When it rains, it pours.
I’ve already covered that the US Department of Justice is investigating Apple for their practices in the online music and video sales markets, and that the Federal Trade Commission and the DoJ are deciding who gets to investigate Apple for their practices with iAd.
But now, it seems that the FTC is investigating Apple both for their iAd practices, and for their restrictions on how applications are written.
Source: Ars Technica
This has gotta suck.
You develop an app, and submit it to the app store. Normally, apps are fairly quickly either approved or rejected, and sometimes they’re pulled after the fact.
But sometimes, apparently, they sit in limbo.
A newer version of an app that had previously been approved, AppsFire, sat in limbo for 56 days, with no response to AppsFire’s inquiries to Apple. So, AppsFire decided to pull the existing version out (they claim that it was having trouble with the number of apps that it was searching anyway, so it wasn’t ENTIRELY out of spite, it seems.)
Good job pissing off a developer for your platform, Apple.
Source: App Rejections
You knew this was coming. The US Department of Justice is already investigating Apple’s practices with music and video sales… now there’s a possible probe into Apple’s anticompetitive practices with iAd.
Looks like the Federal Trade Commission and the DoJ are deciding who gets this one, and then there’ll be an investigation.
Source: Engadget
Apple claims to have a walled garden to maintain a high quality of applications in the App Store and to maintain the image of the iPhone.
I’m not sure that’s a good idea – there are arguments both for and against a walled garden, my personal opinion that a walled garden that has an option to disable it if you know what you’re doing (jailbreaking doesn’t count – something like WebOS’s “webos20090606” or Maemo’s Red Pill mode or rootsh do count) is what’s best. Keeps the users that don’t know what they’re doing safe (and even allows much tighter restrictions on the quality of content,) but lets people run unapproved apps without having to run afoul of various agreements.
But, my opinions on walled gardens notwithstanding, Apple does claim they do it to maintain high quality.
So, why are they approving completely useless applications, such as a mirror app, that just take up space, and reduce the signal to noise ratio of the App Store?
Source: App Rejections
Interesting change of terms in the iOS agreements…
Basically, Apple’s requiring that ad providers that do any sort of analytics have their main business be mobile advertising. They specifically name that mobile ad providers that are affiliated with mobile OS developers don’t count.
Isn’t that kinda anti-competitive, Apple?
Source: Gizmodo
Apple has a showcase of things that are possible with HTML5, to promote HTML5 as the next standard for the web. This is a good thing, except…
Try to click any of the examples. “You’ll need to download Safari to view this demo.”
Holy crap.
Apple misses the point of HTML5 entirely, and is trying some Microsoft-style lock-in.
Source: OSnews
It appears that someone had even suggested that Steve Jobs let Gizmodo’s checkbook journalism slide. But no, that would “change [Apple’s] core values.”
Gizmodo’s checkbook journalism was certainly shady, but here’s the thing – the cat was already out of the bag. Too much interest in future Apple products for this to be a deterrent (and look at the Vietnamese and Czech reporters who got iPads (correction: iPhones – this is what I get for typing after work) afterwards,) and it wasn’t going to get the info that was already out there back in there.
Source: Engadget
I almost didn’t cover this one, except Apple contributed to it.
AT&T decided to make the $30 unlimited data plan unavailable for the iPad, unless you already have the plan by June 7. Instead, they’ll have a $25 2 gig data plan.
Talk about a bait and switch…
But, you’ve still got time to get an iPad 3G before they do that, and get on the true unlimited plan, right?
Wrong.
Apple pulled the iPad 3G from the Apple Store.
Great job, Apple.
Update 2010-06-02 20:42Z: Turns out, not only that, but Apple’s pushed back pending iPad 3G orders to June 7. I think it’s safe to say that Apple’s evil bit is set on this one.
Source: Slashdot
Double posting today, it’ll take a while to catch up to where I’m supposed to be on these.
And, it’s a common theme, but…
Apple’s changed the rules again, in a vague manner. Now, they’ve decided that “widget-like apps” aren’t OK, and that apps can’t “create their own desktops,” and pulled an app that multiple revisions of had previously been approved of.
Great way to treat your developers and your users, Apple.
Source: Slashdot
Various sources are reporting that the Department of Justice is investigating Apple for anticompetitive practices in media distribution markets.
Looks like Apple’s been abusing its position to get exclusive releases, shutting out competitors, promoting lock-in to the Apple ecosystem. Lovely.