蘋果應(yīng)用商店崩潰事件幕后英雄
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????上周四晚些時(shí)候，蘋果（Apple）公關(guān)部門向包括《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》（Wall Street Journal）旗下的科技博客All Things Digital在內(nèi)的多家新聞媒體發(fā)布通告，稱蘋果（應(yīng)用程序商店）曾出現(xiàn)“暫時(shí)性問題”，影響了“一小部分用戶”，這個(gè)問題目前已經(jīng)得到“修正”。 ????不過，蘋果公關(guān)部門顯然把馬可?阿蒙德忘了。阿蒙德是微博客Tumblr的創(chuàng)始人，并開發(fā)了大受歡迎的應(yīng)用程序Instapaper 。作為一名iOS開發(fā)者，他的個(gè)人博客、Twitter賬號(hào)（@marcoarment）以及“開發(fā)與分析”播客（Build and Analyze）都擁有數(shù)量龐大的粉絲團(tuán)。 ????或許這真的是個(gè)錯(cuò)誤。 ????蘋果公告發(fā)布的前兩天，阿蒙德就首先發(fā)現(xiàn)了這個(gè)問題。當(dāng)時(shí)許多Instapaper的用戶抱怨，升級(jí)到最新版后，Instapaper會(huì)在啟動(dòng)后立即崩潰。阿蒙德立即向蘋果的應(yīng)用程序?qū)彶閳F(tuán)隊(duì)發(fā)出了郵件，他還在Twitter上將問題曝光。兩個(gè)小時(shí)后，一個(gè)正常可用的Instapaper在應(yīng)用程序商店重新上架。 ????不過，阿蒙德很快意識(shí)到，這個(gè)問題不僅僅影響到了自己的應(yīng)用。在接下來的兩天時(shí)間里，他整理出了一份名單，其中的應(yīng)用程序數(shù)量竟然超過了100個(gè)。這些程序的升級(jí)版在提交給蘋果時(shí)運(yùn)行正常，但當(dāng)其在應(yīng)用程序商店上架，就無法運(yùn)行了。阿蒙德警告用戶和開發(fā)者在問題得到修正前不要更新應(yīng)用程序，他還向蘋果發(fā)出了一封用黑體字寫就的緊急請(qǐng)求。 ????所以，當(dāng)阿蒙德在其他人的博客上看到蘋果的聲明后，他忍不住在自己的個(gè)人博客上對(duì)其進(jìn)行了反駁： ????“所謂‘一小部分用戶’是站不住腳的：根據(jù)我在7月3日統(tǒng)計(jì)的數(shù)據(jù)，僅僅Instapape的問題就影響到了超過2萬名用戶，而且，還有其他120多個(gè)應(yīng)用程序受到波及，其中不乏知名應(yīng)用，例如‘憤怒的小鳥’（Angry Birds）、GoodReader、雅虎（Yahoo）和《洛杉磯時(shí)報(bào)》（LA Times）等。” ????所謂“暫時(shí)性問題”，實(shí)際上是蘋果應(yīng)用程序商店運(yùn)營四年以來發(fā)生的最為嚴(yán)重問題，這場災(zāi)難被《連線》雜志（Wired）稱為“Appageddon”。正向阿蒙德之前預(yù)言的，問題的根源在于蘋果的一臺(tái)服務(wù)器出了問題，該服務(wù)器負(fù)責(zé)將蘋果的數(shù)字版權(quán)管理保護(hù)軟件添加到即將發(fā)布的應(yīng)用程序中。不過總而言之，阿蒙德對(duì)蘋果相當(dāng)寬容。專業(yè)MacWorld網(wǎng)站有報(bào)道稱，蘋果也許會(huì)刪除許多應(yīng)用在這次系統(tǒng)崩潰期間蒙冤得到的一星差評(píng)。阿蒙德寫道：“我不會(huì)想到這一招。假如蘋果真這么做，將大大有利于修復(fù)該公司與受影響的開發(fā)商之間的關(guān)系。” ????阿蒙德對(duì)于那五十來個(gè)爭相報(bào)道這起事件的科技記者就沒那么寬容了。這些記者大都對(duì)阿蒙德的貢獻(xiàn)只字未提，甚至試圖將該報(bào)道偽裝成自己發(fā)掘出來的獨(dú)家新聞。在一連串阿蒙德稱之為“改寫搞定”的Twitter消息中，他曝光了這些媒體報(bào)道。讀者可點(diǎn)擊此處閱讀相關(guān)報(bào)道。 ????譯者：項(xiàng)航 |
????Late Thursday, Apple (AAPL) public relations reached out to several news organizations -- including the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital -- to alert them that what it described as a "temporary issue" that affected "a small number of users" had been "rectified." ????Apple PR apparently neglected to reach out to Marco Arment, a co-founder of Tumblr, the creator of the popular Instapaper app and a iOS developer with an unusually large following through his blog, his Twitter account (@marcoarment) and his Build and Analyzepodcast. ????That may have been a mistake. ????It was Arment who first spotted the problem two days earlier when Instapaper users began complaining that his latest update crashed immediately every time they launched it. Arment e-mailed Apple's App Review team and started "yelling" about it on Twitter. Within two hours a working version of Instapaper appeared on the App Store. ????But he soon realized that the problem was more widespread than just his app. Over the next two days he compiled a list of more than 100 apps whose updates worked perfectly when they were submitted to Apple but were corrupted when they arrived at the App Store. He warned users and developers not to update their apps until the problem was corrected, and he issued an urgent request -- in boldface -- to Cupertino: ????So when Arment saw Apple's press statement on someone else's blog, he couldn't resist posting a correction: ????"It's probably worth nitpicking 'a small number of users': Based on my cumulative stats for July 3, Instapaper's corruption alone probably affected well over 20,000 customers, and there were over 120 other apps affected, including some very big names such as Angry Birds, GoodReader, Yahoo, and the LA Times." ????Apple's "temporary issue" was, in fact, the App Store's worst bug in four years of operation -- a meltdown that Wired dubbed "Appageddon." It was ultimately traced, as Arment correctly anticipated, to an issue with a server that applies Apple's digital rights management protection to apps before they are released. ????Arment was pretty easy on Apple, all things considered. He pointed readers to a MacWorld report that the company might be removing the one-star ratings many apps had unfairly received during the meltdown. "I wouldn't have predicted that," Arment wrote. "If they do, it will go a long way toward repairing their relationship with the affected developers." ????He was not so kind to the more than four dozen tech reporters who piled onto the story, often without giving him credit or -- even worse -- trying to make it sound like it was their scoop. In a series of tweets he calls "Rewrite Bingo," he covers the press coverage. You can read it here. |
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