
For Apple, Yesterday's Banned Apps Are Tomorrow's Great New Feature - akent
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/for-apple-yesterday%e2%80%99s-banned-apps-are-tomorrow%e2%80%99s-great-new-feature/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
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karipatila
Wasn't the volume key snapshot feature in Camera+ done as an undocumented
easter egg? Apple's developer guidelines at the time clearly stated that you
have to list all hidden features upon submitting the app for review. I believe
you had to visit an URL in Mobile Safari to activate the feature. It was also
well understood that you couldn't alter the functionality of the hardware
controls.

I'm inclined to think that a physical camera button is not something Apple
couldn't come up on its own. Just like wi-fi sync, it was listed as a missing
feature on quite a few review. That said, the matter naturally becomes quite
different if they still disallow 3rd party developers access to the volume
rocker.

It's disappointing to see that Wired is repeating the wi-fi sync story.

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jtchang
In a way I find Apple to have something akin to brutal ingeniousness. I hate
them for basically using their developers like sheep but love them for
creating such a great product and ecosystem.

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aneth
Both of the examples in this article are about products that contain obvious
solutions for core functions of an iPhone. Just because a developer builds a
feature before Apple gets around to it doesn't mean Apple is evil for
implementing a similar feature.

Does anyone think the creators of the iPhone never thought of using the volume
button to take pictures or wifi sync? These are features every engineer who
bought an iPhone for the last three years thought of on the first day.

The whole premise of this whine-fest is bunk.

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nextparadigms
But why did they ban them then? Just so they don't have competition when they
do launch it? think Apple's thought process is a bit like a communist's. Why
allow 3rd parties to build something when we can build it ourselves?

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gte910h
They don't ban them just to ban them.

There is a list of things you can do on the phone. It's the approved public
API. Stuff that does things calling other functions are banned. Things that
change how the device behaves in an unpredictable manner are rejected out of
course.

This makes it pretty foolproof to make apps not hurt other apps. This is a
feature that makes iPhones tons easier for your mom to use (and to freely
install apps on) than Android phones.

Lots of these things that use non-public functions are detected with a scanner
that looks for calls to non-public functions.

For the camera functionality in particular, they were told to take it out,
they did, but hid it in a secret portion of the app. Apple banned them for
abuse there.

For every neat app like Camera+, there are 35 utterly phone breaking apps out
there that would do stuff like this.

And it's not like those apps don't have a place to go. People who care
(possibly you) often jailbreak and buy apps there.

