The Kafka-esque Nightmare of Palm App Submission 332
MBCook writes "Jamie Zawinski, shortly after the release of the Palm Pre, wrote two free software programs for the phone: a Tip Calculator and a port of Dali Clock. In trying to get the apps published to the App Catalog, he has had to sign up to be a developer twice; fax contracts around; been told (apparently incorrectly) that he was not allowed to release free software for the phone; and told he had to give PayPal his checking account number. 'It's been two weeks, and I have received no reply. In the months since this process began, other third-party developers seem to have managed to get their applications into the App Catalog. Apparently these people are better at jumping through ridiculous hoops than I am.'"
Palm App Clunker (Score:3, Funny)
A who'd've thunker.
What way could this pave,
For another DC save?
Burma Shave
Re:Palm App Clunker... NOT! (Score:5, Informative)
Oh hardly. The man wants to distribute free software and he had to print out and sign 10 pages of legal documents. Then he had to comply with a whole bunch of ridiculous demands (like setting his version number less than 1.0.0 for a finished app), then deal with mountains of emails.
Does this sound like an efficient organization? Could it be that the reason why they've been overwhelmed is (gasp!) their ridiculous and inefficient distribution process?
Well, no - after all, that would be too much like *bashing Palm*. See how I turned that on you? Instead of *bashing Apple*, I turned it into *bashing Palm*! Neat trick, huh?
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It sounds very much like an organization that has never had to deal with this type of application submission situation, and is still working out the kinks in what what would naturally be a complicated process whole at the same time dealing with a significantly larger response than expected.
Is Palm and their App Store submission process perfect? Hell no! But to call it Kafka-esque is crude hyperbole of the most insulting form.
Oh, and this IS /. Lots of Apple
Re:Palm App Clunker... NOT! (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, and this IS /. Lots of Apple fanboys submit stories all the time here. Or have you not noticed the overwhelmingly positive iPhone stories, even back when they were initially launched and had many similar issues? Or are you blinded by your own fanboyism?
Apple fanboyism on Slashdot? Are we talking about the same Apple that gets repeatedly attacked on Slashdot for their ridiculous app store approval policies?
Or do you think that Palm should be allowed to be more draconian than Apple because they're smaller?
You're the one getting defensive when his favourite company gets attacked, so who do you think is the real fanboy here?
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Any situation that requires printing, signing, and scanning plus giving your checking account number to a 3rd party (in this era of identity theft and bank account hoovering) to GIVE AWAY an app certainly is Kafkaesque. This is especially true when they could just let people download and install the app like they did with every previous Palm product including cellphones.
It seems that Palm has caught Apple's attachment issues. They manufacture a product and then offer it for sale, but when you hand over your
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Except Apple's entire marketing plan revolves around bad-mouthing their competitors; it's how they established Apple as a sort of cultural movement. It gives art students something to be smug about other than vegetarianism.
The really die-hard fanboys take the Palm Pre as a personal affront. It's an iPhone ripoff. Palm "hacked" iTunes. It's so posers can pretend they have an iPhone, you see.
Re:Palm App Clunker... NOT! (Score:5, Funny)
Windows Mobile (Score:5, Insightful)
This is what's actually good in Windows Mobile. Anyone can write software for it and anyone can start a Store site for it. In this respect Windows and Windows Mobile are quite open architectures. All iPhone, Palm and Symbian are really restricted and closed architectures (Symbian requires you to get certificate for the app too), and getting your apps on the stores are a real bitch.
Re:Windows Mobile (Score:5, Funny)
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3. Accuse the poster who wrote something positive about Microsoft of being either a fanboy or a Microsoft employee. If the poster in question made a comment about Microsoft's actual support of Free Software in a particular instance, accuse the poster of being an oblivious idiot unable to see through their Embrace-Extend-Extinguish approach
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This is what's actually good in Windows Mobile. Anyone can write software for it and anyone can start a Store site for it. In this respect Windows and Windows Mobile are quite open architectures. All iPhone, Palm and Symbian are really restricted and closed architectures (Symbian requires you to get certificate for the app too), and getting your apps on the stores are a real bitch.
