Apple says No! to µMonitor
p2pnet news view P2P | Mobiles:- Apple has been under heavy attack for its capricious approvals for iPhone iPhone apps.
But, as Mobile Entertainment puts it, “one particular stipulation will meet with resounding cheers” from the industry which hates its own customers.
“An app called µMonitor, which lets people monitor their downloads on the uTorrent BitTorrent client, has been rejected by Apple, with the company’s letter to its developer referring to a wider ban on all BitTorrent iPhone apps,” says the story.
‘Good for Apple!’ – say Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music and their RIAA.
But that’s not a problem.
µMonitor, created to allow users to monitor their downloads on the uTorrent BitTorrent client, has gone underground.
“After putting months of hard work into getting the software ready for a public release, the developer Claudio was told by Apple that everything related to BitTorrent has been banned from their App Store,” says TorrentFreak.
Says Claudio »»»
Given the recent interest on my torrent-monitoring application (thank you to the guys at torrentfreak.com for finding it out and writing about it), I announce that I will start development of the application once more to try and satisfy user requests (and fix a few bugs that I know are around).
And Claudio does, of course, owe a vote of thanks to Steve and his Not-So-Merry-Men for giving his application such a huge boost in the world media.
“µMonitor is not available on the App Store because Apple rejected it as they do not want any `torrent` application on the iPhone,” says Redmond Pie, therefore, “you will need a jailbroken iPhone to install uMonitor from Cydia.
“Complete step by step instructions for jailbreaking iPhone and iPod touch can be found here. Once you have jailbroken your iPhone, goto Cydia and add ‘http://repo.theiphonebay.org’.”
Welcome, Vonage
Apple has, however, given the nod to a large corporate entity — VoIP firm Vonage.
“Vonage Holdings Corp., the New Jersey Internet phone carrier, climbed as much as 36 percent in extended trading after it said Apple Inc. approved its mobile- phone application for the iPhone and iPod Touch devices,” says Bloomberg News, adding:
Vonage is testing the application and will give details on its release later, the Holmdel, New Jersey-based company said today in a statement. The company isn’t providing details on what the application does for ‘competitive reasons,’ spokesman Michael Zema said …”
Good job, Apple. You look more like the RIAA every day.
Mobile Entertainment – Apple rejects BitTorrent-related iPhone app µMonitor, September 1, 2009
TorrentFreak – uTorrent iPhone App Rejected by Apple, Goes Underground, August 31, 2009
Claudio – Monitor strikes back, September 1, 2009
Redmond Pie – Control uTorrent from iPhone, August 26, 2009
Bloomberg News – Vonage Jumps After Winning Approval for Apple IPhone Program
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September 2nd, 2009 at 8:51 am
I’ve stopped purchasing from iTunes … 1) they edit their movies just like Blockbuster – so why rent from them?
Now they ban silly things like BitTorrent apps? For a while it looked like Apple was pushing back against the music biz greedy corps, then came the variable pricing (to make the greedy-bizers happy), and now this?
Sorry Apple, but just like Bell, you lost a loyal customer! Yes, I have an iPod Shuffle and a Macbook Pro, but I don’t think I’ll be buying any more of your stuff unless you learn to stop conforming to demands of greedy-bizers. Don’t you have enough cash to tell them to play “hide and go fuck yourself”? You can afford good lawyers can’t you?
Damn it Jobs, stand up against “the man” like you did to IBM! This time it’s the companies represented by RIAA/BPI/MPAA or anyone pushing something stupid like ACTA.
Don’t be an shill for them, you too will lose in the end!
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:24 am
If more application developers put their applications to _other_ application repositories (aka app stores), both the users and developers would benefit and we would not suffer from Apple.
September 2nd, 2009 at 6:56 pm
re: Robert
they edit the movies sold on iTunes? even googling for this I can’t find any info about anything like it.
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:28 am
I use Transmissions web page to remotely monitor my downloads with Safari on the iPhone. Stop that Apple!
September 3rd, 2009 at 3:02 pm
@Brian M:
Sorry I didn’t notice your comment earlier, but yes they do edit movies you rent. Whether they edit the ones you purchase… I suspect they might, but I don’t feel like purchasing a film to verify that.
Look up Bad Leutenant on iTunes Movie Rental page and see the comments. There are several movies where Apple edits the content, at least on the rental side anyhow.
I don’t rent movies where the renter feels they need to edit the content, like Blockbuster does.
In the case of Bad Leutenant, I had to view the scenes on YouTube to see what the huss and fuss was about.
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:27 pm
When will people get it through their thick skulls: Bit Torrent is not illegal! There are many legitimate reasons why someone would want to monitor their bit torrent downloads on their phone. Maybe they want to download updates for their Linux distribution. Maybe they want to download a creative-commons licensed work that uses bit torrent distribution to save bandwidth. Many companies that sell digital content are using p2p technologies including bit torrent to save money and computing resources.
Perfect example:
http://torrentfreak.com/bbc-gets-ready-for-bittorrent-distribution-090409/
BBC was considering using bit torrent to distribute a tv show online. Not sure if they ended up using it, but the article demonstrates how Bit Torrent has a legitimate use.
This program has a legitimate legal use, and it’s not harmful. There is *no* reason why apple should have banned this app. The fact that they went out of their way to squash a useful technology proves they are succumbing to the pressures of the music industry. By now, apple has a reputation for being sneaky when it comes to what they allow in their app store. I hope this new discovery convinces loyal apple fans to try out other phones, or at least jail break their iphone.