Updated iOS App Store Guidelines Clarify 'Cheating', Address In-App Subscriptions

[jclardy]

Not sure about the "copy another developer's work" one... That one is something I recognize a lot as in patents.

For this, there will be only one Flashlight app because all others copied the first one. There will be only one poker app because all others copied the first one.

A personal example; Mega Jump (a popular game) will be deleted because of the less popular and very simple Papi Jump (because they're both jumping games). (Or Papi Jump gets removed, idk, not sure which one came first...)

Etc...
Not good for competition, if you ask me. It's all up to how Apple interprets that rule...

I'm pretty sure they will use it only cases of direct copying. So any kind of infinite platform jumping games are fine, but if another developer came out with something like SuperMegaJump and ripped some art from the original game than they will enforce that.

The Android Market has many unofficial copycats of iOS games, many using the original resources from them.

 

[Lochias]

So?

What about the people who give a crappy rating on one of your apps and it's not justifiable, Ex: Someone leaves a review saying the font is too small, when there is a pinch to zoom function on a pdf file in the app

What about them? Are you asking for Apple to police customers??

 

[aristotle]

In case if anyone thinks the in app subs applies to the Kindle app, I have to ask one question. Does the kindle app currently support subscriptions to magazines or newspapers. The answer is no. That means that Amazon does not have to change a thing in the kindle app unless if they want to extend the Kindle device only feature of subscriptions to the kindle app on iOS.

 

[travishill]

In case if anyone thinks the in app subs applies to the Kindle app, I have to ask one question. Does the kindle app currently support subscriptions to magazines or newspapers. The answer is no. That means that Amazon does not have to change a thing in the kindle app unless if they want to extend the Kindle device only feature of subscriptions to the kindle app on iOS.

The relevant change isn't about the subscriptions for Kindle.

It is the fact that any purchased media to be used within the app must now be sold through In App Purchase (for the same price) -as well as- any outside source. That's the issue- can/will Amazon afford to give up already razor thin margins to give 30% to Apple? Probably not.

 

[NightFox]

...and prohibition of arbitrary geographic or carrier restrictions on who may use a given app.

So does that mean no more US-only release of apps like Adobe Ideas and Microsoft OneNote? Or will Adobe and Microsoft's own obscure internal policies be good enough for Apple not to consider the reasons arbitrary?

 

[rumplestiltskin]

Until developers provide a bona fide means of refunding the money of dissatisfied customers, this will remain a problem. Perhaps Apple should develop some means of doing this and let the honest developers sign up for the program.

 

[Bodypainter]

the app store guidelines are getting so difficult, that you can start to study them at the university! and I fear we are close to the iPrison, where apple puts those criminal programmers that smuggle "easter eggs" into the apps!!!

isn't it incredible, that steve jobs once sold little devices that tricked at&t's telephone lines to talk for free on them???

 

[Stridder44]

Nothing wrong with this. Glad to see they're taking measures against crappy developers.

 

[Kadin]

I have to admit... When I saw the part about copying other devs, Gameloft came to mind.

 

[springerj]

BBC iPlayer in geographic restrictions?

I so wish BBC would let us at least pay for content. But no. Short of using a UK based proxy, you can't get it at all. (I want my Merlin)

 

[torbjoern]

Who wants to develop Pissed Off Parrots with me??

Here's my idea.......

It's a stress reliever.

For each bird, you touch a button and yell things like "You C&#T!!! I'LL F&@* @#&* YOUR FACE!" or some such nonsense, and depending on how good your swearing and general pissed-off-ness (the Pissedoffometer) is, you destroy the proportional amount of pigs and buildings!!

Your swearing and anger powers the birds!!!

If I knew that Apple would approve it, I would join you!

 

[springerj]

Or they could, you know, move to the UK and pay their licence fee.

Not for more than six months at a time. I tried.

 

[Eric5h5]

the app store guidelines are getting so difficult, that you can start to study them at the university! and I fear we are close to the iPrison, where apple puts those criminal programmers that smuggle "easter eggs" into the apps!!!

95% of the guidelines are just common sense and courtesy anyway. Apparently some people need it spelled out for them though. Putting easter eggs in apps is generally bad because they can be used for shady things, and you want apps only to do what they say they do and not steal your data or whatever.

--Eric

 

[fuwafuwa]

Objective C leaves all the class and method names completely visible. Apps have been rejected for using some of Apple's reserved names. Certain other portions of the app could potentially be decompiled to the algorithm or otherwise statically analyzed by Apple for certain behaviors. You can often tell when a large chunk of source code was copied when this is done, since most developers use the exact same compiler and optimization settings.

It is not. I think you meant private API. It is easily detected from which libraries linked to the app. Obj-C compiled program can't be decompiled into Obj-C source code. In Android, you can decompile the app and get beautiful formated source code, and the worst is Android Market is like a jungle without law.

