Apple to iPhone developer: No soup for you! [update]

April Fool’s Day came early this year.

A BIG FISH FOR YOU.

PED! You got played!!!

BWAHAHAHAHA

Ahah who’s the joker now, Phillip?

“But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He’s been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.” - so skepticism - which Phillip’s articles have none of, skepticism is rational and Phillip’s articles are irrational and illogical - I was saying, so skepticism pays off? Or was it “fired off Time, hired for B2.0 a magazine that failed and now at Fortune trying to doing it yet again”?

Skepticism is not bashing, not being nay-sayer, not being detrimental and biased.

Then again, since 1982 Philip has had the time to get up-to-date, by now he should have dewitted himself up to the truth about Apple.

I, for one, know one thing: if it says Fortune and Apple I ain’t readin’ it! ahah suckers

See the update to the MacRumors forum thread.

Turns out this was just a fake attention-whoring stunt. Apple had nothing to do with this joker.

Somehow the defined meaning of Non-Disclosure Agreement has been missed somewhere? Philip, could you grab the dictionary that ‘hopefully’ sits right above you on a shelf and look up the words? My suggestion, write another article with JUST the definitions.

Oh, and ‘AK in NYC’ who thinks Apple is somehow the heaviest hand in the industry has apparently never dealt with the likes of Oracle, ES&S or nearly any group that deals with US National security.

To claim enforcement of NDA makes relationships with third-party developers uneasy exposes the writer’s complete lack of the most basic of critical software industry knowledge.

In software products, intellectual rights is paramount. An idea needs to be protected. As a third-party developer, if my company were making anything for Apple, we would all be MUM, not say a word because we are protecting our product too, with our own NDA’s for our employees and suppliers and contractors to sign. WHY would we break our NDA with Apple and expect anyone to respect our NDA with them?

We applaud Apple’s action because our legal team will do exactly the same to any of our employees, partners and suppliers and contractors if they break their NDA’s with us.

Grow up, be a professional, not a bunch of spoiled hacks wannabe engineers lacking any responsibility and professionalism.

Non-disclosure is non-disclosure. If you have seen the document and have signed as many as I have, you will know that “MUM” is the word. In many cases, we cannot even say we are working on anything and the only legal statement to make is “No comment”. It is simple professionalism.

If this person had invented new product or working on new invention, I am sure he would not want anyone to spill his secrets so other companies can steal such ideas.

This developer seems inexperienced or simply did not care, so he paid. Let this be an example to everyone who thinks those documents are just papers to be signed and forgotten.

anyone defending this idiotic developer is clearly an Apple-basher unless they somehow have access to the NDA he signed and has read the entire thing. otherwise, you haters are just spouting off about things you know less than nothing about. but don’t let anything as inconsequential as FACTS get in the way of a good rant.

and to the moron who said they couldn’t wait until Apple is dead…i’d lay big odds you go LONG before they do.

DeWitt, you’re insufferable and exhausting. Not to mention untalented.

terrible “journalism” Fortune. You should be ashamed!

Any developer with even the tiniest shred of a clue knows that Apple takes its NDAs seriously, and you do not release *any* details about upcoming Apple releases, including their existence, without consequences. So it’s hard to feel bad for him.

Further, this simply means that Apple has excluded him from the beta for violating the rules. He’ll still be able to develop once the SDK is available to the general public.

Yes, Apple is heavy handed sometimes, but in this case it would appear to be a non-story. Honestly, even he doesn’t seem all that broken up about it.

Hiding in the piece of utter c*** of journalism - can you call this journalism? - is one piece of news that is actually extremely interesting and refreshing:

- Apple is working with as many developers, tiny or big, as possible and investing to turn the iPhone and iPod Touch into the handheld computer platform Oppenheimer stated these devices are;

- Apple went out of its way to let people, who were previously jailbreaking the iPhone thus going against then Apple’s interests, to do what they always wanted to do in the first place: code for Apple products.

So Apple does care for those who care for them and Apple is obviously setting itself up for doing a big blast when launching the SDK, presumably on the 26th!

I trust this Tiny joker didn’t harm the relationship between all the other one_man_show developers and Apple, nobody deserves to be dumped on account of his lack of maturity and seriousness.

AK in NY wrote: Apple has the heaviest hand in the computer industry.

