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Podcaster Developer Uses Little-Known "Ad Hoc" Mode To Distribute Banned iPhone App (readwriteweb.com)
26 points by robg on Sept 15, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 8 comments


I doubt Apple will care, as ad-hoc apps:

- Don't show up in everyone's app store (the developer has to add you to the list.)

- Can only be distributed to 100 people.

If they did ban Podcaster for anti-competative reasons then 100 less people using iTunes podcasting isn't a big deal (I bet more than 100 iPhone users carry a Nokia as well as their iPhone just to use the excellent Nokia on-phone Podcasting software).

It also limits total earnings (in this case) to $10k, which is pretty bad.


Is it limited to 100 devices? I read the article so that you need at least 100 devices to be eligible to use it. Surely there are companies with more than 100 devices?


Ad Hoc isn't what companies are supposed to use. Ad Hoc is for developers and classroom situations. The solution for the enterprise is another distribution method all together that's not publicly available (only for companies > 500).

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/distribute.html

And as for little known, I have no idea why they went for that angle. Steve Jobs presented all three methods in his keynote. Ad Hoc is used by almost all developers, but has very very limited use outside of that (thanks to the 100 user cap, which is utter bullshit).


100 devices across your Apple account - so if he had 10 apps with 10 adhoc users each, that'd be it. At least, that's what I've been told by an iPhone developer.


100 * $10 = $1000, no?


I'm glad I never bought an iPhone.


The iPhone is a very neat phone. I used to have a Windows Mobile phone and I'm a total convert now.

Too bad Apple as a company is full of shit.


I've got it installed. Lemme just say it's a great little app. Very nice interface. Fast and easy to use. Easy to find your favorite podcasts.




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