and once they get users to except this
then they remove the ability to redownload via pc and you will have to pay everytime.
It appears as if Apple's iPhone 3.0 software may make it impossible for you to use your iPhone to redownload an app that you had previously purchased from the App Store. This restriction was pointed out by a Sunday posting on The iPhone Blog, which reports that when users running the iPhone 3.0 beta try to redownload an app …
If the idea is to share apps, then it will just be done via iTunes as this new system allows free downloads there. This change is just an annoyance rather than a good way of preventing unauthorised use.
Apple should just publish some rule similar to that how songs can be authorised on 5 PC's and limit it by hardware ID's.
That with one hand, Apple giveth, with the other, Apple taketh away?
Surely tying app downloads to a single unit would be an imperfect but better way to prevent the problem of multiple downloads?
The cynic in me just thinks that Apple are after a quick buck from those who, 300 miles from their home computer need an application back that they deleted last month.
I just deleted an app on my iPhone with OS 3 Beta 5 and I'm looking at the re-download prompt right now and it says "You have already purchased this item. To download it again for free, select OK". Unless there's a newer firmware version not publicly available to developers yet this is probably a hoax or perhaps a bug that has allowed a disabled feature to work.
"You have already purchased this app, we know you have, our records tell us that you have purchased it already. We could allow you to download it again easily as your monthly subscription covers the cost of the bandwidth many times over. However we would prefer it if you gave us more money. Would you like to buy the app again or would you like to buy the app again? We suggest you buy the app again. Please choose an option, buy the app again.
"You have already purchased this app, we know you have, our records tell us that you have purchased it already. We could allow you to download it again easily as your monthly subscription covers the cost of the bandwidth many times over..."
What monthly subscription - the one you pay to your ISP? Apple doesn't get a cut of that. MobileMe? You don't need to have that to buy applications from the AppStore. ADC subscription? iPhone developer annual fee? Neither are relevant to most people and again not required.
I'm not saying the change is good or that I agree with it - we don't even know if the change is real or not yet. But at least put a bit of logic into your trolling.
He means the bandwidth you pay for with your monthly iPhone subscription. He might well be in the UK (as I am) where all plans come with unlimited data use, hence, his monthly subscription effectively includes the "cost" of downloading a <10MB application many, many times over.
I don't believe he was trolling at all.
"What monthly subscription - the one you pay to your ISP? Apple doesn't get a cut of that. "
Actually, they do. And Apple get a cut of your subscription regardless of how much data you use, rather than the profit to the operator (unlike the other way around, where the operator only gets a cut of the profit from the download of music via iTunes).
Anon, 'cos I might still be under NDA. Even though I work for a different company now...
Take your own advice, at least put a bit of logic into /your/ trolling.
I would imagine that the bandwidth that said AC was talking about, would be the bandwidth that covers your data package that is provided by your Mobile service Provider, at the behest of Apple.
And if as you say, (which may or may not be true) i$ dont get a cut from your monthly phone bill, why would they want you to be able to re-download for free (price of data included in package), when they can charge you again directly.
Particularly as it's actually: "......<blah>, so you're going to have to call and tell us what's happened so you can reinstall, but we won't have an issue with this."
Been there, seen it, done it loads of times. This one refuses to go away though, presumably 'cos lots of people have heard the FUD, but very few have actually been through the process.
Then again, it's M$'s FUD in the first place..........
This already happens with Songs. My daughter bought a song but it did not download properly, so she pressed it again and got the message "You have already bought this song, do you want to buy it again?".
No I fucking do not. I want to download it as I've already paid for it. I went to the computer and tried it there as well. It won't download the song as part of the purchased ones, and insists I buy it again.
I fucking hate Itunes.
I really hope this model doesn't make it to the final version, it sucks to have nice features removed from the phone, when they are supposed to be improving it!!
That being said, who fills 8gb+ with downloaded apps??? I have tons of app's on, plus 6-7gb of music, and about 6 months worth of pics taken with the phone, and I still have a few hundred mb's left!
@ Neil: In the time it's taken you to complain on here about it, I'm sure you could have spurted off an email towards Apple's box about it! ;) Still, it would annoy the crap out of me, but no software is perfect.... except mine obviously.
For the rabid, unthinking anti-Apple types, the content doesn't belong to Apple, if you buy again, you buy from the rights owner (eg Sony). Fairplay (Apple's DRM scheme) works as follows. It's the same for apps as for music, and it's remarkably unobtrusive for all normal situations.
For one iTunes account, up to five PC's can be authorised. (you can de-authorise PC's too). Each device syncs with only one PC. You can have as many devices as you like (iPhones, iPods and yes, a few third party music players), but if you change the PC it syncs with, the old content is wiped.
So, the two big user unobtrusiveness plusses: 1: you, the misses and the kids can buy a song or App once and all use it on multiple devices. 2: DRM'd content/apps will work for ever without any monthly handshake with the authorisation mother ship.
And a comforting corollary of 2: you can never receive from Apple an email that, for example, Microsoft and Amazon have both sent out in the past: "We are closing our current service to make a new one. Please write all your music out to CD and re-encode it if you don't want your music player to die after we shut down the servers."
I presume the problem that Apple are grappling with is that with direct downloading to a device, a device doesn't know the full list of authorised iTunes accounts its current sync PC will have at the next sync, and in particular if the account you are using to "re-download" is one of them. So, by never syncing you iPhone (as many people don't), you can log in with your mate's iTunes account and "re-download" all his stuff at no cost, outside the license terms. What's the "fair" way for Apple to handle this? Handle it they must.