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"Apple at its worst" is the chicanery of not letting you own the device they sold you. App store censorship wouldn't be a problem if there were other ways to ge

by drcube 14y ago

"Apple at its worst" is the chicanery of not letting you own the device they sold you. App store censorship wouldn't be a problem if there were other ways to get the programs you want and/or need.

cjensen 14y ago
For $99/year, you can put any open source program on it you like. That's all it costs to be a developer.
- bookwormAT 14y ago
  But you can not distribute that program.
  - k-mcgrady 14y ago
    You can distribute the source code and allow others who have paid $99 load it on to their device. Or distribute it via Ad hoc (limited to 100 per year), or purchase an Enterprise account which might give you more distribution options outside of the store.
- mikeash 14y ago
  Not any open source program, only open source programs that play well within the confines of the official app sandbox. The $99/year doesn't give you any way to escape that sandbox, meaning there are a ton of things you can't do. Also note that any apps installed with the $99/year certificate will expire when the certificate expires, which I believe is currently after a year, so you have to continually renew. The only way to really get full control of your device is to jailbreak, but Apple is fighting jailbreakers hard. And of course this isn't hypothetical at all: Cydia is full of apps that not only can't go into the app store, but couldn't be usefully installed on a non-jailbroken device using a developer certificate.
Steko 14y ago
"not letting you own the device they sold you" This is blatantly false and I'm getting sick of it. You own the device. For various reasons Apple designed the device to only work with one store. That isn't secret info not available to the buyer.
- drcube 14y ago
  It isn't yours if you don't control it. Period. You can use it only by the grace of Apple. If Apple decides you shouldn't use it anymore, it's bricked. If Apple goes out of business, your iphone is worthless. That isn't ownership. Not in my book, at least. Maybe your definition is different.
  - Steko 14y ago
    "You can use it only by the grace of Apple. If Apple decides you shouldn't use it anymore, it's bricked." If Apple bricked my phone tomorrow I would return it for nothing less then a full refund. So yeah, you're just making things up. "If Apple goes out of business, your iphone is worthless." Why does my iphone stop working if Apple goes out of business? This is just silliness. "Maybe your definition is different." My definition is the same as the lay definition. There are radios you can buy that only tune into the NOAA Weather stations. Conversely most radios aren't able to pick up these as they are broadcast outside the normal AM/FM bands. However no one claims they don't own their radio because they can't tune into stations on a different part of the band and no one claims they don't own their weather radio because they can't tune into commercial stations. Instead people realize that when they bought a weather radio which only plays one station that was part of the purchase decision. Anyone claiming non-ownership in this context is just flat out wrong.

by drcube 14y ago

"Apple at its worst" is the chicanery of not letting you own the device they sold you. App store censorship wouldn't be a problem if there were other ways to get the programs you want and/or need.

cjensen 14y ago

For $99/year, you can put any open source program on it you like. That's all it costs to be a developer.

bookwormAT 14y ago
But you can not distribute that program.
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  You can distribute the source code and allow others who have paid $99 load it on to their device. Or distribute it via Ad hoc (limited to 100 per year), or purchase an Enterprise account which might give you more distribution options outside of the store.
mikeash 14y ago
Not any open source program, only open source programs that play well within the confines of the official app sandbox. The $99/year doesn't give you any way to escape that sandbox, meaning there are a ton of things you can't do. Also note that any apps installed with the $99/year certificate will expire when the certificate expires, which I believe is currently after a year, so you have to continually renew. The only way to really get full control of your device is to jailbreak, but Apple is fighting jailbreakers hard. And of course this isn't hypothetical at all: Cydia is full of apps that not only can't go into the app store, but couldn't be usefully installed on a non-jailbroken device using a developer certificate.

Steko 14y ago

"not letting you own the device they sold you" This is blatantly false and I'm getting sick of it. You own the device. For various reasons Apple designed the device to only work with one store. That isn't secret info not available to the buyer.

drcube 14y ago
It isn't yours if you don't control it. Period. You can use it only by the grace of Apple. If Apple decides you shouldn't use it anymore, it's bricked. If Apple goes out of business, your iphone is worthless. That isn't ownership. Not in my book, at least. Maybe your definition is different.
- Steko 14y ago
  "You can use it only by the grace of Apple. If Apple decides you shouldn't use it anymore, it's bricked." If Apple bricked my phone tomorrow I would return it for nothing less then a full refund. So yeah, you're just making things up. "If Apple goes out of business, your iphone is worthless." Why does my iphone stop working if Apple goes out of business? This is just silliness. "Maybe your definition is different." My definition is the same as the lay definition. There are radios you can buy that only tune into the NOAA Weather stations. Conversely most radios aren't able to pick up these as they are broadcast outside the normal AM/FM bands. However no one claims they don't own their radio because they can't tune into stations on a different part of the band and no one claims they don't own their weather radio because they can't tune into commercial stations. Instead people realize that when they bought a weather radio which only plays one station that was part of the purchase decision. Anyone claiming non-ownership in this context is just flat out wrong.