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The complaint that the author makes isn't about consumption vs production devices, it's about curated experiences. Apple can veto your income on the insistence
by astine 15y ago
The complaint that the author makes isn't about consumption vs production devices, it's about curated experiences. Apple can veto your income on the insistence of popular opinion or on a whim, or with no stated reason at all. The author extrapolates that this can lead to an effective restriction of freedom of the press by Apple and other gatekeepers.
This is a real problem and is not alleviated just because you still use a PC to write software.
- onemoreact 15y agoYour forgetting about the web. Apple does not veto websites just things in their little walled garden.
- yannickt 15y agoTrue, but if people spend more time in apps than browsing the web, then web apps might be harder to monetize than native apps on mobile devices.
- dextorious 15y agoAnd god forbid if we let users spend more time to the kind of apps they love, instead of forcing them to use the web so we can monetize it better...
- bad_user 15y agoConsidering how Apple controls the operating system, the app store, the browser and the whole device in general, it wouldn't be technically hard for Apple to censor websites either. Plus, Apple is restricting the browser on purpose, to make it less useful. Tell me, how can you create an online image editing software, if Apple doesn't allow you to upload files from iPhone's browser? And what Apple is doing today would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago. Censoring the web is perfectly within their grasp and you should see that, otherwise you're not seeing the forest from the trees.
- onemoreact 15y agoThe most popular home computers have always been walled gardens where the manufacture got a cut from every peace of software sold. A huge chunk of all consumer software runs on them and there approval could easily make or break a software development house. We just called them 'game consoles' and conveniently forgot that their approval process was far more expensive and difficult than anything Angry Birds needed to bother with. So, I don't think there is anything all that novel about the iOS approach and I find it hard to think of such things as an erosion of control when consoles predated the PC in most peoples homes and tended to be far more draconian than iOS. Do you even remember how bad phones and their app stores where like pre Apple? PS: Microsoft had no problem getting skin into this game and started taking their cut well before Apple produced iOS. Despite what the article says.
- bad_user 15y agoPeople mention 'game consoles' a lot, as if that's a good thing. However, the best games have always been running on PCs first, often with exclusivity. Starcraft, The Sims, World of Warcraft, Half Life, Counter Strike, SimCity, Quake, Diablo 1 & 2 and the list can go on. I own a Wii as it came free with my Internet subscription. It's gathering dust since last year. The games are simply not addictive. And this feeling I had on PS 2 too - the games feel too dumb and non-engaging, lacking taste. Which is why I never bothered. Some people like these games consoles. I never did.
- lloeki 15y ago> However, the best games have always been running on PCs first, often with exclusivity. [list] Confirmation bias. See Mario, Contra, Chrono Trigger, Sonic, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Halo, Alan Wake, Uncharted, Metroid, Heavy Rain, Sega Rally, Gran Turismo, Tekken, Street Fighter, Soul Edge, Forza Motorsport and the list can go on.
- bonch 15y agoHowever, the best games have always been running on PCs first, often with exclusivity. It's ridiculous to pretend this is anything more than your opinion.
- astine 15y agoThe author addresses that as well. By making a change to the only permissible browser on iOS and Apple could block sites they don't like as well. It's fortunate that they don't currently do this but we shouldn't let them get into a position where they can. edit: grammar, attitude.
- rbanffy 15y agoUntil a judge orders Apple to blacklist or redirect a list of domains for any legal reason. Yesterday it was because of counterfeit purses. Tomorrow it could be about national security. We shouldn't make it easy.
- bmohlenhoff 15y agoOnce a federal judge tells you to do something, you pretty much have to do it, no matter who you are.
- pyre 15y agoThe point is that without a gatekeeper, who does that judge order around?
- sliverstorm 15y agoWell, I have read some pretty convincing articles discussing the walled garden effect, and I have concluded that inevitably Apple's walls will either come down or they will move to greener (read: more wall-able) pastures. It is only a matter of time, so I do not worry.