… which is very reasonable, given that Apple has the coolest products and the highest grade of innovation in the computer industry.

Non-Disclosure doesn’t mean “you can’t admit that we gave this to you.”

Children.

AK is wrong about monopolistic behaviour. Apple’s bundling free apps with its products (iLife etc) does not a monopoly make. Everyone and his uncle are free to produce their own competing products. Unlike Microsoft, Apple does not try to wipe out competitors, although they may stumble if they can’t better Apple’s offerings. But that is what evolution and quality is all about.

You shouldn’t enter into NDA’s if you’re not prepared to abide by them. Apple had every right to do what they did.

Kevin

“No more soup for you, Tiny Code!”

What’s wrong with that? I’d like to know. Here we go again.

To think, Apple offered an iPhone hacker its Beta software and firmware pre-releases and he pissed in their collective faces.

I wonder how many Apple employees had to convince management to play ball with this company; only to have that trust betrayed and wind up looking like fools. I hope for their sakes it was none .. but I doubt it.

Oh well..

Peeved Lobes can you please explain how is Apple a monopoly??

Just another example of a madman named Jobs that will not be happy until he’s the Master of the Universe and Apple has a full monopoly.

It’s truly hilarious that all of the Apple fanboyz are backing Jobs when they all made MSFT out to be the cruel monopoly when they pulled this in 2001.

I can’t wait until Apple is dead

More WhiningThis time by a developer. Can’t anyone keep their promises and ‘man-up’ when they f’up?The current generation of Mac users is appallingly invertebrate.They cry about everything. Especially when they hack/harm their phones/break an End User Agreement/abrogate a non-disclosure agreement. What the hell do they expect? Then they blame it all on big bad Apple.

I don’t have a helluva lot of sympathy for Tiny Code; if he was foolish enough to ignore the non-disclosure he’d signed, then too friggin’ bad

Apple was correct in putting this joker in the penalty box.

Don’t see this as any evidence of Apple’s relations with established (i.e. real) developers who understand the meaning of NDA agreements. As the CEO of a software development firm I would say our relationship with Apple is advanced, not hurt, by moves like this.

The press (including Mr Dimwit here) applies a double standard to Apple. If it had let this individual break the NDA he would have used it as an example of how Apple doesn’t know how to deal with the big boys and instead supports a hacker community.

In other words…doesn’t matter what Apple does. Jokers in the press will hammer it mainly because people actually care about the company and it will generate click volume.

Terms and conditions in NDA are in writing. You read, you sign, you should know it. So, what is the problem here?

I fully support Apple in their non-disclosure decisions. Every competitor from here to eternity wants a hold of pre-released Apple products and software. Everyone wants to copy what Apple is doing. Apple needs to be completely paranoid about other stealing their ideas, and they have every right to protect them as secrets prior to release.

You must submit…[err..I meant to say admit] Apple has the heaviest hand in the computer industry. It’s funny that people think it’s cute and cuddly that Apple can force such tight controls [read limitations] on their products. You say packaging iTunes, iLife, iWork and whatever other iCrap they can cram into their shiny little boxes is no monopoly…it’s just good business. Meanwhile you have a competitor who is sued by nearly every major government in the world for packaging a subpar media player and browser with their OS. Where is the parity world? How is it not anti-competitive to crush/destroy (or just buy and close) all your competitors? That’s not just a Microshaft trick…Apple is quickly becoming the fatest pig at the trough in that competition.

So before you macheads start flaming me for speaking the truth…consider that groundbreaking ad campaign Apple had in the late 80’s. You remember the 1984 campaign…the one with the talking Orwellian head? Who you think that most resmembles now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

You will submit or face the crushing wrath of Steve Jobs!

Now go play with your shiny toys and continue to ignore the man behind the curtain.

How does this represent uneasy relations with developers? By extrapolation you infer any developer should be able to break a contract any time they wish and do and say as they wish.

If you want to be on the inside track and trusted then one must follow the rules. Pretty easy rules actually, don’t disclose proprietary information entrusted to you. Comprehend?

If a day went by that Fortune didn’t slam Apple in some way, I’d think something had gone wrong in the universe.

Non Disclosure means NON DISCLOSURE.

What part of Non Disclosure did Tiny Code not understand?