Monkey Island Creator Slams Corporate Control Over Game Publishing 298
An anonymous reader writes "Ron Gilbert, co-creator of classic games Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island 1 and 2, and many more, has spoken out against corporate censorship — the way of large companies getting a say on what does or does not get published on the distribution channels they control. Although his insightful rant applies to a number of corporations (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Comcast are mentioned), most of the direct examples single out Apple. Quoting: 'Apple has maintained an almost North Koreanish dictatorial control over the devices, becoming the arbitrator over what is good and bad, what is allowed and not allowed. They don't have this control over the Mac because it is a real computer and an open device, but they can do this with the iPhone because we (as consumers) were convinced by the cell phone carriers that they needed this control to protect their networks (in the same way they wouldn't let us own our own telephones in the '70s) and Apple was happy to jump on that ship because they could finally control everything that went on the device and we bought it into it. Apple apologists say that Apple needs this control to maintain the "specialness" of the device. I say that's a load of crap.'" He also mentions Adidas dropping out of iAds because they couldn't accept Apple's excessive creative control, and a photography app that was rejected because it used the volume buttons as trigger."
Oh man (Score:2)
Oh man, now I'm jonesing to play Maniac Mansion.
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It still plays fine on my GS.
Happy and satisfied (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Happy and satisfied (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Happy and satisfied (Score:5, Funny)
Using his mouth?
Re:Happy and satisfied (Score:4, Informative)
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Let me guess, you jailbroke it? :)
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No one is denying that the user experience can be a pleasant one. What Ron Gilbert is trying to say is...
Eff it, you know what?
Obligatory [xkcd.com]
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Your post may (or may not) be a joke, but there are merits to the walled garden approach; namely that while it's harder to get out, it's also harder to get in. This form of managed security really is ideal for many users who have neither the skill nor the inclination to concern themselves with technical issues. The situation becomes even more tenuous when the difference between a legitimate and malevolent app is neither obvious nor, in many cases, distinguishable. This is a very real issue on Android-bas
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Being "hard to get in" only benefits Apple.
This is handily demonstrated by Apple's other platform: MacOS.
You simply don't need to castrate a platform in order to make it "safe".
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No, there is no guarantee it's harder to get in, the guards are too busy watching to make sure you don't get out to pay attention to the other side of the walls. The articles that came out a few months ago about Android and iOS apps that were leaking your info all over prove that. And if you think that Apple is actually going over the code of the apps in the App Store, I'd remind you of how many times they've retroactively pulled an app when they suddenly find out that it does something that they've decided
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there is no guarantee it's harder to get in, the guards are too busy watching to make sure you don't get out to pay attention to the other side of the walls.
Nonsense. The plethora of App store rejections is prima facie evidence that it's harder to get in. Note that harder != impossible, just more difficult, and it goes without saying that *any* barrier is greater than no barrier at all. And in many cases, simply being *more difficult* is enough to make it not worth someone's time. This principle is ampl
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I bought the iPhone because I know they are controlling the user experience. I'm greatly enjoying my user experience on my iOS devices. I feel like I got what I paid for, and am likely to get more apple products in the future.
If you would like to hear again how great Apple products are, press my silver button. If you would like to hear my opinion of Apple's competitors, press my red button. If you are finished using the robot, please push my power down button.
(pause)
Thank you for using iShill and come again!
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I bought the iPhone because I know they are controlling the user experience. I'm greatly enjoying my user experience on my iOS devices. I feel like I got what I paid for, and am likely to get more apple products in the future.
The existence of the iTunes app store is a fine thing. It creates GDP and should be an option for people who want to have a controlled experience. When you, the silent hand of the free market, choose a product based on your free and sober reflection on the merits of the market options,
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I wonder if she's ever heard of the Nintendo DS, or Archos, or Books.
On our recent European holiday, the iThing stayed off most of the time. Besides being bulky and not holding much content on it's own, it can also rack up absurd network roaming charges.
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DS - Subset of functionality.
Archos - Shit.
Books - Subset of functionality.
Would you like to offer up more alternatives that also don't provide the same functionality? Because that's *really* constructive...
