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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Dolby Codecs, Legal Threats: Coda
Back in 2014, I wrote about how Dolby were requiring me to remove ac3 support from VLC Streamer for somewhat questionable legal reasons
I included the email I received from their representative about the price I would have to pay
You should also know that there are fees associated with becoming licensed. Specifically, there is a $25,000 one-time initial fee and a recurring $5,000 annual maintenance fee. There is also a per-unit royalty that has a tiered structure, due quarterly, based on annual total usage, as follows:
0-100,000 downloads at $0.99 per download
100,001-1,000,000 downloads at $0.67 per download
1,000,001+ downloads at $0.45 per download
I was interested to get a call from a lawyer working for Adobe recently. They were being sued by Dolby for something related to these patents.
Bizarrely, Dolby were arguing that their pricing levels were so super secret that they couldn’t even disclose them in court.
Adobe found my old post and argued that if they were published on the web – they couldn’t be that secret.
I don’t have any details about the case, but I know they settled and it went away. Hopefully my pricing info made the difference…
Overreaction vs Sanity. Google Play vs Apple Store.
In the last week or so, both Apple and Google informed me that one of my apps was in a small way breaching store guidelines.
I’ll paraphrase both messages here:
One of your apps hasn’t been updated in years. It doesn’t meet current guidelines. If you don’t update it – we’ll remove it in 30 days.
Apple
and
One of your apps breaks the metadata guidelines. It has a quote in the app description.
We have removed it from the store.
Google
Both complaints are probably valid. The iOS app hasn’t been updated since 2015 and hasn’t been optimised for the latest devices. I’ll update it this month.
The Android app did have the following quote in the store description
VLC Remote is the latest Android app to earn my favor, and it’s a beauty
Androidnica
The quote has been there for at least 5 years. I’m not entirely sure whether it should count as a ‘user testimonial’ (banned) or a ‘third party review’ (I think those are ok). But either way – I’m happy to remove it.
Removing my app from the store just seems like a Massive Overreaction when they could simply have emailed me to request a change.
Easier iTunes Connect Sandbox Users with GSuite Routing
Use GSuite Routing to dynamically handle different iTunes Connect test emails.
iTunes connect testing is a pain. One of the pain points is that you have to create a bunch of iTunes Connect accounts when you want to test your purchase flows. Each of those needs a separate email address.
You used to be able to do this with the magic
- rob+test1@hobbyistsoftware.com
- rob+test2@hobbyistsoftware.com
And all your emails would be routed through to rob@hobbyistsoftware.com (this works for gmail, and many other email providers)
Sadly Apple disabled this capability some time in 2018 (?) – so now you need a new valid email address for every iTunes Connect sandbox user
GSuite Routing provides a neat way to restore this functionality
- Open your GSuite Management Console
- Click through to Apps > G Suite > Gmail
- Click on ‘Default Routing’
- Click ‘Add Setting’ and add something like the following
(note – the regexp is rob_.*@hobbyistsoftware.com)
This redirects all email of the format rob_something@hobbyistsoftware.com to rob@hobbyistsoftware.com
Chill Remote – New Remote for Netflix, Amazon Prime, on your computer
Chill Remote is now live 🙂
Chill Remote gives you a remote control for Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube and Hulu
– If you watch on your computer
– If you use Chrome
– If you’d like a remote control
Then Chill Remote is for you.
Please get it on the AppStore…
New App for Mac: AV Rules
When I connect my projector, I want my mac to switch to 1080p.
When I connect my TV, I want it to run at 720p
When hdmi audio output is available, I want my mac to use that (and to use all the channels too!)
Previously, my Mac mini didn’t do a great job of switching, so I wrote AV Rules to take charge.
Happy Halloween (make your own halloween gif!)
Windows Store is still rubbish
Back in 2105, the Windows store decided to unpublish VLC Remote after I submitted an update.
I ran a competition to try to figure out why they had banned it. This attracted some media attention which ultimately resulted in a Windows Developer Platform manager contacting me. He quickly got some people on the case and the app was restored.
About three weeks later, I needed to update the description. The same thing happened again. Again, the same chap kicked some butt in the store and got the update approved.
A year or so later, and I have had a request from Microsoft to fill in their age rating questionnaire.
Of course – this requires submitting a new update, and of course the exact same problem is hitting. (Note – the app, and its description and screenshots are completely unchanged)
App Policies: 10.1 Inaccurate Representation, Title
Your app and its associated metadata must accurately and clearly reflect the source, functionality, and features of your app.
- <snip – list of policies>
Notes To Developer
The app name does not accurately represent the app.
For more information see Windows Store Policy 10.1 at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=620446.
This time, I haven’t had a response from the program manager (he has probably moved on in disgust)
I have resubmitted with a link to the original story, but have just had a somewhat meaningless response
Hello Rob,
Thank you for the follow up and I am showing that app under that account. Now I also reviewed over the listing and I would suggest contacting report app from the email below as they will be bale to assist you directly on the certification.
Report App: reportapp@microsoft.com
If you have any questions or concerns, please respond to this e-mail and we will work to resolve them as quickly as possible.
I don’t think this will help – clearly the issue is nothing to do with me reporting an infringement, or anyone else reporting an infringement. The issue is that every time I submit an update, Microsoft do the same brain-dead thing.
I’m going to try one more submission with the ‘do not fail… escalate to…’ note…
I guess Windows Store is dying, and Microsoft just want to clear out the few remaining apps.
2 Minute Timer now with Force Touch
2 Minute timer was my first app.
It is a very simple timer app which aims to work with a minimum of fuss.
You can now start a timer and pick the timer length on new devices using force touch.
More info here
Mac OS Developers – Easily add Right-Click actions.
Right Click Booster makes it really easy for developers to add their own Right-Click actions.
OSX 10.10 allows developers to build FinderSync extensions.
These allow you to add right.click (or cmd+click) actions within the finder.
However – you can only do this with App-Store apps, and building finder-sync extensions is a massive pita.
Right Click Booster now makes it super-easy for developers to add right-click actions for their own apps.
The full code within VLC Streamer Helper is:
[RCBRightClick registerExtensionWithName:@"Add to VLC Streamer"
scheme:@"vlcsaddfile"
filetypes:@[@"mp4",@"avi",...]
image:[NSImage imageNamed:@"menuIcon"]
callbackScheme:nil];
So – if you’re a developer, find out all about it here
If you use software that would benefit from right-click integration – then please email the developer and let them know about Right Click Booster.