt-out and wants to move on to something else?
Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
41–50 of 66 posts
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#42I 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?
I use the facebook iPhone app quite a lot, and I don't like it either, so I'll take a stab at it.
I never know what I'm looking at. The array of controls changes every time you move from one screen to the next, so I'm never sure where I am.
And that button up in the right hand corner, the one that usually says "News Feed?" Say I'm trying to switch to something else, but all of a sudden the selector control stops working, because the app is busy trying to prefetch stuff for some selector option I didn't plan on choosing, I just stopped on that one temporarily. Then, when the control becomes responsive again, it's impossible not to overshoot, because now it's processing a bunch of user interface events that happened while it was ignoring me.
Maybe part of the problem is that facebook itself is confusing. I don't really have any idea what the difference between "News Feed" and "Status Updates" is, and I'm not terribly interested in finding out, because the site will probably change to something else altogether in a month or two.
Yeah, I have to admit, I just don't like facebook very much either. But everybody I know is there, and it's pretty, so here we are.
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 th…
Resigning to the fact that you're a sharecropper[1] is implicit in developing on Apple platforms.
[1] http://weblog.raganwald.com/2004/11/sharecropping-in-orchard...
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
You work at Facebook, I know you say that on your profile, but you should probably disclose that in comments supporting them.
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#45Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#46Ideology in the work place is tricky. It's something most people should be very careful about. Most of us cannot opt out of a platform/technology we dislike personally. Even if you can it may be hard to rationalize their existence when you deposit your paycheck. I hope it works out for him.
Nice, I literally read "philosophy" as "ideology" as well:
"however I am [ideologically] opposed to the existence of their review process."
(I wouldn't take ideology in necessarily a negative way)
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is implied by a roach motel for data? I hate walled gardens. But I really don't think they are objectively the same tune different band. You're saying they will be spanking platform devs who's apps prove detrimental...well that's pretty different from Apple. Hugely different. Hmmm, hardly in the same class. [edited to move part to a different parent comment]
It's a reference to the old roach motel slogan: "Roaches check in, but they can't check out". In this case, referring to the fact that Facebook doesn't exactly go out of their way to provide you with the ability to 'take your data and leave'. Can you get an easy dump of all of your comments? Your friends' contact info? Your photos?
Yes, through the API.
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#48I 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?
> It is the most popular free iphone app. That wouldn't be the case if it weren't well made.
I believe iFart was fairly popular for a time (where popular is defined as "downloaded many times"), and it even cost money, putting a financial barrier to entry in front of potential users. Does that make iFart a well-made app though? I don't think so (though maybe you or others do).
I think the Facebook app's popularity just comes from the popularity of Facebook the service.
Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
#49I 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...
Recall that you pay nothing to use facebook, whereas with an iPhone, something that you physically own, you're not even really allowed to do as you please with it.