Very good news out of Cupertino just now. It took quite a bit of negative press, but Apple has finally caved in: the company is dropping its restriction on third-party development tools for iOS. Also, the company has published all its App Store review guidelines out in the open for the first time. It took a little too long, but very good news nonetheless.
Apple released a short press release today, one that doesn’t come across as particularly friendly – it would appear Apple is doing this not because it believes it is right, but because circumstances force them to. The company is dropping the third-party tools restriction, as well publishing all its review guidelines online.
“We are continually trying to make the App Store even better,” Apple writes, “We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.”
All development tools – including Adobe Flash CS5 – are now allowed, as long as they do not download any code. Apple claims this will give developers the flexibility they need, while at the same time preserving the security of the iOS.
“In addition,” the company adds, “For the first time we are publishing the App Store Review Guidelines to help developers understand how we review submitted apps. We hope it will make us more transparent and help our developers create even more successful apps for the App Store.”
This is great news for iOS application developers, and therefore, for iOS users the world over. Now let’s grab a bag of chips and watch the Apple fanatics who supported the ban suddenly herald this move as totally justified Cupertino brilliance (I kid, I kid).
Apple’s blunder was that it introduced the restriction after the platform was already mature. If it had set the restrictive parameters from the outset, it would have had more room to manoeuvre.
Who would have thought?
Do we have the FCC or the courts to thank?
Google. You have Google to thank. All of these app developers have leverage because of Android’s rise.
What sort of Objective-C/Cocoa support is there in Android?
That is the point. They want developers to target iOS devices also. Because they know they will lose out in quantity. And they will lose the developers if they don’t cater to them. iPhone is essentially a mobile phone with a media player without an app store.
You can in fact program Android in ObjC by means of the NDK and the GNU ObjC compiler.
Nobody have cared to do it [probably because ObjC is such a clusterf**k], but you can do it and Google will not stop you.
Edited 2010-09-10 13:43 UTC
“Now let’s grab a bag of chips and watch the Apple fanatics who supported the ban suddenly herald this move as totally justified Cupertino brilliance”
Loved this joke
There is no doubt in my mind that this is caused directly as a result of the Andriod assault on the market.
6-9 months ago, Apple looked so strong in the market that Jobs thought he could oust Adobe and set certain rules for developers. After all, where would they go?
The Rules would have the added benefit that if you develop for native Apple API, it would be hard and/or costly to port to another platform.
Then the Droids took over (and still are). Suddenly you are the developer that says: f–k that for a game of soldiers, I want my app to run on any platform with the minimum amount of fuzz, if I am forced by Apple to be locked in to one platform, I might as well develop for the Android platform, that has a lot more freedom and eventually a bigger market share.
Hence, Apple had to come back on its decision.
Edited 2010-09-09 14:57 UTC
Except, the Android platform is a pile of hurt.
Wishful thinking.
Is this a sign of weakness or strength?
I tend to see it as a sign of confidence in their app platform. App development and app sales on the iOS shows no sign of slowing and Android is not catching up very fast on the app front so this move was not made to shore up a rickety app eco system.
Even with the Android surge Android apps make a tiny proportion of the income for developers compared to iOS apps so the whole cross platform issue may just be a lot less concern in Cupertino.
Are you kidding me? It hasn’t even been 6 months since they initiated the ban, now they’re flip flopping. There is a reason why they pulled this 180, but I seriously doubt it’s because of their confidence of their platform.
If they’re so confident I think they would have held their ground on the ban since they know best.
Some funny notes from the “App Store Review Guidelines”
“If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps.”
That cracks me up. You may only talk nice about Apple, they never do any wrong.
That’s typical of Apple – not just towards developers, but also towards journalists and bloggers. If you don’t say nice things about them, they’ll ostracise you. No more review items for you. No more press event invites for you.
I can know. It happened to me because I had the audacity to mention how hot the first Intel MacBook Pro became during ordinary use. Despite calling it an awesome machine, best laptop out there, and so on – they still ostracised me because I dared to mention their laptop got hot.
