Comments on: Free Apps Aren’t Free: VIDEO Proof

By: john from Philly.

john from Philly. — Sun, 16 May 2010 14:50:01 +0000

Love the info.great insight.want to know more about Google street maps.

By: Big John

Big John — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:50:01 +0000

Greetings, I have been reading lots of reviews and testimonials trying to decided what my new phone is going to be and It looks like i’m leaning to the Motorola Droid but not until Feb 25 this year. You would think ( after seeing the video and reading comments ) that with such a great viewing area on the phone you would bookmark the site with all that type of info and go straight to it or maybe some app that can access bookmarks for you and do that for you. Just one of those things that make you wonder.

By: Fatoats

Fatoats — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:37:15 +0000

I am stuck between getting the i phone or the droid. Which do you find best?

By: Rob Jackson

Rob Jackson — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:48:23 +0000

@John – it was my uninhibited first reaction. An overreaction? Perhaps. But that was my first thought when I went through the process of using the application. You can blame me all you want for “jumping to conclusions”… I’m a big boy, I can take the heat.

Like I’ve said all along, I appreciate all the negative feedback. It keeps me in check.

By: John

John — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:34:08 +0000

Rob, you may say this not about one application but in effect what you are did is trash the developer for a simple mistake that happened during the first few hours developers were able to submit applications to the market and was partially caused by the infancy of the google system itself. If you have other examples of where this company has tried to trick the user, I certainly would be interested to see it, but in this case it just appears to be a mistake which they have corrected. In your other post you actually blamed the wrong company – Mobihand, which is simply the e-commerce provider and has nothing do with developing the application or submitting to the Android Market. If you have an actual valid example of someone abusing the system I would be interested in seeing it, but in general I think we need to be more careful about the criticisms we make and give the developer the benefit of the doubt first.

By: Lefty

Lefty — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:51:20 +0000

Why do you blame the application developers for Google’s failings? If one doesn’t want to give away their application for nothing, and if Google’s got no way to charge for an application through the Market, then–as you admit–what the heck is a developer supposed to do?

As with much of the rest of Android, the Market was rushed into production without thinking things through. If you think they “shouldn’t be on the market”, then the only solution for a software developer is to head over to some platform other than Android. (As a lot of them have already done, thanks to previous missteps by Google around things like giving updated SDKs to ADC winners but to no one else, and then mis-sending an email announcing this situation to the entire Android developers’ mailing list…)

There’s definitely some FAIL here, but I’m not sure it’s fair to blame the developers for attempting to work as best they can within the half-assed situation that Google’s created for them…

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:51:50 +0000

Agreed, it should be listed as *DEMO*. Further, yeah, 9.99 for this info is a joke. You can look this up on SO MANY places on the web. Not to mention, iPhone has like 6-7 of this kind of app and the max cost for these apps are $1.99, which is all its worth having it on your phone. Now, make it into a daily calorie counter with intake limits and deductions and add USDA food info as well as fast food info… THEN i might spend $9.99 for it.

By: Android-Freak.Org

Android-Freak.Org — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:05:48 +0000

I might pay for that information, I might not. But it´s still wrong to say it´s free when it costs money.

By: Jason D

Jason D — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:26:55 +0000

The Plumber has a point.

You don’t need this app, you can go to the website for a lot of these restaurants and either see, or download their nutrition information for free. In fact, they often have them as little pamphlets at or near the register. Charging 9.99 just because you organized free content is ridiculous.

Also makes me wonder if McDonald’s would appreciate finding out their customers are being charged a fee for information they give out freely…and I believe are required to give out for free by law. Is that any different than someone, say, taking a handful of straws from Arbys and selling them to people? Seems like this app might not only be unethical, but possibly illegal.

By: The Plumber

The Plumber — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:17:17 +0000

SHAME ON KEITH AND FAST FOOD CALORIE COUNTER! F’n $9.99 to get some information that’s free and available?@?!! Calorie information is available from any of thsse chains’ website. Plus in NYC any chain has to put up calorie information on their board/menu!

You know Google isn’t going to have a demo section for paid applications right now, when you can’t purchase the full version through the Android Marketplace. That would allow mobihand (handango and others) to gain market share and recognition as a place to buy applications. Some people are dumb and think that a paid application must be better than a free one (remember that “I Am Rich” iphone application that sold for $999.99?).

I personally think not having paid applications on the Android Marketplace till next year is pretty cool.That way, developers can see what types of things people want and fill in the void. They can also gain a reputation as a good development house and gain a following with their free app/widget effort now.

By: Chargree

Chargree — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:43:27 +0000

I would be fine with demo software if they listed themselves in the Demo area of the Market, which currently exists.
Regarding Google policing the apps, they would probably start a mini firestorm if they were to begin purging apps this early in the launch. We should use the ranking system to score these questionable apps very low as a warning to other considering whether to download or not.

By: robisaks

robisaks — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:08:14 +0000

as long as the software states in the description that it is a demo, and you have to buy the full version, seems fine to me, but calorie counter didn’t (they do now, must have made an impression on them rob ;) )

By: Apotheo

Apotheo — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:05:45 +0000

Demos are fine & all just not mixed in the with the free apps. What if the demos had their own area in the market?

Marking something as free when it is clearly not is unacceptable.

By: B W.

B W. — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:56:24 +0000

Come on, Rob. I will be surprised if any of us agree with this blatantly shady business practice.

By: Tyler Durden

Tyler Durden — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:41:33 +0000

Haha, “So… epic fail for whatever this stupid applications called and shame on you concrete media for taking advantage of people.”

I agree, pitiful for them to do that, but I mean it is the first launch of applications and I certainly would want to get mine out there. I’m just justifying their actions in any way, I’m just saying I can see the reasoning behind it.