Month: January 2012

The Impracticalities of Local Manufacturing ⇥

The company behind Raspberry Pi, the $25 Linux box, is based in the UK and wanted to manufacture it locally. However, they ran into a number of surprising and debilitating issues.

If a British company imports components, it has to pay tax on those (and most components are not made in the UK). If, however, a completed device is made abroad and imported into the UK – with all of those components soldered onto it – it does not attract any import duty at all.

Surprising and hostile to companies.

WordPress Has Left the Building ⇥

Kevin John Gallagher, or more specifically, his in-house tester:

Kev, they released a BETA version that they didn’t even load on Windows. The MENU didn’t work. Not some advanced feature throwing a bug, the fucking MENU didn’t work.

WordPress works fantastically for blogs, but is dismal as a CMS. That would be okay, except they clearly want it to be a multipurpose content platform. Their website promotes its use as a CMS. It’s not one, or at least a good, usable one.

Samsung Will Not Upgrade Galaxy S Phones ⇥

It was a maybe, then a no, then a maybe again. Now:

A full update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the Galaxy Tab (7-inch) and Galaxy S is not practicable due to hardware limitations.

Never mind that this excuse is bunk. It’s the consumer that loses here. Google doesn’t lose because Android is “open”, and the vendors can do what they wish. Samsung clearly doesn’t care enough about updating their devices. They should care, because loyal customers are the best thing a company can ask for.

(via John Gruber)

They’re Exactly What You’d Call “Guidelines”

My iPhone buzzed once on my desk alerting me to a new notification. My turn in Words With Friends, perhaps? Or maybe Google sent me a news alert? Disappointingly, it was neither; instead, Hipstamatic sent me a push notification promoting something new in their store. A minor annoyance, of course, and one that can be fixed with a toggle switch in Settings. It was an ephemeral imperfection with my phone, but it seemed like the kind of thing Apple wouldn’t allow. Sure enough, section 5.6 in the App Store Review Guidelines [1] notes that apps can’t use push notifications “to send advertising, promotions, or direct marketing of any kind”.

While I had that document open, I began picking through some of the guidelines, noting that I could think of apps that violated many of the sections. There are developers that spam the store with nearly identical copies of applications, apps that are nothing more than a UIWebView, and a number of others. This is my shame list. It documents a number of egregious oversights, inconsistencies and irritations by Apple and by (some) developers alike.

Section 2: Functionality

2.9 Apps that are “beta”, “demo”, “trial”, or “test” versions will be rejected

For some reason, however, separate “lite” or “free” versions are allowed. A quick search for “lite” yields multiple pages of apps, including some approved within the past month. This is not a new rule, yet it is consistently ignored. Apps like Twitterrific and Astronut approach this the correct way: by offering an in-app purchase of the full version.

2.12 Apps that are not very useful, are simply web sites bundled as apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected

Google’s applications are almost universally websites-in-an-app. Facebook is treading this fine line. These are not low-key, independent developers, but some of the most-downloaded apps on the store.

2.20 Developers “spamming” the App Store with many versions of similar apps will be removed from the iOS Developer Program

Oh really? Kosher Penguin’s apps, for instance, are almost exclusively of this kind. They were approved for sale between July and September of 2011 and are still available. Terrible.

2.22 Apps that arbitrarily restrict which users may use the app, such as by location or carrier, may be rejected

I already pointed out that the official Daily Show app can be purchased in Canada, yet the video content — the reason most people would buy the app — only works in the US. One could argue that the app itself is not restricted by location, or that it isn’t “arbitrary” because it’s a licensing issue. I disagree. The app should not have been approved for sale anywhere but the United States, or the international version should not give the impression that there is video content available.

Section 5: Push Notifications

5.5 Apps that use Push Notifications to send unsolicited messages, or for the purpose of phishing or spamming will be rejected

5.6 Apps cannot use Push Notifications to send advertising, promotions, or direct marketing of any kind

I already whined about this on Twitter. Glaring and repeat offenders include Hipstamatic, Soundhound and one of Jamie Oliver’s apps, apparently. While Push Notifications are arguably never unsolicited as users are required to explicitly allow receiving them, the spirit of these notifications present themselves as unsolicited spam.

Section 8: Trademarks and Trade Dress

8.5 Use of protected 3rd party material (trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, otherwise proprietary content) requires a documented rights check which must be provided upon request

In a past article, I noted multiple instances of Google profiting from applications on the Android Market that use third-party trademarks without permission. Apple’s store isn’t entirely clean of this, though it’s decidedly less pervasive. For example, LightBike 2 is an obvious knock-off of Tron, the intellectual property of which is owned by Disney. Yet it’s been offered for sale since May in defiance of this policy.

Apple is currently attempting to get an incredibly weird Steve Jobs doll removed from the market, citing California law that protects the image and likeness of public figures. But one can add Justin Timberlake to your photos with an app. The photos are almost certainly unlicensed, and the concept of the app is legally dubious at best.

Section 10: User Interface

10.1 Apps must comply with all terms and conditions explained in the Apple iOS Human Interface Guidelines

10.6 Apple and our customers place a high value on simple, refined, creative, well thought through interfaces. They take more work but are worth it. Apple sets a high bar. If your user interface is complex or less than very good, it may be rejected

I’d need time on a geological scale to list all the apps that violate these guidelines.

Section 12: Scraping and Aggregation

12.3 Apps that are simply web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection of links, may be rejected

See 2.12 above for applications that are just framed websites. This guideline is so vague that it could include RSS readers.

