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Apple removes one of the iPhone's worst features, rate on delete
It's not really clear why it existed in the first place, but Apple plans to remove the "rate on delete" feature from the iPhone OS in version 4.0, according to MacRumors. The feature asked users to assign a star rating to any app they deleted, which would then count in the app's rating on the App Store. Developers didn't like it., because people who delete your app probably aren't going to give it the best rating. On the other hand, if a user kept the app on their phone for years, they'd never be asked to rate it. Apple required fans of an app to be proactive and take it upon themselves to file a review, while making it insanely easy for detractors to assign ratings, which doesn't seem fair. From a user's perspective, it also felt annoying and unnecessary to rate every app you removed. I get the feeling this feature will not be missed.
Comments
4
Subscribe to commentsdcwdvlApr 12th 2010 8:56AM
I agree 100%, this feature never made an ounce of sense to me.
JayenkaiApr 12th 2010 10:16AM
It "kinda" makes sense, but only if coupled with a "You ran this program 10 times, now rate it" accompanying requester.
8complexApr 12th 2010 10:17AM
Personally, I liked the feature, though you were right that if you left an app on the phone, you'd never get to rate it. There is some REAL garbage in the app store that deserves a 1 star rating, but I'd never dedicate time to actively getting on iTunes to rate it.
I, for one, HATED dealing with iTunes in Windows. It's slow, buggy, and makes me think that Apple programmers needed to go back to school. Now that I've felt the difference when using it on a Mac, I know it's just crippled for Windows. Not sure which theory is better, though... bad programming, or crippled on purpose...
Background info: I am one of those people that NEVER synced my iPhone, only did everything I wanted directly on it. If you live for syncing and on iTunes itself, then I suppose this rating system change would be fine for you.
EvenioApr 12th 2010 7:53PM
Yeah, that's a question for the ages...is Apple so retarded that they honestly think pissing off Windows-bound users of their software will somehow make them desire Apple products more, or are they just incredibly incompetent when it comes to developing software for platforms other than their own? Or perhaps even both?
I would have to say, though, that as far as Mac OS X applications go, iTunes is still a dog. It's been piled on the same codebase since the OS 9 days (and is still Carbon-based, so piling yet more crap into it and trying to get it to still work in 10.5/10.6 is undoubtedly an excercise in voodoo magic), it's slow compared to most other apps, and it has far-reaching functionality that makes zero sense (clearly as a result of Apple feeling trapped into its prior decision to do all iDevice syncing through the iTunes application). It seriously needs to be not just rewritten, but re-conceptualized.
Oh, um...right, the "rate on delete" feature. I'm a little embarrassed to say that the problem with it hadn't occurred to me until I read about the feature's removal, but man, it's a good thing they're at least doing it now.