why “interesting” was pushing it a bit

Since the last time, the App store has got better (no NDA) and worse (more apps banned capriciously, like MailWrangler). There were lots of good posts on why it’s a mess, but Gruber probably comes closest to the money. Though not quite.

It’s foolish and unnecessary — the fact that iTunes is wide open to total competition on both Mac OS X and Windows hasn’t hurt it at all

Except that iTunes isn’t open to total competition, not even slightly. The jukebox is, sure, but not the stack — from store to music in your pocket. Amazon can make an MP3 store; a desktop jukebox could even tie into it. To compete with the whole thing, though, they need to be on the iPod. Or have a device that beats its 70%+ marketshare. Nobody right now is in a position to compete with all three. The battle would be a lot easier, though, if they could write custom software for the iPod. Which is why Apple’s cagy about it.

But Mail? Why on earth should Apple care if some third-party email client for the iPhone becomes wildly popular? It makes no sense

I’m not so sure. To be fair: MailWrangler getting junked surprised me a lot, even though it looks like a crappy app. Apple’s reason was the possibility of confusion, which doesn’t make much sense. Until you think about all the other apps that integrate with mail — since there’s no copy and paste on the phone, if you want to send data about you’d better hope it has a “send with mail” button. Which will always go to Mail.app.

Potential for confusion there, when Mail.app opens instead of MailWrangler? Possibly, I guess. It would sure make the phone’s integration seem junky.

I have a theory. It is more, well, emotional than logical. But it’s the only theory I can think of that makes any sense at all and fits the available evidence.

Except it does none of these things. Probably because Gruber’s looking for an over-arching theory on this (everybody who cares is too, frankly), but I don’t think there is one to be had. Apple is rejecting apps on a case-by-case basis: Podcaster for threatening the crown, MailWranger for being confusing. There is little similar between the two.

In fact his whole “it’s just the four dock apps” thing barely holds up. There are other apps that run in the background — Calendar, SMS, Maps, Clock and possibly Remote — which blows “background processing is the one factor that unites the four dock apps” out of the water.

Regardless, these are niggles with his asides, not his argument. He is right that developers will be uncertain and unwilling until the rules are clear and are stuck to. I know why Apple doesn’t want them that way, as it’s an invitation for lawyers (legal or otherwise) to start manning the barricades on behalf of RealPlayer Mobile Extreme or something, but that’s a bridge they can cross later.

This problem is a bridge they need to cross now. Because the novelty of to-do lists and RSS readers is wearing thin.

Why Apple isn't killing ur appz

Man alive, the MacWeb is going nuts about Apple's rejection of the Podcaster app from the iPhone's app store. Fraser Speirs is pulling out of developing new apps. Paul Kafasis is deeply chilled by the move. Steven Frank (aping last month's overheated Mike Ash) predicts an app store for the Mac. Dave Winer reckons this makes the iPhone an unreliable platform. Harry McCraken says, why, this could have killed Photoshop! Chuqui doesn't get it. Even Gruber says it's either a disaster or proof the process is broken.

It's chaos out there. I saw two SDKs hurled out of windows just walking to the shop. They haven't been as restless as this since ... well, never, actually, since no matter how baffling Apple gets there is always some apologist ready to explain what they're up to and why everyone else is wrong.

So, uh, hi.

First, background. The only legit way to get apps on to the iPhone is via the App Store. Apple vets the apps that can get on, and the only guidelines come from a slide in a Jobs speech (which included "unforeseen"). They've already rejected some, then recanted, then rejected them again. They binned a "pull my finger" app for "limited utility". Other decisions have been all over the map, and it doesn't inspire confidence. There really isn't a sense here that the Apple staff vetting these things are entirely sure what rules to judge them by, and they're unquestionably not speaking with one voice. (One Victor Wang especially seems the perfect jobsworth.)

In the rejection note for Podcaster, the reason given was:

Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.

