I just went through the buzztouch U lessons and I'm wondering - How exactly does publishing your app on Buzztouch help it to get publicity and downloads? Does it just help it to rank higher on google? I'm just curious really...

Other users will see the app. Buzztouch gets more traffic than some (most) app stores. Ok, perhaps it’a a bit of hyperbole, but it's also true. Fred

Hi @Absentia, Just to makes sure we're all speaking the same language, when they say "publish" you app on buzztouch, they're basically talking about providing a link to the various stores that have your app. There is a feature in BT v2.0 for over the air distribution of your app, but, in the case of Apple, I'm not sure how that really works because everything has to go through the App Store (yes, I know all about jailbreaking, and I discount that as a legitimate method). So, essentially, by making sure you have links to your apps in your public profile, you increase exposure to your apps, and that can potentially increase downloads. Mark

How it works in iOS , simple link to App Store. Fred Regarding discounting jailbreaking as a legitimate method , is using Amazon to down load Apps also illegitimate?

@GoNorthWest and @Fred Mark is correct, Jailbreaking is not a legitimate method of distribution, you cannot feasibly ask potential customers to jailbreak their phone so they can run your software. In many cases JB'ing leaves you on legacy software and tethered to your laptop each time your phone battery dies AND invalidates your warranty with Apple. Why would a client ditch their Apple warranty on their treasured iPhone to install an App. Nonsense. Not getting into the whole 'walled garden' thing again and while yes, you can release an App to Cydia for distribution by no stretch of the imagination can you say Jailbreaking is a valid distribution method. The Amazon analogy is a poor one and the two processes are not similar in any way at all.

I think you confuse the issue when you mix feasible and legitimate. while I agree for most niche markets (bird lovers, auto racing fans, . . .) Jailbreaking is not feasible, but how is it illegitimate? The word implies that doing so is wrong. If it's wrong who decided it's wrong, and do they have any authority to impose said decision. Sorry, but Apple saying so don't cut it because that's been decided already. Many people modify their cars, thereby voiding their warranty. Nothing illegitimate about that. Their choice. Their decision. Their consequences. Fred

haha 5 posts in and the thread has completely transformed into a jail breaking debate :P Thanks for the replies!

No debate at all...I'd avoid jailbreaking at all costs! Just because a billion people in China and India do it doesn't make it right or viable, in my book. A large number of people doing something wrong doesn't make it right. And I prefer to stay on Apple's good side, despite any thoughts I may have about them. Just my two cents, and the last you'll hear from me on the subject! Mark

Just exactly how is it wrong? Estimate is that 10% of iDevices are jailbroken in US and Europe. Fred Apple says “No”. The United States government says “Yes”. In many other countries, it’s a grey area. When the original iPhone 2G was first jailbroken in 2007, Apple was furious. They threatened to prosecute anyone who did a jailbreak on their phones, saying that it was a copyright violation. Thankfully, as we stated above, there was no way for them to know who had a jailbroken phone, and no prosecutions ever occurred. Then, in 2008, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation filed a suit with the US copyright office and the US Library of Congress to get a “Fair Use” DMCA exemption granted to effectively legalize jailbreaking. Apple protested, but in a ruling made in July of 2010, the US Government sided with consumers, ruling that jailbreaking and unlocking iPhones was indeed “fair use” and did not have the effect of violating Apple’s copyrights. Apple still insists that the practice should be illegal. Lucky for us, however, Apple does not have a police force or jails in which to incarcerate people.

Fred, do you have a jailbroken iPhone? If so, your phone is far from superior to the non jailbroken ones. 1. You are now vulnerable to virus and exploits via rogue, unchecked apps. It makes your iphone more like an Android phone in the sense that the extensions and apps on offer are riddled with Malware, FACT! 2. You are now vulnerable to untested extensions that cause your phone to crash. 3. Your phone, as mentioned in 1 and 2 is no longer the best smart phone on the market, all the hours of dev work that went into making this the most stable phone and OS are no out the window. 4. Your warranty is now invalid, even if US Government say it is OK to jailbreak (which it is by the way, that is not the argument, the argument is whether jailbreaking is a valid method / path for distributing apps) but if anything goes wrong - which it does, often - you now have a shiny brick. 5. Every time a new version of iOS is available you have to wait months to update and even when you can you have to go through the whole jailbreaking procedure and re-install your apps. 6. One of the most popular apps on jailbroken phones is all about providing developers paid apps for free. So by all means tell clients that you are not going through the App Store, you'd rather they did the above. Let me know how that works out for you. Just my two cents, and the last you'll hear from me on the subject! MacApple Ps I have an old jailbroken 3GS as well as my stock 4S.

