[???] BitPak pulled from the AppStore ?

[Raoul Duke]

My suggestion:

That doesn't work for bringing Bitcoin to the masses of people using iPhones though...  That's a LOT of people who are blocked from utilizing Bitcoin on their phones.  At least, using it easily.

Apps removed from the App Store also don't work for bringing Bitcoin to the masses of people using iPhones

[kangasbros]

My suggestion:

This attitude keeps popping up on the bitcoin forums. "Haha, you use iPhone, you suck". That is probably the best way to encourage people to use bitcoins, I guess?

[SgtSpike]

My suggestion:

That doesn't work for bringing Bitcoin to the masses of people using iPhones though...  That's a LOT of people who are blocked from utilizing Bitcoin on their phones.  At least, using it easily.

Apps removed from the App Store also don't work for bringing Bitcoin to the masses of people using iPhones

No, it doesn't.  Which is why the solution is to find out more details on why the apps are being removed, and work with Apple to find a happy medium that suits all parties involved.  Running from the problem accomplishes nothing.

[Boussac]

My suggestion:

This attitude keeps popping up on the bitcoin forums. "Haha, you use iPhone, you suck". That is probably the best way to encourage people to use bitcoins, I guess?

I guess they mean iOS is a closed OS and that sucks; Last time I checked, both Android and Bitcoin were free software projects. It's alright to encourage people to use free software, is it not ?

[MarketNeutral]

With all due respect for its developer, I believe its best that Bitpak is no longer available as is because the time it took to download the chain and receive the first coins was just too long. It would have given the wrong impression to new users (not aware of the subtleties like leaving the app running in the foreground). That's probably true of any attempt to run a "heavy" client on a mobile device. Thin clients or html5 are the way to go mobile.

+1
New users often have no idea what bitcoin is or how it works, only that they're interested in exploring alternative currencies and payment methods. It would be easy for a new user to be dismissive of bitcoin after giving up on the network synch. Thin clients are best for mobile devices.

[seriouscoin]

Just add this to the dozens of reasons I already have to jailbreak my phone.

gosh i surely hate Apple. But at the same time, all the giant PC makers are fcktards. They will all fail because of laziness , completely lack of innovation.

HP, Dell, IBM,...etc All of them, giving ppl a chance to go to Apple in the first place. They made so much money in the 80s and 90s. Now they're just a laugh in any MBA class.

[fourd00rgtz]

Not all bitcoin apps are dropped.
From the list above most all monitoring, market pricing, and info apps related to bitcoin have been and will continue to stay in the app store.

What they won't allow is anything that facilitates a btc purchase/transfer, cuz obviously they won't be getting a cut, nor do they want any cut of virtual currency.

[JusticeForYou]

What they don't know won't hurt them.

Think DB.

[byronbb]

Why would they not allow bitcoin apps?

They are working on AppleCoin. They do have $110 billion in cash reserves with which to back their own e-money....

[JusticeForYou]

It's not funny. They could pull it off.

How much for that new Mac? 20 's  or 20

[ArticMine]

If you find a way to give the the 30% of all Bitcoins that are passing through your app, I'm sure that they'll accept it

Why on earth would I want to give 30% to Apple, when I can use my credit card at a merchant who may pay 1.6% in Credit Card fees and I get 1% cash back for a net fee of 0.6%. It seems to me that Apple is 50x worse that the credit card companies and banks. I say good riddance.

[davout]

But piuk’s app was already there and working. They purposely removed it for some reason. So last week did an Apple board member have a virtual currency epiphany and decide, “Oh, I think these things that I don’t really even understand are bad for me. I think I’ll remove them?”

What's also possible is that they pulled it because they felt a loophole was used to get the app on the AppStore in the first place.
Their terms forbid apps to make e-currencies buyable in apps. Nothing is said regarding sending/receiving it.

(but the whole e-currency thing is irrelevant since we all know Bitcoin is not an e-currency)

[Steve]

The good news is that Apple's model is not sustainable in the long run.  Reviewing/approving every single app is incredibly wasteful.  If you give them the benefit of the doubt, you can understand why they do it…they wanted to make sure the iPhone experience didn't become a cesspool of viruses, malware and spyware ridden garbage.  The app store approach is a non optimal, but practical way to solve that issue.  The operating system technology in iOS, Windows, Android, etc is 40+ years old and wasn't designed with today's internet in mind.  It is possible to solve those issues without an app store, but you'd first need to rewrite the OS from the ground up with these modern issues in mind.  In the long run that will happen and we can all have our cake and eat it too.

[davout]

The operating system technology in iOS, Windows, Android, etc is 40+ years old and wasn't designed with today's internet in mind.  It is possible to solve those issues without an app store, but you'd first need to rewrite the OS from the ground up with these modern issues in mind.

What exactly are you talking about ?