5 ms·

I still recall the outrage when Apple published their first app on Android and it turned out to be Move to IOS. It seems strange that it took so long for the op

by 63 4y ago

I still recall the outrage when Apple published their first app on Android and it turned out to be Move to IOS. It seems strange that it took so long for the opposite service to appear.

cowtools 4y ago
It's not strange to me. iOS is far more restrictive in the type of programs it allows you to run and distribute, whereas Android allows sideloading and rooting. It's a variant of popper's paradox I suppose.
- JacobThreeThree 4y ago
  >iOS is far more restrictive in the type of programs it allows you to run and distribute, whereas Android allows sideloading and rooting. True, although lately they've been under more regulatory scrutiny so I highly doubt something like this would get disallowed, especially if the equivalent app is allowed on Android.
  - cowtools 4y ago
    Depending on the government to step in and regulate corporate control is a fail-deadly system for freedom and should be avoided. The likelihood of the ruling government to support the interests of its citizens is dependent on the power (negotiating leverage) that the individual citizens have over large government-controlled institutions (inc. coporations). Authoritarian systems produce generally compounding effects, so the idea that we should just sit around and do nothing while they compound is dangerous. When the time comes that protesting surveilance, censorship, etc. is dire then it already be too late because government will have the powers of surveilance, censorship, etc. on its side to squash dissent. It is better to depend on systems (like FOSS) that are fail-safe for freedom. That is- they naturally err on the side of individual liberty. This is because authoritarian societies are non-recoverable and have to be rebooted by adjacent (free) societies.
- mtgx 4y ago
- citizenkeen 4y ago
  pauper
  - cowtools 4y ago
    the meek shall inherit the earth!
  - nneonneo 4y ago
    Pretty sure they meant Popper’s Paradox. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance (Here, so the paradox would go, the tolerant society Android, gets hijacked by the less tolerant Apple.)
    - citizenkeen 4y ago
      TIL. Thank you, I stand corrected!
- notlukesky 4y ago
  Sideloading has always bothered me as a term. It infers an insidious process when you want to get out of the shackles of the gatekeepers. Pure marketing genius from the Apple folks who want to maintain their monopoly.
  - filoleg 4y ago
    The term has been in existence since way before iPhones were a thing[0], and it doesn't generally have the connotation you are prescribing to it. We use that term at work right now on my team all the time, and it has nothing with app stores or gatekeeping or anything like that. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideloading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideloading
    - AnthonyMouse 4y ago
      When you download Firefox from firefox.com and install it on your Mac, it wasn't common to call that "sideloading" in the past. Making it the popular name for the same thing on mobile was the marketing.
      - dlivingston 4y ago
        > sideload /ˈsīdˌlōd/ > 1. install (software, especially an app) obtained from a third-party source rather than an official retailer. > 2. copy or transfer (data) from one device to another directly, typically by means of a link such as a USB cable or wireless connection. The Google Ngram for “sideloading” shows, like you mention, a measurable uptick in usage after the iPhone launch in 2007. Looking closer, there is a steep increase in frequency after the year 2000, with the steepest slope from 2005 - 2009. [1] [0]: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sideloading&year_start=2000&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=7&case_insensitive=true https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sideloading&ye... [1]: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sideload_*&year_start=1960&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=7 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sideload_*&yea...
      - seanhunter 4y ago
        It wasn't common to call that sideloading because it isn't sideloading.
ksec 4y ago
>It seems strange that it took so long for the opposite service to appear. Apple wouldn't allow it on App Store. And accessing those information likely requires lot of approval at different levels. The only thing changed was the Anti-Trust issues going on where Apple continues to claim people could switch to Android. So now having Google's App on their Store is part of that. And I would not be surprised if Apple intent to use it as their PR later along with shit loads of submarine articles.
- gabagool 4y ago
  > I would not be surprised if Apple intent to use it as their PR later along with shit loads of submarine articles What is a submarine article?
  - ocdtrekkie 4y ago
    Basically a PR piece that looks like it was written by a journalist but was actually fed to the media to promote a product or political push. http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- chipotle_coyote 4y ago
  > Apple wouldn't allow it on App Store. Do you have a source for this? Offhand, I can't find any source -- not "reputable" source, but any source, period -- that confirms there was ever a "Switch to Android" app that Apple blocked from the App Store. The Register's story on "Switch to Android" from April of this year says, "Google, which supports sideloaded apps on Android devices, also wants people to buy an Android phone and, after a year or so of planning, has finally deployed its own iOS app to help that happen." The Register is hardly the kind of publication to softpedal stories to keep Apple (or anyone else) happy, so if this "year or so of planning" was 2015 and they didn't get to actually put it in the store until 2022, it's real hard to believe that wouldn't have been mentioned.
  - nevir 4y ago
    Wouldn't be surprised that the conversation is happening behind the scenes, and Google doesn't want to make a public fuss about it. Happened before with Kindle, for example (that originally had a store built in …which Apple blocked so that they could release in-app purchasing a few months later)
jackson1442 4y ago
I imagine it's more a bundling of services that already exist. You could achieve much of the "move to iOS" functionality through using Google apps on iOS - Google Photos, Contacts, Chrome, and so on will gladly accept your local/iCloud data and upload it to a Google account. Apple doesn't make iOS app analogs on Android so you need to actually convert from Google data to Apple data explicitly.

by 63 4y ago

I still recall the outrage when Apple published their first app on Android and it turned out to be Move to IOS. It seems strange that it took so long for the opposite service to appear.

cowtools 4y ago

It's not strange to me. iOS is far more restrictive in the type of programs it allows you to run and distribute, whereas Android allows sideloading and rooting. It's a variant of popper's paradox I suppose.