Fred, do you have a jailbroken iPhone? No, and I was told in no uncertain terms that if I jailbreak the iPhone I have access to, that I would die a slow but painful death. Since she is not prone to engage in hyperbole, I've taken the wiser course of action of not telling her that the phone is jailbroken. If so, your phone is far from superior to the non jailbroken ones. Not my phone. But, The best feature of all SMS apps is the quickreply. When an incoming SMS arrives, you normally have to decide whether or not you will quit your existing app to respond or if you will respond later. With these apps, you get quick reply. You can just reply, on the spot, without leaving your current app or game. After you type your response and hit send, your app resumes right where it left off. Tell a teenager a non-jailbroken iPhone is superior. 1. You are now vulnerable to virus and exploits via rogue, unchecked apps. It makes your iphone more like an Android phone in the sense that the extensions and apps on offer are riddled with Malware, FACT! Say it isn't so: Jailbreakapps leak private data less than Apple-approved apps, studyshows Published on February 16th, 2012 Written by: Dan Graziano But, then again there's no iOS malware. Additionally, despite the App Store approval process, scammers have been able to get malicious apps onto the store and users' devices. 2. You are now vulnerable to untested extensions that cause your phone to crash. Should legitimately purchased iOS apps that are only crashing on jailbroken phones be supported? They have the ability to rate poorly in the store, but how can developers be expected to support all the permutations of device configurations of the shoddy jailbreak libraries? The issue is usually with a conflicting tweak or a corrupt restore from a backup. Tweaks that patch the UIKit are usually to blame. Anything that modifies your keyboard or menus can potentially crash App Store apps that use the UIKit in a specific way. Also, since MobileSubstrate extensions use up system resources, it's likely the app is crashing due to the insufficient memory. If a developer is testing the app in an unjailbroken environment, then he or she cannot expect the app to perform well in a jailbroken environment. Coding the app to work well in low-memory conditions will lessen the likelihood of crashes on jailbroken platforms. New technologies in iOS5 will auto release memory without the need for garbage collection, so I predict this issue will fade when iOS 5 is released. But to answer your question, there are millions of people who jailbreak, and if you want to have a loyal and devoted customer base, you should support jailbroken users. Jailbreak users are more likely to recommend cool apps to their friends than non-jailbroken users. This subset of iPhone users is usually more tech savvy and interested in app features, and thus more likely to pass on a truly awesome app recommendation. 3. Your phone, as mentioned in 1 and 2 is no longer the best smart phone on the market, all the hours of dev work that went into making this the most stable phone and OS are now out the window. True, but a jailbroken iPhone is better: Create widgets to make it easier to access settings, like toggling WiFi. Apple has done its best–and an admirable job at that–to create a clean UI with iOS, but simple things like toggling WiFi and Bluetooth still requires a number of steps to access, including clicking on the Settings menu, hitting the WiFi option, and then accessing the WiFi toggle switch. iOS users who need to frequently turn on or off their WiFi or Bluetooth radios can download a utility on Cydia that will create an icon–like any other app–that when pressed, will do the same job with a single tap. 4. Your warranty is now invalid, even if US Government say it is OK to jailbreak (which it is by the way, that is not the argument, the argument is whether jailbreaking is a valid method / path for distributing apps) but if anything goes wrong -which it does, often -you now have a shiny brick. Well, actually there's two parts: a. is it wrong to jailbreak. Point conceeded earlier, It's not wrong to jailbreak. b. Is it feasible: Well it depends on your market. 5. Every time a new version of iOS is available you have to wait months to update and even when you can you have to go through the whole jailbreaking procedure and re-install your apps. Yes, but it's quicker and easier every time. 6. One of the most popular apps on jailbroken phones is all about providing developers paid apps for free. So by all means tell clients that you are not going through the App Store, you'd rather they did the above. Let me know how that works out for you. You're correct, jailbreaking is not for everyone , but that'a also true about the Apple's App Store. I'm not developing iOS app yet, but will probably start with Cydia to test the waters. Besides my first three apps are about building apps, sorta of as niche market that you find in Cydia. Again, it's all about niche markets. Of course , jailbreaking has been harmful to the iOS environment: How beneficial is jailbreaking? Jailbreaking has in the past been a trendsetter for official iOS revisions. Remember the days before multitasking on an iPhone? Well, there was a jailbreak for that and subsequently after that Apple made it official on iOS. How about the days when pages of apps flooded multiple screens until you ran out of home screens to see what you’ve installed? Well, a jailbreak app called ‘Categories’ solved that issue and Apple later released a more elegant solution called Folders. How about the days pre-tethering of any sort? PDANet solved that problem and when Apple released just USB and Bluetooth tethering, MyWi came to the rescue and added WiFi tethering to the mix without having to go through a carrier, like AT&T. Apple later made WiFi tethering official with iOS 4.3. How about mirroring your iPhone/ iPod Touch display on a big screen with the VGA or TV-Out accessories? Before display mirroring was supported on iOS 4.3 and the iPad 2, a jailbreak existed. When Skype and Slingplayer would only work on WiFi, My 3G came to the rescue to fool the apps into thinking they were on WiFi when they were in fact utilizing 3G until revisions made by Apple and AT&T allowed those data intensive apps to be used on 3G. Today’s jailbreak solutions may make their way to the next iOS version of tomorrow. Will you be a trendsetter? Just my two cents, and the last you'll hear from me on the subject! Agreed, Fred