Anti-iPhone iPhone game makes it past Apple's review process

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/phone-story/id462806536

by naz • 15 years ago

96 84 15 years ago

itunes.apple.com

latch2• 15 years ago

I think that game will make a tidy profit given the attention it's about to get.

I'm have absolutely no idea if Apple is going to pull it. I wouldn't be surprised either way, yet I think whatever happens, I'll be surprised.

gnoupi• 15 years ago

In a way, why would they? It's an iPhone game, meaning that Apple earns money from each game sold. Also, it is delivered to people who obviously own an iPhone already. So I doubt it's really going to hurt iPhone sales or something.

dan12342• 15 years ago

It's a bit misleading to say this is an Anti-iPhone game when it's drawing attention to how most electrical items are made.

Also, I'd imagine Apple would've been slammed for rejecting an app which claims to be donating proceeds to charity so it'd be less controversial to let it through.

latch2• 15 years ago

nice catch re-donation..don't see that unless you click "more".

naz• 15 years ago

The app's creators describe it as anti-iPhone

http://www.yeslab.org/project/phone-story

dan12342• 15 years ago

Fair enough, though they don't mention that in the App Store description.

rmc• 15 years ago

Apple would be silly to either ban it now, or never to have approved it, since it would cause the Streisand effect.

Batsu• 15 years ago

This really wouldn't be the first time.

jinushaun• 15 years ago

I'm assuming you didn't see the screenshot of the "Pear" store. Or the factory workers jumping off the building.

johnbatch• 15 years ago

I thought Apple's policy was to reject all apps that claim to donate proceeds to charity.

"You cannot say anywhere in the application description, support materials, or the application itself that some or all of the proceeds will go to any given charity" http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/01/app-store-lessons-...

kahawe• 15 years ago

> http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/01/app-store-lessons-....

"Published 2 years ago"

And I think in all fairness, one should add that from that article it looks like this comes down to certain accounting requirements and regulations that Apple was not able to meet (at least back then) - not from them not wanting anyone to give to charity.

0x124• 15 years ago

> Also, I'd imagine Apple would've been slammed for rejecting an app which claims to be donating proceeds to charity so it'd be less controversial to let it through.

You have a front-row seat to that now, the app has been pulled.

I'm sure they'll use the 'donating proceeds to charity' as the reason why they pulled it.

elithrar• 15 years ago

The [Foxcon] workers jumping off the building in the screenshots is extremely tasteless.

muraiki2• 15 years ago

I think that's the point. This app wasn't made to make people feel good and have a fun time playing a game. It's to alert them to the consequences of their economic decisions. By making a game of the sad reality of overworked factory workers committing suicide, it draws attention to what it is that allows us to play games on this device. Thus there is a connection established between game and death.

philwelch• 15 years ago

Setting aside the possibility that some workplace suicides are just suicides and not an artifact of capitalist oppression, sure. By that standard, there should be postage stamps emblazoned with the image of a disgruntled postal worker shooting his coworkers to death, just so we as consumers know what's at stake when we send a letter.

pavel_lishin• 15 years ago

And Africans slaving away in mine pits isn't?

mikecaron• 15 years ago

I wrote a letter to Tim Cook about this (http://mrcaron.tumblr.com/post/10163623845/open-letter-to-ti...), hoping to spread the love.

heysomeguythere• 15 years ago

http://www.apple.com/recycling/

Looks like Apple already implemented everything you asked for.

zdw2• 15 years ago

One big point - Apple supports it's products longer than the rest of the industry, thus they don't end up in landfills as quickly. For example:

- The original iPhone was released in June of 2007, and had the newest iOS (3.x) available until the release of iOS 4 in June 2010.

- The iPhone 3GS was released in June of 2009, and is still getting OS updates, even to iOS 5 released later this year.

How many Android phones are obsolete in 6 months, never receiving another software update? The impetus to upgrade and chuck the old phone is much higher in their case as obsolescence starts nearly immediately because the manufacturers only make money on the hardware itself.

You'll likely get at least 3 years of OS updates out of Apple, whereas you might get one if you're lucky and the manufacturer still likes the product with Android.

windsurfer4• 15 years ago

This is a manufacturer issue. You can still install the latest android on the first official Android phone (HTC Dream).

zdw2• 15 years ago

How many non-geek people sideload? On how many phones is it impossible to do so because of a locked bootloader or other technological impediment?

I do agree that it's a manufacturer issue - specifically with a revenue model that give no reward for staying up to date (which is also horrible for device security...).

markokocic• 15 years ago

From your own examples: - original iPhone supported for less than 3 years - 3GS supported for ~2 years

As much as one likes Apple, this is not something that I would call "long term support".

masklinn• 15 years ago

> original iPhone supported for less than 3 years

The original iPhone got all updates released for 3 years from its release date.

