rogerchucker

Hmm.. let's not criticize the situation now because it was much worse in the past. But I'm not shocked you used that argument given your apologist comments on other posts related to the National Sorority Agency on HN.

I kinda figured that part but to me that's a very very archaic way of thinking given that a significant number of people will eventually break the NDA and hint about bugs.

I just never understood the grand benefits of imposing NDA on iOS/OSX pre-release versions. I can't picture this giving Apple a big strategic advantage over its competitors in mobile OS.

The root of this problem, I think, is that Apple requires the $100 membership fee (and thus provide a developer account) even for testing apps on one's own device. If Apple, instead required this fee (and gave developer accounts) only when somebody has submitted an app for publishing on the App store for the first time, then there would be a legitimate filter against people who like to download betas just for experimenting or are plain nincompoops pretending to be tech bloggers.

As an added benefit, by doing this, Apple would also invite a LOT more developers into its fold who would like to experiment with apps on their own device without committing to publishing any.