Section 15: Violence

15.1 Apps portraying realistic images of people or animals being killed or maimed, shot, stabbed, tortured or injured will be rejected

There are a large number of realistic first-person shooters available on the App Store from developers small and large.

So what was the point of this post? Was it to point out that things are not always consistent? (Now that I’ve noted that nugget of wisdom, I’m sure I could knock you over with a fucking toothpick) Was it to show that Apple is some draconian overlord, or that developers are stupid, or that the App Store is a cesspool of vile, barely-usable and irritating apps?

No. Rather, it’s to note inconsistencies and problems with the current process of app approval in relation to Apple’s own guidelines. Overall, Apple has proven that it can maintain a safe, easy and convenient place for users to buy apps. They’ve done a fairly good job. There are just a few chinks in their armour.

  1. An Apple Developer account is required to view this document. To allow for easy reading, I’ve mirrored a copy here (PDF), which is broadly similar to the one Engadget mirrored if my copy disappears for some reason.

On the Trail of an Intercontinental Killer ⇥

A little after 9 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1990, the owner of a steel-products company pulled up to her office in Vinegar Hill, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and spotted a black garbage bag sitting on the sidewalk out front. She parked her car and went to move the bag when she noticed it leaking blood. The woman called 911. Within the hour, Ken Whelan, a homicide detective from the 84th Precinct, peered into the bag. It was full of human body parts.

A fascinating tale which contrasts a murder mystery with international relations.

What Non-Apple Tablet Makers Can Learn From Sins Past ⇥

Mike Isaac argues that the iPad is the high end of the tablet market, and that the only way for others to compete is with cheap, low-end units:

HP killed the [TouchPad] after a mere 49 days, citing disappointing initial sales figures. In order to liquidate inventory on the massive $3.3 billion write-down the company took on “winding down” its TouchPad business, HP slashed prices to a fraction of what they once were — $100 instead of $500. RIM followed suit recently, cutting prices on the BlackBerry PlayBook nearly in half.

Suddenly, HP and RIM couldn’t keep the tablets in stock. Retail chains sold out almost immediately, while the manufacturers’ online storefronts were on back-order for weeks.

Taking massive write-offs counts as a success? The lesson here is that people bought the tablets because they were cheap, not because they were good. It’s a poor piece of advice for the competitors to flood the market with cheap, poorly-made, slow, incomplete and barely-useable wastes of plastic and metal.

All Major Labels Are Now Suing Grooveshark ⇥

Grooveshark, a popular digital music service that is being sued for copyright infringement by three of the four major record companies, now has problems with the one big label that it has a licensing deal with.

[…]

With the music industry coming to rely more and more on fully licensed services like Spotify and Rhapsody that stream music by subscription, EMI’s suit highlights the legal gray zone in which Grooveshark operates.

I always thought it suspicious how Grooveshark got away with streaming a huge library that includes digital music holdouts like Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. What a sketchy service, especially since non-EMI artists weren’t profiting from the advertising revenue.

One Month on the iOS App Store ⇥

This post notes a number of things they’ve learned over the past month through a little trial and error. Apple’s submission-to-post turnaround times seem to have improved dramatically since the launch of the App Store — for these guys, Bike Maps took three days for each occurance. They also mirror the common developer plight of iTunes Connect. Great post.

Ray Ozzie Starts New Venture ⇥

The former chief software architect at Microsoft and Lotus Notes creator told the Boston Globe that he is starting a new company called Cocomo and is hiring in the Boston and Seattle areas.

Surprisingly, not based just off the Florida Keys area.

Limited Unlimited ⇥

The embedded ad’s voiceover:

T-Mobile claims they’re unlimited, but use your phone a lot and they slow down your data speed. With Sprint, you don’t get charged extra, you don’t slow down and you get unlimited data […]

Sprint chief executive [1] Dan Hesse:

He said Sprint pares back data use for about 1% of users, a practice known as throttling.

Left hand, meet right hand.

Update: turns out Dan Hesse forgot to note that this is only for Sprint customers roaming on partnered networks. Sprint’s own network still has unlimited data.

  1. Of the department of redundancy department, apparently.

Dear Comedy Central

As a Canadian, I’m a bit perplexed as to a number of inconsistencies with Comedy Central’s offerings.

The Daily Show website, for instance, does not stream any video to Canadians. However, we’re still watching the same ads and therefore are contributing to the same revenue stream as American viewers.

The Daily Show website does stream video within Canada when browsed from an iPad. However, it’s only video from the last couple of episodes.

The Daily Show app is available in the Canadian App Store, but does not stream video. This would be okay, except it costs $1.99. Two bucks for a useless app dependent on geography.

The Canadian resource for Daily Show videos has typically been the Comedy Network site (Canadian version of CC), however their archives only extend back two weeks. This becomes problematic when attempting to locate a clip from even a month ago.

Are these problems smaller and independent of each other, or is there a general level of consistency that cannot be maintained across different platforms?

Nokia Lumia 710 Review ⇥

Nokia is selling this as a first smartphone, an entry into the field for new buyers. But based on this review, I can’t think of a reason why a new buyer would want one. It’s My First Smartphone in every poor connotation and negative result that you can think of. Granted it’s $50 on a two-year contract, but an iPhone 3GS is free, and an iPhone 4 is $100. There are other Windows phones for a hundred bucks. The initial cost isn’t that important in the big scope because you’ll be paying at least $50 per month to run the thing.