digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About
See the original image at engadget.com

Facebook app developer rejects App Store, irony ensues

engadget.com — Joe Hewitt, the developer of the Facebook iPhone app, has flipped the script and rejected the App Store. And, as you'd expect, our man is not mincing his words, stating that his "decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple's policies," and that he's "philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process."

Who dugg this? Made popular 11 days ago

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

182 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • Inceptious, on 11/14/2009, -7/+352It's not irony! If someone punches me and I punch them back, its not ironic!
  • indeco, on 11/12/2009, -8/+287Apple should feel ashamed. It's good to see someone takes a stand. Hopefully, many will follow.
  • burrdugg, on 11/14/2009, -3/+141Feel ashamed? This is the kind of dickery Apple is renowned for since the beginning. You think it was a coincidence IBM prevailed in the personal computer market?

    Apple keeps pulling the same antitrust scams that Microsoft got trialed in court for, only reason Apple is getting away with it, is because the company is not a monopoly.
  • McPOW, on 11/12/2009, -4/+134Poetic justice.
  • monkeysama, on 11/14/2009, -10/+96The irony is that facebook is the biggest private garden in application development, and he's protesting Apple's similar policies.
  • DraxusD, on 11/14/2009, -5/+58Bravo! However, I fail to see the irony here.
  • Hecubus452, on 11/14/2009, -2/+50I enjoy the hell out of my iPod Touch, but I feel for the developers.
    They spends hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on something only to find out the apple arbitrarily denies you into the store, making all of that a complete waste of time.
  • m3arvk, on 11/14/2009, -14/+59I hope Droid kicks Apple's overpriced ***** to the curb! Go Droid!
  • m3arvk, on 11/14/2009, -1/+46Ironically not around?
  • elenaadamscom, on 11/14/2009, -8/+41@monkeysama that's still not irony. It's hypocritical, or a fitting twist. It is not ironic.
  • ohplease, on 11/14/2009, -2/+31Irony is when the result of an action is the opposite of the intended result, e.g. burning down your home while installing your sprinkler system.
  • Murrabbit, on 11/14/2009, -9/+37Good. There's been quit enough of consumers and developers blindly walking in to locked down proprietary systems already. This is not a trend that we should be eager to continue.

    Android for the win!
  • cambob76, on 11/14/2009, -1/+27Where are the irony police when you need them?
  • tgc1, on 11/14/2009, -1/+27Everybody knows that Irony is rain on your wedding day.
  • Jaizu, on 11/14/2009, -3/+28Indeed, irony is more like a black fly in your Chardonnay.
  • coachmcguirk, on 11/14/2009, -4/+28Or a deathrow pardon happening to occur several minutes after it would have been advantageous.

    Probably a better way to word that, but it's just an example off the top of my head.
  • smashingmonkey, on 11/14/2009, -1/+24I like my iPhone, but I'm very happy to see Apple getting all of this egg on their corporate face. Verizon 3G maps, Droid features conspicuously absent on the iPhone, and now high profile devs turning their backs on the app store... stronger new competition which lacks the restrictions Apple has imposed will surely force Apple's hand and make the iPhone a better platform eventually. Either that or I'll switch my phone and network next time around.
  • cport1, on 11/14/2009, -5/+27Go fix the android facebook app!
  • TheBigSquid, on 11/14/2009, -0/+22getting arrested
  • legolas1218, on 11/14/2009, -0/+19You can't break up with me, I broke up with you _OR_ You can't fire me, I quit
  • KibibyteBrain, on 11/14/2009, -1/+19@grnicon IBM's original high level design for a PC device now has close to 100% market share(admittedly soon to go down due to the new "smartbook" market). Apple's original design has close to 0% market share. Apple would not even exist right now if they were not bailed out by Microsoft and then turned over to a PC/*nix reboot by Steve Jobs, as a result of their total loss in this front.
    On the business end, IBM may have lost control of the PC down the road but their vision is still victorious to this day, largely because despite having a pretty solid lead back in '84 no one trusted the Mac on the development end because working with Apple back then was horrible.
  • explodingzebras, on 11/14/2009, -0/+18yeah and about 80k+ plus of those are probably 'find my keys', 'tilt to drink beer' or whatever
  • DraxusD, on 11/14/2009, -1/+18It's not going anywhere.... updates aren't mandatory
  • acidrainnn, on 11/12/2009, -9/+26Respect -.
  • marcb83, on 11/14/2009, -0/+16ironing is when you get the wrinkles out of your clothes
  • captininsanity, on 11/14/2009, -5/+21And then you jailbreak your ipod only to have Apple rick roll you with their new virus...
  • teh_techie, on 11/14/2009, -0/+15So, a song about irony, having nothing ironic in it. Is that irony? Is that the point of the song?
  • the8thbit, on 11/14/2009, -11/+26NEITHER OF THOSE ARE IRONIC.

