Apple had already solidly cemented its reputation as the confused, identity crisis-stricken, moral dilemma-having lord ruler of the App Store with its
recent approval of a number of browsers that would seemingly violate its "duplication of functionality" policy, but now it's doing some
serious soul-searching with this latest move. Remember
Podcaster? The on-the-go podcast downloader predated
Apple's own mobile download capability by months -- but Cupertino struck the thing down for encroaching on iTunes' territory, seemingly dooming it to a life of ad hoc installs and jailbreaks. It's just been given a fresh lease on life, though, emerging as "RSS Player" and killing off Podcaster's built-in directory of casts; Apple's suddenly cool with the revised app, giving it two thumbs-up on the way to the App Store, but it's not clear if the directory functionality was the problem, there's a policy change in play here, or the name change simply fooled the App Store admins into giving the green light. At any rate, in case you're wondering why you'd shell out $1.99 for the pleasure of this "duplication of functionality," RSS Player will let you blow by iTunes' 10MB limit -- and, of course, you can download any feed you like. Thanks, Apple. [Warning: iTunes link]
[Via
UNEASYsilence]
posted Jan 26th 2009 9:58PM
Palm Pre reaction? On the other hand, Sprint just laid off 8,000 workers and guess who has the exclusive on the Pre? Yeah. That's bad.
I don't even have to read his post, when I see "Paul A. Chapel" in the user name, I know to give a negative rank :)
Why even bring up Palm? I'm getting sick of all these Palm haters. It just goes to show you that Palm is the top of the game because it gets brought up all the time in articles that aren't even related to Palm.
Paul HATES when people bring up another company in a thread.
I guess Steve really is gone...
When Job's last breath fades away - iMacs will come preloaded with Vista.
they aren't telling the truth about the severity of Steve's condition to PROTECT THE STOCK.
"He's DEAD Jim"
Preloaded with Vista? lol. Dream on dude.
Molly! Molly! Molly!
I miss her on the show everyday...
yeah, wish she was on everyday...
Apple's app store rules are going away faster than Banks are...
good thing for people with iphones
404 ftw.
Indeed! :)
show misses you!!
twitter: zenzsh
I love Leo Laporte, oh the good ole days with ZDTV and then Tech TV.
If you liked Leo then, you should check him out now on http://twit.tv.
Leo: And now.... let's check in with our good friends at audible dot com! Y'know, when you're driving... to school, to work... to CES... you just CAN'T beat having an unabridged audiobook. You know, these things really are great, etc etc etc
App store, major reason of iPhone success domintion.,. I can hear those android/blackberry/palm fanbois weeping as we speak,,,their jealousy wouldn't have to be like this. If only they had better decision making.
typing from your iphone are ya?
Yes, I am crying at my lack of an 'app store'.
Oh wait...
www.handandgo.com
www.pocketgear.com
www.clickapps.com
etc.....
Not to mention the mounds of freeware available. All available without corporate overlord approval or somewhat shady unlocking/jalibreaking.
@chuuchdizzle, your typing device seems to have trouble with caps. What model phone is that?
@roole: Irony Overload.
What! If you look, most iPhone apps, and then some, are already in Winmo. In fact, most of the apps began as a Winmo only apps.
One thing Apple apps store does to iPhone user is nickel and dime you guys to death on useless apps. If you guys where to add up all the apps you guys bought that are not in your iPhone anymore, it would probably total up to a hefty amount.
By the way, RRS came with my HTC for free.
@shugg:
WTF is this about? Heard of Android Market? In fact, Android Market isn't charging for apps yet, so I don't have to pay $2 for a crappy RSS player. And yes, we even have fart apps too. Idiots like you are the reason for 'iPhone success domintion' [sic].
I for one don't welcome our confused, identity crisis-stricken, moral dilemma-having overlord
you where asking 4 it
I believe i can safely say:
uhhhhh..... WTF ಠ_ಠ ?
Doesn't have support for password protected feeds. Tried adding one and it crashes every time.
There is a way to subscribe to password protected feeds. Simply add the username and password into the user like so: http://[username]:[password]@[domain]/[path]
Full details at http://manila.userland.com/passwordProtectedRss
Can't wait for the Zune App to get approved.
WTF r u smoking ,.haven't u heard. Zune will soon be axed. Not even zUne boys buying that crap,.next
shugg doesnt get it.
well yeah he kinda doesnt get any...
Well, now they're just fucking with us.
