[Mack Gans]

Microsoft is putting wrappers around popular mobile sites and calling them 'apps'. I'd claim to be offended but S4BB has me at a loss for words.

Article

Thoughts?

[12Danny123]

Still better than the crap S4BB is doing

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[koolrosh]

It's actually really smart. Most people I talk to don't even know that they can use the browser to access these web apps, they just assume that if there is no app for it, that it won't work on their phone.

BlackBerry should have done this from the beginning.

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[SHOBOKSHY]

Wouldn't it be the same as the shortcut of YouTube on BB10?

Posted via CB10

[koolrosh]

Wouldn't it be the same as the shortcut of YouTube on BB10?

Posted via CB10

Nope. These are standalone apps, so the apps don't open the browser (like youtube). They one in their own individual Window but they look and act just like the mobile websites of the respective companies.


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[SHOBOKSHY]

Oh I get your point

Posted via CB10

[airbatross]

When BlackBerry allows fully operating Android apps to repackage and present it in the app store; it's desperation, doom and gloom; and people can't stop shouting "it's not native!!" one moment

When Windows repackages HTML5 web pages as apps, it's actually a good thing. None of the tech websites make negative headlines..

Jeez..

[szlevi]

Still better than the crap S4BB is doing

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

***** loudmouthed comments like this make this place a pain to visit regularly...

It's actually not better at all, Einstein, it's a LOT WORSE, for two reasons:

1. It's without the knowledge of ANY of the websites, while stripping them from their organic clicks thus monetizing chances
2. Worse it's actually BEING DONE BY not even some shady third-party developer but THE PLATFORM OWNER ITSELF, a multi-billion dollar behemoth, the biggest scumbags of the industry.

I really hope MSFT gets sued and that arrogant dumb bald chair-throwing clown gets finally pushed out, along with his utterly incompetent golden boy VP Belfiore (he sunk 2-3 products already, he's busy tanking WP for YEARS now.)

F'n scumbags.

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[BravoZuluDelta]

It takes about five minutes to do this on BB10. I think Kevin or someone else made a video demoing this type of wrapper at a developer conference last year. It was titled similar to "Making a CrackBerry app in 5 minutes."

Posted via CB10 on Q10

[sjmartin007]

Html had major issues as we speak. The thought is it is easy to develop on but tons of security issues especially is java script is used.

Posted from the most powerful smartphone,z10

[howarmat]

Pretty sure that what the app generator did for BB too. Same game with a different name really. For some things its ok.

[BravoZuluDelta]

Pretty sure that what the app generator did for BB too. Same game with a different name really. For some things its ok.

Sort of...the app generator creates an RSS reader with a hard-coded source feed. It's like BlackBerry News without an option to add more feeds.

This is actually simpler, as all you do is take the web browser, hide all UI elements, and allow it to load a mobile-formatted website. Add in some code to catch navigation leaving the host site, and that's pretty much it. The rest of the code sits on the web server, and is universal across all devices.

[rthonpm]

The real issue here is that this violates Microsoft's own policies for Windows Phone apps. Policy 2.10: (Bold text added by me)

Your app and metadata must have distinct, substantial and legitimate content and purpose.
Your app must be fully functional when acquired from the Windows Phone Store and it must provide functionality other than launching a webpage.
Your app must not be unreasonably priced in relation to the functionality of the app.

Source: App policies for Windows Phone

[BravoZuluDelta]

I believe this is a legitimate method of building apps when an app does not require access to complex APIs but do require access to online information at all times. HTML5 is more or less a universal standard now, giving consistent results across platforms. Hosting the code on a remote server means there is no chance of someone running an outdated version of your app. Any update that hits the production server is immediately served to the entire userbase, across all platforms - no waiting for approvals or for people to see a notification and download an update.

The Windows Phone Policy appears to be targeted at applications which function as a shortcut for launching a site in the default browser itself (i.e., opens a web page and then the original app closes down).

[szlevi]

I believe this is a legitimate method of building apps when an app does not require access to complex APIs but do require access to online information at all times. HTML5 is more or less a universal standard now, giving consistent results across platforms. Hosting the code on a remote server means there is no chance of someone running an outdated version of your app. Any update that hits the production server is immediately served to the entire userbase, across all platforms - no waiting for approvals or for people to see a notification and download an update.

The Windows Phone Policy appears to be targeted at applications which function as a shortcut for launching a site in the default browser itself (i.e., opens a web page and then the original app closes down).

Does not matter. MSFT is literally taking a dump on policies they have written for others - whether it's due to arrogance or sheer incompetency (eg their army of lawyers cannot write a proper policy text), nobody cares. The Ballmerian chimera just cannot do anything right for years now, that's the bottom of this story.
Ahh, that and the fact that MSFT is practically stealing organic traffic from website owners, of course - this should result in either a fat paycheck to site owners or a lot of lawsuits and and even faster ejection of the fat, bald, clueless beancounter from the top.

[texazzpete]

When BlackBerry allows fully operating Android apps to repackage and present it in the app store; it's desperation, doom and gloom; and people can't stop shouting "it's not native!!" one moment

When Windows repackages HTML5 web pages as apps, it's actually a good thing. None of the tech websites make negative headlines..

