Apple Removes 'Rate on Delete' for Apps in iPhone 4

[batchtaster]

Actually, jailbreaking still offers some solutions to two remaining issues - crappy notifications and the inability to share files between apps.

It's funny that people complain about such a minor UI design choice. Particularly since the iPhone notifications so closely resemble Growl ones. That seems like a rational, realistic reason to jailbreak. "I don't like the look of the bubbles."

What apps need to share files? Seriously. I've not once ever gone - hey, wait, if only I could get this into another app, curse you Apple! Like I want to shove my eBay settings into Tris or something. I suspect this "need" is actually fed by my original point re: illegitimate (and often pirated) software that doesn't behave the way it's supposed to and actually necessitates or is designed under the premise of files being shared or whatever. ("I need to be jailbroken because I use apps that operate in a jailbroken way.")

 

[cmaier]

It's funny that people complain about such a minor UI design choice. Particularly since the iPhone notifications so closely resemble Growl ones. That seems like a rational, realistic reason to jailbreak. "I don't like the look of the bubbles."

What apps need to share files? Seriously. I've not once ever gone - hey, wait, if only I could get this into another app, curse you Apple! Like I want to shove my eBay settings into Tris or something.

Re: notifications - i'm not complaining about how they look. I'm complaining that they are modal and serial. I have to sit there clicking "ok" over and over again if I have a bunch pending - unless, of course, later ones actually prevent earlier ones from appearing, which is sometimes even worse. It would be much nicer if a notification flashed the status bar or something, and I could pull down the status bar to see a list of notifications that I can operate on in batch fashion.

Re: sharing files. Really? It happens all the time. I get a .docx attachment in email or via my exchange web interface, and I want to edit it. That's just one example. That's partially solved in the new OS, but not completely, and not at all when you want two programs to edit the same type of doc.

 

[Colrath]

I always rate every app that I paid for, or rate the free ones I really like. I never rated after deleting. Mostly because I only delete apps to make space for more or clean up games I killed and drilled.

 

[MacFly123]

Yes, very good move Apple!

 

[jw2002]

Sheesh! Is tonight some celebration to resurrect all those many-times debunked myths and general fear about how scary jailbreaking is? I haven't seen so much unknowledgeable mumbo jumbo since, oh, the the last time someone posted some BS that users will violate their warranty if they open their mac mini.

 

[unclewinkie]

wait... If all of them were skewed then wouldn't none of them be skewed? Think about it.

 

[larock]

And with iPhone OS 4.0, the only reason to jailbreak is to use dodgy, often pirated software from illegitimate sources. All the other rationalizations (eg: multi-tasking) will have gone away.

Or...to use apps taken out of the App Store, like GV Mobile.

Or...to unlock my phone so it can be used on carriers other then AT&T, like when I'm outside the good ole U.S. of A.

There are legitimate reasons to jailbreak an iPhone, such as not wanting to be limited.

 

[Beric]

It's funny that people complain about such a minor UI design choice. Particularly since the iPhone notifications so closely resemble Growl ones. That seems like a rational, realistic reason to jailbreak. "I don't like the look of the bubbles."

What apps need to share files? Seriously. I've not once ever gone - hey, wait, if only I could get this into another app, curse you Apple! Like I want to shove my eBay settings into Tris or something. I suspect this "need" is actually fed by my original point re: illegitimate (and often pirated) software that doesn't behave the way it's supposed to and actually necessitates or is designed under the premise of files being shared or whatever. ("I need to be jailbroken because I use apps that operate in a jailbroken way.")

Sorry, but from what I've heard, OS 4.0 isn't even full-fledged backgrounding. I use jailbreaking features all the time, and they aren't pirated apps. 40% of people who jailbreak end up pirating apps is a figure I've heard tossed up.

 

[cmaier]

Sorry, but from what I've heard, OS 4.0 isn't even full-fledged backgrounding. I use jailbreaking features all the time, and they aren't pirated apps. 40% of people who jailbreak end up pirating apps is a figure I've heard tossed up.

Yes it is, though apps have to either ask for time in the background or register with one of a finite set of background services. Apps simply can't willy nilly take as many cycles as they want in the background, but it's true multitasking and the restrictions are quite reasonable and shouldn't represent unreasonable limitations.

 

[Jaro65]

Oh good. That thing was just annoying.

 

[Beric]

Yes it is, though apps have to either ask for time in the background or register with one of a finite set of background services. Apps simply can't willy nilly take as many cycles as they want in the background, but it's true multitasking and the restrictions are quite reasonable and shouldn't represent unreasonable limitations.

