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Latest update of Workflow that came out earlier today axed support for Google services and Uber...

by futurix 10y ago

filleokus 10y ago
Not only Google and Uber: > Get Street View Image, Google Chrome, Pocket, LINE, Telegram, Uber, and Workflow Gallery submissions are no longer supported https://workflow.is/whatsnew https://workflow.is/whatsnew
- Belphemur 10y ago
  Don't forget the part that the map engine is now Apple map. And the translation is now carried by Microsoft.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ryanworl 10y ago
Apparently over the last few weeks they've been sending out contracts to the developers of apps they're integrating with to obtain written permission to use their URL schemes. Google and Uber could've just said no or not responded. This is according to Marco Arment a few minutes ago on the live recording of the Accidental Tech Podcast, who said he was asked to sign this document for his podcast app.
- canuckintime 10y ago
  Google offers contracts and standard business relationships for some commercial uses of their API. Workflow could have reached out to the appropriate Google product person/lawyer, instead of sending a generic email as Marco speculates, if they were keen to use Google Translate instead of switching to Microsoft Translate. Switching to Apple Maps exclusively over Google Maps is almost certainly a condition of the acquisition as I can't imagine Workflow would willing cripple their app that way, lack of Google email reply be dammed, without getting paid handsomely to do so
  - simonh 10y ago
    Er what? Apple now own the app. They don't have to pay anyone anything anymore to change it however they like.
  - rahoulb 10y ago
    Just to be charitable - I can imagine Workflow enter discussions to be acquired and get told that they need to make sure that they have permission to link to those other apps by Apple Legal before anything can happen. Being a small dev team, and not a corporation with a giant legal department, they panic at the amount of permissions they need to acquire (Workflow deals with a lot of apps) and rush through it as quickly as possible. Coupled with the fact that they, unlike Apple, are a tiny company that doesn't actually make much money off the app, so don't want to end up entering long-standing commercial agreements when the deal may still fall through. Apple then insists that anything that they haven't had a formal agreement to on a particular date is removed from the app if they want the acquisition to proceed. Whether that means that they now contact Google again is another question entirely (personally, given that the point of Workflow is to link as many apps together as possible I would hope so)
  - kharms 10y ago
    >Google offers contracts and standard business relationships for some commercial uses of their API. Workflow could have reached out to the appropriate Google product person/lawyer, instead of sending a generic email as Marco speculates, if they were keen to use Google Translate instead of switching to Microsoft Translate. Sounds like you're speculating about details based on a second hand retelling of a podcast host's individual experience. A host who presumably doesn't have an "appropriate person/lawyer."
    - canuckintime 10y ago
      I was actually listening to the ATP podcast live as they were recording and I heard Marco's words in real time. My remarks of the possibility of standardizing their Translation API use aren't speculation; Google's terms/offers are pretty public: https://cloud.google.com/translate/faq https://cloud.google.com/translate/faq While Marco tried to put a nice spin on it, it should be obvious why Workflow dropped Google services
joshschreuder 10y ago
Oddly enough, book Uber and open clipboard link in Chrome are two of the featured workflows in the tutorial. I added both and neither of them actually work :)
hive_mind 10y ago
Sad to see Apple turn into this closed loop.
- Noctix 10y ago
  It is Apple, what did you expect?
  - rimliu 10y ago
    Open sourced Swift—is that Apple or not, in your opinion?
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - Infinitesimus 10y ago
      I think open sourcing a language you built is rather different from acquiring companies and locking out competition. Apple has more incentive to open source Swift than they do to let anyone use content from a company they acquire (remember FoundationDB's fate?). I think Authentec went the same route but I am uncertain.
- leeoniya 10y ago
  You mean Apple, the champion of open ecosystems? http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/23/23ee091f2b7f19aae24582503180828a6b68b3c840c6292aa2b52ecc9341cade.jpg http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/23/23ee091f2b7f19aae245825031808...
simooooo 10y ago
I was going to make a sarcastic comment about them reducing the functionality like siri. But here we go. Already reduced a ton on day 1
rcarmo 10y ago
And Pocket. Two of my daily workflows ruined already.
- intoverflow2 10y ago
  It's almost like building up professional tools and work patterns on top of the iOS platform is a terrible idea or something.
  - zepto 10y ago
    Explain your logic?
    - justusthane 10y ago
      He was making a sarcastic comment regarding Apple's apparent animosity towards third-party developers.
    - intoverflow2 10y ago
      Apple's attitude to third party devs aside the system is broken for professional work from the get go. It's entirely locked down and siloed. I recently had to fix some issues with my parents iPad and it was a hell of a eye opener into why it's a terrible idea to rely on these devices at all. So my mother does painting as a hobby and recently has got into using Brushes (2010 Apple Award Winner), at some point her iPad decided to update itself to iOS 10 (note you cannot disable updates anymore, only postpone them) and was a bit surprised she could no longer open any of the paintings she'd made in the app over the last 3 years. I tried to update the app, it's the latest version I tried to open them > crash, tried to email them to myself > crash, set up a dropbox account to sync them off the device > crash. I look online and find this app despite having won awards and being used by famous artist David Hockney is no longer updated, but good news it's open source so someone else has taken up the job of updating it to run on """modern""" iOS, so I install Brushes Redux, it works but none of her paintings are in it. So 3 years of work is on the device, we have a version of the app that should be able to open that work, but we can't because all files are siloed within app. Long story short after 5 hours of trying to sort this out I finally used a very dodgy looking app to pull the hidden files out of the old brushes app and into the new one. Let's just hope Hockney manages to figure this out too or millions of pounds worth of artwork might be lost for good. I use software in my day to day work way older than this brushes app but this scenario will never be a problem in my work because my OS isn't locked down, siloed and can disable updates.
simonh 10y ago
In Workflow you can create custom actions that hook into third party apps using the iOS URI scheme. Can that be used to re-create actions on third party apps that are no longer provided in the app by default?

