

Apple's Not Fond of Brunettes - pgrote
http://ikamasutra.com/apple/

======
cageface
I'm fed up with this nanny state app store model. As a hacker I feel like I
have an obligation to fight this trend. I'm committed to a couple of iOS
projects right now but when they wrap I'm going to take a very hard look at
getting back on the open web.

~~~
endgame
Damn straight. My macbook sits unused in another state because I made the same
decision a year or so ago. I don't miss it, in fact I _prefer_ my GNU/Linux
netbook.

~~~
DeepDuh
What does your laptop brand have to do with your choice of mobile development?
MacBooks are quite good linux machines if you want to go that road.

~~~
cageface
The Mac App store is troubling these days too - locking non-MAS apps out of
iCloud, for instance.

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martian
"The item you've requested is not currently available in the U.S. store."

This article was originally posted on June 6th. It's now June 29th. After 23
days, this issue is still not resolved.

I'm not a user of the app or a fan, but I find this incredibly curious and
sadly opaque.

~~~
lacker
_this issue is still not resolved_

Not exactly. Apple's guidelines state that they do not want more "apps such as
fart, burp, flashlight and Kama Sutra apps". So, this issue is resolved in the
sense that Apple has successfully booted this app out of the App Store. Game
over.

~~~
lucian1900
Apple still prevent users from choosing what software to run on the devices
they own.

Obviously there are some people that want Kama Sutra apps, and there's nothing
wrong with that.

------
zalew
<http://hackerne.ws/item?id=3852003> IKamasutra: Apple Hates Brunettes
(ikamasutra.com) 350 points by varl 73 days ago

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knowaveragejoe
I don't understand how Apple, with all its money, doesn't have better
facilities for dealing with this sort of thing - especially when they care so
much about developer retainment.

~~~
cageface
Until people start making more money in the other app stores Apple can be as
abusive as they like.

The unpublicized truth is that Apple barely breaks even on the app store as it
is.

~~~
micaeked
source?

~~~
britta
Here's a source from 2011:
[http://articles.marketwatch.com/2011-02-23/industries/307024...](http://articles.marketwatch.com/2011-02-23/industries/30702421_1_apple-
shareholder-ceo-steve-jobs-tim-cook/3)

> Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, added that the company
> runs its App Store and iTunes store “just a little over break-even,” to
> counter claims that the company is trying to use apps to drive up its
> profits.

saurik has also written a few comments about this - see here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4155998>

> ...despite their massive volume, Apple's App Store makes sufficiently little
> profit that they don't even break it out as a separate line item on their
> 10-Q (instead lumping it under "music related products and services", the
> same category that handles both iTunes and iBooks)

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willtheperson
Are Apple employee's forbidden to release their own apps?

How easy would it be for some person in the loop to just rip off an app and
have their competition kickbanned? There's probably no law against
insider-"apping"

~~~
thatjoshguy
> Are Apple employee's forbidden to release their own apps?

Yeah, we're forbidden from it. Conflict of interest.

~~~
scoot
So it's a conflict of interest for employees to rip-off other people's apps
and have them rejected, but not when Apple do it?

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/08/apple_copies_rejecte...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/08/apple_copies_rejected_app/)

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mdonahoe
Why does apple take 5x as long to reject apps in situations like this?

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zemo
Have they tried making the people have a hair color that is between the
accepted and rejected ones? Bisect the acceptance/rejection continuum.

~~~
pjscott
That assumes that the hair color thing was their real reason. I doubt it.

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pbreit
Is there a chance this was an accident?

~~~
michaelt
Perhaps they meant to block Kama Sutra App™, Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, Kama
Sutra! - Manual of Sex, Kama Sutra: Manual of Sex, Kamasutra™, Kamasutra 3D,
Kamasutra by Vatsyayana, Kamasutra for iPad, Kamasutra fun, Kamasutra Museum
3D, Kamasutra Museum 3D HD, KamaSutra Posiciones, Kamasutra The Game,
Kamazootra, Kamazootra Lite, 101 Positions of KamaSutra, Kamasutra (Deutsch),
Kamasutra - Sex Positions Guide and Kama Sutra, KamaSwami, or KamaSwami for
iPad.

Perhaps it was only through confusion that they blocked iKamasutra.

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mcantor
Someone needs to be fired over this.