To be fair, there is already an alternate package manager / store application you can install with minimal hassle. http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/Application:Preware
TFA is concerned with the difficulty of getting an app into the official store, not homebrew apps which are exceedingly easy to do. Its rather hard to call an architecture closed that has the Konami code as the means by which you unlock dev mode. There is a rapidly growing base of homebrew stuff, including apps that add functionality like o
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One one hand, yes. On the other hand, I've worked with enough overworked 'pigeon holers' in my life to know that once their level of stress gets high enough, they start giving you shit to do just to keep you in a holding pattern while they take care of the rest of their stack. It's quite possible that JWZ just got stuck with someone who is too overwhelmed with what's hitting their desk to give a shit about 'developer experience' and are just finding as many roadblocks to toss out as they can so they can hav
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Yeah. It's gotten pretty ridiculous that you need approval to put things in a specific store so people can use them. This is something that Microsoft actually got right.
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Re:Windows Mobile (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah. It's gotten pretty ridiculous that you need approval to put things in a specific store so people can use them. This is something that Microsoft actually got right.
Yet on Xbox 360, developers still need to pay $99 per year for Creators Club and then get approval to get their XNA games posted.
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We'll see how long that lasts. I'm sure Microsoft is rushing even now to follow suit and build their own app store for Windows Mobile devices...
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Yep, you should be able to walk into a store and just dump your stuff on the shelf without any approval. Ridiculous that stores don't let you.
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http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/09/16/microsoft_sells_restrictive_new_wimo_marketplace_via_iphone_ads.html
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This is what's actually good in Windows Mobile. Anyone can write software for it and anyone can start a Store site for it. In this respect Windows and Windows Mobile are quite open architectures. All iPhone, Palm and Symbian are really restricted and closed architectures (Symbian requires you to get certificate for the app too), and getting your apps on the stores are a real bitch.
Symbian is hopefully dying in favor of Maemo, and what goes for iPhone you don't even want to get me started. However this isn't "good about Windows Mobile", this is required for me to even look at it once, and I'm not asking for much here. I don't know why the author bothers to develop for Palm when... well do I need to continue that sentence or can I let TFA speak for itself?
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(Happy owner of a G1, never giving it up until another good capacitive touch-screen based phone with a keyboard comes out)
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This is what's actually good in Windows Mobile. Anyone can write software for it and anyone can start a Store site for it.
Well, this is both good and bad. You see, a lot of users consider a centralized store combined with a package manager is a feature and are voting with their wallets. MS will doubtless respond eventually. It is possible they will do it right, but unlikely.
What they should do is open an official app store, but rather than making it monolithic, allow any server to serve applications through the store. Handle all licensing/sales centrally and send out checks. Don't outright block any applications for any reason
Re:Windows Mobile (Score:5, Insightful)
Excuse me for not jumping on the giant bandwagon here, but let's try something different.
Back in the "good old days" of palm before the pre, there WAS NO over the air app store installed on the treo. You had to google for someplace to find apps for your treo, you had to go there, you had to down load them, and you had to install them using the hot sync program.
That was easy for Aunt Minnie (NOT!)
Palm has NOT FORBIDDEN that process, Dali Clock and Tip calculator are available at this web site, and at PreCentral EXACTLY as they were back int he Treo days, and can be installed by any user EXACTLY as they were back in the treo days.
Palm has ADDED the over-the-air app store so that AUNT MINNIE can find apps. And people are bitching that there is a small set of hoops that Palm and the cell carriers want you to jump through that if you distribute apps (which could be evil) over THEIR NETWORK not over the in-tar-tubes.
They want to be able to verify who you are but having a tax ID, and they want to validate that you're serious by charging you $5.00 Wow, that's SO irrational.
I'm sorry. I disagree.
Rick Boatright
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If you don't use the Palm SDK to develop, you can sell your wares any places you like. But downloading THEIR SDK means you agree to THEIR CONDITIONS.
