I find the irony of a developer working for one of the biggest walled gardens on the internet complaining about walls around someone else's garden to be very deep into the pot/kettle/black territory...

He's also the developer behind the three20 project which Apple has recently been rejecting apps using three20 because it was supposedly using private APIs.

I can see how that can be frustrating to put in all that work in to develop a very valuable and powerful library and with the flick of a switch Apple makes your work almost useless.

If he'd like to work on a much more open app platform (where market update time is less than 24 hours) Facebook's Android app needs some love.

This is really too bad. I use Facebook via the iPhone app more than the web interface. I can't wait to see what he does next.

Smartphones, PDA's and other mobile-computing-platforms have been around for years (more than a decade). Almost all of them have provided third-party developers with a means of producing software for the platform. While some were more successful in this regard than others, none of them enjoyed the third-party-developer support that the iPhone now has, whether you measure that by number, quality or market share.

What's the difference? Were these other platforms made from inferior technology, relative to the state-of-the-art at the time? Did they have inferior marketing? Was cost-of-entry too high for most developers?

The app store approval process is one of the major differences between the iPhone and all preceding platforms. Is this just a coincidence?

If you find Apple's process unacceptable there are many (ie, all) other platforms that offer similar devices on which to distribute your work without oversight by their creators. If you want to develop for a successful platform then you'll need to learn to appreciate the traits that make it so, and while not perfect, the App Store approval process is a key factor in that success.

The TC boys need a sense of perspective; while the App Store review process is terrible, it doesn't come close to being "tyranny".

Ideology in the work place is tricky. It's something most people should be very careful about. Most of us cannot opt out of a platform/technology we dislike personally. Even if you can it may be hard to rationalize their existence when you deposit your paycheck. I hope it works out for him.

I personally dont find the app very well made. Interesting outcome for the developer nonetheless.

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Aside from obvious quality benefits, the review process is a good thing because it results in users having more trust in apps developed by relatively unknown developers/companies.

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Maybe he just burnt-out and wants to move on to something else?

i'm sure gruber has some witty writeup as to why hewitt is wrong, and how his post is a big win not only for apple but for users and world hunger

crybaby

I can't believe that it's been a year and Apple still has the weird ass review process!