> 3GS supported for ~2 years

So far, as far as I know iOS 5 runs on 3GS. The 3G is the only one which got a slightly reduced support life so far (no iOS 4.3, for pretty obvious — to 3G owners — hardware-related reasons)

shinratdr2• 15 years ago

> As much as one likes Apple, this is not something that I would call "long term support".

Then you've never owned a smartphone before? If you can find a pre (or even post) iPhone smartphone that gets updates for 3 years+, I would love to see it.

axiomotion• 15 years ago

I got 2 years of use with my 3G. Bought it in 2008 and after iOS 4.0.1 (2010) it was an unusable, laggy mess. I searched high and low for an answer but there really wasn't one other than "downgrade, but Apple isn't cool with that". I ran into the abandoned issue with my Captivate, but it was relatively easy to flash a custom ROM based off ASOP Gingerbread: download ROM Manager from the market, download a rom, and flash.

0x124• 15 years ago

It's pretty sad if 3 years is the longest stretch that apple is willing to support their hardware with updates.

Of course the turnover in the mobile phone world is a lot higher than with 'general purpose computers' but imagine if the whole electronics industry had a three year time to replacement.

Pretty sad. Especially since the biggest component of a smartphone is the software. The argument that newer phones have faster hardware is a non-starter for me because I believe that it should be possible to comfortably get the kind of functionality that a typical phone displays to the user out of something a lot more anemic than the kind of hardware found in the average phone.

Manufacturers that push for their users to upgrade their phones before they die due to unfortunate events are all guilty of pollution and resource depletion.

sjs• 15 years ago

It's not sad, that's simply the reality of how fast mobile technology is currently changing. We're doing more and more with our "phones" each day and thus are demanding more power from them.

Even if you only play games and such the old phones don't have gyroscopes, compasses, and all the other goodies that newer phones have.

Anecdotally I have a Nexus One and it feels just as dated as an iPhone 3GS (which I previously owned). To me that indicates it's not a problem with any manufacturer, it's the industry moving forward at breakneck speed.

gdilla• 15 years ago

Well they do know that the unchangeable battery will be dead to useless in 3 years. At least they use incremental innovation in every rev to get you something new. Also, if they didn't use this strategy, they'd be more vulnerable to competition.

illumin8• 15 years ago

The resale value of iPhones also makes them less likely to end up in a landfill. A two and half year old iPhone 3GS can still fetch around $400 on eBay if you unlock it. This is unheard of with android handsets.

jarek2• 15 years ago

Err what? This month is three years since I got my Blackberry 8100, first released in 2006. No, it doesn't get the newest OS (though when I last looked in early 2010 it did get updates to OS 4.5), but it does work quite well and isn't heading for the landfill just yet. The problem of things going to the landfill is with the user, not the device or the manufacturer.

blinkingled• 15 years ago

The impetus to upgrade and chuck the old phone is much higher in their case

77% of surveyed iPhone 4 users were upgraders! Source : http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/handicapping-apples-iphone-4-d...

cube132• 15 years ago

It's also worth pointing out that Apple does have a program for recycling their equipment, and they'll even reinburse you with a gift card for certain things: http://www.apple.com/recycling/

They're not unique in this respect, too. WEEE and RoHS compliance is basically mandatory for Europe, so that requires manufacturers to have a safe disposal system in place for their electronics.

Samsung has a program with several local partners(http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/citizenship/usactivit...). Motorola(http://responsibility.motorola.com/index.php/environment/pro...) and Nokia(http://www.nokia.com/environment/recycling/where-and-how-to-...) also have programs to recycle your old electronics.

HTC does not seem to have a consumer recycling program in place, at least with the quick Google searches I've done.

EDIT: I have been corrected, as my Google-fu is weak. HTC does have several programs in place. Thanks!

0x124• 15 years ago

HTC has a whole pile of recycling programs in different locations here are a few examples:

http://www.htcinc.net/news.cfm?id=56

http://htcpedia.com/news/htc-goes-green-and-lets-you-trade-u...

They will even give you a rebate on HTC phones in some locations if you turn in any old phone. That's not a proper recycling program because it requires the phone to boot, but it does take a lot of old phones out of circulation.

HTC should probably add a recycling section to their main website, the international nature of their website probably makes that problematic because they chose to have all these little local programs rather than one big universal one.

bookwormAT• 15 years ago

How often you get recent software updates for your smartphone does not depend on Android or iOS, but the quality of your service provider.

Apple sells one new device each year and supports it well with updates. Google sells one new device each year and supports it well with updates.

The Nexus devices even have an advantage here, in that Google is not the only party that makes android-based operating systems for the series.

teamonkey• 15 years ago

The support for my 3G has been terrible. They broke the OS after 18 months, then dropped it entirely, 2 years and one month after launch.

