Apple today shut down the ability for developers to provision licenses to customers willing to pay outside the app store. The Podcaster app (reviewed here) is a great app that should have been on the app store, but Apple disallowed it because it duplicated the function of downloading podcasts on iTunes. This statement from Apple is not true, as Podcaster let you download and search podcasts without connecting the iPhone or iPod touch to your computer.
To get around not being allowed in the App store, the developer would take your serial number from the iPhone and give you a developers license which allowed you to install the app. Apple shut this down by not allowing the developer to provision Ad-Hoc licenses to anyone else. The post by the developer has been talen down as it violated NDA or so we believe.
Too bad Apple does not embrace the people and allow this application in its store. There are plenty who would pay for it. Now lets hope those who have paid (roughly 1300) get to keep the app.