That’s Apple. There is no other company in the world who treats the press like that – but it works. Sites like Engadget suck Apple’s popcicle, because they know it’s bye-bye review items and press invites if they don’t. I can’t even blame Engadget for it.
Edited 2010-09-09 19:54 UTC
What a load of crap. It happens the world over. What benefit is there for any company to provide review items or press release invitations for those who continually trash them?
“Oh here, come along to our press release so you can go out and bag what we’re doing again, we really enjoy it.”
“Here take this evaluation product trash every aspect of it because you don’t like us as a company.”
There is a significant difference between writing an effective critique and bagging something. If a company does something that is positive for their user community, or indeed reverses a decision that then has perceived positives, spending half the article talking about previous decisions that had perceived negative implications is the sign of a writer who just enjoys bagging that company. As is filling an article with points that only support a perceived negative side of an argument. There have been hundreds of articles written about Apple products over the years that have presented both negative and positive aspects of products and / or decisions. None of those writers were ostracized. It’s only those who want to push their negative agenda that will be ignored, and rightly so.
And yet, I’ve never written a negative Apple review.
Warped much?
Dude he said all he said was it got hot, but other then that it was great. That’s not continually trash them.
If your argument is valid, why did Apple suddenly introduce the draconian new license rules in the first place? If they truely believe the reasons that were given for the license change (Flash is crap and developing in ‘intermediate’ code leads to bad apps) then why now change.
For me it reinforces the idea that they are afraid, very afraid (and I think they should be, Android looks incredibly strong now, appearing on all sorts of devices, not only phones)
Section 3.2.2 “An Application may not download or install executable code. Interpreted code may only
be used in an Application if all scripts, code and interpreters are packaged in the Application and
not downloaded….[snip]”
OMFG!!! Things just got interesting again!
Why is that interesting? I thought everyone already knew about that restriction. I thought Adobe’s main complaint was that their cool flash to ios code modifier wasn’t allowed. I didn’t think their main complaint was the lack of flash on ios.
You can read English, right? I guess so, as you have got this far. Have you even read what it says? No, would be my conclusion. I will paraphrase for you: It states that interpreted code is *now allowed*. That is a HUGE turn around. HUGE. The fact that my comment was voted down pretty much proves that no one is actually looking at this objectively.
I guess this makes any non-apple JavaScript enabled browser impossible.
Who cases? Safari is fine. This has set most alternate programming environments free from being obliterated:
Interpreted code may only
be used in an Application if all scripts, code and interpreters are packaged in the Application and
not downloaded.
This is the only real news in the announcement.
Question: Why does Apple allow web browsers on iOS?
HTML is downloaded code…
JavaScript is downloaded code…
CSS could almost be called code…
Apple is supporting HTML5 which also includes:
* <canvas> which requires a JavaScript to do the drawing.
* MathML which is a coding standard for writing math formulas.
Most of the advances in HTML5 where around making the DOM easier to change via JavaScript and the addition of new events that can trigger JavaScript functions.
If you can’t download code… How can you allow JavaScript in a browser?
I believe Safari is exempt. No Chrome, Firefox, or Opera allowed, at least natively.
From daringfireball:
BTW: HTML is definitely NOT code!
So, same as before, no other browser engines.
HTML should not be code. But that didn’t stop them from doing this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Htmlscript
Reminded me of iHTML^aEUR”a real blast from the past
http://webonastick.com/ihtml.html
Yeah, I already quoted most of that. Why did you miss it…? oh, OS News readers decided to vote it down.
Include sanctioned Javascript libraries that work and are certified by WebKit, as part of your application package?
Would a game that includes some scripting capability in its levels (that’s what most of games do anyway) and allow players to create and share levels be accepted ?
Because I think that might become a common use case as the number of games increases. The iPad, thanks to its bigger screen, could allow for easy authoring of game content.
Anybody know if some existing iOS games already support that kind of community authoring ?
I guess that would depend on the implementation.
If whatever gets shared is written in a programming language, then it would be a definite no.
If in the other hand it’s written in a format that can’t be said to be a programming language I think it is within the current terms.
For example, a format for a game with a grid could be:
where each number represents an enemy/ally/structure on the board. This is obviously not a programming language, so I don’t think that anything is stopping it in the agreement.