 

[SerenityInt]

It'll be interesting to see if they actually enforce the fake reviews policy. There are so many apps that mysteriously get 50 5-star one-liner reviews with each update. It's ridiculous.

 

[notabadname]

Yeah, the bogus reviews to push a lame App's rating up is annoying (although usually obvious).

 

[firewood]

It'll be interesting to see if they actually enforce the fake reviews policy. There are so many apps that mysteriously get 50 5-star one-liner reviews with each update. It's ridiculous.

Hopefully, Apple is logging IP addresses for all these 1 line reviews, and puts 2-plus-2 together.

 

[notabadname]

Until developers provide a bona fide means of refunding the money of dissatisfied customers, this will remain a problem. Perhaps Apple should develop some means of doing this and let the honest developers sign up for the program.

We need more "buyer beware" than we do a return policy. This world of "I want everything for free" and returning Christmas trees on December 26 th is out of control. You can't open the package for software at Best Buy or most other stores and return it either (only exchange it for the identical product if your copy is defective).

Some Apps/games can easily be played in a a day, if not hours. Sadly, many people would try to "return" it after they were done, and simply say they didn't like it. Imagine trying to figure out what was valid for return and what wasn't with 300,000 Apps and 40 - 50 million customers. We just need a good review system that helps people make reasonable decisions about whether an App is something they may enjoy/like.

 

[Fukui]

I don't think they're saying you can't develop your own app that does something similar to someone else's, but if you were to blatantly do your own version of Angry Birds and call it "Pissed off Parrots" and the game looked 99% the same... someone might have issue.

I think more than that, what they mean is that if the Pissed off Parrots developers stole artworks or code from another app, then its legally misappropriating someone else's work. Thats good, cause I do see apps with icons ripped from certain popular OSes lol...looks pretty tacky at the least...

 

[Consultant]

Who wants to develop Pissed Off Parrots with me??

Here's my idea.......

It's a stress reliever.

For each bird, you touch a button and yell things like "You C&#T!!! I'LL F&@* @#&* YOUR FACE!" or some such nonsense, and depending on how good your swearing and general pissed-off-ness (the Pissedoffometer) is, you destroy the proportional amount of pigs and buildings!!

Your swearing and anger powers the birds!!!

ROTF. Awesome game! Might be NSFW though.

Or maybe people think you are having issues in the toilet stall.

 

[Fukui]

So does that mean no more US-only release of apps like Adobe Ideas and Microsoft OneNote? Or will Adobe and Microsoft's own obscure internal policies be good enough for Apple not to consider the reasons arbitrary?

What I think they're talking about is releasing an app world-wide, but making content in the app available to only say, UK viewers... thats gotta be really annoying to people who download it expecting to see UK tv shows in BBC iPlayer.....

These are good rules... now all they have to do is cut down that stupid 30% tax for in app subscriptions and purchases....

 

[Cybbe]

I hate that Apple increasingly has adopted evil business practices. The idea that it as a gatekeeper is entitled to a 30% cut of all commercial applications on iOS is preposterous. Of course, most condemned this practice when it was used by the carriers who locked down their platform to control the revenue stream, portraying Apple as some kind of mobile phone saviour. We are now subject to the same, yet many fans will have forgotten their principles, and embrace the new Jobsonian world order, tithe and all.

 

[RoboCop001]

If I knew that Apple would approve it, I would join you!

If we just program the game to recognize yelling in general, I'm sure it could pass, and then you can yell whatever you want at it haha.

I can just see the reviewer board now...

"Ok guys, who wants to test Pissed Off Parrots?"
"I'll do it..... F8&# YOU!!! It doesn't seem to be crashing guys. So let's approve it."
[silence]
"Guys?"
".................... For god's sake John, it's Take Your Kids To Work Day!!"
[babies crying]

Someone needs to make a Hitler clip about Pissed Off Parrots. I don't know why. But yes.

 

[Bodypainter]

Putting easter eggs in apps is generally bad because they can be used for shady things, and you want apps only to do what they say they do and not steal your data or whatever.--Eric

i agree with you that rules are needed and that some things – like stealing data – should be avoided. on the other side i think that there still is a high risk that apple is misusing their position. remember the guy that used the "volume buttons" as a shutter button for his cam app? violation. and about easter eggs: if they are harmless, then where is the problem?

even operating systems or video games have easter eggs and they actually make the programs more human.

 

[Eric5h5]

I hate that Apple increasingly has adopted evil business practices. The idea that it as a gatekeeper is entitled to a 30% cut of all commercial applications on iOS is preposterous.

I don't think you really thought that through. As a developer, I'm fine with 30%, considering all the headaches I don't have to deal with because Apple takes care of it all. At the time, 30% was unusual because normally developers got a lot less than 70%, and it was only enough to run the App Store at break-even (they make actual profits off hardware). My only suggestion is that maybe the 30% should scale down somewhat with higher prices; 30% is a good deal for a $.99 app, but not so much with a $99 app.

--Eric