Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Apple relaxed all restrictions on development tools

Back in April, we did some three apps on Rhomobile Rhodes and submitted to App Store for approval. Though we had success before with App Store approvals, this time we heard nothing from Apple. Even follow ups were resulting in useless "we will get back to you" answers. Then we heard this bombshell from Apple. They announced that they will block non Objective-C based apps. They said quality is more important and gave their opinion that non Objective-C apps can't be built with quality. It was clear that they are aiming at Adobe and blocking their Flash-to-iPhone-app tool but the collateral damage was done to Rhomobile Rhodes and PhoneGap and Appcelerator Titanium and perhaps a few smaller solutions.
A few weeks later, our apps were silently approved though no official word yet on reversal of the policy. Apple then officially announced that all restrictions on development tools are removed. Here is the statement in full:
Statement by Apple on App Store Review Guidelines
The App Store℠ has revolutionized the way mobile applications are developed and distributed. With over 250,000 apps and 6.5 billion downloads, the App Store has become the world’s largest mobile application platform and App Store developers have earned over one billion dollars from the sales of their apps.
We are continually trying to make the App Store even better. We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.
In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.
In addition, for the first time we are publishing the App Store Review Guidelines to help developers understand how we review submitted apps. We hope it will make us more transparent and help our developers create even more successful apps for the App Store.
The App Store is perhaps the most important milestone in the history of mobile software. Working together with our developers, we will continue to surprise and delight our users with innovative mobile apps.
Apple realized that with Android so close behind, these kind of restrictions were hurting them and reversed it after so boldly stating that they are fine with getting less apps due to this.
Having realized their mistake Apple went the extra mile to call the Rhomobile guys to tell them about the change of policy.
Rhodes is a fantastic tool, one can build great quality apps with it. We have a number apps built with it and going to add a lot more soon. Being Ruby on Rails fans, we are just at ease with Rhodes as we are on the web app world and you too should enjoy writing apps with it. Strongly recommended.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Bad service from Sogo India

Last week we have decided to rent a laptop temporarily to be used by our new staffing manager hire. Since we have rented few laptops from "Sogo India, Bangalore" last year, we decided to give them the business opportunity again.


The resultant service is very bad and I "totally do not recommend them". You will find a service that is:

1. Don't know how to read your order request properly.

We asked for one laptop and they sent quoted for six. My email clearly stated "As we spoke last night, we require a laptop for rental with the following specs".

2. Unresponsive
  • They simply don't call back and take their own sweet time. A person named Anish told us that he will get back after lunch and never did. and we had to call them again in the late evening.
  • They promised to respond again in the evening and never did till the next day.
3. Pathetic fact checking and document checking

This is what they wanted as documentation:

  • Company Incorporation Certification Copy
  • Company PAN Card Copy
  • VAT / TAN / TIN Registration Copy
  • ID Proof (Voters ID, Driving License)

We gave them what we had at that time which is Incorporation Copy, PAN # (As company we don't recall getting a PAN Card), ID Proof as my personal passport copy. Their delivery person came all the way to our office door and and simply went back saying my address proof is wrong and they rudely cancelled the order.

What nonsense? Since when a company has passports? When you ask for ID proof, we can only provide a personal one. How can they check this against company's address? It will not match. This is crazy. Firstly the above documents will not have company's address. When they realize this is the case they should have simply asked us to send something else as proof. Instead, they waste all precious time as the person shows up wastes my 20 minutes time when he wanted me to call the company again. The Anish guy again in a rude manner says "Your order is rejected by management because of wrong ID proof". I suppose the management here is the lady called "Rekha Rao" whom we had personally complained about the delay. She has no courtesy to call and ask me for any clarifications.

Here is a vendor who doesn't want you as customer. That is fine. We will take the business elsewhere. You should do too.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

James Gosling Has left Oracle

It is sad see him leave Oracle and by inference stepping away from guiding the Java language development in the future. Personally, I owe a lot to Java as through developing apps in Java that whatever improvement in technology, process extra that I had gained.

James, Thank you for all your contributions.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Interest in our Panchangam Lite 2010 application

Recently we published our Panchangam Lite 2010 iPhone app. It is interesting to see that there are some 300 users who downloaded within 5 full days of launch. Here is a google map showing various countries from which the users came from.


View Panchangam Lite downlod status in a larger map