Could someone quote the beginning of the license, to see how scripting is defined ?
(In my opinion, this move just means that Apple is trying to ditch the Mac platform, that though highly profitable has not become profitable enough.
Without iOS developers, all that would remain of the Mac user base will be a small amount of geeks and a shrinking part of the media industry. This would allow Apple to make new macs that suck even more than before, to pressure every single extractable dollar out of this small user base, and then finally put the Mac and its OSX platform to rest)
The relevant excerpt from the slightly outdated agreement in EFF’s website:
They don’t define what “interpreted code” or “executable code” means, so I think it’s safe to assume that the difference between “executable code” and “non-executable code” is Turing completeness.
Completely outdated you mean surely? That entire quote is no longer present in the license.
It doesn’t really matter any more, as both are now allowed. The “downloading” restriction applies to both, so both are on an equal footing on that point.
Just wait to see what they have to offer with MacOSX 10.7
I love your wishful thinking – as Apple grows bigger, sells more products, makes more profit, every step is seen as one more towards doom. The poor fools!
Did you ever see the brilliant 1970s British TV comedy Dads Army? It had a character called Frasier, a mournful Scottish undertaker, and at every opportunity he would call out his catchphrase “we’re all doomed!!”
I wish I could tell you what I know about Mac OS X 10.7.
I don’t usually do this – which is reprint an article from another web site but this one so pungently critiques the nonsense written and believed by many about Android being great because its open that I decided to post it here in its entirety.
Android Is As Open As The Clenched Fist I^aEURTMd Like To Punch The Carriers With
MG Siegler
Techcrunch
This past weekend, I wrote a post wondering if Android was surging in the U.S. market because Apple was letting it? The main thought was that by remaining exclusively tied to AT&T, Apple was driving some users to choose Android, which is available on all the U.S. carriers. In the post, I posed a question: if it^aEURTMs not the iPhone/AT&T deal, why do you choose Android? Nearly 1,000 people responded, and a large percentage focused on the same idea: the idea of ^aEURoeopenness.^aEUR
You^aEURTMll forgive me, but I have to say it: what a load of crap.
In theory, I^aEURTMm right there with you. The thought of a truly open mobile operating system is very appealing. The problem is that in practice, that^aEURTMs just simply not the reality of the situation. Maybe if Google had their way, the system would be truly open. But they don^aEURTMt. Sadly, they have to deal with a very big roadblock: the carriers.
The result of this unfortunate situation is that the so-called open system is quickly revealing itself to be anything but. Further, we^aEURTMre starting to see that in some cases the carriers may actually be able to exploit this ^aEURoeopenness^aEUR to create a closed system that may leave you crying for Apple^aEURTMs closed system ^aEUR” at least their^aEURTMs looks good and behaves as expected.
Case in point: the last couple of Android phones I^aEURTMve gotten as demo units from Google: the EVO 4G and the Droid 2, have been loaded up with crapware installed by the carriers (Sprint and Verizon, respectively). Apple would never let this fly on the iPhone, but the openness of Android means Google has basically no say in the matter. Consumers will get the crapware and they^aEURTMll like it. Not only that, plenty of this junk can^aEURTMt even be uninstalled. How^aEURTMs that for ^aEURoeopen^aEUR?
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Earlier this year, Verizon rolled out its own V Cast app store on some BlackBerry devices. This occurred despite that fact that BlackBerry devices have their own app store (App World). From what we^aEURTMre hearing, Verizon is also planning to launch this store on their Android phones as well in the future. Obviously, this store would be pre-installed, and it would likely be more prominently displayed than Android^aEURTMs own Market for apps.
Does V Cast have some good content? Probably. But most of it is undoubtedly crap that Verizon is trying to sell you for a high fee. But who cares whether it^aEURTMs great or it^aEURTMs crap ^aEUR” isn^aEURTMt the point of ^aEURoeopen^aEUR supposed to be that the consumer can choose what they want on their own devices? Instead, open is proving to mean that the carriers can choose what they want to do with Android.
