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Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

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Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#511

Post by cynoclast »

mmaunder wrote: post #23

You’re angry. I’ve felt this in a trademark lawsuit. You think the world should get behind you and change the corrupt system. My advice is to immediately rebrand as gracefully and effectively as possible and use all that activist energy to effect the transition. They kind of have a point which doesn’t make them right, but they hold all the cards and you will lose this one and regret the wasted bandwidth.

Well said. And why you invest as little emotion as possible into business. You don't want to be wedded to anything but making money.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#512

Post by webmobdev »

danlugo92 wrote: post #503
webmobdev wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My advice is to immediately rebrand as gracefully and effectively as possible and use all that activist energy to effect the transition. Apple will definitely appreciate it if all of us would just shut up and let them screw us. While I appreciate your well-meaning advise to the author - pick your battles in life carefully - I'd like to add that using your anger constructively at some injustice is a positive move to…

The first mistake he made was making an app for the apple app store. We can blame the users all we want but, as devs we also contribute to the problem when we publish (independently of course, not as employees).

Yes, this is the other crust of the issue that we developers need to understand - We are the ones that ADD VALUE to a platform like ios or macOS or Android. It is incredibly short-sighted to then PAY to develop and distibute apps on it!

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#513

Post by LeoNatan25 »

MauranKilom wrote: post #464
gambiting wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because at a retail store the expectation is that if I see a box labeled "amphetamine" it better contain actual amphetamine. Obviously that's not acceptable, so it's not going to happen. When I buy software, I certainly don't expect to get drugs. When I buy a game called "Surgeon Simulator" I don't expect to receive actual surgeon training any more than I expect to get amphetamine after getting an app called amph…

> When I buy a game called "Surgeon Simulator" I don't expect to receive actual surgeon training Fun fact: There are serious surgery training apps in the app stores. Surgeons, too, like to practice in a simulation rather than on real patients.

The point is that the game should not be removed for violating some silly guideline because its title contains “simulator”.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#515

Post by vestrigi »

tomasf wrote: post #425
freehunter wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I download and use the app despite the name. I’m not okay with it, but I need the features it offers and there isn’t a better alternative with a better name. There used to be (called Caffeine) but it disappeared from the store and I’m not sure why. Just because people use the app doesn’t mean they like the name.

[Caffeine's original developer here] I removed Caffeine from the App Store when Apple started complaining that a click on a menu bar icon for an app without a dock icon must always show a menu (offering a Quit option). I wanted it to toggle the active state instead and show the menu on right-click/cmd-click.

Did you just not feel like arguing with the app store review team or was it a clear decision between changing it or leaving the app store? The author of amphetamine told that there was a similar problem but apparently he could settle this.

> Amphetamine updates have been rejected by Apple on numerous occasions. One time, Apple’s App Review Team did not like my “Preview” screen shots. Another time, Apple objected to the default behavior when clicking Amphetamine’s menu bar icon, saying it must open the menu by default and not start a session.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#516

Post by twitch-chat »

timsneath wrote: post #424
_jal wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is less that the rules are vague than that the rules are whatever Apple says they are today, for you. Apple was promoting Amphetamine not that long ago: https://apps.apple.com/us/story/id1470456860

Yeah. Clearly one team at Apple feels (or felt) that the name was no impediment to them marketing it. Like all corporations, Apple is just a congregation of human beings, rather than a synchronized hive mind. But it's problematic if app authors can't trust in consistency as a result. FWIW, it's a net downside for me that my professional workstation has an app named "Amphetamine", so I'm quietly in favor of a rename.…

How is it a net downside? The entire purpose of the App Store being locked down is that it's reliable. There is no way any HR department will launch an investigation because you downloaded an app called Amphetamine. Worst case scenario they go look it up and realize there's nothing more to the situation.

I'd have to see a documented event of this happening rather than a hypothetical scenario to believe a downside actually exists.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#517

Post by [deleted] »

webmobdev wrote: post #510
gambiting wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because at a retail store the expectation is that if I see a box labeled "amphetamine" it better contain actual amphetamine. Obviously that's not acceptable, so it's not going to happen. When I buy software, I certainly don't expect to get drugs. When I buy a game called "Surgeon Simulator" I don't expect to receive actual surgeon training any more than I expect to get amphetamine after getting an app called amph…

Good point. And the App Store is not a retail store - developers PAY THEM to distribute their wares. They are Apple's customers too!

[deleted]

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#518

Post by joseph_grobbles »

ihunter2839 wrote: post #491
joseph_grobbles wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me be more explicit for you, then: I speed past a cop who is pointing his radar gun at me, staring at me , but for some reason he doesn't decide to pursue me (an experience many of us have actually had). Maybe it's an off day for him and he just doesn't care. Maybe he was confused about the speed limit on that stretch. Maybe he is waiting for a bigger fish. Maybe he likes my car (or skin) color and decided to loo…

Down vote away, my challenge still stands for you to catch up to the cop or to pull over and ask "Hey I was just going x over the limit, do you want to give me a ticket?" :P All jokes aside, I feel that this is a poor analogy that really misses the key issues (in my mind). A developer creates an app and then submits an app for review. The app is approved and the app starts to build an organic following. At some later…

Are you confused into thinking I downvoted you? I hardly have the karma to, nor would I, however misplaced your comment is.

I, on the other hand, have taken (thus far) about 15 downvotes. And I regret none of them given that I'm absolutely right, and this is yet another stupid torch mob about nonsense.

The guy is going to end up changing the name (and icon) of his project. Life moves on. Story at 11.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#519

Post by suchnonsense »

throwaway09223 wrote: post #179
gregdoesit wrote: post #115

Lawyers will be lawyers. I assume this request from Apple’s side originates from on of the legal teams, who are paid to pre-emotive ensure Apple won’t be sued. I have a story that makes me relate from Microsoft/Skype. A few months after Microsoft acquired Skype, a JIRA ticket was opened by one of the compliance teams at Microsoft with a simple request. Remove the mooning emoji from Skype [1], as it could be considere…

This is a failure of management, as is your skype example. Balancing the risk of litigation against risk to the product is management's job. In both of these cases the risk is somewhere between minimal and non-existent. Big companies tend to have bad management. There are entire libraries of books analyzing why this is the case but the short story is "risk aversion." Employees are incentivized to save their own skin…

Such nonsense, balancing risk of litigation against the risk to the product isn't management's job. Companies have whole departments for this, called risk management with people specialized on the matter.

This is not done by some random manager.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#520

Post by LeoNatan25 »

sangnoir wrote: post #444
mmaunder wrote: post #23

You’re angry. I’ve felt this in a trademark lawsuit. You think the world should get behind you and change the corrupt system. My advice is to immediately rebrand as gracefully and effectively as possible and use all that activist energy to effect the transition. They kind of have a point which doesn’t make them right, but they hold all the cards and you will lose this one and regret the wasted bandwidth.

Ah, I remember this infamous Apple ad: Here’s to the lazy ones, the mundane, the conformers, the rule-followers, the square pegs in the square holes… the ones who don't see things differently — they’re fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, you can also safely ignore them because they dare not change things… they keep the human race stagnant, and while some may see them as the…

The Tim Cook era of Apple. This describes well Apple’s fanboy drones, but also the company engineering, product and design.
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