4 ms·

The main selling point of game consoles are uniform hardware specs and knowing that the console can run all games released on it. That isn't true for phones.

dhosek 6y ago
Maybe not in the Android case, but in the iPhone case, it is pretty much true and there are clear ways to deal with the variances in capabilities between iPhone models. It's a much more predictable platform than for PCs or even Macs.
- username90 6y ago
  It isn't true in the iphone case either, they don't create a new appstore when they release new hardware generations so they don't check if apps works fine on older hardware nor do they guarantee that the software you buy in their appstore continues to work after updates. Instead it is up to the software provider to update things when Apple breaks their product and to inform the user of which phone can run the app.
  - syspec 6y ago
    PS4 plays the same games as ps4 pro, but has different specs
Spivak 6y ago
s/games/software and this could be a quote from 5 years ago about how nice it is to develop for iOS because of its uniform hardware and how long Apple supports their devices. We can go back and forth naming differences between phones and consoles: phones are smaller and have cellular chips, consoles are usually connected to TVs -- but if you can't say why a difference is so fundamental that they should be treated as entirely different classes of things then it doesn't matter.
- username90 6y ago
  What are you talking about? The iphone appstore haven't had uniform hardware since 2008 when the second generation iphone was released.
- mthoms 6y ago
  >We can go back and forth naming differences between phones and consoles: phones are smaller and have cellular chips, consoles are usually connected to TVs -- but if you can't say why a difference is so fundamental that they should be treated as entirely different classes of things then it doesn't matter. Here's the fundamental bit: For the vast majority, it's the primary (often only) way to connect with friends, family, colleagues, employers, news, government services, education, wayfinding, banking, emergency services, the entirety of the worlds information, and the world economy. It also contains peoples most personal thoughts, search history, intimate conversations/photos, location history, political affiliations, and social graph. For most of the disabled and/or isolated, it affords them a degree of dignity and inclusion that is life changing. The above is doubly true in a post Covid world. So, you can't artificially limit the discussion to technical similarities. The societal implications (the real fundamentals) should matter more than anything. Do you really want a world where we make our decisions based on what's best for society, or solely on what is technically true (smartphones and consoles are both just computers!) We already treat things differently solely because of their importance to society, safety, health, and the economy. Yes, that does mean smartphones are, in a way, victims of their own success because they will be treated differently. But that's not any different from other fundamental inventions in history (the printing press, banking, emergency services, automobiles, communications, etc). NOTE: I'm not advocating for, or against, any specific policy. I'm only pointing out why equating consoles and smartphones is denying some very basic realties about how much the economy and society relies on smart phones (compared to consoles).
  - threeseed 6y ago
    The vast majority of the world does not use smart phones. And all of what you listed above applies to computers.

dhosek 6y ago

Maybe not in the Android case, but in the iPhone case, it is pretty much true and there are clear ways to deal with the variances in capabilities between iPhone models. It's a much more predictable platform than for PCs or even Macs.

username90 6y ago
It isn't true in the iphone case either, they don't create a new appstore when they release new hardware generations so they don't check if apps works fine on older hardware nor do they guarantee that the software you buy in their appstore continues to work after updates. Instead it is up to the software provider to update things when Apple breaks their product and to inform the user of which phone can run the app.
- syspec 6y ago
  PS4 plays the same games as ps4 pro, but has different specs

Spivak 6y ago

s/games/software and this could be a quote from 5 years ago about how nice it is to develop for iOS because of its uniform hardware and how long Apple supports their devices. We can go back and forth naming differences between phones and consoles: phones are smaller and have cellular chips, consoles are usually connected to TVs -- but if you can't say why a difference is so fundamental that they should be treated as entirely different classes of things then it doesn't matter.

username90 6y ago
What are you talking about? The iphone appstore haven't had uniform hardware since 2008 when the second generation iphone was released.
mthoms 6y ago
>We can go back and forth naming differences between phones and consoles: phones are smaller and have cellular chips, consoles are usually connected to TVs -- but if you can't say why a difference is so fundamental that they should be treated as entirely different classes of things then it doesn't matter. Here's the fundamental bit: For the vast majority, it's the primary (often only) way to connect with friends, family, colleagues, employers, news, government services, education, wayfinding, banking, emergency services, the entirety of the worlds information, and the world economy. It also contains peoples most personal thoughts, search history, intimate conversations/photos, location history, political affiliations, and social graph. For most of the disabled and/or isolated, it affords them a degree of dignity and inclusion that is life changing. The above is doubly true in a post Covid world. So, you can't artificially limit the discussion to technical similarities. The societal implications (the real fundamentals) should matter more than anything. Do you really want a world where we make our decisions based on what's best for society, or solely on what is technically true (smartphones and consoles are both just computers!) We already treat things differently solely because of their importance to society, safety, health, and the economy. Yes, that does mean smartphones are, in a way, victims of their own success because they will be treated differently. But that's not any different from other fundamental inventions in history (the printing press, banking, emergency services, automobiles, communications, etc). NOTE: I'm not advocating for, or against, any specific policy. I'm only pointing out why equating consoles and smartphones is denying some very basic realties about how much the economy and society relies on smart phones (compared to consoles).
- threeseed 6y ago
  The vast majority of the world does not use smart phones. And all of what you listed above applies to computers.