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And I'm sure your Android phone speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom, and has the grail already.
Even more restrictive (Score:3, Insightful)
I wonder if she's ever heard of the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS software development is even more restrictive than iOS software development. For one thing, Nintendo doesn't want anyone working from home [warioworld.com], so the smallest of shops are shut out entirely. See the case of Bob's Game [wikipedia.org].
or Archos
Google has made a decision not to open up Android Market to Archos devices yet. Only phones with a voice and data plan quality as of right now.
Besides being bulky and not holding much content on it's own, [an iPhone or 3G iPad] can also rack up absurd network roaming charges.
That's what airplane mode is for. Use it until you get back on one ;-)
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Sure, tree hugging developers might get upset, but they can play with the mess that is becoming the android app space, you can publish any crap/greatness (including malicious) you like. When lazy & evil people abound, freedom to publish does not create utopia.
Anymore FUD you got there Steve?
Considering someone snuck a tethering app into the app store as a flashlight, the apple app store security is clearly worthless.
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Re:Happy and satisfied (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, tree hugging developers might get upset, but they can play with the mess that is becoming the android app space, you can publish any crap/greatness (including malicious) you like. When lazy & evil people abound, freedom to publish does not create utopia.
You say that like the AppStore is a utopia, or that it contains no crap, economically malicious or otherwise.
Android is like your existing model of computing: you're a grown-up, be careful about what you install and you'll be fine. The iPhone treats you like a kid with a console - here's a list of things you can install, and nothing else. Sure, HTML5 apps blah blah blah, but there's a difference between a native app and a website that can live offline, and those differences are apparent to the non-tech-heads.
I own an iPhone, and the App Store with its "250,000+" apps is a usability mess when shown 25 or 50 apps at a time. Keyword spamming makes searches near totally useless for finding relevant apps, and popularity charts enforce a herd mentality. I rely almost entirely on third-party review sites and word of mouth to obtain new apps - it might as well be the same as a general purpose computer, except the sandboxing makes any cross-app interaction an exercise in frustration or at the mercy of the developers working together.
(and don't talk to me about Cydia. It's even more of a mess, with a listing for every theme mixed in with anything resembling a useful app, and a godawful search that just makes it painful.)
This isn't about tree-hugging developers, it's about being treated like an adult with a modicum of intelligence, as a substitute for not existing in a utopia. Android might not be perfect, but there's some hope out there that it offers a degree of freedom the iOS world doesn't.
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Re:Happy and satisfied (Score:4, Funny)
Do they let you keep the piece of your brain they removed in an iJar?
They tried, but then Oracle sued.
nothing left to lose. (Score:2, Interesting)
And we all see how android is filled with back doors and hemmoraging data. Moreover google is now back peddling and starting to lock things down. Sometime you want freedom sometime you want security. I'll take freedom on my desktop and security on my phone. why? because in the future the phone will be my credit card and for that I want something close to trusted plat form computing.
the good news is you have a choice. DOn't buy an iphone, get your freedom, and as the singer said, perhaps nothing left t
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But you've also got the black box problem, everything you run on the iPhone is based on trust with Apple, for all we know, there -could- very well be malicious apps in the app store that got through. The difference is, i
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well I hate to rain on your parade. But Apple's iOS has been caught to be just as guilty as the Android App market with applications that constantly transmit private information to servers. Just because Apple wants their fancy walled in garden for their app store does not make them immune to that happening to them.
I am personally sick of people who think since I own a Mac or Linux box, I am immune to viruses and other crap that people get with windows. And the same holds true for iOS vs Android vs Blackberr
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We must be reading different news sites. I've seen stuff about Android apps sending GPS data, and even contacts. The "counter point" article I saw on iPhone says that two thirds of apps send the unique device ID to the server.
Now, I don't love that it sends this, but it really is an entirely different class of problem.
-Peter
Re:nothing left to lose. (Score:4, Insightful)
What about this? http://gizmodo.com/5592521/how-a-guy-tricked-apple-with-a-disguised-iphone-tethering-app [gizmodo.com]
If tethering can make it past the Apple gates, why won't other 'features'?