It^aEURTMs too bad, but there is now a very real risk that the carriers are going to exploit the open system Google set up in order to create a new version of the bullshit proprietary ecosystems that they had before the iPhone came along and turned the market on its side.
And it^aEURTMs not just Verizon, it^aEURTMs all the carriers. One of the great features of Android is that you can install apps without going through an app store, right? Well, not if you have an a Motorola Backflip or a HTC Aria running on AT&T ^aEUR” they^aEURTMve locked this feature down. How? Thanks to the open Android OS.
Oh, and how about tethering? It^aEURTMs one of the truly great features of Android 2.2, right? Well, not if you have a carrier that doesn^aEURTMt want to support it. Google has to defer to them to enable their own native OS feature. It^aEURTMs such an awesome feature ^aEUR” in the hands of Google. Once the carriers get their hands on it ^aEUR” not so much.
Speaking of Android 2.2, you know it^aEURTMs out there right? You^aEURTMll be forgiven if you don^aEURTMt because a whopping 4.5 percent of you Android users are currently running it, according to Google^aEURTMs dashboard. And again, that^aEURTMs not Google^aEURTMs fault, that^aEURTMs all the carriers. Incredibly, over 35 percent of you still aren^aEURTMt even running any version of Android 2.x. It^aEURTMs pathetic.
Apple gets crap for not supporting phones that are three years old with OS updates ^aEUR” the open Android system can^aEURTMt even upgrade phones that are only a few months old in some cases ^aEUR” again, all thanks to the carriers.
The excuses for why this is run rampant. They need to tweak their custom skins, they need to test the new software, etc. It^aEURTMs all a bunch of garbage. This is an open platform and yet you^aEURTMre more restricted than on Apple^aEURTMs supposedly closed one.
What happens when Verizon won^aEURTMt update your phone to the latest greatest Android software ^aEUR” not because they can^aEURTMt, but because they want you to upgrade to a new piece of hardware and sign the new two-year agreement that comes along with it? The game remains the same.
My point is not to bash Google ^aEUR” what they^aEURTMve created is an excellent mobile operating system. My point is that the same ^aEURoeopenness^aEUR that Android users are touting as a key selling point of the OS could very well end up being its weak point. If you don^aEURTMt think Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint are going to try to commandeer the OS in an attempt to return to their glory days where we were all slaves to their towers, you^aEURTMre being naive.
^aEURoeOpen^aEUR is great until you have to define it or defend it. I^aEURTMm not sure Google can continue to do either in this situation.
And before all of you pros storm the comments with how great it is to root your Android phones, consider the average consumers here. They are the ones being screwed by this exploitation of ^aEURoeopen.^aEUR Anyone with the desire to do so can fairly easily hack an iPhone too. Open is not a reason to choose Android + carrier vs. iPhone + AT&T.
Update: Oh, and one more great example Michael Prassel reminded me of in the comments ^aEUR” do you want Skype on your Android phone? Well, I hope you have Verizon because otherwise you won^aEURTMt be able to install it. ^aEURoeOpen.^aEUR We^aEURTMre only going to see more of this, not less.
Original here
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/09/android-open/
Dude, that’s copyright infringement. Righthaven will get you.
Did you just quote “MG Siegler”?? Thats like quoting Steve Jobs himself! (for all we know, they could be the same person)
Didn’t Siegler publish an article a few week back claiming that http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/05/apple-android/“>Android ??
I’ve seen OSX 10.5 where after highly mocking Vista, Apple made the perfect Mac equivalent of it : a bloated, unpolished release, full of shiny-but-impractical features, that looks pushed forward while it was not yet ready.
I’ve seen OSX 10.6 too. After “The most powerful release of Mac OSX. Yet.”, it was “The most unexciting and unpolished release of Mac OSX. Yet.”. It’s advertised as a cleanup rewrite, but it doesn’t even do the cleanup fully and properly. Where’s the full rewrite in Cocoa ? Apple are good at complaining that Adobe does not use the latest API, not at using it themselves. And why are there several versions of quicktime bundled ? Couldn’t they just make the new release compatible with older codecs or port the codecs themselves ? Also, what’s with this incredibly buggy release ? I’ve never seen as much people complaining as by the time of OSX 10.6’s release.