I haven't investigated the specifics, but backgrounder works so well, and it's full-fledged, and yet it's not even made by Apple. Surely Apple could doan even better and more optimized job.


Anyway, I see no reason at all to buy this update, until it's required for many apps. Apple should pay me to upgrade, with all their new ad features.

 

[johnnyhow]

Why do most people ever have the need to delete an app? Because it's most likely bad, or doesn't live up to what it claims!

Fortunately I'm not upgrading to adOS 4, I'll be sticking with ad-free OS 3 (aka iPhone os 3), and therefore when I do delete an app that I deem as bad, I'll rate it accordingly.

The thing I hate about the app store is there are too many apps and that most of these aps are absolute trash. As a rule I don't download free apps unless I want to demo something, I mainly go to app shopper.com and try the aps that have had their price dropped to zero for a short time.

 

[cmaier]

I haven't investigated the specifics, but backgrounder works so well, and it's full-fledged, and yet it's not even made by Apple. Surely Apple could doan even better and more optimized job.


Anyway, I see no reason at all to buy this update, until it's required for many apps. Apple should pay me to upgrade, with all their new ad features.

Yes, Apple did a better and more optimized job. That's the point. It's stupid to just let any existing app use as many cycles as it wants in the background. Apple prevents that transparently. It's much better than what backgrounder does because it looks the same to the user (i.e.: apps just keep on running and instantly respond when switched to), but battery life and responsiveness are unaffected.

 

[ranReloaded]

Yesterday I was playing with the new 'folders' of the OS 4.0 beta. It occurred to me that it would be convenient to be able to put a lot of apps ina folder and delete them together at once. Unfortunately there is no 'delete folder' functionality (yet): The folder disappears only when you take all the apps out of it, no 'delete folder'.

Curiously, I wondered what would happen to the rating popups if you were allowed such an operation.
Several popups in a row is highly unlikely...

 

[baryon]

This makes sense, of course you hate an app you're about to delete! Why would you rate it 5 stars and not keep it? I guess Apps should be rated in some other way but not like this!

 

[manu chao]

you are wrong, it does skew it towards low ratings. this introduces sampling bias to the ratings. Now, you may be ok with that, but it does mean the ratings are lower than if they were from a random sampling of people.
arn

And why on earth should this matter? The only thing that matters are relative ratings, how an app is rated relative to its competitors.

(It might matter for highly polarising apps, ie, one that people either love or hate, those apps might get deleted more often than middling apps and thus might receive a lower average rating than the middling apps. But then again, an average rating is much less useful on highly polarising apps since those apps depend very much on personal preferences and an average rating will mainly tell you something about the overall proportions of people loving or hating it and not into which category yourself would fall.)

 

[ranReloaded]

Fortunately I'm not upgrading to adOS 4, I'll be sticking with ad-free OS 3 (aka iPhone os 3), and therefore when I do delete an app that I deem as bad, I'll rate it accordingly.

Stop using narcotics. iAds is just another choice to what AdMob and the like are already doing in OS 3.x. Nobody is forcing spam up your nose if that is your worry. OS 4.0 does NOT inherently have more ads. It's up to the developer to include them and up to you to download apps with ads.

 

[ranguvar]

you cannot install apps from the app store on jail broken phones right?

You can install apps from the AppStore on jailbroken phones.

Apple should really reconsider their app return policy! They should at least allow 24 hours for full return. People have wast so much money on apps like they only tried once and never used.

1) You should think before you buy.
2) I don't think a 24-hour return policy would be a good thing. Most of the games can probably be played through in much less than 24 hours, so the publishers would make great losses in revenue.
3) If you really want to try an app, pirate it, if you like it, legitimately buy it, if you don't like it, delete it. Though I can see this requires quite some discipline


To the OP: I'm sure the removal of the dialog fixes the evident case of sampling bias.
However, when I look through the reviews of many apps, there are many reviews that ask for things like multitasking, a file browser, internet access to the iPhone, (or even a bigger screen or longer battery life!) etc., things that the dev can't create or doesn't have power over.
Apple should introduce some kind of service where the developers could request reviews to get deleted or somehow moderated (like a big red "t'is bullsh*t!" badge or something ...) when the reviewer requests / misses features that are impossible to create on the iPhone.

 

[Corbin052198]

Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.50 (Nintendo DSi; Opera/507; U; en-US))

I always rate an app 5 stars before I delete it, even if I dont like it. I feel like a dick if I dont.

