If I had to guess, it is a specific API (probably the same used by the store). Maybe this will be rolled out to other major social media sites and this is just a smaller scale trial?
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New 'App Pins' Allow Users to Install iOS Apps Right From Pinterest's App
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If I had to guess, it is a specific API (probably the same used by the store). Maybe this will be rolled out to other major social media sites and this is just a smaller scale trial?
Hmm...I wonder how Marco Arment feels right now.
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And then of course there was Launcher, which was removed from the App Store because Apple would not allow any widgets that allow you to launch other apps.
So, Apple, does Launcher come back? And can Overcast link to competing apps again? It was just re-directing you back to the App Store so why it was ever an issue to begin with is beyond me. It's ridiculous how Apple screws over smaller, indie developers and then does a deal like this.
Well, this deal shows Apple is open to making a deal on this stuff, if they feel they get suffient value out of it. That is, these kinds of things are strictly closed off, but they aren't free and open either.
BTW, Marco Arment is a different case from most developers. The foundation of his marketing is to get attention for himself by blogging on the Internet. To catch people's attention he needs to involve himself in as much drama as possible. Here, he purposely went right up to the line and stuck his toe over, hoping for a reaction from Apple. I think he would have been disappointed if this didn't eventually cause trouble becuase then he'd have to come up with something else interesting to tweet or blog about that day.
Launcher is quite a different case than Pinerest. A big criticism of the App Store is that it's terrible for app discovery. If it's not a popular app that's already on one of the Top lists or you don't already know the name of, you are going to have a very hard time finding it. At this point people almost always use a third-party source to discover apps (e.g. Sites like TouchArcade for games.) I guess Apple sees Pinerest as a way to get involved with an effective app discovery system. I'm sure they'd rather control it directly, but social networks are not easy to build as Apple knows. Launcher, on the other hand, provided no value to Apple yet competed with their vision for a core experience of the iPhone.
I suspect the reason is app discovery, at the moment you access millions of apps through a single interface.
How is Launcher even remotely similar?
What Marco Arment did was quite useful IMO. He was basically saying, 'hey if you don't like my app here are some other great podcasting apps you can check out'. And the redirect was to the App Store. He wasn't trying to create his own App Store. You couldn't download these other apps from his app. If you wanted to download one it took you to the App Store. OK maybe he knew when he added it it would be rejected so he should never have added it, but the only reason I know about this stupid policy is because he did. And btw, at the time most of the podcast apps he listed didn't even show up in the top 10 when you did an App Store search. For me it was a good way of discovery.
This deal strikes of Apple playing favorites with a big name developer. As far as Apple's vision for a "core experience" it sure seems to be evolving. Hopefully this is the start of Apple being more flexible. Allowing apps to provide discovery to other apps is a great idea imo. App discovery within the App Store itself isn't that great.
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I guess its not really, but I still think it was stupid of Apple to reject.
I think you were right the first time - it's the start of Apple handing out privileged API access to developers they like, and leaving the rest to twist in the wind.
Even if you only read the first sentence, you should have seen this: "Pinterest today announced a new partnership with Apple to launch "App Pins"...
I don't quite get the point of this, but I don't use pinterest. I don't even understand pinterest.
I agree it's a silly policy... I'm just pointing out that MA tripping over it wasn't an accident. If this silly policy didn't exist he'd find another one to crash into to generate drama to get people's interest.
(re Launcher's rejection) I agree. Apple shouldn't prevent developers from competing with their own implementations of user experiences.
Being the default is already a huge advantage so there's no chance they will lose control of their own platform in any significant way. Well, unless their own implementation is truly terrible, in which case they have a much bigger problem since people would abandon their platform in droves.
I think they can definitely give users more choice without making iOS more vulnerable to malware.
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Hopefully, this plays out like the app extensions, where at first they were open only to select partners but later it was opened up to all developers.
Haha, I'm pretty sure Steve Jobs was against the App Store at first, anyway.
