App alerts... wouldn't it be great....

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

I think there are many reasons for the geography separation though.

I can't think of any justification for such monumental stupidity. Please elaborate. It's one thing to enable optional filtering of reviews and ratings based on the user's country of residence, but to completely deny me access to ratings and reviews from all countries except my own tiny country, is inexcusable. Likewise, it's outrageous to hide my own reviews and ratings from everyone except my countrymen. To set up the App Store that way is the very definition and encyclopedic illustration of narrow-mindedness, provinicialism, incompetence and cluelessness.

[Jessica Lares]

I think if you lived in France, and you only spoke French, that you wouldn't want to see reviews in Spanish or English mixed in with Chinese. I already see reviews in other languages from people using the US store because they either don't have one in their country, or it's just cheaper, and it drives me nuts. It doesn't help me in figuring out whether the app is good or not as an English only speaker.

It's the same thing with US English and UK English.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

It's the same thing with US English and UK English.

Erm, what? I'm sure the Americans and British can understand each other.

Like I said, smart software gives users options to provide them with superior service. Dumb and stupid software like the App Store doesn't give a damn about what the user needs, and just implements a crude pseudo-solution like the one in the App Store, disregarding common sense.

Nowadays, there is no problem for software to automatically figure out the language of a review. Just like Google gives you the option to return only English-language websites when performing a search, so could the App Store return reviews written only in those languages you'd like to see. But Apple don't give a damn, do they?

And that's only talking about reviews. When it comes to ratings, that's a matter of 1 to 5 stars -- never mind if the 1 star was given by a Chinese user or an American user.

The monumentally stupid current implementation presupposes that the entire world is monolingual. Thus it punishes users who took the trouble to learn a foreign language. I happen to be able to read in 6 languages and am learning a couple more, but Apple doesn't give a damn.

Further, it completely ignores cases like Austria vs. Germany. The language used in both countries is German, therefore there is no reason whatsoever to separate those countries geographically. Same for Australia vs. UK vs. US, etc. etc. Quebec users could benefit from French reviews (and vice versa), and so on, and so on.

Further, it also ignores countries like Russia and Ukraine. The languages in the two countries are so similar they are understandable for everyone in both countries.

It ignores cases like my own country, Slovakia, for 70 years part of former Czechoslovakia. The Slovak and Czech languages are so similar that we can talk to each other in our native languages any time -- no translation is ever necessary. Therefore, there is no reason on earth to withhold Czech reviews from Slovak users, and vice versa. By all means, make that an option, if that's what the user desires, but don't enforce an incredibly narrow-minded, clueless pseudo-solution down everyone's throats.

I could rant on and on about why the App Store arrangement is so monumentally stupid as it is, but I hope the above was enough.

[1611mac]

Originally Posted by Faterson

The monumentally stupid current implementation presupposes that the entire world is monolingual.

Perhaps Apple designed the store for pre-Babel civilization?

[FlorenceArt]

I agree that the app store is very bad, and got even worse with the new version. I use AppZapp Pro, have tried a couple of other apps but I didn't like them.

I agree it's very frustrating not to be able to read reviews from other countries. Sometimes there are no or only a few reviews on the French app store because the app is new or not very well-known. For a while I had set up appzap to connect to the US app store so that I could at least see the ratings, but that messed up my connection to the app store (at one point I couldn't see any of my apps any more), so I had to give it up.

I certainly wouldn't want to receive notifications every time a new app is posted, but appzap has daily recaps for that, and I set an alarm for some apps I'd like to try, if the price drops I get an e-mail. Plus I look at the daily promotion list and sometimes "buy" free apps just to try them.