NOTHING is keeping you from developing software on your Pre and selling to off your web site. You just can't use the Emulator or other software Palm developed to do so.
Far be it for Palm to want a solid and worry free user experience.
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Becomes available with Windows Mobile 6.5, which launches on Oct 6.
And they say... (Score:4, Funny)
This seems like a terrible plan. (Score:2)
Apple's authoritarian submission policies are on one side of that line, and I'm pretty sure that Palm is going to find out that theirs are on the other.
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wait... which one can you get away with? What?
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The difference between arrogance and hubris is what you can get away with.
Sorry, confused as to if your are talking about the programmer who wrote the article listed or Palm. Hard to tell who has more hubris.
Let's all be like Apple! (Score:4, Insightful)
So Palm decided that they wanted to imitate Apple? After all, "no press is bad press", and Apple sure has been getting a lot of press for the way it runs the AppStore. Locking down the device... it may not be useful to the *customers*, but it couldn't harm the company at all, could it?
Well, not unless they abandon your platform (or never flock to it in the first place) in favor of Android or even Nokia's Maemo -- platforms that allow the USER to control what they run on their devices.
I think I've learned my lesson. I am not buying an iPhone, Kindle, or (after reading this) Palm -- no devices from a company that intends to control what I can run on my device. Offering a store: GREAT idea. Carefully controlling what goes in this store and prohibiting any other means of getting apps onto the device: that makes it THEIR device, not mine, and I don't want to play that game.
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Google "iPhone jailbreak" and then "cydia store". You can then put all the crap that you want on your iPhone.
Re:Let's all be like Apple! (Score:5, Insightful)
You are confusing users with developers. Very few users are developers. Those who aren't developers aren't interested in what hoops you need to jump through or in how much "freedom" you have as a developer. They want a reliable, easy to use device and they want a lot of easy to use applications that are useful to them, easy to install and easy to use. Apple has accomplished that. Their numbers of users and available applications prove that. I doubt if any of these companies care about what you personally will buy or not buy. You are not the market they are going after.
As for developers, if you give them a few tools and access to millions of potential customers, they will jump through any hoops they have to in order to compete in a lucrative market.
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You are confusing users with developers. Very few users are developers.
You don't need to be a developer to enjoy the programs others have written for free.. I don't have to have written for example inkscape in order to want to use it on what I have for free. non-developers jailbreak iphones too.... to use what they want on their phone, not necessarily develop on it.
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while it's a very sysadmin like example, my last phone purchase was precisely about that. The nokia n95, the iphone had been released and jailbroken already, but I didn't get it.. why? because I wanted to be able to do what I want with my phone without having to dick around with it. Putty port already existed, as did an xmpp client, and I was set.
So I haven't developed for the phone, yet the ability to do what I want with it was a compelling enough reason to decide what kind of device I was getting.
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Which is why people should just shut the fuck up about how much their computers suck.
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As for developers, if you give them a few tools and access to millions of potential customers, they will jump through any hoops they have to in order to compete in a lucrative market.
Unless the developer prefers to work part-time, perhaps because he has an unrelated day job, and the hoops include "have a dedicated office" and "already have relevant industry experience". A lot of developers will choose another platform instead of trying to jump through these hoops.
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Re:Let's all be like Apple! (Score:5, Insightful)
Locking down the device... it may not be useful to the *customers*
Apple has recently served up it's two billionth app (this number does not include updates).
More open devices like the old Palms and Windows Mobile may seem more consumer-friendly at first, but when you take a closer look, you'll see that Apple's approach is *far* more consumer-friendly. Far more apps have been sold through iTunes than ever would have been sold if developers had to peddle their wares independently. And even free apps are easier to find, download and install.
Do you even know how easy it is to get an app for the iPhone? Once you find an app that interests you, it just takes one click to acquire it and have it installed on your iPhone. One click! No downloading zip files, extracting them then installing via some menu system. Just click, and plug in your phone. Done.
