Rogue Amoeba Weblog

Sigh, you're just not getting it, sorry to say.

I have NO TROUBLE imagining that Apple will continue to tighten the screws on this, enforcing signing through Developer TOS and requiring MAS apps to pay for distribution certs.

Direct download isn't going away, not after all the work that's gone into securing it, but if you think you can sell an app off your own site without giving Apple some identifiable info about who you are and what your code does, prepare to be disappointed.

Runtimes won't be disallowed, just that you (the user) are responsible for installing them and keeping things updated.

Oh, and for record, my reference to "Perry the Cynic" is no accident...he literally invented how code signing works.

https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2008/03/07/code-signing-and-you/#comment-318

https://red-sweater.com/blog/514/development-phase-code-signing#comment-144236

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F7103779

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=8&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=Kiehtreiber.INNM.&OS=in/Kiehtreiber&RS=IN/Kiehtreiber

Delicious Library was the start of a gilded age of Mac shareware focused on style over substance.

> In the past year or so, Mac development had shifted from applications providing new functionality that appeared at the dawn of OS X to applications (and ideas) built around flash and sizzle, with plenty of marketing hype to fuel the fire. his had created something of a toxic atmosphere in the Mac development world. A rift between the old school, with its plain but functional apps, and the new school of flashy but frivolous apps, has developed. ... I dubbed this new school “The Delicious Generation”.

https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2006/11/06/the-delicious-generation/

Apple adopted a similar interface for Newsstand on iOS and it seemed to be widely reviled during the pushback against skeuomorphism.

I miss disco so much. Back from the Delicious Era [1] of apps that were functional yet had character and play.

[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2007/05/the-delicious-generation-strikes-back/

I wholly disagree with rogueamoeba's assessment that these were "style over substance". They were dead-simple to use, and you could always disable the smoke if you hated fun. They may not have all the bells and whistles of the bloated 40MB disc burning suite, but if all you wanted to do was burn a linux iso or transfer some songs to stick in your car stereo, this was the go-to tool for the job.

https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2006/11/06/

Also I find it ironic that rogueamoeba lambasts the "delicious generation" when I think their Piezo app would fit right into it.

For context, the app (Piezo) in question was removed from the Mac App Store (not the iOS App Store, as I first assumed on reading!) by its developers.

It's an audio recorder which can record audio from other apps. The App Store introduced a sandbox which prevented the app from working, but they got around that by simply not updating the app and thus retaining the ability to work outside the sandbox. However, other apps introduced changes which broke Piezo, and which needed a fix which couldn't be distributed via App Store, finally killing that methods of distribution.

https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2016/02/12/piezo-1-5-arrives-piezo-exits-the-mac-app-store/

That is quite correct. When we removed Piezo from the Mac App Store a year ago, we didn't send out a press release, nor seek publicity over this move in any way. We simply removed it and explained why on our blog (https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2016/02/12/piezo-1-5-arrives-piezo-exits-the-mac-app-store/). That was it.

We can certainly debate how well-established or tech-savvy our users are (though I will note that Piezo is by far our simplest application, and used by the least technically savvy among our user base). But to say that we did this in a “public fashion” is just false.

> […] Airfoil software does all this & more […]

Not quite; Airfoil Satellite does not implement an AirPlay 2 receiver which is what this is all about. See https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2018/06/25/current-notes-on-airfoil-airplay-2/ :

> Can Airfoil Satellite receive AirPlay 2 audio? Airfoil Satellite receives audio via the AirPlay 1 protocol. Because of this, it can’t currently be part of a multi-speaker group receiving audio from iOS.

Still a great piece of software (that I also can recommend).