HAHA this reminds me when I was at school on our server everyone started adding spaces to their folder names so they could find it easier at the top of the page.

tuckertuck

Stupid.
Will probably backfire, because it shows they don't trust their games enough to play fair.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

ok ,ok, there is no zygote app. I made that up to be funny.

rtwod2

@bpatten: My app " !Aardvark Zygotes" can still top it.

Captain Bringdown

Did Apple actually try any of their software and servers out prior to the release? This is a fairly rookie programming mistake by their group. You always remove leading or trailing non-alphanumeric characters before placing it into the database.

Monty

@rtwod2: You should rename it to "Aaron the Zygote"

bpatten

Why doesn't the store list cull spaces on names? This will make it look like a CS server list:
1- buy me
2- @@@no buy me$$@!
3- ^-- these guys suck!

itango

There used to be a mac trick which would put a null character in the name of a file/extension. You could use it to make it load first in the case of extension conflict. It would not appear, unless you clicked on the name. If they were smart, they would name their company after the !Kung tribe. The ! is pronounced with a click of the tongue. I remember when we learned about them in class and I made it a point to always add the cluck when I said their name. This should conceivably make their name appear first.

This reminds me of the episode of Cheers when Norm and Carla opened a painting business. They went with AAAA painting, so they would be the first in the phone book.

Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy

Hmmm... No wonder my app "Zygotes" isn't doing so well.

rtwod2

Smart as hell, I use that tactic for important phone numbers in my address book. Wait why does it matter? I would assume that a shopper isn't going to download apps ALPHABETICALLY!

Shub-Niggurath

Dictatorships actually work well when the Dictator is SJ

mrsalty

stupid.

kmkl

their game sucks ass anyway

themediaguy

DONE

mrsalty

They should be banned for 30 days from the APP store and this loophole should be closed immediately.

mrsalty

If anyone tries to actually find Jirbo Break, it'll be under A-E or whatever and hard to find right? So maybe this'll hurt them in the end... That'd be nice....

kosikutioner

It looks very tacky.

--Tito--

If it upsets them then they should just put two or three spaces in front of their names. Eventually Apple will have to take notice and put a stop to the practice.

Elliuotatar

That shows how unprofessional some of these developers are.
Simple to fix. Sort by date added.

Illuminator

all's fair in love and war.

emergeoriginal

Smart.

Gaytheist

@Shub-Niggurath: Does your phone have a "Speed Dial" or "Quick List" feature?

logikgr

Lame. But this really just shows some problems with the store. There really aren't enough sort options. Sort by price and sort by date are sorely needed.

James

@rattlecan: Exactly, but not exactly. The difference is that the products actual name does not start with ASCII code 32, but an actual character.

It's funny that a sort routine based off of a way of ordering characters ASC is still being used, and we are shocked by it. Characters we recognize as valid in naming start at decimal code 48 (0), capitals at 45 (A), and lower case at 97 (a). It's rather ingenious, and the conventions have found their way, mostly, into UNICODE,

I expect as unique names become harder create that we will see more non-standard characters in names. This little technique was sneaky, but neither unforeseen or unexpected.

DeadWriter

I say trim the names, on the apple app store side, removing leading and trailing spaces. Then wait for the "Aaaaaaaaaaa Jirbo Arcade" game

paul

@Shub-Niggurath: but if you are just browsing games, you are bombarded with games from jirbo right of the bat, and may not look any farther, so while it is a smart idea, it isn't really fair to the companies doing things the way they should be

HawaiianActor

Old tactic. Why do you think there's so many moving companies called AAAAA movers? To be fist in the phonebook (remember those?)

rattlecan

The itunes store has been overcharging me for apps. It shows one price on my Purchase history, but then it charges a higher amount from my bank account. Has this happened to anyone else?

Player4

banhammer

loan it to apple giz ... they'll give it right back.

Paradise

I just hope authors don't start to pick up on this, or my bookshelf might get all out of order too.

