It's just a week ago when I asked you about "pulling Apple's/Steve's finger", and now here's a very good proof that it is actually Apple who is pulling software developers' fingers.Podcaster, which according to Ars Technica is a native iPhone app version of Podcaster.fm, a web app that could stream podcasts over WiFi or even EDGE. The obvious idea behind a native version is that podcasts could not only be streamed, but downloaded on the fly for offline listening. Although Al Sokirynsky, the Podcaster maker; proclaims that he's designed everything according to Apple's guides, so it shouldn't be a violation of the iTunes App Store Prime Directive.
Apple still blacklist the Podcaster on the grounds that "since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes."
And David Chartier (Ars Technica) make a very good point; isn't there already plenty of apps in App Store that duplicates iPhone's functionalities such as calculators & stopwatch? So Apple's ground for blacklisting Podcaster is not right, and they should explain it further in details why.
Wilson Rothman (Gizmodo) says that for you who are interested in Podcaster, you can sign up here, and the developer will e-mail you back with instructions. They say it will be distributed ad hoc—so no jailbreak required—for a donation of $9.99.
[blogged with my Treo 750v]
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