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Android apps tell you what permissions they want. While I wish they gave you more information, it's enough to get the feeling with something isn't right. If you download malicious app and expect to play a game when the app requests contact data and GPS location, along with internet connection, you know something is wrong.
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Have you played any game apps recently?
Thanks to leaderboards and finding nearby gamers to ally with, a lot of simple game apps can legitimately request GPS and internet.
Contacts less so; I've not yet seen a game app that asked to email game invitations to all your friends.
Re:nothing left to lose. (Score:5, Insightful)
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/06/apple-location-privacy-iphone-ipad.html [latimes.com]
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>>>because in the future the phone will be my credit card
Oh man, I hope not. Otherwise this is the future we'll be facing: http://video.yandex.ru/users/sotniko-aleksand/view/142/ [yandex.ru]
Darn it's in Russian. Well basically it's a Sci-Fi Channel episode of Sliders where everyone is a number and no one talks to real people, except through online chat rooms. You can not do anything but what Data Universal (equivalent to Google) let's you do and based upon your Google-determined preferences.
Let's keep the
When will Apple learn... (Score:3, Insightful)
If Apple intends their iPhone to be more than "the obsolete product that started a revolution" they need to change their policies. People want to use the devices that they paid for in the ways they want, otherwise, a rival platform (probably Android) will have a "killer app" rejected from the Apple app store and Apple will pay the price like Nintendo did with Mortal Kombat.
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I'm not sure its only consumers that always drive the shifts from platform to platform. Developers got screwed by Nintendo since there was only one game in town (so to speak). When Sony offered the relatively dev-friendly alternative of the PlayStation, devs jumped at the chance to free themselves from Nintendo's shackles, not to mention the high cost and relatively low capacity of cartridges. Once Sony got a near-monopoly in the PS2, they started acting just like Nintendo did. I was developing games fo
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Remember: Android is open to OEM's not the end users. The second generation of Droid devices are more locked down than the first and I suspect that the next generation will be a return to the days where the carrier dictates what is on the device and what markets you are allowed to buy/install from. After all, the Carriers are the OEM's customers, not you.
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Apple app store and Apple will pay the price like Nintendo did with Mortal Kombat.
Right, let me get back to you while I get done playing Sonic Adventure 5 on my Dreamcast 2.
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Actually, no, the Wii SDK is the cheapest of the three. And they even support flash, so you can even start your game without the SDK. The need of having an actual company is just a way of saying "you have to take this seriously"; not a big deal if you really want to make a career of it. Most people who complain about the need to have a company actually have no idea on what goes into making a game. Nobody wants to play your tetris clone that you derived from a tutorial on gamedev.net.
Regarding iPhone/iPad/etc. (Score:5, Insightful)
What the mans says is true. Yet people still buy and use the products (including many here on /.). Given that there exist alternatives, people must be OK with the compromise (design/"sexiness" vs openness).
We each have a most powerful weapon against such authoritarian control - do not buy the offending company's product. No-one truly needs an iPhone. Either go without or buy a more open alternative.
Re:Regarding iPhone/iPad/etc. (Score:5, Insightful)
>>>against authoritarian control - do not buy the offending company's product.
That's what I do. I don't buy Apple or Microsoft or Comcast or another other product I don't need (or can get free). Unfortunately that's won me the label "cheapass". I wonder if the time will come when not buying will be considered unpatriotic.
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I think if you swerve a bit more toward that direction you'll go from cheap ass to weirdo/eccentric. I used to get a lot of heat from acquaintances here in silicon valley about getting rid of my old (1998) Saturn I had since grad school, and get something fancier. Well, I took half of their advice and sold the damn car. it was costing too much pain and money to service. Now I commute by bike and am happier. And suddenly people stopped asking me to get a nice car, and instead seem to be a tad jealous: "I'd l
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The real authoritarian part of the iPhone and all other Android phone, is the shitty contract you need to take with the operator. If you are ok with that, then there is the fact that the phone are made in China - which people seems happy enough considering that everything is made in China.
That's
Robert Gilbert - 1 Troll (Score:3, Funny)
Mod Robert Gilbert - 1 Troll for attacking apple.