Apple keeps your credit card information for iTunes when you set up your account. You don't have to enter anything in for each purchase, and Apple is more trustworthy than some random web site.
As far as the customers are concerned, the iTunes App Store is a smashing success.
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> Apple has recently served up it's two billionth app (this number does not include updates). ...which may or may not be terribly impressive all things considered. Of course it is a number
specificially engineered to look and sound impressive but it may not really be all that. It's
just saavy marketing that easily impresses rubes. It's a figure that's easy to inflate. Time
will tell. This approach may eventually end up biting Apple in the butt as they (despite all
of the hype to the contrary) are very much i
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Come back two years later and we'll see. Apple is doing very well because, as always, they make things much more easy and user-friendly for the customer. I know it's trendy on Slashdot to bash Apple as "overhyped" and superficial and marketing-driven, but in reality they often make the most well-designed and engineered products on the market. People buy Apple gear because it works really well for the average person.
Unfortunately the "superior" types who look down on everyday people as sheeple and lusers can
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but in reality they often make the most well-designed and engineered products on the market
Youll want to cite that. If youre referring to the cases / chassis, you might have a point, but otherwise there are a large number of competitors. ASUS for example makes some very nice screen-integrated desktops, Blackberries are STILL considered the gold standard of the corporate phone market (and not because of poor engineering either), and Sansa Fuzes are, as i understand it, generally considered superior to iPods (and if those dont float your boat, i hear the COWONs are pretty decent too).
Not that A
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but in reality they often make the most well-designed and engineered products on the market
Youll[sic] want to cite that.
What's the measure of well-designed and engineered? The most sales? The best customer satisfaction? What study criteria would you accept as a citation for such an assertion? Is it even possible to objectively measure without more parameters? He did provide more parameters you know, talking about making things suitable for average users. For that you can actually look at formal usability studies of users performing common tasks.
Sansa Fuzes are, as i understand it, generally considered superior to iPods...
Generally considered by whom? By geeks on slashdot or reporters for Wired magazin
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As far as praise goes, this one is pretty hilarious.
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Yep. It downloads automatically to my Pre over WiFi or EVDO and I can play it in about 20 seconds. Works GREAT.
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Well, for one thing, it's not accurate.
When you download an app, the phone asks for your iTunes password. It isn't just a "one click and you're done" thing like the GP posted. Or maybe it's the way I have my phone configured?
But more to the point: I think your quote from the GP didn't correctly communicate the value he's commenting on. Sure any developer can set up a WinMo app store and collect CC info. But how many users are going to be willing to pass their CC information to "JoesFlyByNightApps.com"? And
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The app store itself is a good idea other companies should imitate. The issue is that with Apple, it is the only way to get your app on the iPhone (yes, I know that people can jailbreak their iPhone and then visit other stores and install other apps, but that is a fairly small number of users and can be undone at any time Apple wants to). I have a WinMobile phone and would love to have a good app store for it, as it would make finding things easier. What I don't want is for that to be the only way to ins
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And what you say is not a huge bag of fail why, exactly? He just said that having stores makes perfect sense, since they make money for the parent company and nudge the consumer in the right direction, plus maybe make life easier on the developer. All he was saying was that he wouldn't trade that OMG one click!!eleven! for a device that won't let him install what he wants from it; there isn't a dichotomy between an app store and a user's ability to install stuff on their phones.
As far as the customers are concerned, the iTunes App Store is a smashing success.
As far as customers are conce
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Offering a store: GREAT idea. Carefully controlling what goes in this store and prohibiting any other means of getting apps onto the device: that makes it THEIR device, not mine, and I don't want to play that game.
I would reword that statement to say: "Offering a store: GREAT idea. Carefully controlling what goes in this store: also a GREAT idea. Prohibiting any other means of getting apps onto the device: BULLSHIT."
If these companies are going to offer app stores it makes perfect sense for them to do extensive QA on the apps before allowing them in. In other words, the app store should be a gated community, so to speak, so that those who want to be able to get apps quickly and easily with the peace of mind of k
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I'd say it's largely because they're doing it on a market that has traditionally been incredibly closed and controlled. Phones have never been an open platform.
