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Apple's slowly strangling the life out of their golden goose with their capricious and heavy-handed control of their platforms. Their app stores are full of cra

Apple's slowly strangling the life out of their golden goose with their capricious and heavy-handed control of their platforms. Their app stores are full of crap already and Apple is just increasingly in the way of developers' and users' best interests. I really like Apple's technologies but I absolutely despise their idiotic policies.

gmac 14y ago
Hmm. I find it annoying too, but I can't help feeling that for my parents (and most other non-techie users) this level of control, with a single source of approved apps, is just great.
- cageface 14y ago
  A single source of vetted apps is fine but Google has already demonstrated that allowing expert users to use alternative app sources doesn't hurt. And I don't see how anybody can argue that required a full review cycle for every minor bug fixes benefits users. I see more and more mobile shops iterating on Android first because there are just fewer hassles. Also, Apple's refusal to allow developers to do lower-level things like create alternative keyboards means Android users get to use modern input technologies like SwiftKey while iOS users are still pecking away at a 2007 keyboard.
  - gmac 14y ago
    I see more and more mobile shops iterating on Android first because there are just fewer hassles. Hmm, more like different hassles, I'd have thought: having to support thousands of screen size/hardware/OS combinations must be a huge pain, and less of the UI is given to you for free. Though I speak as someone who's done very little Android dev, and rather more iOS. It's true that the Mac model (App Store PLUS third-party apps) is preferable for me. But then again, I do like the idea that my parents' machines won't run any unsigned code. I'm thinking of Windows virus support nightmares past.
    - cageface 14y ago
      I've been doing Android dev for the last six months or so after doing iOS for about two years and actually accommodating different screen sizes really isn't hard at all as long as you have a designer that understands it's not a fixed layout environment like iOS. Actually the dynamic layout tools on Android make things a lot easier in many cases, certainly far, far easier than AutoLayout on iOS (an API I absolutely loathe).
interpol_p 14y ago
I like their review process. And I say this as a developer who has a had many rejections, and many extremely frustrating waiting periods (one involved the threat of legal action unless we updated our app, and Apple sat on the update for over a month!) The rejections I have had have almost universally been for reasons that would benefit the end user. For example, one app we submitted used background GPS to track your running route. Apple told us we had to very clearly warn the user that it could impact their battery life. Another was a game that still had some placeholder art being used for achievements, Apple told us to resubmit with final art assets. Their system is far from perfect, but after lots of rejections I can see its value.

gmac 14y ago

Hmm. I find it annoying too, but I can't help feeling that for my parents (and most other non-techie users) this level of control, with a single source of approved apps, is just great.

cageface 14y ago
A single source of vetted apps is fine but Google has already demonstrated that allowing expert users to use alternative app sources doesn't hurt. And I don't see how anybody can argue that required a full review cycle for every minor bug fixes benefits users. I see more and more mobile shops iterating on Android first because there are just fewer hassles. Also, Apple's refusal to allow developers to do lower-level things like create alternative keyboards means Android users get to use modern input technologies like SwiftKey while iOS users are still pecking away at a 2007 keyboard.
- gmac 14y ago
  I see more and more mobile shops iterating on Android first because there are just fewer hassles. Hmm, more like different hassles, I'd have thought: having to support thousands of screen size/hardware/OS combinations must be a huge pain, and less of the UI is given to you for free. Though I speak as someone who's done very little Android dev, and rather more iOS. It's true that the Mac model (App Store PLUS third-party apps) is preferable for me. But then again, I do like the idea that my parents' machines won't run any unsigned code. I'm thinking of Windows virus support nightmares past.
  - cageface 14y ago
    I've been doing Android dev for the last six months or so after doing iOS for about two years and actually accommodating different screen sizes really isn't hard at all as long as you have a designer that understands it's not a fixed layout environment like iOS. Actually the dynamic layout tools on Android make things a lot easier in many cases, certainly far, far easier than AutoLayout on iOS (an API I absolutely loathe).

interpol_p 14y ago

I like their review process. And I say this as a developer who has a had many rejections, and many extremely frustrating waiting periods (one involved the threat of legal action unless we updated our app, and Apple sat on the update for over a month!) The rejections I have had have almost universally been for reasons that would benefit the end user. For example, one app we submitted used background GPS to track your running route. Apple told us we had to very clearly warn the user that it could impact their battery life. Another was a game that still had some placeholder art being used for achievements, Apple told us to resubmit with final art assets. Their system is far from perfect, but after lots of rejections I can see its value.