Apple is enforcing an old App Store rule against a new kind of software

Look at the recent controversy with Grok on X as an example. Imagine BBC runs a story with the headline "iPhone App does {very_illegal_thing}", or "iPhone users can now do {extremely_morally_objectional_thing}", and then idiot governments start trying to regulate or issue fines. One reason for the rule is so their review process prevents these things from happening.

This is a big part of why I don't use any iOS devices. It's possible to sort of buy your way out of the restrictions by paying for a developer subscription, but at the end of the day it's way too totalitarian.

To this one, I say, who cares? Don’t publish on platforms where you can’t control your own intellectual property.

Why use the App Store at all? It only serves to benefit Apple, and the vast majority of developers are simply making $100/yr payments to use their own custom software.

For the largest companies who ship apps on iOS and Android because they have more money than sense and can afford to waste countless engineering hours letting barely qualified, fractionally compensated people say yes or no, I say let them.

For the rest of us who are better managers, let’s own our own release process, and if that means building a website or a web app instead, go do it.

Whatever you’re shipping to a phone isn’t for professionals anyway.