Everyone above seems to think they're talking about the iTunes app. Which makes no sense. At all. There are apps already that "duplicate functionality". PCalc hands the Apple calculator its ass on a plate, and is still on the store. There are notes apps, stocks apps, weather apps. Pandora does streaming radio, just like iTunes. It doesn't "seem strange", it's nonsense.

Because they're talking about the iTunes store. That's what you don't get to compete with. Hence "section". Since when did apps have sections? The store does, though, lots of them. I bet, somewhere in a briefing this Apple employee snoozed through was a desk-slapping warning not to allow a Store competitor go up. iTunes Store is a big strategic deal for Apple. Would they allow Amazon to make an Amazon Music Store app? Not likely.

In fact, this makes the vetting process way more plausible. "No bandwidth hogs" always seemed a little bit lame. Apple wouldn't care, right? "No threats to iTunes Store"? Riiight, gotcha.

So here is Joe Q Appler reviewing Podcaster, having conniptions and banning it for being an iTunes store clone (it isn't, but he's dumb). Not for competing with the desktop app -- Photoshop is safe, phew! -- but for aiming at the Store. Don't step on the money farm. You want to make a portable music store, you're not doing it on the iPhone and especially not on the fricken iPod. You'll need to build the web service, the desktop app, the phone, the phone OS and then the phone app, or cobble together something for Android. Capitalists, meet Mr Raised Barrier To Entry.

This leaves the other horn of Gruber's dilemma:

If this is truly Apple’s policy, it’s a disaster for the platform. And if it’s not Apple’s policy, then Podcaster’s exclusion is proof that the approval process is completely broken.

... and, yes, the approval process appears completely broken. The reasons given so far tell volumes about the low level of the people doing the vetting, and that speaks of the charade the process really is. (Which should already have been clear from looking at the store. Ye gods it's full of shite.)

Some of the calls for an Evangelist are right. Even a halfway decent explanation to developers of what isn't acceptable would help. But, it's doesn't seem like Apple employees are hiding this criteria from developers maliciously; it feels like they don't know.

They don't know because, again, this isn't really about any of the half-assed reasons they've got for only allowing apps to install via the App Store. It is about maintaining Apple's control so that they can stop people wheedling into the middle of their Greater Unified Jukebox. That's why the whole thing is such a shambles: they're winging it, app by app, trying to make up a coherent strategy as they go. With apparently little more to go on than "we are keeping control of what gets on the iPod. You make up some reasons why."

What happens next will be ... interesting.

+ New iPodzz -

Apple things thinnest iPod ever blah blah. Still:

+ The Nano has finally got an iPod UI better than the 5GB OG whitebody. Especially as you can now ferret straight back to an artist or album from the playing track (or add it to a playlist or set Genius riffing off from it). This is something the iPod has needed for a long time.

- But the iPod Classic doesn't get this UI. So there's now six different iTunes-y interfaces: the Shuffle, the Nano, the Classic, the iPhone's iPod application, the Remote app, and iTunes itself. Does that make a lot of sense? (@cozeny is spot-on about the Remote interface, too). The classic's a real downgrade now: crappy old UI, no wireless, less space than ... an iPod Classic on sale yesterday. Wonder if the iPod touch could handle a hard drive?

- Despite all these interfaces, iTunes still heaves at dealing with albums. There's more of an emphasis on it in 8, but it still can't distinguish between an actual album -- you know, like what would come from ye now-shut shoppe -- and a single that happens to have its "Album" tag filled out. An automatic way shouldn't be too difficult: if a track has "number x of y" set, and all y tracks are in the library, it's an album. Beyond that, though, just a tag similar to "Is a Compilation" would help massively here.

iTunes top tip If you're not using the Genre field for anything, and boy is it a shit-ton of work if you are, use it to mark out "Album", "Compilation", "Single" etc. Then you can drill down into kinds of music using the Genre picker and smart playlists. It's better for getting around on the iPods too, but doesn't work for Coverflow on iPod or iPhone, which default to showing you the covers for every goddamn track on disk.