This list of podcasts looks exactly like my own. Good to know I'm not the only one with a massive podcast addiction.
WOW this totally made my night, @the404 on the front page of engadget!
thanks a million chris!!
Its because your that good Justin!!!
@the404 FTW!!! Wow, thanks Chris. Didn't know you listened to the 404.
this has to be the show title tomorrow
Where's TWIT? Heck, where's Engadget?
The duplication of functionality argument was never going to last long - at least not if the iPhone got any significant kind of traction. It would be declared outright illegal if challenged in court. And that's probably the reason it's gone.
The name change was a requirement, I am pretty sure Apple legal owns Podcast, so Podcaster isn't going to work. Apple doesn't even allow websites to have the word iPod in them.
Wow, another internet lawyer on the case. What law prohibits a company from dictating what goes on their store shelves? Do you really think someone could sue to get their product on the shelf at Walmart?
The answer is no. It's called ownership rights.
wow, a chapel comment i don't have to downrank. unprecedented.
Huh - what's an internet lawyer? Anyway...
The Walmart analogy is weak but yes you could sue if Walmart was the only store in America and prevented you from selling things that compete with a Walmart brand.
A better example would be Microsoft not allowing any third party browsers on Windows. The DOJ would be all over them.
Apple doesn't own the term Podcast. They tried to bully their way with cease and desist letters to companies using the term but when there was an uproar they stopped. The term Podcast isn't trademarkable (Is that a word?). It's been tried already but it got rejected.
indecesive... whats up with that steve?
All the browsers that were released use Webkit.... Does that mean that there is a slim chance of Google porting Chrome on the Iphone?
It would be nice if Apple's policy loosens up a bit, but I don't think that everything that's happened actually DID!
For example, the 'new browsers' referenced in the article are NOT new browsers. They are add ons using the built in Mobile Safari in different modes. This is actually mentioned IN the product descriptions for "Edge Browser" and "Shaking Web", for example.
http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=275
This is almost two weeks old, but I STILL see people mentioning the "new browsers" story to build a case for major policy shifts at Apple.
C'mon guys get it right. How can you build an argument for changes in Apple policy when some of the data points you're using are just flat out wrong?
Maybe they realized that the duplication of functionality when applied to the games being developed for the iphone created a clear double standard.
It's doesn't work as promised! Grrrr...
Downloaded a file via over ATT's service, download completed. Podcast is "stored" on the phone supposedly, you go to play the file you just downloaded, it tries to stream it, and if you're in airplane mode it says "audio paused while you're offline"... well then what the hell was the point of downloading it?!
The part that doesn't allow you to listen while your offline is a bug and has been fixed in version 1.1. It has been submitted on monday morning to the app store and I am waiting for approval.
This app will be gone in a week.
If it's anything like Podcaster it will crash, be buggy as hell, and be slow.
The built in podcasting downloads on the iPhone leaves a lot to be desired too. It's just not done right. Apple need to redesign the whole concept and have it work the same way as when you purchase music, syncing back to your PC , auto refresh new podcasts without having to check each one individually.
It also needs to play in the iPod app not as a Quicktime file, so you can do other things at the same time. And get rid of that god awful 10MB limit over 3G.... only a minority of iPhone plans are on AT&T worldwide, and the rest of us actually pay for our usage (no all you can eat plans here)
Please!
The underlying code for RssPlayer is different and the download code has been improved. RssPlayer is far more stable that Podcaster ever was.
Can I get an emusic.com app where I can download directly to my iPhone? ;)
I also agree with other comments and have said it all along...Job's medical condition is far worse then his press release. Opps, he already said that after saying it was something else...right???
Was bound to happen, I'd say...
It's like writing safe and good software, or Access Control Lists... exclude first, see what falls on the cutting-room floor, sift through the rejects, assess again, appove with caveats, PROFIT !
Nothing gets to stand in the way of good old healthy profits in our Capitalistic world, especially in a full-blown recession.
Android has DoggCatcher, WinMo has many choices (BeyondPod was my favorite), it's good to see that iPhone users are getting some of this functionality finally. Hopefully Apple and Almerica can get the bugs worked out soon.
Considering all the support the app writer got from the internet community after Apple denied the app so many times, I'm a little disappointed the guy is still trying to charge people and get rich off the thing. Not surprised, but dissapointed.
The 404 and BOL
Kick ass man.
the android market is really starting to bug apple ha ha