Jeez..

Stop with this persecution complex. All the tech blogs I read report this negatively for MS (the 'desperation' word gets thrown around).

Of course, it's only 40 apps, so there you go.

When BlackBerry allows fully operating Android apps to repackage and present it in the app store; it's desperation, doom and gloom; and people can't stop shouting "it's not native!!"

99% of the 'it's not native' complaints are made in Blackberry user reviews on the BB World. Not tech sites.

[airbatross]

Stop with this persecution complex. All the tech blogs I read report this negatively for MS (the 'desperation' word gets thrown around).

Of course, it's only 40 apps, so there you go.

Excuse me?

Go and read this:
Microsoft repackages websites as Windows Phone apps in bid to lure developers

It says "While clever" for God's sake!.. What the hell is so clever about it? Do you know how they serve BlackBerry World app number news; they can't stop saying "of course they are not all native" all the time, following a negative comment. If it works, why the hell do you care? Clever is supporting a huge open source platform and embedding an emulator; not repackaging websites as apps.I don't recall any tech website saying BB was clever for integrating an Android emulator. It was always desperation.

I don't care if it's 40 apps or not; at least BlackBerry Inc. does not make simple HTML5 apps (especially top 40 ones) without the website owners authorization. And those "only" 40 apps are critical apps that usually effects a consumer's choice while buying a smartphone.

99% of the 'it's not native' complaints are made in Blackberry user reviews on the BB World. Not tech sites.

I said "people" in that sentence, it includes BB's very own users as well.

[Akuji_ism]

Microsoft pulls some Windows Phone web 'apps' following complaints

Microsoft started repackaging popular mobile websites into Windows Phone apps earlier this week, but it appears some of the companies involved weren't aware of the effort. The software giant has now removed three of the apps: Southwest, Cars.com, and Atari Arcade. It's not clear whether all three will return at some point, but at least one of the removals was related to a complaint from the content owner.

"We have been in communication with Microsoft but have not given them approval to push our content," says a Southwest spokesperson in a statement to Neowin. "After realizing our discussions are still early, Microsoft removed our content from the store." One of the apps that has been removed, Atari Arcade, was related to a collaboration between Atari and Microsoft to bring classic games to the web for Internet Explorer. We've reached out to Atari to clarify whether it was aware of the app given its work with Microsoft, and why it has been removed.

Some Windows Phone developers have also raised concerns that Microsoft's repackaged mobile web apps may violate its own policies against apps that do more than just launch a web page. ZDNet notes that these apps are packaged in a way that renders the content within the app, so it's unlikely that they violate the policies. Regardless, these repackaged apps are a late attempt by Microsoft to convince developers to build native versions for its platforms. It appears Microsoft didn't make content owners aware of its own efforts, an unusual move given how official these apps look in the Windows Phone Store. We've reached out to Microsoft for comment on the app removals, and we'll update you accordingly.

Source: Microsoft pulls some Windows Phone web 'apps' following complaints | The Verge

[AluminiumRims]

I don't care about all these apps which is for every home page on the internet. That' might be good for some phones with very limited browsers that doesn't allow anything. BB10 browser is very good and I don't need an app for many sites (including this site, sorry guys). I want my browser to behave the way I'm used to on my desktop. Some sites detects mobile use and render the differently but I often change back to the normal desktop version. Linkedin for example, I get totally lost in their mobile mode and I always change to the full site instead.

That's what people want, they want the page too look like they are used to and not having two versions of the same page.

[kbz1960]

Isn't that what apple does?

[qwerty4ever]

Nope. These are standalone apps, so the apps don't open the browser (like youtube). They one in their own individual Window but they look and act just like the mobile websites of the respective companies.


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Yep WebKit is ideally-suited to turning these web browser "apps" into standalone mobile device applications. BlackBerry could have released the BlackBerry Z10 with 200 000 apps on day one. Instead we got S4BB flooding BlackBerry World with applications (cough, cough) which could have been written as data-pull applications for the city guides at least (a single application, multiple databases).

[qwerty4ever]

I don't care about all these apps which is for every home page on the internet. That' might be good for some phones with very limited browsers that doesn't allow anything. BB10 browser is very good and I don't need an app for many sites (including this site, sorry guys).

The CB10 application is a much superior user experience than the web browser from a usability perspective. The BlackBerry 10 web browser is great but the CrackBerry website is a resource hog unlike anything I've seen before; all the CDN garbage when viewed in the web browser.

[ankush77]

welcome to the windows craps

[OMGitworks]

Does not matter. MSFT is literally taking a dump on policies they have written for others - whether it's due to arrogance or sheer incompetency (eg their army of lawyers cannot write a proper policy text), nobody cares. The Ballmerian chimera just cannot do anything right for years now, that's the bottom of this story.
Ahh, that and the fact that MSFT is practically stealing organic traffic from website owners, of course - this should result in either a fat paycheck to site owners or a lot of lawsuits and and even faster ejection of the fat, bald, clueless beancounter from the top.

WOW, you are a bit angry. I get your point, and I sort of understand your unbridled hate for all things MS, but I don't see you point about MS violating, maybe, possibly, their own policies. When you own the platform, you get to make and bend or change the rules. It's good to be the King....