JacobThreeThree 4y ago
>iOS is far more restrictive in the type of programs it allows you to run and distribute, whereas Android allows sideloading and rooting. True, although lately they've been under more regulatory scrutiny so I highly doubt something like this would get disallowed, especially if the equivalent app is allowed on Android.
- cowtools 4y ago
  Depending on the government to step in and regulate corporate control is a fail-deadly system for freedom and should be avoided. The likelihood of the ruling government to support the interests of its citizens is dependent on the power (negotiating leverage) that the individual citizens have over large government-controlled institutions (inc. coporations). Authoritarian systems produce generally compounding effects, so the idea that we should just sit around and do nothing while they compound is dangerous. When the time comes that protesting surveilance, censorship, etc. is dire then it already be too late because government will have the powers of surveilance, censorship, etc. on its side to squash dissent. It is better to depend on systems (like FOSS) that are fail-safe for freedom. That is- they naturally err on the side of individual liberty. This is because authoritarian societies are non-recoverable and have to be rebooted by adjacent (free) societies.
mtgx 4y ago
citizenkeen 4y ago
pauper
- cowtools 4y ago
  the meek shall inherit the earth!
- nneonneo 4y ago
  Pretty sure they meant Popper’s Paradox. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance (Here, so the paradox would go, the tolerant society Android, gets hijacked by the less tolerant Apple.)
  - citizenkeen 4y ago
    TIL. Thank you, I stand corrected!
notlukesky 4y ago
Sideloading has always bothered me as a term. It infers an insidious process when you want to get out of the shackles of the gatekeepers. Pure marketing genius from the Apple folks who want to maintain their monopoly.
- filoleg 4y ago
  The term has been in existence since way before iPhones were a thing[0], and it doesn't generally have the connotation you are prescribing to it. We use that term at work right now on my team all the time, and it has nothing with app stores or gatekeeping or anything like that. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideloading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideloading
  - AnthonyMouse 4y ago
    When you download Firefox from firefox.com and install it on your Mac, it wasn't common to call that "sideloading" in the past. Making it the popular name for the same thing on mobile was the marketing.
    - dlivingston 4y ago
      > sideload /ˈsīdˌlōd/ > 1. install (software, especially an app) obtained from a third-party source rather than an official retailer. > 2. copy or transfer (data) from one device to another directly, typically by means of a link such as a USB cable or wireless connection. The Google Ngram for “sideloading” shows, like you mention, a measurable uptick in usage after the iPhone launch in 2007. Looking closer, there is a steep increase in frequency after the year 2000, with the steepest slope from 2005 - 2009. [1] [0]: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sideloading&year_start=2000&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=7&case_insensitive=true https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sideloading&ye... [1]: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sideload_*&year_start=1960&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=7 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sideload_*&yea...
    - seanhunter 4y ago
      It wasn't common to call that sideloading because it isn't sideloading.

ksec 4y ago

>It seems strange that it took so long for the opposite service to appear. Apple wouldn't allow it on App Store. And accessing those information likely requires lot of approval at different levels. The only thing changed was the Anti-Trust issues going on where Apple continues to claim people could switch to Android. So now having Google's App on their Store is part of that. And I would not be surprised if Apple intent to use it as their PR later along with shit loads of submarine articles.

gabagool 4y ago
> I would not be surprised if Apple intent to use it as their PR later along with shit loads of submarine articles What is a submarine article?
- ocdtrekkie 4y ago
  Basically a PR piece that looks like it was written by a journalist but was actually fed to the media to promote a product or political push. http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
chipotle_coyote 4y ago
> Apple wouldn't allow it on App Store. Do you have a source for this? Offhand, I can't find any source -- not "reputable" source, but any source, period -- that confirms there was ever a "Switch to Android" app that Apple blocked from the App Store. The Register's story on "Switch to Android" from April of this year says, "Google, which supports sideloaded apps on Android devices, also wants people to buy an Android phone and, after a year or so of planning, has finally deployed its own iOS app to help that happen." The Register is hardly the kind of publication to softpedal stories to keep Apple (or anyone else) happy, so if this "year or so of planning" was 2015 and they didn't get to actually put it in the store until 2022, it's real hard to believe that wouldn't have been mentioned.
- nevir 4y ago
  Wouldn't be surprised that the conversation is happening behind the scenes, and Google doesn't want to make a public fuss about it. Happened before with Kindle, for example (that originally had a store built in …which Apple blocked so that they could release in-app purchasing a few months later)

jackson1442 4y ago

I imagine it's more a bundling of services that already exist. You could achieve much of the "move to iOS" functionality through using Google apps on iOS - Google Photos, Contacts, Chrome, and so on will gladly accept your local/iCloud data and upload it to a Google account. Apple doesn't make iOS app analogs on Android so you need to actually convert from Google data to Apple data explicitly.