I think that you're doing the wrong thing by doing that. You're contributing to tricking people into buying an app because it has a good rating when you must have deleted it because you didn't like it.

Be honest and rate it what it's worth.

So what if I had a Checkers game on my iPod Touch that I really liked, but I had to make room for another app. Would you say I was deleting it because I didn't like it?

 

[MacToddB]

Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.50 (Nintendo DSi; Opera/507; U; en-US))



So what if I had a Checkers game on my iPod Touch that I really liked, but I had to make room for another app. Would you say I was deleting it because I didn't like it?

1) You don't have to delete an app to "make room" unless you're running out of memory/storage. You can use spotlight to search for apps beyond the 148+ listed in the pages.

2) With the new 4.0 O.S., you'll be able to sort apps by folders/categories, which is long overdue

 

[MacToddB]

1) You should think before you buy.
2) I don't think a 24-hour return policy would be a good thing. Most of the games can probably be played through in much less than 24 hours, so the publishers would make great losses in revenue.

Right. Many apps have value based on a limited timeframe, intentionally. Imagine a SuperBowl app, or Olympics, Valentines, XMas-related app. There would be no incentive to create such apps if they could be used for free and "returned". How about a GPS app, just before starting a 1-day trip? That's why BestBuy has 15% restocking fees for GPS devices. Also, in my apps, users can create unlimited ringtones. They could use it for 24 hours and create tons of ringtones and return it. I already give out free versions, with subsets of voices. I'd have to limit users during the first 24 hours, and how would that feel to honest, paying customers?

To the OP: I'm sure the removal of the dialog fixes the evident case of sampling bias.
However, when I look through the reviews of many apps, there are many reviews that ask for things like multitasking, a file browser, internet access to the iPhone, (or even a bigger screen or longer battery life!) etc., things that the dev can't create or doesn't have power over.
Apple should introduce some kind of service where the developers could request reviews to get deleted or somehow moderated (like a big red "t'is bullsh*t!" badge or something ...) when the reviewer requests / misses features that are impossible to create on the iPhone.

Yes, I've often wished for an eBay-style opportunity to contact the reviewer or at least post a response to their review. Many times a user might complain that they don't hear sounds, but they don't realize their MUTE switch is on, for example. Two-way communication/feedback would result in happier customers.

 

[iRACK]

Good move.

I think most people would rate app negative or neutral when deleting app.

Really? That is the point of installing a Ratingsystem in the first place...

I download an App. Try it. It does not do the job -> Delete, give somewhat negative Rating.
I download an App. Try it. It does the job. I´ll keep it. If it does its job very good i´ll write a posotive review or rate it online.

This system, IMHO, was a good idea to get rid of crap in the Appstore. Since it did not work i hope thinks of a better way to dismiss "crapapps" from the store even though this will likley produce an outrage especially on engadget.

 

[BrianEnigma]

For real, or just from the beta?

Has there been official word that this will be removed for real, or is this reporting that it happens to have been removed from the 4.0 beta? I can easily see them temporarily removing this from the beta because, well, it's a beta. Many apps currently crash. Because developers can, in no way, be expected to have 4.0-ready apps in the app store right now, it would be unfair to rate them poorly if the app crashes on the beta.

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

Ah, I will miss this great opportunity to rate down apps that are annoying, keep crashing and so on. But in the meantime, I'm on a jailbroken iPhone 3G. WHY WOULD I UPGRADE TO 4.0?!

I'm glad they put a "No Thanks" on there as that's what I usually do. I'm using a 2g so that kisses my chance of 4.0 all together. But I do like the idea of having a double-resolution display so that might entice me to buy the new ones when they come out but paying $600+ for a phone is just crazy though.

 

[Chaos215bar2]

I thought this popup was a great idea. People seem to have this idea that they're entitled to a 5 star rating unless they've done something to deserve otherwise. That makes it really hard to differentiate between well reviewed items. It's sort of like eBay, where the system is such that anything short of a perfect rating is considered to be completely unacceptable. I generally will not give 5 star ratings unless whatever I'm rating really did something to stand out, and by that scale, a 4 star rating becomes perfectly acceptable. Naturally, anyone who would get 4 stars under such a scale would much prefer an eBay-style scale where they would be indistinguishable from those that I would give 5 star ratings to.

In other words, as long as everyone is rated using the same scale, with the same opportunities for low and high scores, I see nothing to complain about. It's actually beneficial to me if the scale tends to be skewed downward from normal, since internet ratings scales already tend to be skewed towards the high end.