Then, there’s the recent (since the end of 2008) evolution of Mac hardware. Outdated hardware, less sensible pricing, higher failure rate, crazily impractical new pointing devices, shiny screens.
So well, let’s see if Apple redeem themselves with OSX 10.7. At the moment, I’ve yet to see the modern equivalent of my mother’s PowerBook G4 in the new mac universe : simple, fast, efficient, reliable, and, most important, well-polished.
How is ditching the mac dooming Apple ? To the contrary, that is a risky move that must be well-thought, but if they’re successful Apple can make millions from this move.
-Much reduced piracy and much higher income through the App Store system
-Even more captive customers
-Only one codebase to maintain
-Selling things using the iPhone + iTouch popularity. Like with the mandatory use of Xcode, but even more efficient
-Imposing market decisions more easily (“No more fsckin’ users installing VLC to read all videos and not just our wonderful H.264 videos ! If VLC comes up, we will just get it out of the App Store, because it is violating the DMCA”)
-And many other reasons why this is pure genius…
Seen the multitouch trackpad of the new iMacs ? The nightmarish interface of laptops being ported to the desktop. “The same technology as on the iPhone” say Apple. Don’t you think that this is all going somewhere ?
If I had to continue building up a scenario, I’d guess that Apple would start with the MacBook Air. Nobody likes this failed netbook competitor wannabe anyway, so it won’t be missed if the experiment fails. Apple would sell something looking like a 13 inch iPad with usb ports, labeling it as the new macbook air (“Simpler. Safer. Shinier.”).
Some times before, they would probably have introduced some OSX viruses based on holes in their never-updated libraries, to make the life of mac users nightmarish. The new macbook air would be presented as a curated computer, guaranteed virus-free due to the App Store ™ system, and hassle-free thanks to its new multitouch screen.
To make people fall in such an obvious trap, Apple would have to introduce some killer features too. They have some talent for this. My personal guess is haptic feedback on the touchscreen, for a virtual keyboard that finally feels like a real keyboard, offers similar typing speed, and is usable by visually impaired people. Apple has filed a patent for it some times ago.
A file browser can also be expected (because laptop use cases require it), but with only the user folder accessible : system and applications folder will be gone, / directory will be unavailable. In the user folder, most things related to Apple software and application data will be hidden. The iTunes folder, as an example.
TimeMachine will be flagged as outdated. In the keynote, Jobs will explain that consumer storage media are just not reliable enough to store our precious data, and unveil the new release of MobileMe that can store your full TimeMachine backup for only $15/month (“Unlimited storage. At an unbelievable price”).
Does it still look that unlikely ?
Edited 2010-09-09 22:51 UTC
Then, there’s the recent (since the end of 2008) evolution of Mac hardware. Outdated hardware, less sensible pricing, higher failure rate, crazily impractical new pointing devices, shiny screens.
Wait so my early 2010 core i7 Macbook Pro is outdated? This was built in April…there were few i7 laptops out there…
Edited 2010-09-10 05:21 UTC
Well, sure there were few laptops with a core i7m, due to its price tag it’s targeted at very high end computers, which most laptops are not… But which Apple computers pretend to be, looking at their price tag. And, as usual, they’re late. Long gone is the time where Apple introduced backlit keyboards and LED screens to the computer world…
-The MacBook and Mac Mini are still using a C2D processor… How many time since Intel launched the Core line ? Those machines cost $700 and more, we can expect recent hardware at this price.
-i don’t remember how much time it took apple to get rid of the GeForce 9400 chipsets, but they were still using them when there was better alternatives available.
-And earlier they used the x600 chipset series, known for its ability to burn on computers like modern Macbooks were silence is favored over ventilation efficiency.
-I’m still waiting for that mac with a bluray player. As funny as it is to use, the SuperDrive is getting old on those very high-priced machines. But I guess Apple don’t want to threaten their iTunes hd movie rental revenue…
-For $1000, the new MacBook is positioned as a very high end computer. Few laptops reach that price tag. 2 GB ram sounds then… Well… Scarce. Especially considering how cheap ram is.