3 years is the bare minimum time I would expect a mobile phone to be supported, given the prevalence of 3-year lock-in phone contracts. If you enter a contract for 3 years, the expected natural lifetime of that product is 3 years. It doesn't have to have the latest features, but no company should leave the OS a buggy, broken mess and then dump it.

iradik• 15 years ago

Yup.. I bought the orig iPhone in 2007 and the iPhone 5 in 2010. Missed out on gps, but otherwise never skipped a beat.

sambeau6• 15 years ago

I'm not surprised that this got through as it is more likely to offend Apple than a user.

Apple's control of the App Store is not without good reason. It seeks to protect users (and their children) from malware, pornography and offence (and protect Apple from bad publicity and legal action by selling such things to its users).

While an overzealous employee might take it onto themselves to try to protect Apple from criticism in this way: it is not Apple policy to do so.

Note also that Apple has always reacted sensibly to any accusations of abuse and/or suicide in it's supplier's factories. Plus, Foxconn's suicide rate is far below both China's and the US's rate for a similar demographic.

w1ntermute4• 15 years ago

> It seeks to protect users (and their children) from malware, pornography and offence (and protect Apple from bad publicity and legal action by selling such things to its users).

Do people really still buy this line? If they're trying to protect users and their children from "malware, pornography and offence," shouldn't they be blocking those things in the iPhone web browser as well? And what about on the Mac? All those things should be blocked on there as well.

jccc• 15 years ago

Apple doesn't sell Web sites through Safari. It does sell apps through the App Store.

There's quite a bit of difference in responsibility when money changes hands.

sambeau6• 15 years ago

Do people really still buy this line?

What line? Why else would they do it?

The control that they over the iOS platform has provided the first truly safe computing environment. This is, in my opinion, more important to its long-term success than the innovative user interface. This is the part that other companies have so-far failed to copy.

Apple don't seek control for it's own sake—it's a lot of work and very expensive—which is why other companies balk at it.

sambeau6• 15 years ago

The Mac is different due to:

1) Legacy

2) Professional requirements: huge apps with massive libraries etc

However, the Mac App Store does have similar rules and if you stick to only installing software through the App Store you will have a much safer computing environment.

Once the next round of sandboxing is added to the Mac it will be very similar to iOS.

CJCorona• 15 years ago

Well Apple has now removed the app from the store. What's the good reason for that you'd like to share with us?

marklittlewood3• 15 years ago

Here is the app description and screenshots.

http://thebln.com/2011/09/did-apple-find-a-sick-sense-of-hum...

sambeau6• 15 years ago

  15.2 Apps that depict violence or abuse of children will be rejected 

  16.1 Apps that present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected

Seems fairynuff to me.

jvc26• 15 years ago

I'm not convinced the game is 'anti-iPhone', isn't the objective to raise greater awareness of some of the working conditions of those involved in the manufacture of smartphones (e.g. those at FoxConn etc.), and to donate money to causes who support such workers.

hugh3• 15 years ago

to donate money to causes who support such workers

You mean... by buying more iPhones?

dshep• 15 years ago

There's a lot more detail here... Pretty interesting http://www.phonestory.org/

avgarrison• 15 years ago

Technically, it's not a game, since it is listed in the Education category.

joeyespo• 15 years ago

Looks like it was taken down now.

shiftpgdn• 15 years ago

It looks like it has already been pulled off of the App store.

marklittlewood3• 15 years ago

Thanks goodness I saved some screenshot! It seems to have disappeared from the App stores. I love how this has turned almost immediately into a bunch of Apple Fan Boyz talking about Apple.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2991512

k0mplex• 15 years ago

Apple just took it down - here's a screenshot of what it was http://i.imgur.com/hnCMx.jpg

kennywinker• 15 years ago

Link broken... looks like it's been pulled

hbianchi• 15 years ago

I was lucky and bought it right when I saw this post. I think is thought provoking and yes, controversial. I shared it with my 11 year old daughter and we had a conversation about life cycle of our electronics. I say anything that gets people to talk about issues is good. But censorship - a la app store- is not good. Hope they put it on Cydia at least.

JoshTriplett• 15 years ago

When linking to pages in the iTunes store, please, link to pages that work for people who don't have iTunes. Such pages exist; see, for instance, the pages reachable from http://itunes.apple.com/us/browse .

marklittlewood3• 15 years ago

The links have been removed by Apple. You can see the screenshots and app description here though.

http://thebln.com/2011/09/did-apple-find-a-sick-sense-of-hum...

sambeau6• 15 years ago

Now banned

http://phonestory.org/banned.html

Anti-iPhone iPhone game makes it past Apple's review process

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