If you really want Apple to change, how about NOT developing for iOS? Articles like this aren't really going to make them change their policies.
Certainly convincing other people not to develop for iOS would have more of an impact than just swearing off it personally. More generally, I dislike the idea that we shouldn't write this sort of thing because "the market will sort it out anyway". This sort of post is the market sorting it out.
Apple reserves the right to accept or reject applications from the app store.
Sure, they're probably legally entitled to do almost anything. That doesn't mean they can't (or shouldn't) be criticised for it, though, and it doesn't mean that criticism of them can't have any impact on anyone's behaviour.
What is striking is none (or I haven't come across one) of these articles end with the developer washing their hands off the App store and vowing never to develop another iOS app. Instead, most of them seem to be aiming to generate publicity so that Apple takes notice and hopefully approves the app.
Articles like this made me avoid Apple altogether and judging by the general sentiment here on HN at least some other people capable of software development have made a similar decision (to various degrees.) I'd wager this article probably has much more power than jwz quietly dumping iOS development.
The problem is: the store is mandatory. Side loading is the OS equivalent of net neutrality.
This is like car companies deciding which supermarkets you may shop at, and then suggesting only their own.
Unfortunately, Mircosft and Amazon are going to do, or are already doing, the same thing.
They want to be the new cable companies. Extorting content producers, by selling or blocking access to consumers.
Otherwise, he should just put up a sign in his club about no cover / free pizza for a member of the iOS team who's willing to put in a good word for xscreensaver. I mean, he _is_ in SF. Even I know several people on the iOS team, at least one of whom has gone there, and I don't even live/work in that area.
Oh, the deep irony.
He's now finding out the hard way that "openness" may have been an attribute the importance of which he underestimated.
And just like the tens of other iOS developers that came to whine here when the same happened to them: you knew what you were getting into and chose to ignore it at your own peril.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-fart-app/id370742001?mt=8
Also, a "fart button" is not physical object, can we still call it a "button" (Ceci n'est pas une bouton de pet.)?
Do you mean they are not right because the app does not save a screen from anything? What if you are using your iPhone to project something on an plasma screen where a screen saver can save a screen from "burn ins".
I am really interested in your thoughts.
As such, yeah the name is a little misleading.
The reviewer wasn't even capable of telling me the build number of the binary they were reviewing and kept redirecting me to Apple's DTS.
So after using one of my paid DTS inquires for this nonsense the problem got fixed and I had to wait only 2 more weeks for the next review date. The Apple engineer was very capable and friendly though - so no criticism there.
The problem is that the reviewers have no idea of development. They are clueless and I guess Apple hires some low paid college students for these positions. It's like talking to some immature AI or a 5 year old kid. They have their guidelines and rules and aren't capably of any interaction outside of this framework. Wasting our time and money.
The goal to avoid user confusion and scams is a good goal. Even if there are a few millions XScreenSaver users (wow) on another platforms, there are orders of magnitude more potential new users who should not be mislead. How to avoid confusion is a good question, but accepting the old name doesn't appear to be a provably best solution.
Can't the name be different but the application appear in searches based on the reference to the name of XScreenSaver somewhere in the description?
With the recent App Store search result changes, this may be of little help anyway. If you search for the name of my app, for instance, it comes up near the bottom of the results where nobody looks. I went from averaging multiple downloads per day to just two sales since the changes were put into effect.
* Linus Torvalds
* Daniel J. Bernstein
* Theo de Raadt
* Jamie Zawinski