Symbiatch - maailma on rikki

I've been trying to create test user accounts for the In-App Store stuff. I've never been successful in that. I've sent three support requests for Apple and never gotten any response. I really don't understand why is it so hard to tell me what I'm doing wrong, since clearly it can't be that Apple's whole test user creation thingy would be broken. That would get lots of developers angry. But no, they don't care, even though they'd get more money if I could get the purchasing working.

Second thing is that they rejected my application a couple of times. They said it didn't work. I told them I've tested it with a couple of devices and with the emulator. All work. Surprise surprise! The problem was at their end and suddenly they accepted the application with no changes!

Third problem, and this is a major one, is that they can't get their emails through to me. You know, I submit an app, they reject it, I never get any information about why. When I email them about this, all they can say is "we'll resend the email." They've tried that several times but the emails don't come through.

Now, I could suspect something wrong with my email severs, but here's the thing: they claim to send to two email addresses. They are on different servers. They are on different email server software. And neither show any emails even trying to come from Apple. But still their support emails come through. Strange. Oh, and I've asked them to copy the error information into the support emails, since they come through. Nope, they don't seem to be able to do that.

I've also tried to suggest to them that they could add a section to iTunes Connect where you could check the error information via the web. That way if the emails don't arrive, you can always check it there. But no. That would be too helpful. They can't do that.

And the most idiotic thing at the moment, and the reason I'm writing this: you can't test applications on devices with newer firmware than the SDK supports! Meaning that every time Apple updates iPhone OS, even a minor update, all developers MUST download the 3+GB SDK package, once again. No matter what you're targeting. You can't use the device unless you update.

I have 3.1.2 on my device. My XCode supports up to 3.1.1. My project is set to produce 3.0 binaries. You'd think I could test the application on my device, since 3.1.2 supports 3.0 binaries. But no, that won't do, since XCode doesn't support the firmware. Two choices: downgrade or install a new SDK. So I'm waiting for the download to finish. Nice. And naturally they can't just put up a diff/upgrade package. All 3+GB every time. Great job, Apple.

But then again, this is the case with Apple's updates too. Huge packages that replace the whole thing. A 160MB update just to fix a couple of security flaws in OS X? Is there something they're not telling us or are they just idiots and can't update the actual files that were changed? Also updating Java in Tiger was fun. Update, reboot. Another update, reboot. Another update, reboot. Why the hell couldn't I just install the latest update and be done with it?

Nokia released Ovi Maps Racing. So, they're actually supporting the use of motor vehicles on the block to race and endanger everyone? Cool! That's what I like to hear!

They also released Climate Mission - a fun way to learn more about climate change. Nice, you can also help the climate to change even more by using more energy with their games and stuff. Whoa! That's cool - err, ei mean HOT!

They're also asking about where's most scope for innovation (someone probably thought scope was a better word than some stupid room for improvement). Wow. Now, if they only even once had a choice about things that people actually care about (like, you know, a working phone, a battery that doesn't die in a day, a lens cap that doesn't scratch the lens or maybe even a user interface that is actually usable?) But hey, at least they'll showing they care! And then they'll show they don't care by not using the results for anything.

Oh well, maybe they're just too busy putting up huge billboards? It's kinda funny: they're showing this video about weekly on their blogs and stuff. Why? Who cares?

But at least they asked about what would be cool for Ovi Maps. And 40% said local guides, 23% wanted news and information etc. But the fun part is in the comments: people would actually like, for example, to navigate to a contact's address. This was naturally not on the list, since Nokia doesn't care about the actually usable things. They just want to bloat the stuff, not see what's missing. So, I'll make a bet: we won't see navigating to a contact's address for a long time. Because it wasn't on the poll they did.

And no, I won't even start talking about Ovi Suite, which has gotten people angry when it suddenly syncs your phones without asking, searches your drive for all pictures and trying to stuff them in your phones and whatnot. How about, you know, a little research about a typical user? I, for one, don't know any typical users (and certainly not power users) that would like to have all their pictures on their phone. Or all their music. They want to select what to sync. Hello?

Nor will I talk about Ovi Maps, which currently uses at least three different UI paradigms and is a total mess. And still doesn't know the actual routes around the capital area in Finland. Naturally so doesn't Google, but they're not selling their crap as a navigator. Err, sorry. Giving away their crap for free as a navigator. Forgot. People refused to pay for the Ovi Maps, so they had to give it for free.

And especially I'm NOT going to mention that Mail for Exchange STILL can't sync any other folder than Inbox. So it's still unusable. Dunno how it is with Maemo.

And finally, not going to mention the fact that there is a huge number of S60 3rd ed users pissed off because Nokia (and some others) only release their stuff for the 5th ed. Also the same applies for Maemo users. But hey, that's life. If you didn't know that Nokia does this, that's your fault. Buy a new phone. That's the response for everything.

And yes, I'm back. At least for a moment ;)