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When the average app can send dozens of megabytes with no one blinking an eye, lots of stuff can slip though. I’ve long said that platforms need to enforce lim

When the average app can send dozens of megabytes with no one blinking an eye, lots of stuff can slip though. I’ve long said that platforms need to enforce limits, hard limits, on all I/O. And in order for something to get an exception, the system should have a big, obvious, inconvenient work-around that places plenty of blame directly on the developer (e.g. “The application Foobar is using an extremely abnormal amount of your battery power, and has used your Internet service more extensively over the past hour than any other app on your device. We recommend uninstalling this program completely, or select one of the throttling choices below:”.) And frankly, there is no shortage of reasons why we should do this: to prevent abuses like this latest one, to prevent draining batteries, to avoid expensive data plan overages, etc. (and heck, to save the planet, because stupid simple things should not require a pile of natural resources to download to your device). I’m truly sorry if your overblown JavaScript framework can’t draw 3 lines of text on the screen without transferring an entire 1990 operating system’s worth of code over the network for each paragraph. Yet if devices start enforcing really tiny limits (my vote is, oh, 2 kilobytes of data), I bet your organization will finally figure out what data is really important. Good luck.

banachtarski 8y ago
I can't say I agree at all with this hyperbolic reaction. How about people just be judicious about what they install and who they trust as always. I'm for privacy as much as the next person but not when it infringes on an open platform to the degree that you suggest, and Apple already overreaches in terms of censorship and control IMO.
- mikejb 8y ago
  > How about people just be judicious about what they install and who they trust as always. That sounds good, but how well does it work? I'd you find an app that solves a use case for you - what factors do you use to determine whether you trust this developer? How can the average iPhone (/smartphone) user apply this?
  - banachtarski 8y ago
    It works great. Even my parents learned what to install and not install on their windows PC. The key being that the safety features are all on by default. But for those of us that need to run software off the beaten path, we can.
    - mikejb 8y ago
      I'd love to teach my parents, but I'm still challenged by giving them indicators to determine what should or shouldn't be installed. I actually find it hard to do myself, so maybe you can help. For example: My mom likes to play Sudoku. How should she go about to determine whether it's fine to install this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.easybrain.sudoku.android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.easybrain.... ? How can she (or I) determine whether this data is uploading data collected on her phone or doing some other sort of shenanigans?
- nohnce 8y ago
  I think Apple is making the right move. They are responsible and accountable, and users don't understand how anything works. I'm reminded of the various browsers with toolbar addons bloating up the screen.
askmike 8y ago
This is as user unfriendly as it gets. People want to look for hours of cat pictures and netflix videos (or facebook, instagram, or snapchat). Once phones start throwing this kind of crap in people's faces there will be (understandable outrage) and bad sales figures. Technology is supposed to make your life easier, not harder.
- IanSanders 8y ago
  You had it just before the last sentence. Technology is supposed to make profit. Cat pictures don't require abnormal amount of battery and bandwidth. All streaming videos could use a dedicated API method, excluded from the cap. Browser content would be more difficult to regulate, on the other hand web apps don't have as much permissions as native ones.
- makecheck 8y ago
  One of my goals is to put the blame in the right place. It isn’t “my phone can’t last all day”, it’s “terrible apps are wasteful and do questionable things”. It isn’t “I need a better data plan for another $10 a month”, it’s “apps are greedy, lazy and, to put it mildly, sub-optimal in their use of data”. And so on. Annoyed developers and ruined sales will NOT affect apps that are already good citizens.

banachtarski 8y ago

I can't say I agree at all with this hyperbolic reaction. How about people just be judicious about what they install and who they trust as always. I'm for privacy as much as the next person but not when it infringes on an open platform to the degree that you suggest, and Apple already overreaches in terms of censorship and control IMO.

mikejb 8y ago
> How about people just be judicious about what they install and who they trust as always. That sounds good, but how well does it work? I'd you find an app that solves a use case for you - what factors do you use to determine whether you trust this developer? How can the average iPhone (/smartphone) user apply this?
- banachtarski 8y ago
  It works great. Even my parents learned what to install and not install on their windows PC. The key being that the safety features are all on by default. But for those of us that need to run software off the beaten path, we can.
  - mikejb 8y ago
    I'd love to teach my parents, but I'm still challenged by giving them indicators to determine what should or shouldn't be installed. I actually find it hard to do myself, so maybe you can help. For example: My mom likes to play Sudoku. How should she go about to determine whether it's fine to install this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.easybrain.sudoku.android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.easybrain.... ? How can she (or I) determine whether this data is uploading data collected on her phone or doing some other sort of shenanigans?
nohnce 8y ago
I think Apple is making the right move. They are responsible and accountable, and users don't understand how anything works. I'm reminded of the various browsers with toolbar addons bloating up the screen.

askmike 8y ago

This is as user unfriendly as it gets. People want to look for hours of cat pictures and netflix videos (or facebook, instagram, or snapchat). Once phones start throwing this kind of crap in people's faces there will be (understandable outrage) and bad sales figures. Technology is supposed to make your life easier, not harder.

IanSanders 8y ago
You had it just before the last sentence. Technology is supposed to make profit. Cat pictures don't require abnormal amount of battery and bandwidth. All streaming videos could use a dedicated API method, excluded from the cap. Browser content would be more difficult to regulate, on the other hand web apps don't have as much permissions as native ones.
makecheck 8y ago
One of my goals is to put the blame in the right place. It isn’t “my phone can’t last all day”, it’s “terrible apps are wasteful and do questionable things”. It isn’t “I need a better data plan for another $10 a month”, it’s “apps are greedy, lazy and, to put it mildly, sub-optimal in their use of data”. And so on. Annoyed developers and ruined sales will NOT affect apps that are already good citizens.