+ Genius: Is still gathering information from my library. I'd rather it could gather information from the libraries of my friends who have better taste, just as Last.FM radio can. My music sucks. Their music rocks. Suggest things to me from them. (Update: O. Quite a lot of tracks with "no Genius information available".)

- Still no new macs. Not really shocking, but a lot of them are old and wheezy. The mini-size laptop market is going nuts right now, and the closest Apple comes is a monolithic skinny thing with no ports, no power, no 3G and a monster price tag.

+ Not hard to see why though. 160 million iPods sold? ! The scale of that crowd is overwhelming the fanboi army's ability to whine at Apple now. Time was, discussions.apple.com would already have been full of outraged iPod owners demanding that the Classic get the new UI. Now they're drowned out by joe user whose LAPTOP HAS DIED :( :(>: AND ALL SONGS LOSTS CAN I RESTEOR?.

+ I think it has taken Apple a while to realise the size of the audience as well. iPhone 2.1 software is out on Friday. This might be them learning from the MobileMe launch fuckup, and no longer pointing every Apple owner at their servers simultaneously.

(Update: oh yeh, iTunes is still no use at sharing a library between users or Macs.)

me.com: a bug's life

Mail
Push: broken. iPhone only updates on arrival of new mail. Everything else requires a pull, which it doesn't do automatically. So if you read an email in webmail, iPhone will keep it unread in per-pe-tuity.
Webmail I: Doesn't automatically update on arrival of new mail. Just sits there.
Webmail II: Saves a draft while you're typing, nice. Doesn't delete it when you send, stupid.
Webmail III: Browser title doesn't tell you if there's new messages.
Webmail IV: Is fixed to Cupertino time. All my emails are coming in with timestamps like 4am. Useless.
Webmail V: Doesn't colour quoted text. Very 1991.
Webmail VI: Only searches from/to/subject. Very 1981. At least it's quick

Web Calendar
Timezone support: Pretends to have it; doesn't.
Summer time: Can't cope with British Summer Time. Event made for 3pm during GMT will either appear as 2pm or 4pm after switch to BST.
Therefore: Near-useless. It's a CALENDAR, APPLE. A CALENDAR. Times are fundamental.
Syncing: lovely. Very lovely.

Gallery
Flickr: Does it better, faster and with less aggravating URLs

iDisk
Hahaha: hahah hahahah hah hah, heh.

Cost
High.

Frustration
Higher

My favourite iPhone app yet

Is Instapaper. It works like this:
1. Sign up at Instapaper.com and install their bookmarklet in your browser.
2. Install Instapaper on the phone via the store
3. When you see something good on the web but don't have time to read it, click the bookmarklet.
4. Open Instapaper on the phone: it downloads and converts the page and saves it locally so you can read it whenever you like, even offline.

It's genius, really.

saying nothing at all

So much for my pledge not to start another link blog, but this is a top little essay on how to write:

Psychology no doubt makes us better men and women, more sympathetic and tolerant, but it doesn't make writing any easier. Had Shakespeare been confronted with psychology, "To be or not to be" might have come out, "To continue as a social unit or not to do so. That is the personality problem. Whether 'tis a better sign of integration at the conscious level to display a psychic tolerance toward the maladjustments and repressions induced by one's lack of orientation in one's environment or -- " But Hamlet would never have finished the soliloquy.

(via the goddamn great Big Contrarian)

a versatile storage solution for modern living

So build she did, around the clock for 38 years until her death on Sept. 5, 1922. The house now has 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 10,000 window panes, 17 chimneys, 950 doors, and 40 staircases. It is famous for its nonsensical architecture, with hidden rooms, staircases leading to nowhere, cupboard doors open to solid brick walls and secret passages.
--Winchester Mystery House

From the super cool places you should visit blog.