Archive for category General

“60 Mario and friends” – Apple’s response

Posted by rn in General, IT on February 16th, 2010

I actually brought the previously posted “60 Mario and friends” app to Apple’s attention through their iTunes app support page.

But apparently Apple doesn’t really care if their customers are being deceived. Here’s their response:

Thank you for your interest in the App Store and for bringing this App to our attention.

We have found no issue with this App since the summary clearly mentions that the App contains only sound clips:

“Go back in time and hear the pleasure of your favorite video games again !
Mario and friends provides you an unique experience : bring back to life the games you played back in the 90′ with more than 60 sounds clips.”

If you have questions about the licensing rights, please contact the developer:

http://www.isayonlineapplications.com/

Thank you for being an iTunes Store customer and I wish you the best.

This is pretty much customer-service-language for “who cares, not our problem”. Any reasonable adult could see that this listing is purposely trying to be deceptive, and that the vast majority of people who have purchased it have been fooled. But, that’s not Apple’s problem…

Having reflected on the issue a little, what could be done to fix the app store?

I think it comes down to two basic points -

  • Open a new area of the App. Store which allows any app to be published, no Apple-approval required. These apps would be clearly labeled as such, ala the Android app store.This addresses the open-ness and bias issues of the app store, but not issues like the “60 Mario and friends” of deception, and the fact that most people just buy from the top 10 without looking any further.
  • Move to a more personal-recommendation based approach, ala. Amazon.com.Amazon is a great example of a web-based store front, because the content is tailored to the individual. Although there exists a “top selling list” in each of the various categories, Amazon is trying to match the best recommendations for the individual user, rather than to shove the “top selling list” down every users throat. This approach greatly reduces the cash-cow that is currently getting to the top-10 app store list.

I don’t see the first point happening anytime soon, as Apple’s strategy around this isn’t an altruistic “keep the users safe” one; it is primarily keeping about control of their platform, and the developers who develop for it.

The second point might be addressed in the future, but given Apple’s response to the issue above, it doesn’t seem like they particularly care about the quality of their store, only that they can move a bunch of product through it.

Sigh.

,

No Comments

Laughing all the way to the bank… “60 Mario and friends”

Posted by rn in General on February 13th, 2010

If you’ve noticed the current iTunes “game” chart this week, you would notice this dubious entry:

Appearing here in the game store’s front page:

The intentionally ambiguous entry is masquerading as a game, but is actually a set of sound effects from said games. As to the quality (and origin/legality) of the sounds I can’t say, as I’m not about to give this ass-clown $2.50 to satisfy my curiosity. But clearly this guy is making a pant-load of cash taking advantage of people too lazy to look closely at the listing. Not only that, but the app was originally listed at $0.99 and has since increased in price. He also updated the app version (see the screen shot), apparently fixing some “bugs”. Clearly this is just an attempt to hide the 9 extremely negative reviews which say quite clearly, “this isn’t a game, save your money!”.

It’s this type of thing that worries me about where the iPad and iPhone might take computing in general. It’s not that having a central “app store” that includes these features is necessarily a bad thing, but Apple’s walled-garden, “all your apps are belong to us” implementation and flawed approval process encourages this kind of bad behaviour. Meanwhile, quality apps made by quality developers sit on the sidelines and are marginalised. This leaves very little incentive for quality development, and no alternative places for developers to go get their apps out there. This is all aside from the implications closed platforms like iPad/iPod/iPhone have for free software.

Incidentally, finding anywhere on the app store or Apple’s site to make a complaint or flag this sort of abuse is like trying to escape from a maze of inter-connected links. I’ll save you the time – here’s the app store support email link – make a complaint!

Personally, I’m getting to the point where I’m ready to chuck out my iPod and move to Android as my next phone.

,

1 Comment