Let the Buyer Beware

[Ron]

While scrolling down the Appshopper rss feed in my google reader I see many apps of many varieties. Two that caught extra attention were "Zombies vs. Plants" and "Pocket God Top Cheats". They have a right to be there just like all the other apps Apple has been pulling. But does ZvP hope to catch buyers really looking for PvZ? Does PGTC hope to catch buyers thinking they will get real "cheats"? Just my opinion of course...

btw- my cool find was the Newsweek app . Loads real fast, caches for offline views. (and yes it has an add for Newsweek Mag even though it's a paid app)

[NineSwords]

That's scam and should be pulled. Just my oppinion.

[shigzeo]

I'v noticed this behaviour for a long time. In particular, App Descriptions not mentioning other games, but obviously being tagged in target of their competition. Annoying, scammy, but really hard to filter for Apple.

[NineSwords]

Well at least for the big titles it should be possible to filter them out.

[Ron]

I agree it is a bit on the scammy side but unfortunately it exists in not just the app store. Many products in stores attempt the same thing ( not to imply this makes it right, mind you ). I recall listening to the bonus features/narration of The Simpsons. It was mentioned how just enough changes need to be made to a character or musical piece to avoid copyright infringement. To my ear the music sounded like the original.

[NineSwords]

From a law point of view this is right but Apple has left more than enough loopholes in their contracts that they can pull everything they want without even a explanation. So this should be no problem.

And from a Simpson point of view, everyone should be honored to be parodied by the Simpsons. BTW. Did you know that Futurama is soooooo much better but has been canceled because of Nines Law? Nines Law states that everything that I like is being canceled after a short time.

[Ron]

Nines Law states that everything that I like is being canceled after a short time.

Never admit to liking this forum...

[louis]

Nines Law states that everything that I like is being canceled after a short time.

In other news today, the recently opened TouchMyApps forums has closed due to Nines Law. TMA spokesperson John Smith was unavailable for comment...Back to you Billy Bob...

Yeah, there's definitely some shady app business being practiced by a number of developers. Perhaps they do it because they feel they can get away with it. If Apple doesn't curb this scammy stuff, we'll likely see more and more of it. But like shigzeo said, it could be very difficult to filter these kind of apps out.

[madam_octa]

From a law point of view this is right but Apple has left more than enough loopholes in their contracts that they can pull everything they want without even a explanation. So this should be no problem.

And from a Simpson point of view, everyone should be honored to be parodied by the Simpsons. BTW. Did you know that Futurama is soooooo much better but has been canceled because of Nines Law? Nines Law states that everything that I like is being canceled after a short time.

Slightly off topic, but Futurama is scheduled to start airing mid 2010, 26 new episodes. It's a great show, to me even better than Simpsons
Back on topic: maybe there should be like a report button for apps, so that when there are enough reports Apple starts investigating?

[louis]

Slightly off topic, but Futurama is scheduled to start airing mid 2010, 26 new episodes. It's a great show, to me even better than Simpsons
Back on topic: maybe there should be like a report button for apps, so that when there are enough reports Apple starts investigating?

A report button had crossed my mind as well and I think it is something that could very well work... assuming Apple are able to implement it properly. They would obviously have to figure out what the magic number is before an app gets flagged and brought to their attention.

And re: Futurama, that is very cool news. It's one of my favorite animated shows (better than simpsons), right up there with American Dad.