Latest update of Workflow that came out earlier today axed support for Google services and Uber...

by futurix 10y ago

Latest update of Workflow that came out earlier today axed support for Google services and Uber...

Not only Google and Uber: > Get Street View Image, Google Chrome, Pocket, LINE, Telegram, Uber, and Workflow Gallery submissions are no longer supported https://workflow.is/whatsnew https://workflow.is/whatsnew

Belphemur 10y ago
Don't forget the part that the map engine is now Apple map. And the translation is now carried by Microsoft.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

ryanworl 10y ago

Apparently over the last few weeks they've been sending out contracts to the developers of apps they're integrating with to obtain written permission to use their URL schemes. Google and Uber could've just said no or not responded. This is according to Marco Arment a few minutes ago on the live recording of the Accidental Tech Podcast, who said he was asked to sign this document for his podcast app.

canuckintime 10y ago
Google offers contracts and standard business relationships for some commercial uses of their API. Workflow could have reached out to the appropriate Google product person/lawyer, instead of sending a generic email as Marco speculates, if they were keen to use Google Translate instead of switching to Microsoft Translate. Switching to Apple Maps exclusively over Google Maps is almost certainly a condition of the acquisition as I can't imagine Workflow would willing cripple their app that way, lack of Google email reply be dammed, without getting paid handsomely to do so
- simonh 10y ago
  Er what? Apple now own the app. They don't have to pay anyone anything anymore to change it however they like.
- rahoulb 10y ago
  Just to be charitable - I can imagine Workflow enter discussions to be acquired and get told that they need to make sure that they have permission to link to those other apps by Apple Legal before anything can happen. Being a small dev team, and not a corporation with a giant legal department, they panic at the amount of permissions they need to acquire (Workflow deals with a lot of apps) and rush through it as quickly as possible. Coupled with the fact that they, unlike Apple, are a tiny company that doesn't actually make much money off the app, so don't want to end up entering long-standing commercial agreements when the deal may still fall through. Apple then insists that anything that they haven't had a formal agreement to on a particular date is removed from the app if they want the acquisition to proceed. Whether that means that they now contact Google again is another question entirely (personally, given that the point of Workflow is to link as many apps together as possible I would hope so)
- kharms 10y ago
  >Google offers contracts and standard business relationships for some commercial uses of their API. Workflow could have reached out to the appropriate Google product person/lawyer, instead of sending a generic email as Marco speculates, if they were keen to use Google Translate instead of switching to Microsoft Translate. Sounds like you're speculating about details based on a second hand retelling of a podcast host's individual experience. A host who presumably doesn't have an "appropriate person/lawyer."
  - canuckintime 10y ago
    I was actually listening to the ATP podcast live as they were recording and I heard Marco's words in real time. My remarks of the possibility of standardizing their Translation API use aren't speculation; Google's terms/offers are pretty public: https://cloud.google.com/translate/faq https://cloud.google.com/translate/faq While Marco tried to put a nice spin on it, it should be obvious why Workflow dropped Google services

