I think the reasoning would also be fairly similar to the reason that the big players are unbundling their apps.
The most valuable real estate is the homescreen of your phone. A website bookmark isn't likely to get that placement. A website bookmark that you can download from the App Store on the other hand...
I think it's easy, but not quite obvious to the non-technical user. Then they have the issue that once they've tapped on the icon on the homescreen, they are thrown into Safari. And doing the multi-tasking gesture shows them Safari, not the website directly as a first class app, so it's not obvious how to get back. If they tap again and the URL is not identical to what they are currently viewing, they will get a new tab. So there's good reasons to ship an app, even it is just a webview.
I can't speak for Tinker, but they are friends of mine.
As I understand it, their intent is to help people get their first bitcoins really easily. Most services require that you scan and upload a lot of documents. This is quick and painless.
wow, hidingmyname, if nothing else, you've inspired one of the most positive and supportive threads I've seen on HN (don't bother checking, I'm still a pseudo-noob).
I can only echo what many others have said in one way or another: be at integrity with yourself, do what you can to support your team and maintain your honour, and I believe that you will look back at this, in 6 months, with some kind of gratitude.
Despite the comments that the slogan predates advertising, there is something to the parent commenter's thesis, though it's certainly not pure cause and effect.
This is a commonly discussed psychological phenomenon; if you focus on avoiding the negative, you accentuate that. You're not saying "Be Good", it's don't be evil, and so you not only name the elephant in the room, you chart the path around her periphery, and may actually crash into the elephant of evil.
In other words, as taken from a parenting site:
State Requests Positively
>Positive requests are more effective than negative commands. For >example, your child is more likely to respond to, "Please use your >spoon." than "Don't eat with your fingers."
This is really the use case that http://PMRobot.com addresses, keeping set up fairly simple, while allowing clients to be as involved as they want. Either dealing with everything from their email, or else just logging in and submitting issues as they wish.
The most valuable real estate is the homescreen of your phone. A website bookmark isn't likely to get that placement. A website bookmark that you can download from the App Store on the other hand...