.
joking
Fortunately we have the choice... (Score:3, Insightful)
If it sucks so much then fortunately we are not forced to buy it.
I don't own an iPhone and don't have a burning desire to own one. So reading this is kind of entertaining.
$30 dollar phone with pay as you go airtime for the win.
What lockdown? (Score:2)
If you look at games to be had, Apple applies only the barest degree of quality control. What exactly are the limits of the machine he is raging against that matter to game development?
There should be someone to at least say:
1) Does it run.
2) Does it run on the devices it claims to run on.
Otherwise the store would be full of applications that didn't even run, or rampant IP piracy like you see in the Android Market with a bunch of apps that make copious use of material from Disney and elsewhere...
I would th
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Are you serious? Some very few examples:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/159887/rejected_10_iphone_apps_that_didnt_make_apples_app_store.html [pcworld.com]
http://www.macgasm.net/2010/04/30/apple-seals-fate-of-canadian-game-isealclub-rejected-from-app-store/ [macgasm.net]
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/01/18/apple-rejects-yoot-saitos-iphone-game-dev-staff-considered-sea/ [joystiq.com]
Not to mention all the rejections of games that used the Unity framework.
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You mean like iMario and the others before it? Or the others that are still in the app store.
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Come on, Nintendo does not own the name Mario, nor do they own the concept of platformers.
If you look at the video, it looks nothing like Mario either. The stuff in the Android store is using real Disney images!
Rantfail (Score:5, Insightful)
From the article:
Aaaaand that's where you lost me. Beaten Wife Syndrome: if you keep going back for more, after a while you have to take some responsibility for enabling the whuppings.
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Other end of the spectrum (Score:2, Insightful)
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Quality of the games has been the one thing no gateway company has ever given to shits about. Titles continue to be horrible even today, and content control hasn't effected this.
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I believe that last point is still valid, last I remember hearing about this you had to jailbreak to install
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Someone finally gets it! (Score:5, Interesting)
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Sorry, but having to spend $79 to replace the battery in a $99 iPhone 3GS is just plain idiotic.
I'll preface this by saying that I don't like non-user-replaceable batteries either, even just because you can't take a spare battery if you're not going to be near power for a while.
But you should know better than to say "$99 iPhone 3GS": It cost a lot more than that and it's subsidised by your fixed term service contract with the telco. Although you consider $79 too much, compared to $600 - $800 to purchase the phone outright, it's not wildly out of proportion.
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(Sorry, but having to spend $79 to replace the battery in a $99 iPhone 3GS is just plain idiotic.)
That would be very idiotic if the 3GS cost anywhere close to $99 to produce. I thought people understood the concept of subsidized hardware, especially on Slashdot, but it appears that even here the concept is lost on some.
Hey, Rob, if you're so into freedom of access... (Score:2)
...send me a new Dial-A-Pirate. I lost mine 15 years ago. :(
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Great Words (Score:2)
Wow, where is the "+1 Insightful for the original article's author" button when you really need it?
Natural result of Corporatism (Score:2)
gaming was not immune to this. internet, may make it immu
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Useless Demagoguery (Score:2)
Fanboyishness has limits (Score:2)
I am an Apple fanboy. I have been for many many years. I believe that Apple makes some of the best hardware and software available today, and one of my biggest regrets about my current job compared to my previous two is that fact that I don't get to use Apple equipment or systems in it (all MS and Lotus and MS and RIM and MS).
But Ron Gilbert's criticisms of Apple are essentially correct.
Arbiter > Arbitrator (Score:2)
arbitrate
1580s, from L. arbitratus, pp. of arbitrari "to give a decision," from arbiter (see arbiter). In modern usage, an arbiter makes decisions of his own accord and is accountable to no one but himself; an arbitrator (early 15c.) decides issues referred to him by the parties.
