4 ms·

>Choice is not always easiest to the user, and iOS's original value proposition is that it removes much of the choice and makes things easy, so that they just w

by slg 4y ago

>Choice is not always easiest to the user, and iOS's original value proposition is that it removes much of the choice and makes things easy, so that they just work™ and include all you may ever need™. Good thing if this apples to you; you just need not make any changes to the way you're already using your iOS device. But this now removes the choice for the end user who likes the it just works™ experience because the developers with power like Meta will likely force it on us. It is reducing Apple's power, but it is empowering Meta, Google, Amazon, and other big tech companies who are seemingly even less likely to act in the end user's best interest than Apple. If you were one of the users who wanted the choice of adult content or a different browser, you always had the choice to use Android.

smoldesu 4y ago
It doesn't Just Work, though. Developers are tired of it, and making things Just Work relied on the unfair exploitation of developers and restrictions of user freedom. If your digital utopia is predicated on software genocide, then it's not poised to last long.
- nine_k 4y ago
  I think that Apple quite deliberately do not make the life of smaller developers any easier. They seem to not want all these small fish, they would prefer to interact with serious corporate developers like Adobe. I won't be surprised if they increased the developer license fee to, say, a minimum $499/year for a group of 5 developers, maybe with a special provision for students. They already have too many small titles in their App Store, they likely would prefer fewer high-profile titles, like game consoles have it.
nine_k 4y ago
While I understand your concern of who strongarms whom, I don't see it as a departure from the original promise of iOS. If you need FB or Google, and they go crazy and refuse to keep their apps in App Store, they have web versions, and will definitely maintain them. (As do Reddit and Twitter, despite their trying hard to persuade me to use their apps.) If you think about Google Meet or FB Messanger, then why? iOS has perfectly good iMessage and FaceTime, and I call them perfectly good completely unironically here. You can still keep your iOS device as locked-down as before, unless you need certain forbidden non-apple fruit. But that was the case a year ago, too.
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  I'm also not convinced that the EU would just let Meta or Google and the like to create privacy-infringing, data-vacuuming third party app stores and then do nothing about it. Those app stores would become nice big targets of every regulator instantly. Not to mention, I wonder if they might be hit with anti-monopoly violations if they pull crucial apps (e.g. WhatsApp) off of the main official App Store in order to force users to switch to their third party stores. Regulators would probably mandate they keep such apps available in as many places as possible. Feels like a public safety issue for people who communicate mainly on WhatsApp, or an intrusive business issue for companies that use Google Meet. There's probably a legal case in it somewhere to be made.

by slg 4y ago

smoldesu 4y ago

It doesn't Just Work, though. Developers are tired of it, and making things Just Work relied on the unfair exploitation of developers and restrictions of user freedom. If your digital utopia is predicated on software genocide, then it's not poised to last long.

nine_k 4y ago
I think that Apple quite deliberately do not make the life of smaller developers any easier. They seem to not want all these small fish, they would prefer to interact with serious corporate developers like Adobe. I won't be surprised if they increased the developer license fee to, say, a minimum $499/year for a group of 5 developers, maybe with a special provision for students. They already have too many small titles in their App Store, they likely would prefer fewer high-profile titles, like game consoles have it.

nine_k 4y ago

While I understand your concern of who strongarms whom, I don't see it as a departure from the original promise of iOS. If you need FB or Google, and they go crazy and refuse to keep their apps in App Store, they have web versions, and will definitely maintain them. (As do Reddit and Twitter, despite their trying hard to persuade me to use their apps.) If you think about Google Meet or FB Messanger, then why? iOS has perfectly good iMessage and FaceTime, and I call them perfectly good completely unironically here. You can still keep your iOS device as locked-down as before, unless you need certain forbidden non-apple fruit. But that was the case a year ago, too.

Apocryphon 4y ago
I'm also not convinced that the EU would just let Meta or Google and the like to create privacy-infringing, data-vacuuming third party app stores and then do nothing about it. Those app stores would become nice big targets of every regulator instantly. Not to mention, I wonder if they might be hit with anti-monopoly violations if they pull crucial apps (e.g. WhatsApp) off of the main official App Store in order to force users to switch to their third party stores. Regulators would probably mandate they keep such apps available in as many places as possible. Feels like a public safety issue for people who communicate mainly on WhatsApp, or an intrusive business issue for companies that use Google Meet. There's probably a legal case in it somewhere to be made.