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> "All the apps I see on the app store are major corporations. There is hardly anything by indie or single devs anymore." not discounting apple's hand in all t

> "All the apps I see on the app store are major corporations. There is hardly anything by indie or single devs anymore." not discounting apple's hand in all this, but that's mostly an instance of the caveat emptor problem (and paradox of choice too)--how do you know who to trust in a market? not that it's always right, but apple and many consumers use size as a proxy for quality, a good enough, but probably not optimal, result in most cases. conversely, it's hard to evaluate small developers with no reputation. then you bring in reviews and review sites, and the additional trust issues around that. any curation is bound to be imperfect (because humans and our systems are imperfect) but no curation at all is often even worse (paradox of choice and all). the path to a better system is not trying to get it exactly right the first time but having swift and visible procedures when it's wrong.

willis936 7y ago
One example that is burning in my mind the past week: VNC Viewer iOS 3.9.0. A VNC client is so trivial to make, there is no good reason that the app store shouldn’t be flooded with free, or at least low cost, good solutions. When I look, all I see is VNC Viewer, bad choices, and expensive choices. Real VNC decided to make VNC Viewer iOS require the user to watch an ad prior to connecting to a non-Real VNC server. How did we get here? Because Apple assumed the big players will behave better. But they won’t. We don’t expect them to because they have weight to throw around. Apple’s strategy is not trying to maximize the user experience. It’s not even trying to keep the user experience acceptable. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22770196 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22770196
- clairity 7y ago
  i doubt apple is intentionally stifling competition there, but rather, there's not enough market opportunity to drive costs down via competition. as a result, real vnc is acting like a monopolist in their little corner of the market. it was that way for windows desktops 10+ years ago, when i last really used a vnc client.
  - bionoid 7y ago
    Ahem well, random story time, I also used VNC about 10+ years ago. I was visiting a friend, and somehow we ended up wondering how many open VNC servers were still out on the Internet. Fast forward some hours, we had put together a scanner (Perl) that connected to default VNC port and saved the bitmap to disk... and let it loose. That was amusing; ran it for weeks. There were a few desktops and such, but the majority was camera monitoring systems from shops, kiosks, office buildings, streets and what not, some manufacturer clearly didn't do their due diligence... Found a whole bunch of industrial equipment HMI systems, although we could never figure out what it was, something with hot pipes... Some stuff looked like astronomy, some like fishing, a lot we just had no clue. I wonder what it would look like if repeated today... ?
    - fapjacks 7y ago
      This will not be shocking to you in the slightest, but: It'll look exactly the same!
      - walterbell 7y ago
        The next person who does this: please report the config problem to the camera vendor, then make the issue public after 90 days (or other reasonable timeline) if the vendor does not respond. This lowers the chance of future adversaries scraping images of the public from default-open camera feeds.
- mrpippy 7y ago
  I’ve always heard good things about Screens on iOS, it’s $20 https://edovia.com/en/screens-ios/ https://edovia.com/en/screens-ios/
  - willis936 7y ago
    That’s an absurd cost for problem with such a simple solution. I bit the bullet with an app called Jump, which has as many features as I’d ever want for this. I wasn’t happy putting up $8 for it, in principle, but at least it isn’t a choice between an ad or a subscription.
    - Spivak 7y ago
      I mean they’re almost certainly targeting businesses for whom $20 for a lifetime license might as well be free. Charging that much is also a way to reduce support costs since anyone who will fork over that much for a VNC viewer probably knows what they’re doing or has an IT department.
    - wlesieutre 7y ago
      In exciting news for Jump, their new update added proper mouse/trackpad support on iPads with 13.4!
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  I highly recommend Remotix for an iOS VNC client. (Totally agree with your take though—I have this problem with many categories of apps)
- etrabroline 7y ago
  Good software isn't cheap. I wish more things were simple $20 buy-once apps instead of having to chose between a broken open source app, a data-stealing subscription service or an app that's free but with ads everywhere.
  - willis936 7y ago
    On the contrary, great software is free. This is true now more than it ever has been in the past. Real thinking they can charge for something that is done just as well as them for free just shows that they are willfully ignoring the market.
    - etrabroline 7y ago
      Then why can't you find a great free VNC app?
      - willis936 7y ago
        Because Apple puts up ridiculous barriers to entry in their app store. See: exactly what I am complaining about. This is Apple’s fault.
DeathArrow 7y ago
What about not doing any curation at all? It works for desktop software where users know what is the best software for their particular needs. I don't need to be told what should I use. I am doing that research myself, because I know my needs better than anyone else.

