Be real, Apple: In-app goodie grab games AREN'T FREE – EU Apple’s "free" apps are "free" no more, thanks to the EU. Instead of clicking a button labelled with the word, fanbois must now select a button marked “get”. The move appears to be in response to warnings from the European Commission that the “free” label is misleading when games contain in-app purchases and could lead to …
"Can I have...?"
"Could you get for me...?"
I agree with you regarding the Starbucks example, but in the context of the Apple Store download I'd understand the button label to mean 'the website code gets it for me from a repository' so I wouldn't automatically see it as wrong?
Of course all of this pales compared against the recent decimation of the word "again", to be replaced by the hateful "re-" at every opportunity!
"Of course all of this pales compared against the recent decimation of the word "again", to be replaced by the hateful "re-" at every opportunity!"
Are you saying "re-" is used in the place of "again" every tenth time? Or is it re-decimated multiple times to increase the affect? You could of fooled me.
The question is, why are we relying on Europe to protect the little man from Global Corp? Far better to organise politically locally and get the local laws changed. The EU may have some good laws but it is far less controllable by us. If we don't like something then we'd have to persuade the Germans and French that its a bad idea too. If you can't be bothered with UK politics, there's no reason to think you'll be bothered to act on European-level politics as that goes sour.
I'd hazard a guess that UKIP don't want out of Europe, but they do want to be out of the quest for "ever closer [political] union" because it undermines the value of UK politics. Its a bit like asking Westminster to take more powers off County and Borough councils because you don't like some of the local by-laws. Its a bad idea. You may get rid of a couple of things you don't like, but you're just giving away self-determination in return for a few legal baubles.
If you want to change things, get out there and organise. Don't think that being part of a larger voting area is going to make politicians more responsive to you - the truth is quite the opposite.
Well, yes, they come with bundled Free extras:
El Reg Reports on Doctored Apps
No, these are not ones "snipped" so they don't breed.
What would be more honest, and stop 99.99% of the kiddies getting caught, is to say:
"This game is free to download, but we require to verify your credit details card upfront for in-app purchases."
However, when an in-app purchase is then made, a credit card is required again at the point of purchasing.
This would let mum's and dad's know what's what in advance of installing the game, and then let them agree to each in-app purchase, (f they were foolish enough to install it).
They already offer the ability to completely disable in app purchases, or allow them but have a timeout where the password is required again.
So I fail to see what the point of this measure would be. If you require the password for every purchase, mom & dad will either be inputting that, or inputting credit card details. If I had a kid using in app purchases, I'd just get them an iTunes gift card and let them go crazy. Best way to teach kids about saving/managing money is to give them some, then have a "teachable moment" when they've run out of money and wish they still had it for something else they want more.
The next gift card they get, you remind them what happened last time, and hopefully they learn. If they don't, they're probably going to grow up to be one of those people who always carries a big credit card balance...
"What would be more honest, and stop 99.99% of the kiddies getting caught, is to say"
The kiddies aren't the one's getting caught. It's the parents.
In the event the parents willingly give their credit card to their children, then they deserve what they get.
Additional checks do not protect they children, legally, they're not liable, even if said children steal said credit card, the card company still comes after the parent card owner.
"Free" apps are absolutely "Free" and we should not need a bunch of Bureaucrats to muddy the situation for the simple reason that citizens cannot exercise a bit of self control, or in the case of parents, bother themselves to set up a few basic controls for in-app purchases.
If something is acquired that did not cost money or does not require money to be spent in order to function then it is free. Simple as.
Changing a word to an ambiguous, far more confusing word, only serves to give people the false impression that the situation has been fixed and they have no responsibility themselves when all this has done is make EVERYBODY potentially confused as to whether "Get" means it will cost money by taping that icon or not.
If you get killed in 5 minutes by players who bought upgrades, and you want to play the game then it's not free.
If you get 20 levels in and get to a level where you can't get past it without paying for an upgrade it's not free.
They are pay2win games.
If the game costs nothing to install, and has no option to pay money for add-ons, then it's free.
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