LazyPanda

I think people who do something as tacky as this should either be penalized with fees or removed from the store altogether. Its oh so amateur and juvenile.

I'm confident they'll be dealt with as all the AppStore's kinks are worked out.

matthewrex

@--Tito--:

I agree. I when I was scrolling through I had to do a double take to find out when the fuck "J" started coming before "A". Plus, the game sucks, so I'm annoyed that I have to see it every time I view the full list.

michaelwiggins

@celebgurl21:
I find it rather interesting that your only other comment is basically an advert for Jirbo.
@DeadWriter
Huh?
--
But anyway, is there much we can do? Unless they moderate the app store, which they probably will, there is no way out of this...
*or apple could allow sorting, but I don't have an iPone...

Mr.Purple

I have AAAB.com (and AAAX.com). Any developers interested?!?!

MacTodd

Slow news day :p

Totorototoro

Simple, if they allow it in their code, they can do it. If they don't want it to happen, simply auto-trim those unwanted characters (ie: space) to make it fair to everyone.

m-p{3}

Are you guys crazy?? THE GAMES ARE FOR FREEEEEEE.... FREEEEE.... The real crime here is that Pop Cap is selling our exact same game for $9.99 that they are offering for free (Jirbo Jive). THEY ARE JUST TRYING TO DO EVERYONE A SERVICE BY TAKING DOWN THE BIG PLAYERS WHO ARE OVER CHARGING FOR THEIR GAMES... GET A CLUE GUYS!!!

celebgurl21

I noticed a while back when my Ipod 5.5's firmware upgraded that all entries beginning with numbers (eg, 50 Cent or The 88) went to the end of the Artist listing on my ipod, whereas they had been at the top before. I'm sure Apple could do the same here; set spaces/non-English characters to the end of the alphabet, instead of the beginning. That'd teach them.

bjacobel

@celebgurl21: YOUR POINT IS SMART BECAUSE YOU TYPED IT IN ALL CAPS AND USED LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!

Paradise

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi: This tactic will only backfire if people who use these apps are smart. It's been my experience that people who traditionally look for an easy way to do things (many MAC users ie. "I just want it to work without thinking about it") will go for the first things that pop up and work. It's how pop-up ads still run amok on noob's pc's and how they continue to have infected systems.
People who are lazy about computing will be lazy about their computers.

qbrad

It's just a demonstration of how they feel about their own products. If the product isn't good enough to sell itself, why not simply do any sleazy thing you can to get it into people's hands?

Of course, I'm being sarcastic (duh). Anyway, who the hell wants a product from a company called, "Jirbo"?

Gilbert

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi: You seriously believe that everyone will make an educated, informed decision here? Go read some youtube comments, you realize how stupid some people are really quickly.

mferrari

Well everyone has heard of ZZ Top, the reason for their name is the wanted to be first under Z in the record store. This is no different. Someone will complain just because they didn't think of it first.
R

rjflyn

There's plenty more wrong with the app store than just this.

I fleshed out my reasoning for these complaints on my blog [thedigitaldive.net] , but the short list is:

need a shopping cart
need a way to compare apps that claim to do the same thing
need a way to demo an app before buying to see if the screenshots are legit
need a way to get a refund if an app is just plain buggy or not what it advertised to be

distortedloop

I am thinking of developing a game called:  "              "

Here's how you play it:

 
 
 
 
 
Cool, huh?

frigg

If I saw an app like that, I'd shy away from it because I'd think it must be crap if they have to cheat.

bitgod

Oh the drama....

Must be a slow news day

MINI Driver

@rattlecan: Companies still do that. Take a look at your current white pages; at least in mine, the first two business pages are entirely "AAAAAAA" names. Pretty much defeats the purpose if you ask me.