You can argue that Windows mobile or Symbian are more open in what apps they allow, but you need to be both *good* and open before anyone cares. The ability to install any app you want is nice, but secondary to have an app you want to install in the first place.
Tip calculator?! (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe the world doesn't need another tip calculator...
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Maybe the world doesn't need another tip calculator...
Why do we need any? Is it really that hard to work out a fairly simple percentage in your head? Perhaps it's easier to leave a small tip when a machine is telling you to do it. "It's not me that's cheap, it's my iPhone."
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Not that the tipping rules are any different; but applying them can get tricky...
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But how else am I going to multiply the check amount by 15%?? It's not like I can punch N * .15 into any calculator and get the right answer...right?
It's not like you can easily calculate N *.1 in your head and then add half of that to get the right answer... right?
Hyperbole inflation (Score:5, Insightful)
The name Kafka now gets invoked whenever someone doesn't immediately get what he/she wants. Some administrative thingy gone wrong? Kafka! Your broadband connection doesn't allow you to download at 20Mb and the help desk says that the speed is not constant? Kafka! Your microwave's remote control's batteries are not in stock at your local supermarket and it will take more than an hour to restock? Kafka! You wake up and you find yourself turning into a giant beetle? O wait...
Re:Hyperbole inflation (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hyperbole inflation (Score:5, Funny)
I'm struggling to understand you. It's almost Kafkaesque.
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This is your cockroach brain, whinging about the confusing irony of that comment which inspires ontological despair at the incomprehensible injustice of the world: `@:%%%
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Yes, this guy is as much to blame as Palm for creating struggles. Seriously. I had my App submitted for the Catalog with about 1 hour of effort.
Look at me, Palm won't spoon feed me to cater to my every need about distributing my crappy apps. Waaaaaaaah!!! Waaaaaaah!!
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The name Kafka now gets invoked whenever someone doesn't immediately get what he/she wants.
Perhaps, but not in this case. Kafka's name is usually brought up to describe situations where bureaucracy has run amok and replaced reason with rules that are blindly followed, much to the protagonist's (and the reader's) frustration.
So in this case, the analogy is apt.
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I don't know if you can really consider it hyperbole inflation given so few people are familiar with Kafka. I mean...it is probably on a similar scale of having the value of the dollar inflating .0000001 and then complaining inflation went up.
We need an open platform / open source PDA. Now. (Score:5, Interesting)
The old, imho to date unmatched, Palm OS is dead, the new Palm seems to become a screwup, iPhone/iPod Touch is a lockdown nightmare, WinMobile is a no-go and developing, integrating and deploying to Blackb*rrys is like grating your fingernails.
The Matter of fact is: Mobile is a mess, very much the way desktop computers were in the mid-eighties.
We are in dire need of an eqiuvalent to the Arduino platform in the PDA market. Small, cheap, relyable, open standards, with a simple single-touch screen a neat CPU and some run-off-the-mill LitIon battery industry standard. 6 months into the first batch we'll have FOSS programmers and hardware hackers expanding it to be a cellphone for those who want it to be one.
THAT is what we need.
Just the open standard equivalent of my oldest colorscreen Palm at the price of 100 Euros and an FOSS OS that comes with it, that's all I ask. It can't be that difficult with hardware prices dropping left right and center.
My 2 cents.
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http://openpandora.org/ [openpandora.org]
It's taking a while, but they are getting there.
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What about Android?
What about following established J2ME/CLDC standards instead of going in a completely different and incompatible direction, meaning that all of the existing J2ME apps that work on phones and devices around the world simply can't , in spite of the fact that android is a java platform.
Erm, oops. A bit of bitterness leaked through there...
Re:We need an open platform / open source PDA. Now (Score:4, Insightful)
You were correct until scripting for Android http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/ [google.com] was released;
now "Python, Perl, JRuby, Lua, BeanShell, and shell are currently supported, and we're planning to add more."
