Snaaaap.

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

I fully agree with everyone else that this sucks. On the other hand I’ve been learning Objective-C for a month or so, so the B-Rhymes App won’t be affected.

The silver lining could be that it might put a damper on the quantities of spam apps coming out.

I’m a bit jaded from realizing the magnitude of app spam out there.

So when checking out the iPhone OS 4.0 presentation on Engadget, and I see a number like there being 50,000 iPhone games vs 4,321 DS games, I’m really, really curious about what fraction of those are spam, renamed duplicates, or total garbage. Not that there isn’t garbage created for the DS too, but I feel now that comparing quantities of apps to quantities of traditionally published software is basically lying.

On one hand, it’s in the advantage of Apple to allow app spam so they can say, ‘look 150,000 apps!’, but on the other hand, as they let the store fill with trash, one thinks it will turn around and bite them eventually. I wonder if a $25 fee per published app might solve the problem.

I just updated the B-Rhymes Android app with a bug fix. A side benefit of releasing bug fixes on either the Android Market of iTunes App Store, is that it gets your app in the “Just In” list for a little while, until it’s pushed out by other freshly updated apps.

But, post update, when I checking the Reference category’s Just In list, I see it’s full of these:

App Spam!

There were 80 or so of these that seem to be just text pasted from old, presumably out of copyright, books. I have know Idea who would buy one of these, but I’m sure the shotgun approach to get into people’s app searches will catch some people who don’t know better.

In the mean time, it takes more effort for millions of people to sort through the spam crap apps in order to find the good ones, if they bother at all. They damage consumer confidence in the App Market to make a quick buck. New era, same old spam.

After looking into this a bit, it seems the Android situation is worse off. One analysis recently determined that of the 28,963 apps on the Android Market, about 10,000 are spam. The iTunes App Store has similar problems, but maybe not to this extent.

I really hope there’s something to be done about this before many people give up buying apps all together.