- Source [etymonline.com]
Generalize (Score:2)
the way of large companies getting a say on what does or does not get published on the distribution channels they control
This can be generalized to consider the negative impact of all forms of extra-market powers. Powerful entities distort the free market in all industries. Those distortions cost us GDP. The free market is sensitive to coercion from governments, corporations, organizations, and influential individuals. The price of a market free from bias -- free from performance-robbing distortion -- is et
I'm Not Buying It (Score:3, Insightful)
"our own telephones" (Score:2)
It was 1968 when the decision came out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carterfone [wikipedia.org]
Re:Maybe not the best example. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Maybe not the best example. (Score:4, Informative)
For example, in the camera app, there would be no need to have music playing, if you want to change the volume of your phone you could just use the silent/loud switch included.
There are two issues here. First, Apple requires that apps use the published APIs according to their guidelines so things don't break as hardware changes. Apps that won't work on the new version because the switches have changed are a no-no. Second, if I'm playing music through my phone and also doing something else, no I don't want the second app to prevent me from adjusting the device volume when a louder song comes on, that's just freaking annoying. I'm not a big iPhone fan (don't own one, probably never will) but complaining about Apple requiring developers to use the APIs as published is just dumb.
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Second, if I'm playing music through my phone and also doing something else, no I don't want the second app to prevent me from adjusting the device volume when a louder song comes on, that's just freaking annoying.
It would be annoying to me too, but I'd like the option of choosing not to buy it rather than having Apple make that decision for me.
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The app that Apple pulled needed to perform various steps to enable the easter egg, so it's not as if the volume buttons are instantly reconfigured. You have to go out of your way substantially to enable it, and still people did it, because they really wanted to.
Re:Maybe not the best example. (Score:4, Insightful)
The app that Apple pulled needed to perform various steps to enable the easter egg, so it's not as if the volume buttons are instantly reconfigured. You have to go out of your way substantially to enable it, and still people did it, because they really wanted to.
That is because some people enjoy using the items they purchased as they see fit. If came out with a brand of axes and sent a copyright license along with it you implicitly agree to by purchasing and it read, "By purchasing this Axe, you agree to only use it for chopping Birch trees and you may not modify the handle nor the axe head in any way without explicit permission of Antisyzygy Inc.". Most people would probably want to use the axe to also chop down other types of trees or even planks of wood, or maybe they would want to add a special grip to it. Software and hardware is no different than any other tool. You use it for purposes as you see fit and if it simply doesn't work for that purpose then you get a different tool or augment your tool to work. I don't want to argue the copyright portion. A tool to do something virtually is still a tool, albeit a more abstract version. Im not disagreeing that Apple's product is designed for aesthetics and ergonomics in that order. Its just bullshit you can't do something with a tool you purchase. If there was an alternative to loading apps through there App store I wouldn't complain.
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I'm not a big iPhone fan (don't own one, probably never will) but complaining about Apple requiring developers to use the APIs as published is just dumb.
A significantly better question is, why don't they have even one programmer-friendly hardware button?
I have had an iTouch for several years now (2G), and the one and only thing that pisses me off about it is that it's functionally limited as a music player (iTouch is an iPod brand, remember) because you have to pull it out, turn it on, and double tap the home button before the next, previous and pause buttons are exposed. The only saving grace is that if you pull out the headphone cord, it will (or can be
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No
Simply. No.
What next, hijacking the home button?
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And quite honestly, scrolling through rocker buttons like the volume buttons on my Android phone is easier than using my Nook's back and forward button and that is a dedicated e-reader!
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except when you start hijacking buttons that do various things, they stop doing what they're supposed to do. In Apple land and for the majority of regular users, this is a sin.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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please describe the way you change the volume of the next song, or the volume of the phone call you are currently engaged in, if the reader application has remapped the volume control buttons to be scrolling controls?
It sounds like you can jump out of the reader, change the volume on whatever you want, and go back to the reader.
Re:Maybe not the best example. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a volume button.
What's a "volume button"? Is that any different than any other button? Does it have a label on it that says "this button only controls volume, and nothing else, always"?
I don't have a problem with Apple with rejecting an app that subverts the defined usage of a hardware button.
Ha! "Subverts the defined usage of a button". That's very Orwellian of you. Isn't the "defined usage" of a button to be pressed?