If he'd resigned and passed away in 2007 maybe people would say the App Store was anti-jobs/capitalising on his ideas/chasing profit not innovation etc etc
I don't think it's an accident users can't choose default apps. I wish they could though because it would force Apple to make mail, calendar, notes, maps etc. much better.
It might not be that simple or clandestine. It could be a matter of an app maker needing to have deep enough pockets to afford the amount of scaffolding built into their app to support this feature in a way that satisfies Apple's need to protect their customers.
Apple charges a premium to iPhone case makers to be certified to make accessories for their products because Apple has to put resources into testing the accessories to ensure they meet their standards for things like build quality, safety, and materials that don't interfere with or harm the device in any way. In turn, the accessory makers need to have the resources to build products that meet those standards.
Maybe something similar is being rolled out here and Pinterest is the pilot project. Maybe this is an option that will be available to other app makers in the future but probably won't be as simple as saying ok everyone just go for it.
Man they made it difficult to actually pin app screenshots with the ability to download them directly. It's like they only wanted you to pin app icons or something.
The discoverability of apps in the App Store is terrible. People have no reason to browse there, and they don't. But people do browse on apps like Pinterest, so from a developer's POV this is great news. Anything that increases the chances of someone finding a cool app is alright with me. I think it's a smart move by Apple.
This is a big win for Pinterest. My wife was showing me something on the site, and I actually think it's a lot more useful than I previously thought. All I thought before was that it was for women planning weddings, but it's a really clever service that allows you to collect information across the web.
I don't think so.. there were Apps on computers for decades so bringing them to the phone is not really that crazy of an idea. In fact, people were begging Apple for an app store so people knew and wanted it.
Hmm...I wonder how Marco Arment feels right now.
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And then of course there was Launcher, which was removed from the App Store because Apple would not allow any widgets that allow you to launch other apps.
So, Apple, does Launcher come back? And can Overcast link to competing apps again? It was just re-directing you back to the App Store so why it was ever an issue to begin with is beyond me. It's ridiculous how Apple screws over smaller, indie developers and then does a deal like this.
It's ridiculous how Apple screws over smaller, indie developers and then does a deal like this. :rolleyes
Apparently these occurences only happen when it fits Apple's best intere$t$
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The latest Pinterest data shows that a purported range of 72%–97% of its user base identifies themselves as female. If completely true, those are staggering numbers. I would have to think Apple would align their new business model with additional gender-nuetral apps/sites to cover all demos? Or at least, would be in their best interest.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gyro/2012/08/20/women-are-from-pinterest-men-are-from-google/
http://digiday.com/platforms/why-pinterest-is-still-a-predominantly-female-platform/
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I gotta say, as an android guy, venturing outside the "Walled Garden" is gonna tarnish iOS's stellar malware resistant status. Nearly all of the malware on android devices are from outside the Play Store. It takes a special kind of crazy...rooted and install from unknown source. Hail yeah! I am that flavor of crazy.
I guess the smart users will only use this as a way to find apps and go to the AppStore to install.
Perhaps not wrong, but I would love to see the true demographics. It's just not something I would state because as a father to a girl, I would like to think that more and more women are reading and being encouraged to do so
No - no accident - and "control" over the experience.
It's actually one of the (significant) things that has kept me on Android the past few years for my personal phone.
So since its such a complicated process (atleast to figure out). Here is a quick tutorial video I through together of how to post your apps to Pinterest so they can be downloaded directly.
While its possible to do this from the app store the image that gets pinned is just your app icon. If you want to select one of your screenshots to be pinned you have to do it the way explained in the video
While its possible to do this from the app store the image that gets pinned is just your app icon. If you want to select one of your screenshots to be pinned you have to do it the way explained in the video
Steve Jobs was against the idea of third-party apps. In his biography, it mentions how Art Levinson and Phil Schiller were trying to convince him to change his mind.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/appsblog/2011/oct/24/steve-jobs-apps-iphone