
Apple pulls app that let you turn your phone into virtual iPod with click wheel - avonmach
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/16/21024729/apple-rewound-app-iphone-ipod-click-wheel-web-android-not-available
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rvz
Apple really knows how to kill a new craze here. Keeping a harmless iPod
simulator on the App Store hardly threatens the sales of iPods these days.
(Even though the result of it being pulled probably comes under copyright
infringement.)

Even long after their extinction, They still want you to buy the real thing
for 100x the original price.

~~~
lilyball
It seems frankly ludicrous to claim Apple pulled an iPod simulator for iPhone
because they want you to buy physical iPods, especially given that they don't
sell physical iPods anymore.

The app seems tailor-made to reproduce Apple's intellectual property (i.e.
designs), and it also charged a fee for Apple Music features.

Even the Verge post from last week said

> _It’s a clever workaround as long as Apple doesn’t pull the app_

If you're using workarounds to avoid Apple rejecting your app, you shouldn't
be surprised when Apple ends up pulling your app.

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lern_too_spel
It doesn't advertise itself as an iPod clone. What The Verge called a "clever
workaround" was the fact that a skin to make it look like an iPod could be
downloaded later. Apple is overreaching again, but that isn't surprising.
What's surprising is that anybody, including the app's authors, is surprised.

~~~
lilyball
The app appears to have been explicitly designed to enable cloning the iPod
Classic interface, and making that skin something you download separately was
a workaround because it’s pretty obvious that it would get rejected if it
shipped that way.

I really don’t see this as Apple overreaching, especially given that the app
is charging people for Apple Music features, which is definitely not okay.

~~~
lern_too_spel
> given that the app is charging people for Apple Music features

What Apple Music features is it charging for? That isn't even a thing that
Apple complained about.

> The app appears to have been explicitly designed to enable cloning the iPod
> Classic interface

The default is not an iPod classic interface. I can just as easily make an
iPod classic skin for WinAmp.

The solution, as always, is to simply avoid Apple's arbitrarily restricted
platforms.

~~~
lilyball
Their own description of the app says

> _We launched an App that let you customize your iPhone to look like a 2000s
> era MP3 player._

It's pretty obvious what the intention is. And while I don't know precisely
how skins work, it's hard to imagine that they enabled clickwheel scrolling by
accident.

> _What Apple Music features is it charging for? That isn 't even a thing that
> Apple complained about._

I don't know specifically but even their own blog post explicitly cites this
as one of the 3 things Apple pulled their app for:

> _2\. Charging for Apple Music features_

> _This is less unreasonable […]_

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kayamon
Isn’t it wonderful that we’ve positioned companies like Apple as this great
gatekeeper of what you can and can’t make.

Mandatory app stores remain a terrible idea. Code signing remains a terrible
idea. We need to push back against this idiocy.