I haven't used (or heard of) this app
Yeah, and you won't either, because Apple rejected it. You'll never get to determine, for your own usage scenarios, whether it's more comfortable or natural to press a button on the side of the device to take a picture. You won't have to make that choice for yourself, because Apple has already made it for you.
what does it do if you try to change the volume of your music or phone call when also trying to take a picture?
What do you think it does? It takes a picture. That's why you're using the camera, right? Do you turn on your music, take a phone call, and then start the camera? If you have the camera running and know that the volume button takes a picture, is it going to confuse you when you press the volume button and it takes a picture? Why is this difficult to figure out? Maybe it's better that Apple did make that choice for you if you're confused by things like this.
Your keyboard has a button on it near the bottom that's really long and doesn't have a label. Most of the time, when you're typing sentences, when you press this button it inserts a space character in the text. Do you get confused when you're online and you're using TAB to skip between interface elements, you land on a button, press the space bar, and it "clicks" the button? This key is only supposed to insert spaces into text, right? Why is it also clicking buttons that you've focused? That's madness! And what's the deal with that TAB button, anyway? Sometimes it inserts a bunch of whitespace, and sometimes it changes focus. How can anyone be expected to make any sense of this? And don't even get me started on a backspace key that would cause my browser to go to the previous page. That totally loses me.
Re:Maybe not the best example. (Score:5, Insightful)
Your keyboard has a button on it near the bottom that's really long and doesn't have a label. Most of the time, when you're typing sentences, when you press this button it inserts a space character in the text. Do you get confused when you're online and you're using TAB to skip between interface elements, you land on a button, press the space bar, and it "clicks" the button? This key is only supposed to insert spaces into text, right? Why is it also clicking buttons that you've focused? That's madness!
Your example shows the major difference between the touch-based iOS devices and generic computers. On the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, you never have context-specific behavior of any buttons. The space bar on the onscreen keyboard always inserts a space into the focused text field. The home button always terminates the current application (well, except when you double/triple-press it or you're already on the home screen and there's nothing to terminate). iOS never requires the user to remember any keyboard hotkeys or differing behavior based on the current application's state. The return key even changes to "Submit" in a web form, or "Search" in the search bar, etc.
You just can't directly compare the user interface of a traditional computer to this new kind of system.
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Your example shows the major difference between the touch-based iOS devices and generic computers. On the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, you never have context-specific behavior of any buttons.
Never? Really? Wow, then I really need you to help me figure something out, because I'm suddenly very confused.
When I single click my home button, it:
1) Exits an app if I'm in an app.
2) Exits the folder if I'm looking at an app folder.
3) Takes me to the home screen if I'm on any screen other than the home screen or an app folder.
4) Takes me to the search screen if I'm on the home screen
When I double click my home button, it:
1) Brings up the music controls if the device is locked
2) Hides the music controls i
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The volume buttons are designed to work across the entire OS to continually change either the ringer volume or the volume of the song playing in the background. Is it really impossible for you to see how changing the functionality of the volume buttons--that previously have worked like every other volume button on the planet--on a per app basis could be a bad idea? The comparison to the keyboard is laughable.
Only on Slashdot does this tripe get modded up, for reasons that are lost on me. It's like in the fi
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The volume buttons are designed to work across the entire OS to continually change either the ringer volume or the volume of the song playing in the background.
But wait, what if I want to turn down the volume of the song and turn up the volume of the ringer? Are you saying that context matters in the sense of what the volume controls do?
Is it really impossible for you to see how changing the functionality of the volume buttons--that previously have worked like every other volume button on the planet--on a per app basis could be a bad idea?
Could be a bad idea? Yeah, I can see how it may be used in incredibly non-intuitive ways. Always a bad idea? On that point I disagree with Apple. It makes perfect sense to use it like a shutter button when you're holding your device like a camera. Again, context matters.
Re:Maybe not the best example. (Score:4, Interesting)
None of those examples removed functionality from other applications.
Neither does the cited camera app. When you're using the camera, the button does one thing. When you're not using the camera, it does something else. Nothing has been removed. Things have only been added. The concept of using one button for multiple actions has been around for as long as computers have had buttons. This is especially prevalent with console games. When you're on one screen a certain button has a certain action, when you're doing something else that button does something completely different. It's all about context. People are in fact intelligent enough to figure this out. Yes, even Apple users.
