The problem of free iPhone apps

So I have been thinking about the changing landscape of iPhone development lately. Everyone was all excited when Apple announced the SDK, and said that they wouldn't be charging any fees for free apps to be distributed through the store.

While that is great and all, the fact remains at this time, all developers who wish to distribute apps, whether free or pay, must pony up 99.99 for the privilege. This might not be too much of an obstacle for some individuals, but I am pretty sure that this is going to kill some of the apps that we all love.

I am encouraging the makers of such great free iPhone/iTouch apps as Books, Terminal and Services to set up a paypal account, if you don't already have one, and let us start donating money to get you the developer license fee.

I for one would love to kick a little green to the developers of these apps. And I am betting that there are more than 99 other people who would too.

What we really need is a simple solution for users to get their cash to developers. We need a developer fund website... maybe DevFund? Yeah, look for this new project to launch in the next couple of weeks.

Like I didn't have enough to do.

9rules followup

In the five days since my Rule number 10 post there has been a lot of discussion happening in regards to the user agreement change.

To be fair there was a lot of talk happening before my post, but it was mostly talking at each other and not to each other. I had thought of not posting about this issue and just quietly withdrawing from the community. This had two fatal flaws to it:

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Rule number 10

Get out when things don't make sense anymore.

This week I received an email from Thyme, the COO of 9rules, informing me that the user agreement had changed, and that I must agree to the new terms to retain my membership.

My first thought was "Nice, it is about time they updated the membership agreement. I wonder what new stuff is addressed or highlighted?" After reading for a couple of seconds my good vibes quickly soured. I discovered that the change in the agreement centered around participation in the private forum and/or "my.9rules".

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