Free42 for iOS likely to end soon

[pier4r]

A mail to the Apple CEO may get lost, I mean, he is still a human so unlikely he will read all the mails sent to him.

Aside from this: Open42 is neat.

[Hans-Peter]

In accordance with WP34, it would have to be called TO42.

seriusly!

Hans-Peter

[Thomas Okken]

(04-29-2017 03:10 PM)pier4r Wrote:  A mail to the Apple CEO may get lost, I mean, he is still a human so unlikely he will read all the mails sent to him.

I'm sure he gets more emails than any human could actually keep up with.
I assume he has assistants who monitor his mailbox and weed out the most blatantly crazy, stupid, and offensive messages (and forward the death threats and attempts at extortion to law enforcement).

Maybe I've made my case well enough that he'll actually get to read it.
Maybe I've made my case well enough that he'll agree with me.
Maybe he cares enough that he'll do something.

Worst case: nothing happens. That seems likely, hence my "I don't expect much."
Best case: he forwards my email to whomever is in charge of iTunes Connect, with a note saying "This person has a point. Fix this." Hence my "but who knows."

[Hsilop]

Good luck!

0% respect is what Apple have. A chance to start regaining some is what they might get.

[Egan Ford]

Go 1337ish: phr3342 :-)

[Luigi Vampa]

OFF TOPIC

(04-29-2017 05:16 PM)Egan Ford Wrote:  Go 1337ish: phr3342 :-)

I am sorry, I don't speak your language / Lo siento, yo no hablo su idioma / Mi dispiace, non parlo la tua lingua / Je suis désolé, je ne parle pas votre langue / Es tut mir leid, ich spreche nicht deine Sprache / Het spijt me, ik spreek jouw taal niet :.!

[rprosperi]

(04-29-2017 04:10 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  I submitted a Free42 update to the iTunes App Store last night, and it was rejected for a reason I hadn't seen before: because of the word "Free" in its name.

Really. I shit you not.

...

I am appealing this rejection, but if they stand firm, I'm done with Apple. I'll ditch my iPhone and get something Android instead, and I'll pull Free42 from the App Store. Life is too short to waste time on supporting this kind of BS.

Pulling a wildly popular App with loyal supporters is the right thing to do, it's the only way to let Apple know how their new (or newly enforced) policy is being received.

Your letter to Cook is excellent, but I would not expect a positive reply. These days innovation at Apple seems to center around what outfit the execs will wear at the next big event; hey, if it worked for Jobs why not them too.

Draconian policies that punish loyal developers seems to be a time-honored tradition at Apple; this is the latest, but surely not the last such event.

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

(04-29-2017 05:40 PM)Luigi Vampa Wrote:  OFF TOPIC

(04-29-2017 05:16 PM)Egan Ford Wrote:  Go 1337ish: phr3342 :-)

I am sorry, I don't speak your language / Lo siento, yo no hablo su idioma / Mi dispiace, non parlo la tua lingua / Je suis désolé, je ne parle pas votre langue / Es tut mir leid, ich spreche nicht deine Sprache / Het spijt me, ik spreek jouw taal niet :.!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=1337

You've forgotten "Sinto muito, eu não falo sua língua".

[Luigi Vampa]

OFF TOPIC

(04-29-2017 06:52 PM)Gerson W. Barbosa Wrote:  You've forgotten "Sinto muito, eu não falo sua língua".

Sorry / Você está completamente certo. Me sinto profundamente envergonhado :.! Como esqueci? Mas vou estar em Lisboa amanhã e toda a próxima semana. Adoro Portugal, realmente me sinto em casa :O)

[John Keith]

Thomas, I strongly concur with your sentiments. I do not own a single piece of Apple hardware, and this sort of nonsense is the reason why. I do however, use Free42 on my Android phone and my PC.

John

[RobertM]

Just got an uodate dated April 29. (V2.0.2). Did they reverse their decision?

[Thomas Okken]

(04-29-2017 11:00 PM)RobertM Wrote:  Just got an uodate dated April 29. (V2.0.2). Did they reverse their decision?

I just logged in to post about that. :-)

Yes, they reversed their decision. No reason was given, but I am happy about the outcome.

[RobertM]

(04-29-2017 11:01 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  I just logged in to post about that. :-)

Yes, they reversed their decision. No reason was given, but I am happy about the outcome.

Me too! I'd really miss Free42!

[Paul Dale]

I was greatly saddened by the early posts in this thread but the reversed decision cheered me up. Free42 is too good to not have.


Pauli

[Thomas Okken]

(04-30-2017 12:07 AM)Paul Dale Wrote:  I was greatly saddened by the early posts in this thread but the reversed decision cheered me up. Free42 is too good to not have.


Pauli

Thanks. :-)

I do hope that this is the end of it, but time will have to tell. As far as I know, the initial rejection of release 2.0.2 was perfectly in line with a new policy that Apple adopted about a month ago; what's surprising is that they didn't reject 2.0.1, and that they reversed themselves on the rejection of 2.0.2.

I'm still left to wonder whether my argument that the "Free" in "Free42" stands for "free as in libre," not "free as in gratis" made any difference. Does their new policy allow the word "Free" if the app is Free/Open Source? Or didn't they have such an exemption, but they do now? Is the next Free42 update going to get rejected, because the next reviewer didn't get the memo, or because there was no memo in the first place?

This is all frustratingly opaque, because the official reason they give, App Store Review Guideline 2.3.7, is too vague, so the real policy at issue here is a purely internal guideline that I have no knowledge about.

Oh, well. Time will tell.

[Hsilop]

Way to go, Thomas!

Apple respect level: 1%
Likelyhood to increase: 1 (http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-8220.html)

Hopefully, we will se consistently good behavior in the future.

[Dave Britten]

Byron Foster's enhanced fork of Free42 (which sadly hasn't been updated in quite a few years) was called simply "42S". Or you could go the letter-of-the-law route and call it Inexpensive42 or something mocking like that.

[Sylvain Cote]

Hello Thomas,
I understand your frustration and I really hope that your letter makes them realize their error.
I have evaluated both iOS and Android OS features/devices and I have chosen to use Apple stuff because it better fit my need.
I really appreciate your Free42 application and will be very sorry to lose it on my iPhone.
Best regards,
Sylvain
PS: IMHO Open42 is a good alternative name.

[rprosperi]

(04-29-2017 11:01 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  Yes, they reversed their decision. No reason was given, but I am happy about the outcome.

Great news Thomas, and surprising how quickly this changed. One can hope that they reversed their decision for the right reasons, but there is sadly little hope that they will clarify why or be consistent in the future. As noted by many, this kind of thing is simply part of playing in Apple's lovely walled garden.

[Hsilop]

Whatever you do next, Thomas, never charge $42 for your app ...