    IRONY IS THE USE OF WORDS TO IMPLY SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE LITERAL INTENTION.

    NOW YOU KNOW.
  • shmajent, on 11/14/2009, -1/+16Ah, "irony" of the Alanis Morrisette variety.
  • tjcooper4, on 11/14/2009, -0/+14@the8thbit
    Read that in Benders voice.
  • Zephret, on 11/14/2009, -1/+14It's the good advice that you just didn't take.
  • chazuk, on 11/14/2009, -0/+13And a free ride, when you've already paid!
  • coachmcguirk, on 11/14/2009, -2/+14Probably should have let them keep it.
  • samanathon, on 11/14/2009, -1/+13The fact of the matter is this: Everyone LOVES the current version (what ever that may be) of Facebook. When said company makes a revision, everyone revolts - but here's the thing: Everyone LOVES the current version of Facebook. When said company makes a revision, everyone revolts.

    The site improves so greatly; it becomes an extension of the user - people become accustom to it. It becomes that much more intuitive.
  • supersonicjim, on 11/14/2009, -0/+12Biff Tannen: I suppose it's poetic justice - two McFlys with the same gun.
  • DulcetTone, on 11/14/2009, -0/+10"Irony" should be stricken from the language, as NO ONE knows that it means.
  • borez, on 11/14/2009, -0/+10Getting rid of the word irony would be ironic.
  • BluZebra, on 11/14/2009, -2/+11I'll stick with my Google Android phone.
  • jamshid, on 11/14/2009, -5/+14Both iPhone 3GS and Droid are $199 ($599 without contract) and over the two years you'll pay $3799. http://www.billshrink.com/blog/total-cost-of-owner ...
  • kitsua, on 11/14/2009, -2/+11Sure, it's just that this guy clearly honed the app to its current (and best, imo) form and now he won't be a part of its development from this point.

    Not that someone equally as talented couldn't take his place - it's not rocket science after all and there's still plenty of room for improvement.
  • paulvq, on 11/14/2009, -0/+9Nah man, it's like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife.
  • crapuccino, on 11/14/2009, -1/+999,000 are variants on the fart button.
  • ghrayfahx, on 11/14/2009, -0/+8Who woulda thought, it figures.
  • Iwantawii, on 11/14/2009, -1/+9IT'S LIKE RAAAEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIN
  • TheTardis, on 11/14/2009, -13/+21It's Apple's Store. It's their store. Their store, their rules. It's Steve Job's world and that is not a democracy. Don't want to develop iPhone Apps, don't develop iPhone Apps. It's pretty simple. I don't there a reason to get apoplectic about not being able to sell in someone else's store for someone else's platform. You are a guest, behave like one.
  • nnix, on 11/14/2009, -1/+9Digg me down if you must, but a simple question ought to be asked: Given how much complete crap is sold in an app store of 100,000 + apps, how many crappy apps would we have to sift through if there were no review process?

    To be sure, I'm as annoyed as anyone when Apple's policies limit the functionality of their phone, only to put more money in AT&T's pocket, but surely the very -existence- of a review process can't be objectionable in and of itself. Atari consoles might not have become dusty furniture so quickly in the early 80s had they adopted a review process as sound as Nintendo's...
  • strangewill, on 11/14/2009, -0/+7Sure and when network standards were being developed it was accepted that in order to communicate to an IBM server, you'd have to buy a desktop machine from IBM.

    Just because an emerging market is doing it doesn't mean it's right, me and many others look at history and draw conclusions that it is absolutely wrong.
  • numb, on 11/14/2009, -0/+7If you can pick it up with a magnet, then you know it's ironic.
  • dienaked, on 11/14/2009, -0/+7In her whole song, not one of the situations suggested by the lyrics is ironic.
  • karmaprog, on 11/14/2009, -0/+7But what if it's MY dog?
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 185 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.