willis936 7y ago

One example that is burning in my mind the past week: VNC Viewer iOS 3.9.0. A VNC client is so trivial to make, there is no good reason that the app store shouldn’t be flooded with free, or at least low cost, good solutions. When I look, all I see is VNC Viewer, bad choices, and expensive choices. Real VNC decided to make VNC Viewer iOS require the user to watch an ad prior to connecting to a non-Real VNC server. How did we get here? Because Apple assumed the big players will behave better. But they won’t. We don’t expect them to because they have weight to throw around. Apple’s strategy is not trying to maximize the user experience. It’s not even trying to keep the user experience acceptable. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22770196 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22770196

clairity 7y ago
i doubt apple is intentionally stifling competition there, but rather, there's not enough market opportunity to drive costs down via competition. as a result, real vnc is acting like a monopolist in their little corner of the market. it was that way for windows desktops 10+ years ago, when i last really used a vnc client.
- bionoid 7y ago
  Ahem well, random story time, I also used VNC about 10+ years ago. I was visiting a friend, and somehow we ended up wondering how many open VNC servers were still out on the Internet. Fast forward some hours, we had put together a scanner (Perl) that connected to default VNC port and saved the bitmap to disk... and let it loose. That was amusing; ran it for weeks. There were a few desktops and such, but the majority was camera monitoring systems from shops, kiosks, office buildings, streets and what not, some manufacturer clearly didn't do their due diligence... Found a whole bunch of industrial equipment HMI systems, although we could never figure out what it was, something with hot pipes... Some stuff looked like astronomy, some like fishing, a lot we just had no clue. I wonder what it would look like if repeated today... ?
  - fapjacks 7y ago
    This will not be shocking to you in the slightest, but: It'll look exactly the same!
    - walterbell 7y ago
      The next person who does this: please report the config problem to the camera vendor, then make the issue public after 90 days (or other reasonable timeline) if the vendor does not respond. This lowers the chance of future adversaries scraping images of the public from default-open camera feeds.
mrpippy 7y ago
I’ve always heard good things about Screens on iOS, it’s $20 https://edovia.com/en/screens-ios/ https://edovia.com/en/screens-ios/
- willis936 7y ago
  That’s an absurd cost for problem with such a simple solution. I bit the bullet with an app called Jump, which has as many features as I’d ever want for this. I wasn’t happy putting up $8 for it, in principle, but at least it isn’t a choice between an ad or a subscription.
  - Spivak 7y ago
    I mean they’re almost certainly targeting businesses for whom $20 for a lifetime license might as well be free. Charging that much is also a way to reduce support costs since anyone who will fork over that much for a VNC viewer probably knows what they’re doing or has an IT department.
  - wlesieutre 7y ago
    In exciting news for Jump, their new update added proper mouse/trackpad support on iPads with 13.4!
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
I highly recommend Remotix for an iOS VNC client. (Totally agree with your take though—I have this problem with many categories of apps)
etrabroline 7y ago
Good software isn't cheap. I wish more things were simple $20 buy-once apps instead of having to chose between a broken open source app, a data-stealing subscription service or an app that's free but with ads everywhere.
- willis936 7y ago
  On the contrary, great software is free. This is true now more than it ever has been in the past. Real thinking they can charge for something that is done just as well as them for free just shows that they are willfully ignoring the market.
  - etrabroline 7y ago
    Then why can't you find a great free VNC app?
    - willis936 7y ago
      Because Apple puts up ridiculous barriers to entry in their app store. See: exactly what I am complaining about. This is Apple’s fault.

DeathArrow 7y ago

What about not doing any curation at all? It works for desktop software where users know what is the best software for their particular needs. I don't need to be told what should I use. I am doing that research myself, because I know my needs better than anyone else.