-On the area of connectivity, Apple has heard about gigabit ethernet, but what about eSata ? Gigabit ethernet, like USB3, is still far from being common, eSata on the other hand…
Edited 2010-09-10 06:34 UTC
We can reduce this entirely to “I’m not a fan of Apple, or at least, Macs and Mac OS X.” What everyone with your argument miss is that Apple don’t care about market share or whether you can afford or even want their products. That is what irks people like you. That is why most of your venting is pure white noise. Deal with it.
Read twice and pay more attention when you read, please. Prove that human brain keeps the ability to think objectively after prolonged exposure to Apple marketting.
If you still can’t get it, tell me and I will tell you why this is not simply “I don’t like macs and OSX”.
Edited 2010-09-10 16:30 UTC
You had me until this:
Sorry, I can almost believe the big antivirus companies may have done this in the past to boost sales, but I seriously doubt Apple could, or would, do something like that. The potential backlash if found out would destroy the company, and these days it’s way too easy to get caught with your hand in the till.
For one thing, the order would have to come from Jobs himself (remember, Apple as it stands today IS Steve Jobs), which leaves plenty of opportunities for some Apple employee with morals to find out and blow the whistle. Besides, Jobs himself is so obsessed with the perceived perfection of the Mac and OS X that I doubt he’d stoop to that level. It would be like a Jesuit priest screaming blasphemous obscenities about Christ, while burning bibles.
You could be right. And after all, this is all speculation. I’m not yet ready to bet it would actually happen in the future, contrary to my bet about JavaScript games on another topic
I was just trying to demonstrate that Apple could be interested in ditching OSX in favor of iOS on its mac line, and could do it while keeping a sensible part of the Mac user base…
Can’t wait to see all the Ruby/iPhone apps appear on Github…
Classical “Jobs one eighty”. Good stuff. I love it!
And now back to game development in Unity3D…
PS: Thank you Google for giving Apple a little bit of pressure with Android ^^
…totally justified Cupertino brilliance!1!!!
(ha ha – see previous posts)
…or in other words, the board of directors informed Jobs that as much as they adore his ego trip they are more intrested in net profit.
I am one of the fanbois who was not happen when Apple first did this.
Apple make quite a few mistakes, and this was one of them. Now they have done a 180 and that is a great thing, but it’s a shame they needed to in the first place.
I will be interested to see what we can build.
One thing for certain, Apple will think twice before heading down this road again.
I can’t think it was pressure from lack of software being written, and certainly sales of iPhones are still doing exceptionally well, so it’s an interesting turn of events…
Well that’s the thing. Despite Apple’s own rule there were very little appstore rejections based on it. Plenty of Unity based games were accepted after the rule. I’m not sure about other projects like monotouch. Unity is probably in class of its own, it actually uses Apple’s pipeline (xcode, etc), eventhough it uses mono for scripting.
Either way this is great news for the Unity community. They are probably rejoicing as I know a lot of people were holding their projects until Unity or Apple resolved the issue.
If life gives you lemons then make lemonade –
This is such a not issue. If I want to program for Windows I would need to know dot-net if I want to program for the Mac I need to know my way around XCode. But if I want to farm the job out to India or Eastern Europe then I need to know flash. And it is not like I hate flash. But I suspect that the programmers are not being thorough.
Example: I Have a whole gang of .flv web pages from my Cisco Training My Mac barely goes above 5% util and 280 – 300 MB ‘wired’ memory, and the fans stay at 1000 rpm. The Post-Adobe versions of basic video go to 60% util 825MB ‘wired’ And this test is easy to replicate on Windows. And I will not put Gnash through that sort of thrashing. Example 2. The current batch of security flaws in the MacOS and iOS are PDF and (corrupt/hac[k]ed) fonts.
This severely limits the amount of goodwill that I will extend to Adobe products. And makes it hard use apps that rely on this runtime (or other possibly sketchy runtimes) on my system. So if a Developer wants to base their games on third party tools that they may or may not understand, that provide for a more ‘Open’ experience and then the ‘games & fart apps’ crew likes it so be it. But that is not where I will spend one moment of my development time. I had issues with past Java projects running OK on windows and screaming fast on Mac and Unix/Linux.