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Granted, they've gotten along with 1 mouse button for a while. But hey, the times, they are a-changin'.
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If you had a point here, and I'm not really prepared to concede that you do, what on earth does it have to do with the topic at hand? The post in TFA(I know, I know) is from a DEVELOPER, not a CUSTOMER at all. In fact, he claims that as a customer he's been very satisfied. What he is complaining about (commonly referred to in discussion formats as 'the topic') is how Apple restricts the content creators in a manner to which they really aren't entitled. This isn't 'what they choose to sell' as in 'movies
Re: (Score:2)
You completely miss the point in your idiotic rant. They just don't want to control what they sell. They want to control it AFTER you buy it. If I buy it, it's mine. I should be able to do whatever I damn well please with it.
And how, exactly, are they stopping you form jailbreaking it or installing Android on it?
Apple is controlling what you do with their services, provided with the device. They're not stopping you from hacking it or installing your OS of choice. I mean hell, do you complain Tesla Motors is controlling their cars after they sell them to you because their dealerships and warranty programs don't sell or support aftermarket laser cannon turrets? There's an easy solution, go to a different company for your aftermar
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Europe has its own lock-in problems
- not in cellphones but other areas. Like DAB radio and DVB television that has limited space, and therefore allows governments to block people from setting-up their own private stations. For example you probably won't find TBN over there (a small religious broadcaster) or MINDtv (independent liberal station) or Rush Limbaugh Show (talk jock) or Megahertz (retransmits news from China, Russia, India, and so on). Because there's not enough space on the multiplex, they are
Speaking of microsoft... (Score:4, Insightful)
I know everyone loves to hate on apple's dictatorial approach, but just for once I'd like to talk about some of the less egregious examples of corporate censorship. He mentions XBLA in passing. I want to know what he's specifically talking about.
The indie section was a mess last time I looked, the top sellers were "personal massager" programs that did nothing more than make the controllers vibrate on command. There were several "games" that just tortured your avatar. One involved just shooting your avatar out of a woman's womb and trying to make the "baby" break as much stuff as possible. The indie section of XBLA seems more like an abandoned lot than a walled garden. If MS is exerting any control over that crap pile, they should be ashamed of themselves.
The non-indie sections of XBLA on the other hand do have better offerings, but I've heard of a few cases where MS has definitely meddled. They're pushing a "gamers have no reason to expect things for free, so you can't give them anything for free" motto it seems. Valve claimed that MS wouldn't let them release TF2 updates for free for that reason. They could have charged for it, but free updates for an already watered down version of the game? Absolutely not. At some point there was also an issue of how big a file TF2 could update, though I don't remember if that was MS putting artificial limits on it or the XBLA software couldn't handle it. I'd wonder if that's part or all of the reason steam is coming or has come to the PS3 but not the 360. MS may have said they couldn't, or steam may have decided (for good reason) to not bother. Either way, we 360 owners lost out there, and any game that my computer can run I'll be buying on steam.
Anyway, I think this discussion can use some examples that aren't apple because this problem isn't limited to iphones and ipads.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
How many fart boob or "x-ray" apps do you need to see before you realise the Apple store is even more dire? At least xbox live restricts the trash to one "abandonded lot" out the back where no-one sees it. It's really hard to distinquish quality on the app store.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
so if you don't like it, don't.
I don't. And I don't buy any Sony products either. Today, however, my boss was telling me how he wanted to buy one of those new iPads so he can connect to the interweb over his verizon cell phone line to check email and yes, run his Windows apps. I know, so wrong on so many levels. He won't consider a laptop as being too big. The conversation finally ended when I explained that I don't know anything about Apple products, and never will, so I couldn't help him pick one out,
Re: (Score:2)
Not for developers! Until recently, there were several things that could get you rejected, but Apple would not tell you about them. There probably still are, but much less so.
I know there's no law forcing anyone to make an iPhone app. That's not really the issue. The issue is that you could spend time & money developing one, even asking Apple if would get rejected. The problem is they would often tell you it would not, but when it came time to submit it is rejected for a