4 ms·

Let's not judge so quickly and surely. There are still many things we don't know, and we have heard a story from him that makes sense, and I find plausible. Wh

by flixic 10y ago

Let's not judge so quickly and surely. There are still many things we don't know, and we have heard a story from him that makes sense, and I find plausible. What if he really is mostly innocent? More importantly, Dash app is still great, probably the best for documentation browsing, and now iOS counterpart is restored in some way. Isn't it a great move from his side, considering the circumstances? Shouldn't we celebrate his efforts instead of blaming him?

sxg 10y ago
He recorded and released a phone conversation with an Apple representative that confirms a lot of the details of this story. Sure not everything is clear, but if I'm remembering right, the phone call confirmed that Kapeli and his family member used the same distribution account, and that the family member bought fake app reviews. Apple banned the whole account because of the fake app reviews, but they did give Kapeli recourse and offered to reinstate his app if he publicly apologized and cleared up the issue. Kapeli decided not to do that and released the private phone call with the Apple representative instead. I'm pretty sure that killed any chance of Dash getting back on the app store.
- pkamb 10y ago
  > Kapeli decided not to [publicly apologize and clear up the issue] and released the private phone call with the Apple representative instead. Kapeli wrote the blog post Apple requested and sent it in for review. https://kapeli.com/apple_draft https://kapeli.com/apple_draft Apple never got back to him, and instead went to the press with statements that did not mention any of the circumstances, making clear that this was their final statement on the matter. Only then did Kapeli come out with his side of the story and the recorded phone call.
  - johansch 10y ago
    That is not an excuse. I can understand why Apple went forward, even after bending backwards to work with him. (And I'm really not an Apple apologist; please do checkout my post history if you're so inclined.)
    - AsyncAwait 10y ago
      > That is not an excuse. I can understand why Apple went forward, Mind explaining it to us, I don't understand Apple's reasoning here after they said to him to send them the blog post.
      - _pr 10y ago
        He ran his mouth one more time.
        AsyncAwait 10y ago
        Between sending out the blog post draft and Apple speaking to the press? Can you link me to that please, just curious.
anthonybsd 10y ago
Actually after a little digging it turned out that Kapeli was a shovelware writer who's gone legit. The whole "relative" thing was fully made up: http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-says-1-000-fraudulent-reviews-were-detected-across-two-accounts-owned-by-dash-developer-update-developer-responds.2005850/page-12#post-23708918 http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-says-1-000-fraudul...
- johansch 10y ago
  Let my copy-paste it for convience: "Gather round, folks, let me tell you a story. So 5 or 6 years ago, this guy named Bogdan Popescu starts a company called Kapeli and writes a bunch of Shovelware. Puts out a bunch of PR for crap like MoveAddict. http://www.macworld.co.uk/opinion/apple/press-release-mac-os-x-finally-able-cutpaste-files-merge-folders-3485573/ http://www.macworld.co.uk/opinion/apple/press-release-mac-os... http://imgur.com/C2vjkig http://imgur.com/C2vjkig All of this is featured on his website, kapeli.com. There in the header...moveAddict, iGuard…and something called ‘Dash’. https://web.archive.org/web/20120409173750/http://kapeli.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20120409173750/http://kapeli.com... http://imgur.com/W94bGnl http://imgur.com/W94bGnl {edit: Even his old Twitter posts confirm this. https://twitter.com/kapeli/status/24561715939 https://twitter.com/kapeli/status/24561715939 http://imgur.com/qYSESjl http://imgur.com/qYSESjl } Over time, Dash explodes in popularity. It fills a niche and is actually legitimately useful. He “goes legit”, creates a new dev account tied to the same com.kapeli bundle identifier. Suddenly — publically, to those who can’t see his bundle identifiers — it’s the only app he makes! https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qoxummH4tkYJ:https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/bogdan-popescu/id404213174+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=auhttp://imgur.com/gGccgDj https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qoxumm... But what to do with all the other shovelware though? Not to worry, it can stay on the other account. Spam some reviews, get some idiots to buy it, easy beer money on the side. Let’s just change the author to “Mihaela” instead. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TO_CAdJUiEcJ:https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/mihaela-popescu/id603546869+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ie&client=safari https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TO_CAd... https://i.imgur.com/m70tauN.png https://i.imgur.com/m70tauN.png (There's our good friends, moveAddict and iGuard!) During a routine Apple account transfer…he gets caught. All of a sudden he cries foul. There WAS a second account, but it’s not his! It’s a female family member’s. It was some account that he had nothing to do with. He forgot about it! It’s ancient history! …it just houses literally everything the guy previously created that isn’t Dash. Including apps such as moveAddict and iGuard previously prominently featured on the dude’s website and PR spam. In his name. Now both Apple and Popescu are in agreement — there are only two accounts with his com.kapeli bundle identifier. Apple says they are both his. He claims he only has one, and a relative has one. So why are his apps on both accounts, his and Mihaelas? Did he gift the entire source code and ongoing revenue of these apps to this 'family member' as well? What a great guy! Still it sounds like something that might be worth mentioning during this whole mixup, either to his faithful blog readers or Apple. It might have cleared things up rather quickly. Despite the fact that his whole story falls apart on scrutiny, Apple bend over backwards and will reinstate his account if he admits some wrongdoing. Stubborn dude refuses to budge, posts illegally obtained phone calls… …and yet people still criticise Apple and believe this guy."
ClassyJacket 10y ago
More to the point, shouldn't it be up to us if we want to install the app or not, not just Apple? They can kick him out of the store, of course, but we should still be able to side load (without this open source compiling manually method). If Android had a phone and watch small enough for me I'd love to change over, but their devices are all for giants (and have no fitness features and not enough privacy features).