And these apps will have to go through the app store. Which if you like it or not is a store. And does not owe you any thing that you haven’t paid for. I do not have to agree with everything they do just what works
-@ haters if life gives you apples: Make haterade?
Not true, at all. I can program windows or Mac just fine with python + GTK, or Java, or Fortran or raw native C. or assembly, or ada, or zfunge, or haskell, or Go, or Eiffel or any other language known to man in any editor I please and with any complier of my choosing as well.
Wooops My Bad. That was a gross generalization and simplification on my part. I was thinking along the lines of how a new programmer might go about the task.
The programmers who think Flash+iPhone=Game scare me a Lot. In the days between win3.1 and win98 there were a lot of shareware apps (and a lot on the Mac too) and Windows made some ‘questionable’ choices for the ease of the developer and left a lot of cracks and crags in the foundation. I think that the iOS is going to go through a lot of the same issues as it matures. And some of this will happen regardless of what Apple Co. does. – I know I can write a leaky app in Cocoa, I would just prefer not to have flash doing things that it was not really designed for nor have a leaky runtime.
~Nope! that is yet another simplification. In Cocoa I prefer to release and retain manually. The iOS does not have real Garbage Collection. So this means that I have to know what I am doing and pay attention a little more – That is good for me because I will then have my eyes on the long term goal of what I am doing, and it makes me a better coder at least strictly in the mechanical sense. If I am correct in that flash is leaky (and it certainly is inefficient) then developers for that platform may need to refactor it a little. Cross the T’s and dot the I’s. If they can build a fast and clean flash app for OSX and iOS then prove me wrong.
Again this is just my two cents from my little car in the race. And that I will not apologize for
I understand your concern, but as long as developers wer able to use their tools of choice, the cream would rise to the top. My favorite apps on windows, are not written in .net ( whose are??). On Mac … Well, yes the best ones are probably written with Cocoa, but not even all of Apple’s apps are written in cocoa. If the cocoa/python or cocoa /java bindings were actually maintained, then I would actually do more native coding on a Mac. As it is, I’m trying to avoid it. ( this is a complete 180 from 2005, when I bought my first, and probably last mac).
If Steve Jobs mandated everyone to code with their right hand only, you would have praised him for making you more efficient since it allows you to code and read/play games/masturbate/whatever at the same time
PS. What do you mean “will not apologize”?? your whole post was a big Apple apology…
whoa buddy that is a lot to put out there. By the way I spend my non work time raising my two wonderful children or volunteering in a charter school. I am an Apple Stockholder and Longtime Apple Developer. I may not be the best but I am pretty good. I will use the tools i like (for me) to get the job done. I am not suggesting that you do anything except maybe troll elsewhere. I am not some uncritical fanboy. I just know that I do what I get paid for and I get paid for what I do. The GNU is great, but it urges a sense of entitlement.
Here is an easy example. You can come to my house and eat for free. My Dinner parties are lively and friendly. If you ask for a plate to take to your wife I am honored. I am more than happy to share the recipe with you if you ask, and if you think that I have too much thyme or marjoram in it we can talk about it. BUT if I am in a restaurant and I am eating a meal that I just paid for then I do not think that you have any real right to sit down and eat my food, or just walk into the kitchen and fix a plate.
Where I work I am DISALLOWED from sharing code. I am not even allowed to describe my job my role or even the building. I understand that the church of stallmanology makes it seem that you have a right to see and inspect my code. The best thing that I can do for free is to help students understand that a computer is for more than surfing the web and watching videos.
I am not perfect, apple is not perfect, Stallman and Joy (while exceptionally great) are not perfect and the world is just how it is meant to be. BUT if you get to that promised land be sure to send me a postcard.
Did you reply to the correct comment?
For the records, I think Stallman looks like a caveman and should go out more. Not to say that I don’t like using GCC for free, but I am not a Stallman groupie.
You on the other hand…
Good, maybe they will finally now allow google voice integration!
