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Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny

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Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny

#61
post #20
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Collecting intimate personal details and selling it to advertisers is less ominous than screening apps to ensure quality?

For that the key is the privacy controls. We can argue about whether Facebook's privacy controls are good enough, whether they are selling our data, and so on. But that's got nothing to do with the Apple walled-garden comparison. I can write a FB app and have it up in a jiffy, that's just not the case with Apple. And I will be so very very surprised if Facebook censors a dictionary app.

> I can write a FB app and have it up in a jiffy, that's just not the case with Apple

If FB doesn't like your app they'll have it down in a jiffy too. It's not nearly so clear cut as you make out. Their review process is just reactive instead of front-loaded.

Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny

#62
post #40
post #16

Earlier 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…

" In both cases, you're getting the privilege to play in a very, very market."

You've omitted a word or two.

Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny

#63
post #16

Earlier 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.

I used to work for a social network that wanted to let users get their own photos out of Facebook and into our network. We built a Facebook app that expressly served this purpose; users only enabled it after knowing what it would do and desiring that consequence.

A few weeks after we added this feature, Facebook told us if we kept doing this -- if we kept letting users import their own photos -- our API access would be terminated.

So, yeah, walled garden.

Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny

#64
post #38
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure all of us see the quality benefits quite so obviously. Are you implying that dictionaries with censored words are better quality?

I challenge you to find a popular dicionary that isn't carefully curated. You can't just call up Webster and get a word added to the dictionary, there's a vetting process it has to go through.

Curated != Censored.

Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I used to work for a social network that wanted to let users get their own photos out of Facebook and into our network. We built a Facebook app that expressly served this purpose; users only enabled it after knowing what it would do and desiring that consequence. A few weeks after we added this feature, Facebook told us if we kept doing this -- if we kept letting users import their own photos -- our API access would…

What was the name of your application? When was this?

Re: Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work for a social network that wanted to let users get their own photos out of Facebook and into our network. We built a Facebook app that expressly served this purpose; users only enabled it after knowing what it would do and desiring that consequence. A few weeks after we added this feature, Facebook told us if we kept doing this -- if we kept letting users import their own photos -- our API access would…

What was the name of your application? When was this?

About a year ago; I'm no longer with the company. It was http://chi.mp/
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