Apple's iOS 5 coming this Fall • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple's iOS 5 coming this Fall

#61

Post by wnight » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 3:51 PM UTC

msbarnett wrote: post #22

ben1040 wrote: post #3

I wonder what the fallout from folks like Instapaper and Tap Tap Tap will be. It seems kind of shady for Apple to say Tap Tap Tap's Camera+ couldn't have volume button as a shutter (because it was a UX rule violation), then six months later implement that feature right into iOS.

So what's the solution here? To me the outcry over this seems pretty contradictory given the general antipathy around here towards software patents. Either ideas are something that an individual can own and control and others are forbidden to use without permission, or everybody is free to implement them and innovate around them. Is Marco going to have to do some work now to differentiate himself from Reading List? T…

Remember Ballmer chanting "Developers! Developers! ..."?

Well, here Apple is saying "Screw the developers".

Sure, they have a right to do this, and perhaps an obligations, but the developers put out business without warning probably won't keep developing for Apple. Over time that will work to reduce developer uptake, and thus app selection on iOS, which is why they perhaps should have chosen to somehow lessen the blow to unlucky developers.

Re: Apple's iOS 5 coming this Fall

#62

Post by wnight » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 4:22 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #44

martythemaniak wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Integrating features from apps is a bit of an asshole move, but at least everyone does it. They pulled that app and threatened the devs because it hacked the buttons. You don't see the difference?

Not really. I think everyone knows, whether they want to admit it or not, that Apple gets to say what all the hardware buttons do. To what other end would Apple do anything with that authority other than to benefit Apple? This wasn't some random feature that Apple capriciously decided wasn't allowed. It's not like they told Marco, "you're not allowed to make, save, and sync readable versions of web articles". The app…

Users who liked the feature might have been a bit surprised. It's not like the app randomly mucked with the UI, it did precisely what the user requested - nobody needed to be saved.

Re: Apple's iOS 5 coming this Fall

#63

Post by alanfalcon » Wed, Jun 08, 2011, 10:40 PM UTC

nathanb wrote: post #60

msbarnett wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what's the solution here? To me the outcry over this seems pretty contradictory given the general antipathy around here towards software patents. Either ideas are something that an individual can own and control and others are forbidden to use without permission, or everybody is free to implement them and innovate around them. Is Marco going to have to do some work now to differentiate himself from Reading List? T…

I agree completely; you can't have it both ways. However, the point in the OP about Camera+ seems a bit more legit. Rejecting an app for doing X and then doing X yourself in the next release seems like a huge double-standard, and where there are double standards there is foothold for allegations of anti-competitive behavior. That said, however, the difference between me (sitting in a cubicle typing this) and the crea…

Actually, the Camera+ developers filed a feature request and asked Apple to add the volume-button-as-shutter feature. See: http://taptaptap.com/blog/cameraplus-volumesnap-rejected/

So I imagine they're pretty happy with this development.