

Zwapp’s app makes iPhone app discovery more social - sushumna
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/04/29/zwapps-app-makes-iphone-app-discovery-more-social/

======
gyardley
Zwapp is a neat product, but using sysctl to detect background processes (and
therefore other installed applications on the device) would make me really
nervous.

Apple has a tendency to shut down interesting workarounds they didn't
anticipate -- and while Zwapp's all opt-in, sysctl can just as easily be used
by an ad network to get more context for targeting. At that point the feature
bounces from security researcher to tech press to class-action troll to
grandstanding politician, and then it goes away, leaving Zwapp in a bind.

I wish Apple would allow users to explicitly give an app permission to see
their installed apps. App discovery's still a huge problem.

~~~
vanelsas
We do wish Apple would provide better ways too, but using the processes isn't
going to get you to a 100% anyways. We are (luckily) not dependent entirely on
system processes and will (in a few days) see if we can ramp up our app
detection with help from the community!

------
edoloughlin
Has anyone else reached their threshold for giving yet another startup access
to _all_ your actually useful social/webapp sites?

~~~
evro82
nope

~~~
vanelsas
haha!

We still hope that creating little app stores with your friends helps to solve
the fundamental issue that the App Store is simply becoming too big to find
useful apps fast