joshschreuder 10y ago

Oddly enough, book Uber and open clipboard link in Chrome are two of the featured workflows in the tutorial. I added both and neither of them actually work :)

hive_mind 10y ago

Sad to see Apple turn into this closed loop.

Noctix 10y ago
It is Apple, what did you expect?
- rimliu 10y ago
  Open sourced Swift—is that Apple or not, in your opinion?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - Infinitesimus 10y ago
    I think open sourcing a language you built is rather different from acquiring companies and locking out competition. Apple has more incentive to open source Swift than they do to let anyone use content from a company they acquire (remember FoundationDB's fate?). I think Authentec went the same route but I am uncertain.
leeoniya 10y ago
You mean Apple, the champion of open ecosystems? http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/23/23ee091f2b7f19aae24582503180828a6b68b3c840c6292aa2b52ecc9341cade.jpg http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/23/23ee091f2b7f19aae245825031808...

simooooo 10y ago

I was going to make a sarcastic comment about them reducing the functionality like siri. But here we go. Already reduced a ton on day 1

rcarmo 10y ago

And Pocket. Two of my daily workflows ruined already.

intoverflow2 10y ago
It's almost like building up professional tools and work patterns on top of the iOS platform is a terrible idea or something.
- zepto 10y ago
  Explain your logic?
  - justusthane 10y ago
    He was making a sarcastic comment regarding Apple's apparent animosity towards third-party developers.
  - intoverflow2 10y ago
    Apple's attitude to third party devs aside the system is broken for professional work from the get go. It's entirely locked down and siloed. I recently had to fix some issues with my parents iPad and it was a hell of a eye opener into why it's a terrible idea to rely on these devices at all. So my mother does painting as a hobby and recently has got into using Brushes (2010 Apple Award Winner), at some point her iPad decided to update itself to iOS 10 (note you cannot disable updates anymore, only postpone them) and was a bit surprised she could no longer open any of the paintings she'd made in the app over the last 3 years. I tried to update the app, it's the latest version I tried to open them > crash, tried to email them to myself > crash, set up a dropbox account to sync them off the device > crash. I look online and find this app despite having won awards and being used by famous artist David Hockney is no longer updated, but good news it's open source so someone else has taken up the job of updating it to run on """modern""" iOS, so I install Brushes Redux, it works but none of her paintings are in it. So 3 years of work is on the device, we have a version of the app that should be able to open that work, but we can't because all files are siloed within app. Long story short after 5 hours of trying to sort this out I finally used a very dodgy looking app to pull the hidden files out of the old brushes app and into the new one. Let's just hope Hockney manages to figure this out too or millions of pounds worth of artwork might be lost for good. I use software in my day to day work way older than this brushes app but this scenario will never be a problem in my work because my OS isn't locked down, siloed and can disable updates.

simonh 10y ago

In Workflow you can create custom actions that hook into third party apps using the iOS URI scheme. Can that be used to re-create actions on third party apps that are no longer provided in the app by default?