beowulfschmidt

I assume "always" is intended as hyperbole, because my (admittedly few) appointments have started on time, or even a bit early.  And almost every time I've gone, the tables at the Genius Bar have been full.

I guess that could partly be due to the market I'm in.

There are a few very good reasons for such a policy, even if Apple's clarification doesn't mention them.  Primary among these, in my opinion anyway, is dependence upon libraries which have known security problems which could compromise a user's device.  This includes Apple's own libraries, which are regularly updated with security fixes and changes to make apps conform to Apple's policies.  An app using such a library which hasn't been rebuilt with a fixed version remains a risk.

Of course, such a policy alone isn't a complete solution, as a developer could simply not upgrade to a fixed version of the library.  Nor is there any way to force a user to upgrade an app that continues to work.  But given modern development practices, it's more likely than not that a developer is at least notified of library updates, and importing new versions is relatively simple.  Of course, my experience is with .Net and Java, both of which have robust open source dependency management in place, so maybe it's different for Apple developers.  I'm likely to find out here in the next year or so, as I'm getting sick and bloody tired of apps that claim to do what I want, but won't do it unless I fork over a subscription fee.

Even my simple home dev setup lets me update dependencies at the push of a virtual button.  I recognize that sometimes updating dependencies that have undergone severe interface or implementation changes can break an app (been there, done that), but a developer who has a profitable app should consider that a cost of doing business.  An unprofitable app is probably better removed anyway.

The tweeted picture almost makes it look like it's bigger than the current block, big enough to block both outlets on a standard American wall plate.  It's too bad they couldn't have designed it so that it won't do that.  Especially for the price they're going to charge.