So without trying to offend anyone - if a developer can't manage to bang out an app in one of the many languages
now supported, do you really want to run their app?
Re:We need an open platform / open source PDA. Now (Score:2)
WinMobile is a no-go
Tell that to these folks [xda-developers.com]
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Strip out the bloat [xda-developers.com], and it runs really well. Three days battery life, no resets / powering off, and plenty of storage space.
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We are in dire need of an eqiuvalent to the Arduino platform in the PDA market. Small, cheap, relyable, open standards, with a simple single-touch screen a neat CPU and some run-off-the-mill LitIon battery industry standard.
Coming this holiday season: the Pandora PDA [openpandora.org]. It's a gaming PDA wrapped around what is essentially a BeagleBoard. Like the iPod Touch, it's not a phone, so I'm not billed per month for services I won't use.
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Seriously? The Pre is the most open platform out there (including Android with its locked down ROM).
QuickInstall and the average user can hack the WebOS and install programs to load whatever homebrew they want. No jailbreaking, easy as pie.
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integrating and deploying to Blackb*rrys is like grating your fingernails.
It is? Have you actually done so yet? So far, I've been finding it pretty easy... hope to post my first submission to BB appworld later this year.
Who cares about these apps? (Score:2, Insightful)
Seriously. It's a tip calculator, and a clock. These are the kinds of applications we can do with less of anyway. FOSS software is rife with these small and pointless programs. I agree such software is great as learning tools for others to get a foothold with when writing their own more complicated software, but they're hardly worth getting your panties in a twist over. Palm OS comes with a clock, and last I checked, is bundled with a calculator.
I could understand if it were something truly useful that
Re:Who cares about these apps? (Score:5, Insightful)
The point is not what YOU think of the quality of the apps. It's not what PALM thinks of the quality of the apps. The point is that the author of the software must jump through ridiculous hoops and beg permission of someone before they can give their app to people who want it. And if the someone says "No", then no one can have it.
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The point is not what YOU think of the quality of the apps. It's not what PALM thinks of the quality of the apps. The point is that the author of the software must jump through ridiculous hoops and beg permission of someone before they can give their app to people who want it. And if the someone says "No", then no one can have it.
...Except for not. The apps can still be distributed outside of Palm's store.
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Yeah, but the clock doesn't melt! And the calculator doesn't automatically type in *1.2=
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> FOSS software is rife with these small and pointless programs.
Have you actually used an iphone?
FOSS is not the only "platform" that has this "problem".
Whenever I hear that "billions and billions served" nonsense from the
Apple fanboys I think of all manner of little nonsense apps like this
one that you are complaining infests Linux. Nevermind Linux. The iphone
has the exact same crap but multiplied at least an order of magnitude.
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i see that Apple is a total failure with their policies. from 0 to over 75,000 apps in just over a year and everyone is trying to copy them. Blackberry had tons of apps and most people didn't know about them because you had to hunt them down on developer websites or via stores like crackberry. with the appstore you have all apps in one location making search and purchase easier.
there was even a survey out a few weeks ago that found that developers make a lot more money via Apple's AppStore than selling the
what a moron, meanwhile others are making money (Score:3, Insightful)
Palm, Apple and MS want you to sign up once pay the fees and have the ability to upload free or paid apps. no one wants to wasted time on a second process for paid apps. the reason for paypal and other access is if you write paid apps and people ask for refunds then Palm needs the ability to get money from you.
While this genius is complaining about these "hoops" others are writing apps and will be getting paid soon.
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Seriously, He's a troll. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Seriously, He's a troll. (Score:4, Insightful)
Today's quote:
Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.
-- Jamie Zawinski
Tip calculators??? (Score:2)
I've seen them for android as well, tens, if not more!
it's even a web page going through the 10 best tip calculators for iphone (http://www.everythingicafe.com/news/software/iphone-tip-calculator-smackdown-20080731827/)
Personally I cannot see any use of such an app. What is this about? is it a US thing? (as I understand that tipping is a bit of a bigger business than europe and hence far more advanced formulas are used, derivates, fourier transformations etc).