Petezah

Cheating...but Apple has the say in every single app that is offered via the App Store, so they should not have even let these guys through. Apple - do the right thing and takes those down ASAP. Heck, even ban them and maybe no other companies will try to pull anything like that. This makes the new App Store lose credit...if you want it to thrive, then make sure people aren't trying to abuse it.

geowrian

@celebgurl21: Psst! You forgot to change the "our" in "our exact same game" to "their" in your impartial praise of Jirbo.

P.S. Who there thought that preceding the game names with spaces would pan out better than the "#1 Rated " prefix?

someToast

I thought that Apple was going to carefully choose apps for inclusion -- judging from both the quality of what's there now as well as this title cheating, it looks like they are simply posting everything as is, with no quality control.

itsgene

while(* stringptr == 0x20)
stringptr ++;

pop214

I say CONGRATULATIONS FOR DOING THE RESEARCH!

Heck, the online marketplace is one where there are, arguably, less rules than a brick and mortar store. If someone finds a loophole to make more money, than I simply think that those who aren't practicing such tactics need to stop complaining, and find a work around to move themselves ahead.

Create a better quality game. Find a better marketing tactic.

When was the last time you saw a billboard for a game on the iTunes music store?

While expensive, large developers could afford it.

Do flyers.

Wear buttons.

DO SOMETHING!

But, don't bitch. Be smart!

dezinewiz

Apple will crack down on it simply because, aesthetically, it's a dog.

Jobs' is most probably losing sleep over all those unaligned columns. At least I'd like to think so.

tokiwartooth

Sorry for being stupid, but how do you reproduce this? I can't get that list in either iTunes or from the phone.

bobdobbs

its the guy who is creative and puts himself out there that makes sales, not the engineer who crys fowl.

welcome to capitalism, mr. developer... besides, apple will probably fix it soon anyway.

SmBizMan

It's cheat but it's a smart move by the developers but it goes to show how unprofessional the developers of these applications are

Felix26591

But it's blatant, and likely to be fixed. The smarter move is to name your product/company so it's at the top of the alphabet. Kinda like "Apple" (vs. Xerox).

AAAB.com and AAAX.com are for sale...

MacTodd

I guess i am the only one who looks for FREE apps first not what they are named.

majortom1029

its just lame because it defeats the point of an alphabetical list. Then again, people look for games by type, not name.

The app store does need a cart, and to sort by app better. I bought voice notes for 1.99..two pages later there was an identical app for free.

and most of the apps do suck. I was hoping we would have, you know, programs, game ports etc... Instead most of the apps are the same stuff I had on my cell phone 4 years ago (drink mixer anyone?)

redkamel

Hey...quit cutting in line...I was here first. Ms. Jones... Tommy is cutting in line... big baby. No..you're the baby... What is this ...first grade?

"play fair"....how quaint.

RainyDayInterns

Sleazy!

I look at the FREE apps first as well. But I certainly wouldn't download anything from a company this underhanded, even if it were free. You just can't trust them.

rhett121

I'm sure Apple will put the kibosh on this shortly.

@emergeoriginal: Don't you mean: All's fair in love and warez?

Leonard Nimrod

@emergeoriginal: "All is fair in Love and War" ...Very true

*Sort by User Rating

(Problem solved)

newgalactic

As the CEO of A American Insurance Co, I say "grow up and get a life, whiners"

waterwizard

@pop214: Best. Solution. Ever.

Also, awesome headline picture. The Wozniak approval seal should be used more often.

Petezah

This just proves that Apple's software is not secure. Leading spaces (and other special characters) should not be allowed in the first place. Now, can anyone say SQL injection?

xAppleFan

User ratings are broken because most people are just plain stupid. There is an expense app on the store that says the iPhone app is free but requires a paid membership to the a site. Ok so you get a mobile me type finance program because it uploads the data you enter to the site, allowing you to have access to all your expenses where ever you happen to be. It's honestly not a bad service and the app is easy to use but everyone rated it 1 star because they didn't read the info for the app.

thechansen

@waterwizard: As the CEO of newly incorporated !@1A American Insurance Co., I say "get a life, A American Insurance Co."

