With every new App published on IOS I wonder again how the financing works. Just through donations, or do you “take one for the team”?

  • paysrenttobirds@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Is that for an app store account or what? Either it’s your job and like buying tools for a job is not rare, or it’s your hobby and also not rare to spend that. I do like when there’s a free tier for experimenting, though.

    • Cr4yfish@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      To build an IOS app you need an Apple Developer Account, which is a subscription service for 100 bucks a year.

      It’s similar but not the same for Android. With Android you don’t need an Account to build the App, just one to publish it on the Play Store - which also only costs 25$ one-time purchase.

      Also, I can understand the financing on for-profit Apps like Sync. Shit costs so much money the dude breaks profit with just one person paying premium.

      For hobbiest it’s on the expensive side. I mean it’s probably the most expensive part of the pipeline for most hobby Devs for a way overpriced service. But I get it if you really want to publish your Lemmy App on the IOS store and have the money to do it, just wondering if these people have any plans of breaking at least even via donations or such.

      • CreatureSurvive@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Just to clarify, you do not need to pay the subscription when building an iOS app. Apple does have free tier developer accounts with limitations. Such as you can only install 3 development apps on an actual device at a time, you need to resign (reinstall) the apps every 7 days, certain capabilities are not available such as Push Notifications, etc.

        Now, for releasing to the AppStore or TestFlight, you will need to pay the subscription fee. You also need to continue paying the subscription in order to keep you apps on the AppStore.

        • HelloHotel@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Feels like a control thing, a “your app is not going to be on an iphone without our approval for verry long”

          Prevents consumers from (self signing and) sideloading apps for personal use by using the app development system (pipeline)

          If even a completely sandboxed system like DosBox or theoretically a linux emulator is banned, why do they care this much?

      • timespace@lemmy.ninja
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        1 year ago

        I can understand the financing on for-profit Apps like Sync. Shit costs so much money the dude breaks profit with just one person paying premium.

        Never mind the 100s of hours he spent making the app and not working and getting paid.

        • Cr4yfish@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          Well I mean he got paid before as well during reddit times. From what I heard the app is basically the same switched to the new APIs.

          • yuri@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            seemingly no matter where or how you say it, if you imply sync costs too much someone will show up to needlessly defend it

            • Cr4yfish@lemmy.worldOP
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              1 year ago

              uhhh… I guess so?

              My point was that Sync is overpriced, not that devs couldn’t demand money for their work, of course.

              Again, this is only from what I heard, since I didn’t use Sync during Reddit times but apparently it was cheaper back then, so he raised the price for switching from Reddit to Lemmy - which I think is overcharging.

              Of course it’s more than changing some URL, but it’s less work than actually making it from ground up - for which he used to charge less.

              You see my point? Of course you may disagree with me, but I don’t think my point is so outragous that it calls for “insults” (?).

              • ChaosAD@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I was going more for the meme then for insulting, sorry. The main problem is the API is very different between the platforms, for what I’ve seen I don’t think this is a trivial task. Also there is a lot more to deal with than when he was developing for reddit, his app account for federation problem/features that aren’t implemented in any other app yet.

                Me personally still prefer Jerboa, but I think the Sync dev deserve credit for his work, and how much he thinks he should charge is subjective.

                As long as this money isn’t going to a big corp this is fine. Also he brought many to the fediverse with his action.

                • Cr4yfish@lemmy.worldOP
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                  1 year ago

                  When I say it’s a lot less work than making an app from scratch I’m mainly thinking about the UI/UX design which only had to be adjusted in Sync’s case. I do lots of UI design for private projects and work, so I know that it’s a big part of the workload.

                  his app account for federation problem/features that aren’t implemented in any other app yet

                  What do you mean? I’m no Sync expert but I did test out the app and didn’t notice any special features. I’m especially interested in instance related tech since that’s kinda the USP of my own App, Nemmy.

      • paysrenttobirds@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Ah, ok. For me the bigger deal is that you have to use xcode for iOS development, which only runs on Mac. I think that’s pretty crappy for hobbyists, too.

  • Myro@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Does that apply to free apps as well? I planned on publishing one but if need to pay USD 100 out of picket every year then clearly i won’t. Let me check that.

    Edit: It does. The developer account is independent of what you publish. Well, then PWA without app store presence it is I guess.