What happened with doing a simple calc in your h
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FYI, if you do ever visit the US, the "standard" tipping percentage here is 15 to 20% for table servers. They aren't paid adequate salary (current minimum for table servers is about a third of regular minimum wage, and because of the tipping expectation even high-priced restaurants pay low wages): they make their money on tips. In fact, it's best to think of your server as an independent contractor who delivers your food and beverages. By money, they work for you more than the restaurant.
Other service in
!nightmare (Score:5, Informative)
It should be noted that the developer had his own particular requirements:
* Would not sign NDA
* Would not even TALK with Palm about signing an NDA
* Would not change version numbers
* Would not get PayPal verified account
In other words, Palm had certain policies in place. Maybe they were good policies, maybe they were foolish ones. But that was not really the issue. The real sticking point was that the developer felt that, since he was distributing his apps for free, he had an entitlement to be at his own discretion exempt from any policies Palm put in place. And Palm didn't see it that way. Seems to me that there was simply not a meeting of minds and he's better off following his own device and developing for a more open platform. But by his own admission clearly there are plenty of developers who aren't bent out of shape by Palm's policies, which I would certainly not describe as "nightmarish" given the issues stated in his article. To be honest, I was more put off by his whining, histrionic melodramatic tone than by yet another example of Palm's notoriously poor business sense. On a scale of Palm's Pre snafus I'd rate poor battery life as a 10, annoying cursor is annoying as a 2, and the issues outlined in his story as a less than a one.
(Speaking of "annoying cursor," OT but does anyone else have a problem with trying to drop a cursor on the right hand side of Slashdot's comment box?)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe I'm being ignorant here, could you please explain why would you need to sign an NDA to release an app to an app store? It's not like he's selling company secrets. It's a tip calculator and a dali clock, if palm actually needs the person who developed that stuff to be under an NDA, they're in pretty bad trouble since things like t
Fortunately for Pre Users... (Score:5, Informative)
... there is a thriving homebrew community which Palm supports. Precentral.net has a heck of a lot of apps available for the Pre that are not available in the official Pre store.
(I am not affiliated with Precentral.net, I just have a fair amount of homebrew apps on my Pre).
Re: (Score:2)
OMG it actually hurts to RTFA (Score:2)
Such is the way of the free market (Score:3, Funny)
It's called freedom: You get to choose which monopoly owns your ass.
Rantmaster Flash (Score:2)
> Jamie Zawinski
Ah, the maestro has struck again.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Once I realized it was JWZ, I had that same thought. It is perhaps possible that NOTHING would please this guy.
Re: (Score:2)
I think he liked LISP machines...
Seriously, every platform is a mix of good and bad. It's a way to get stuff done, you don't have to marry your platform and pretend it has no problems, ever.
Re: (Score:3)
How hard is it to fax a contract and link PayPal to a checking account? I learned how to work a fax machine when I was 8 and linked my PayPal when I was 10. So I guess the real question is: who would want an app from this guy in the first place?
Not everyone finds PayPal's Terms of Service acceptable.
In addition its none of Palm's business where your payment vendor points; checking account or no.
Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Interesting)
Stuff like this?
I opened a free bank account and pointed a free PayPal account to it. Total time, 1 hour at bank and on computer.
Done.
Apps submitted for sale from Palm.
Yes, there are issues with Palm creating the infrastructure to handle all developers apps being submitted. However, the poster is constantly deciding that he won't do the simple things Palm asks, to help them manage the volume. Fine, those "problem" developers can wait until everything is figured out.
Why in the world should Palm spend hours and hours appeasing a developer of two mediocre apps (yes, I've used both) when the same time could get a dozen more developers setup for submitting apps. Obviously, it is some sort of conspiracy, rather than just good business sense.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
1993 called, they want their site design back.
Don't be silly. 1993 would pretty much predate the availability of color choices on the webpage...
The black background is more of a 1996/1997 thing, as I recall.