Props to Apple for actually having the courage to change their mind on this one. Now I can add the iOS to the list of target platforms for my next Flex-based app
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Here’s what I get when I run that quote through a PR-to-English translator:
“The success of Android and others has us running scared, so now we’re doing some backpedalling in a desperate attempt to avoid being marginalized once again.”
But don’t worry – even though this is exactly what I predicted would happen, I won’t say “I told you so” just yet. For that, I’m waiting until Apple backpedals far enough to finally allow Flash onto the iProducts. Going by current trends, that will happen about 6 months from now.
Amazing … I was thinking exactly the same thing. Perhaps there is something wrong with me today?
Anyway, here is an article which indicates the state of play with respect to exactly how much Android might be pressuring the iPhone recently:
http://www.intomobile.com/2010/09/09/android-10k-apps-market-80k/
Interesting.
Amazing … I was thinking exactly the same thing. Perhaps there is something wrong with me today?
Anyway, here is an article which indicates the state of play with respect to exactly how much Android might be pressuring the iPhone recently:
http://www.intomobile.com/2010/09/09/android-10k-apps-market-80k/
Interesting. [/q]
The thing is if, this was a sign of weakness then presumeably it would be a weakness on the App front. This after all is a measure likely to increase or broaden the number of apps on the iPhone from different sources. If Apple really did feel pressured into doing this then it would logically have to be because they felt pressure in relations to the comparative app situation of iOS in relation to other platforms such as Android.
The problem is that there is not the slightest evidence that Apple is feeling competitive pressure on the App front. Apple’s App Store still has lots more Apps than its nearest competitors, developers are still making a lot (really a lot) more money on the App Store than on any other platform, the Apple App development framework continues to be undated, improved and highly appreciated by developers.
So where is the pressure on Apple on the App front?
My feeling is that this is a tidying up of the rules once Apple had a look at the various issues it was concerned about and decided it was not particularly threatened by some of stuff it had previously blocked. Its still not supporting Flash itself and the new rules still block development frameworks like Adobe’s AIR.
So because their hasn’t been a mass, overnight defection of developers from iOS to Android, you believe that Apple isn’t threatened by Android’s success? Yeah, that makes sense… if you suffer from myopia so severe that it borders on blindness.
Do you honestly fail to realize that most developers (especially commercial developers) prefer to target the platform with the most users? The iProducts may have entrenchment and momentum on their side, but that alone doesn’t keep you on top for ever (look at Palm, or Apple in the 1980s). Not if there’s ultimately more money to be made developing for Android.
Apple is just taking an action now, instead of waiting until they’re inevitably forced to. They’re terrified of Android vs iOS becoming a repeat of Windows vs MacOS, so much so that they’re willing to take preemptive steps and compromise their “ideals” to stop it from happening.
And, in the process, Apple has given a gift-wrapped, hand-delivered competitive advantage to every other smartphone OS and handset maker. Soon the iPhone will be the only smartphone lacking even an optional way to view Flash content, that’s when Jobs’ little vendetta against Adobe will really start blowing up in his face (and I’ll be there with popcorn in hand).
Ah let’s see. Ooh, I love Apple so much. This was such an awesome decision. Just like when then made that awesome decision to keep Flash out. Take that Android…
Sarcasm aside, as an iPhone owner and user, I’m glad to see more flexibility.
For the random rejection policy, it might be better if Apple allows developers to submit plans for approval. Could save development time. Honestly, why can’t they have content rating like movies and games for explicit apps?
I’ve heard it said that Apple’s policies on Apps is actually all about preserving the DRM.
If that is the case, what does everyone think about the chances for this new App?
http://www.intomobile.com/2010/09/09/vlc-for-the-ipad-waiting-for-a…
Somehow, I don’t think so.
Wow, that’s probably the first time in history that anyone has referenced the “I know it when I see it” line not only in a positive light, but to back their own position. Normally that quote is referenced either sarcastically or as an example of tautological/circular reasoning, and an intellectually-lazy “because I say so” cop out.
What’s next, is Apple going to start appealing to “community standards” and “family values” to justify app store rejections?