Pope John Peeps II

@rtwod2: hahhahahahaha VEERY nicely done man

ThisIsSharksTerriroty

Oh great. And if one of the apps ever become popular, it'll have the lamest name out of the bunch.

Yeah, that's right. I'm looking at you DivX ;-)

ripfire

Yeah that's cheating. I'm sure Apple will put a stop to it soon. If you can't attract users with good ratings...don't publish your app. Simple as that.

thor79

Why'd you want to buy anything from a company called Jirbo? Isn't that Swahili for disembodied monkey testicles?

hisham

AAABejeweled

deliciousburglar

lol... out smarted by one simple key stroke

@ apple app store: "why didnt you think of that!"

venomous_duck41

This coulda been fixed with someones simple smart coding
A simple regex that removes pre-pending characters before the first letter or number would do the trick.

Joseph

Why doesn't this have an apple tag?

Inygo

Heh, heh..."pulling a Wozniak"...I'm gonna have to use that one.

masterthundar

I am really surprised that Apple even let this little bug through. How f-ing hard is it to simply trim down names? You do it all the time in programming, especially when things are sortable by say... NAME! Apple needs to get better developers for iTunes and AppStore.

Utahcon

Now that you accept that Woz did not unduly cut in line, this is not very nice at all.

Spoony Bard

That's a smart move...and if you developed the app store, maybe you should've thought about it ahead of time?

Stop getting pissed that a different app developer is smarter than you.

bobx3

@celebgurl21: For a Jirbo PR Rep...you're really unprofessional. I know you have to keep up with us "hip internet kids," but Gizmodo isn't the kind of site where you can just hit the caps lock key and throw in a lot of exclamation points to get your point across. May I direct you to the Bungie.net forums instead? I think you would fit right in there! :D

Katoejoe

Or, someone can make a company called Aardvark Inc.

funman895

Simple fix add "null" to the list in last place.

VideoVampire

@pop214: LTRIM - one small command, and the app team can fix it.

Elvisisdead

@xAppleFan: Leading and trailing spaces aren't considered special characters with regard to SQL queries. I don't see how you reach the conclusion that SQL injection attacks are more likely as a result of people cheating the system with spaces. Apple has to approve any app that goes in the store...they did a very bad job so far, but I think even a novice might pick up that some special characters followed by "DROP tblTransactions;" or something similar should probably not be accepted.

geowrian

@Player4
Did you factor in sales tax, which is charged in many areas?

Seems like Jirbo fell into the trap of "short-term gain for long-term loss". No matter what the reasoning behind it, it can be bad business.

@celebgurl21
Why doesn't Jirbo find another way of making your point that won't undermine its integrity? If they're willing to play dirty, what else can we expect from them?

Decagon

I've yet to even attempt to view the app store alphabetically. What would be the point?

I doubt this has affected many customers thus not affecting many devs.

It should be cleaned up for the sole reason of the app store looking like crap.

JEmlay

That always happen on game servers master list. People append characters like #, =, - in the server name so they get on top of the list.

m-p{3}

@geowrian:

Actually, only the binary has to be approved initially. Once the app is up, you can make changes to the description, screenshots, *name*, etc, and they just take about an hour to propagate.

rootyb

@rootyb: Really? Now that was stupid of Apple.

On a side note...my app's new name will be [profane remark deleted]

geowrian

ahem.

Jirbo has failed.

skulldriveshaft

a string trim function was not available on the fucking form submission?

can we get a server hijack from this form?

start hammering that shit guys, break the fucker.

how the hell does a company like this get on the approved developer list anyways?

skulldriveshaft

Crafty, but I wouldn't really mind. It is the Internet after all.

michaelleung

@Petezah:

Heck, at my age, I'm not sure what they teach anymore; obviously not whitespace.

pop214