Has Steve lost it?

So don't develop for iOS. Millions more will.

Apple does this because they can. Get over it.

Ah, Rokcet Scientist, with his unblemished record of scouring the web for Bad Stuff About Apple and starting threads to bring the latest outrage to our attention....

What ad hominem? What argument? I'm just pointing out that that's literally all you do here-- start threads with links to dubiously sourced anti-Apple screeds and hit jobs.

BTW, taking someone to task for resorting to argumentum ad hominem in a sentence that begins with "blindered Apple fanboy" suggests self-awareness isn't your long suit.

Ah yes, Gawker the guys who brought you Gizmodo. An excellent source for well-informed journalism and not just anti-Apple rhetoric.

I don't see any problem with the rules nor the way they were outlined. It's good that they are showing some level of clarity. Some see the comments as more vagueness but the stats prove otherwise. Apple wouldn't have 250,000 apps if they had unreasonable rejection rules.

I hope they start pulling the junk ones off the store so we can actually find something worthwhile in the waste pile.

It's so funny how the anti-Apple crowd argue with two completely opposing viewpoints. On the one hand, they dismiss the number of apps in the App Store by declaring most of them rubbish and on the other, they say that the App Store rules are too restrictive. Well which is it?

I think there are too many apps in the store and the garbage needs culled. Quality not quantity should be the motto. Amateur hour is exactly the phrase I'd use to describe Youtube and most of the apps in the store right now and it degrades the service. It's why gamers mostly dismiss the games available on the App Store because while you do get some big companies involved with production values, there are heavily outnumbered by thousands of very poor quality apps.

The only restriction I don't like is blocking emulated code but I can understand why they do it.

The statements show a level of honesty that you don't usually see from a company. Normally you see a declaration written up by a lawyer that makes no sense anyway so you don't bother reading it.

While I don't object to adult material, their stance is perfectly acceptable. 6 year old kids with iPod Touches don't need to see apps about sex positions and I don't really either. If I want to get adult content, I know where to get it. They could even move them to a restricted area of the App Store.

So whine to the EU or the BBB. This is just Apple doing what they can do. You have all the right in the world to make a hardcore porn app. You have all the right in the world to sell it on Cydia. Apple has all the right in the world to prevent you from distributing it on their device through their channels. Get. Over. It.

Honestly, these people whining about Apple's App Store rules should try and get a game released by Microsoft or Sony.

In comparison, Apple's handful of rules are the lightest of touches compared to the gigantic mountains of Stalineque diktats surrounding those console platforms.

Apple don't even charge developers for submission!

C.

That's the part that really jumped out at me. It's very surprisingly un-Apple, who usually couch things in either legalese or corporate happy talk. To be fair, most any consumer facing company does this, but Apple doesn't permit any other channels, so outside of Jobs and his keynote addresses or (recently) random email, you never get a sense that there are people behind the hardware. Unlike, say, Adobe or Google or various hip, smaller vendors, who go out of their way to blog and Tweet and Be Irreverent, the better to indicate how they're Down With the People.

Actually, the tone of some of those statements sound like some of Steve's recent emails. I wonder if his recent brush with death has made him less cautious and guarded? Not that he sounds particularly mellow and accepting, but there's a kind of (almost) playful combativeness that's striking, after all these years of careful public image control. Like, "Hey, we're Apple, we've done a bunch of cool shit, we have our reasons, we're proud of our results, and you can take it or leave it. But don't run around being assholes about it, life's too short."

Ain't that the truth!

I think what developers needed was some candour and clarity about the approval process. Not corporate double speak or legalese.

I think this is a remarkable document that strikes the right tone.

As someone embarking on some iOS development projects, it was reassuring to read this.

C.
@carniphage (me)
@jamjarents (my development efforts tweeted)

I get that impression too and it seemed quite evident at the "sorry about the iPhone 4 antenna" event. With statements about "we're not perfect", "we're sorry", "have some free bumpers". It showed a weaker side that I didn't like.

The above rules aren't quite so bad and I like it because it's honest but not weak. Completely rational arguments that make sense to most people. Very similar to what was being said at the D8 conference.

I do think that Jobs is loosening his grip on the company and that will make for a weaker company. There needs to be someone more authoritative in place now - someone who's not afraid to die instead of someone who's just happy they're still alive. But at the same time he deserves to still control a company he's put his whole life into.

I thought the ramping down was going quite well bringing the other employees into the foreground but they don't have the same effect. Not one stands out above the rest and they try quite hard to be like Steve. Even other companies' employees do this like the NVidia CEO, the guys from Google, they try to dress, act and present in the same style and it always looks like an imitation.

Where did you get this picture from? Where is Job's beard?