by flixic 10y ago

sxg 10y ago

He recorded and released a phone conversation with an Apple representative that confirms a lot of the details of this story. Sure not everything is clear, but if I'm remembering right, the phone call confirmed that Kapeli and his family member used the same distribution account, and that the family member bought fake app reviews. Apple banned the whole account because of the fake app reviews, but they did give Kapeli recourse and offered to reinstate his app if he publicly apologized and cleared up the issue. Kapeli decided not to do that and released the private phone call with the Apple representative instead. I'm pretty sure that killed any chance of Dash getting back on the app store.

pkamb 10y ago
> Kapeli decided not to [publicly apologize and clear up the issue] and released the private phone call with the Apple representative instead. Kapeli wrote the blog post Apple requested and sent it in for review. https://kapeli.com/apple_draft https://kapeli.com/apple_draft Apple never got back to him, and instead went to the press with statements that did not mention any of the circumstances, making clear that this was their final statement on the matter. Only then did Kapeli come out with his side of the story and the recorded phone call.
- johansch 10y ago
  That is not an excuse. I can understand why Apple went forward, even after bending backwards to work with him. (And I'm really not an Apple apologist; please do checkout my post history if you're so inclined.)
  - AsyncAwait 10y ago
    > That is not an excuse. I can understand why Apple went forward, Mind explaining it to us, I don't understand Apple's reasoning here after they said to him to send them the blog post.
    - _pr 10y ago
      He ran his mouth one more time.
      - AsyncAwait 10y ago
        Between sending out the blog post draft and Apple speaking to the press? Can you link me to that please, just curious.

anthonybsd 10y ago

Actually after a little digging it turned out that Kapeli was a shovelware writer who's gone legit. The whole "relative" thing was fully made up: http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-says-1-000-fraudulent-reviews-were-detected-across-two-accounts-owned-by-dash-developer-update-developer-responds.2005850/page-12#post-23708918 http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-says-1-000-fraudul...

johansch 10y ago
Let my copy-paste it for convience: "Gather round, folks, let me tell you a story. So 5 or 6 years ago, this guy named Bogdan Popescu starts a company called Kapeli and writes a bunch of Shovelware. Puts out a bunch of PR for crap like MoveAddict. http://www.macworld.co.uk/opinion/apple/press-release-mac-os-x-finally-able-cutpaste-files-merge-folders-3485573/ http://www.macworld.co.uk/opinion/apple/press-release-mac-os... http://imgur.com/C2vjkig http://imgur.com/C2vjkig All of this is featured on his website, kapeli.com. There in the header...moveAddict, iGuard…and something called ‘Dash’. https://web.archive.org/web/20120409173750/http://kapeli.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20120409173750/http://kapeli.com... http://imgur.com/W94bGnl http://imgur.com/W94bGnl {edit: Even his old Twitter posts confirm this. https://twitter.com/kapeli/status/24561715939 https://twitter.com/kapeli/status/24561715939 http://imgur.com/qYSESjl http://imgur.com/qYSESjl } Over time, Dash explodes in popularity. It fills a niche and is actually legitimately useful. He “goes legit”, creates a new dev account tied to the same com.kapeli bundle identifier. Suddenly — publically, to those who can’t see his bundle identifiers — it’s the only app he makes! https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qoxummH4tkYJ:https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/bogdan-popescu/id404213174+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=auhttp://imgur.com/gGccgDj https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qoxumm... But what to do with all the other shovelware though? Not to worry, it can stay on the other account. Spam some reviews, get some idiots to buy it, easy beer money on the side. Let’s just change the author to “Mihaela” instead. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TO_CAdJUiEcJ:https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/mihaela-popescu/id603546869+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ie&client=safari https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TO_CAd... https://i.imgur.com/m70tauN.png https://i.imgur.com/m70tauN.png (There's our good friends, moveAddict and iGuard!) During a routine Apple account transfer…he gets caught. All of a sudden he cries foul. There WAS a second account, but it’s not his! It’s a female family member’s. It was some account that he had nothing to do with. He forgot about it! It’s ancient history! …it just houses literally everything the guy previously created that isn’t Dash. Including apps such as moveAddict and iGuard previously prominently featured on the dude’s website and PR spam. In his name. Now both Apple and Popescu are in agreement — there are only two accounts with his com.kapeli bundle identifier. Apple says they are both his. He claims he only has one, and a relative has one. So why are his apps on both accounts, his and Mihaelas? Did he gift the entire source code and ongoing revenue of these apps to this 'family member' as well? What a great guy! Still it sounds like something that might be worth mentioning during this whole mixup, either to his faithful blog readers or Apple. It might have cleared things up rather quickly. Despite the fact that his whole story falls apart on scrutiny, Apple bend over backwards and will reinstate his account if he admits some wrongdoing. Stubborn dude refuses to budge, posts illegally obtained phone calls… …and yet people still criticise Apple and believe this guy."

ClassyJacket 10y ago

More to the point, shouldn't it be up to us if we want to install the app or not, not just Apple? They can kick him out of the store, of course, but we should still be able to side load (without this open source compiling manually method). If Android had a phone and watch small enough for me I'd love to change over, but their devices are all for giants (and have no fitness features and not enough privacy features).