Want to Fool Apple’s App Store? Plant an Easter Egg

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/appstoreeasteregg

by jmonegro • 17 years ago

12 23 17 years ago

plusbryan• 17 years ago

Great. Now Apple's going to take even longer to approve my apps. Thanks jerks.

pxlpshr2• 17 years ago

About 3 months ago when we made a novelty app that turned your phone into a massager, it was originally called "Happy Ending". They rejected it for the sexual innuendo so we changed the name to Pocket Massage (lol), which was consistent with an exercise app we made called Pocket Workout.

Long story short, we tried leaving the Happy Ending name in japanese and in tiny detail on the app icon but it was rejected again. Certainly not the same as a well hidden easter egg, but I was surprised they took the time to translate the small details considering some of things that have made it through.

PanMan• 17 years ago

Wasn't it still rejected because you aren't allowed to use vibrate for a prolonged time? (not sure where I read that, but I did).

pxlpshr2• 17 years ago

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case pre-December 2008. In December, Apple lifted the gate on farting apps for all the flack it was receiving for rejecting them. Around the same time about ~6 massage apps landed on the store.

AppStore Mkting Hint: We toggle our massage app between FREE and .99, it's a great little promotional tool. Every time we switch back to free, all the Twitter bots and web tracking services pickup the price decrease and we get a massive influx of downloads and web traffic.

axod2• 17 years ago

I'm still surprised Apple went down the app-store road myself. A big strategic mistake IMHO.

Does anyone else just see it as a stop gap fad until we have free wifi all over the globe?

ErrantX• 17 years ago

despite that fact they have gone "lock in" on all their portable products so far with massive success.... ;)

madair5• 17 years ago

There's a sucker born every minute.

jcl2• 17 years ago

I doubt it. Steam does pretty well on PCs, and one could argue that the Ubuntu (or other Linux) ecosystem is a successful "centralized moderated software collection". If anything, I think we'll see a growth of App Store-like systems on other platforms. I'm a little surprised Microsoft and Apple haven't tried to roll something like this to their desktops yet.

halo• 17 years ago

Microsoft included Digital Locker with Vista allowing you to purchase applications from 3rd parties via Windows Marketplace, but it has since shutdown, presumably due to lack of popularity.

twopoint718• 17 years ago

It looks like Sun is going to get into the game with an app store based around Java:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/165219/sun_see...

http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/will_java_be_the_world

_cbsz• 17 years ago

Free WiFi is a pipe dream. It turns out that people don't want strangers to use their network -- if someone downloads child porn through your connection, for example, you're still going to catch some heat even though you have an open WAP. I just bought a Linksys router to run Linux on, and they've got a huge sticker covering the Ethernet ports reminding customers to secure their network lest "unauthorized users" get at it.

This is the same problem Tor exit nodes have, although I suppose Tor is more likely to contain crap -- one of my friends recently ran an exit node at a University, for research, with the OK of the IT dept, and still got a legal request for the machine.

axod2• 17 years ago

>> "Free WiFi is a pipe dream"

Huh? It's already a ton of places :/

I was meaning once it's in all airplanes, buses, subway, trains, etc etc

madair5• 17 years ago

The number one take away from this, for those who didn't know, is that Apple disallowed an application that displays lyrics, just because some lyrics contain profanity.

Yeah.

This is a significant abuse of corporate gatekeeping power. Why are people accepting this? Are the majority of people that lethargic so as to ignore such significant limits on their ability to use and create content and applications for devices?

Would it be acceptable if Apple just out and out banned the music that contains the profanities? That's pretty close to what they are doing. I'm really struggling here to understand how people lie down and take this.

Loss of freedom in the name of commerce is disgusting, despicable, and most importantly, unethical, and needs to be stopped.

asciilifeform4• 17 years ago

> Why are people accepting this?

Because Apple has no competition. At least, not in the smart-phone market. It has "competition" - pseudo-rivals who manufacture absolute crap, which is more often than not a slavish (and poor) imitation of Apple products.

Anyone who insists on a well-designed, consistent user interface is currently at Apple's mercy.

madair5• 17 years ago

The familiar "only the market can resolve this" viewpoint.

Regulation is also a powerful tool for resolving issues like this. The usual tripe about profits suffering and everything made worse can now be cued up and played...now!

callahad• 17 years ago

1. These rejections are largely invisible to consumers.

2. Nothing on the market comes close to matching consumer perception of the iPhone's features and flash.

asciilifeform4• 17 years ago

This is a monumentally-stupid idea.

Do you want people to actually use your app's functionality? If and when they start, and word spreads, Apple will delete your app. Given their history, they might not even pay you what you're owed. All of your efforts will have been wasted.

Want to Fool Apple’s App Store? Plant an Easter Egg

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