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Apple is the bastion of gatekeeping walled gardens. Ofc there is reasons to demand a rationale for certain API feature access, but some of these are pretty comm

by jadbox 3y ago

Apple is the bastion of gatekeeping walled gardens. Ofc there is reasons to demand a rationale for certain API feature access, but some of these are pretty common. It seems like they are really demanding more app feature justification in general. It feels that developing apps for Apple is more akin to being an Uber driver where there's very strict guidelines to being an operator. There's zero room to build any platform software [e.g. no side loading, no 3rd party browser engines allowed, no alt payments methods, no emulation, no platform mods, etc].

tmpX7dMeXU 3y ago
I disagree with that analogy. I don’t believe that you’ve raised it in good faith. It just agrees with your view. The situation is the situation, plain and simple. There are too many contextual differences. People have built multi-million and multi-billion-dollar businesses on apps distributed via the App Store. You can’t say the same for Uber drivers. People have built truly differentiated, revolutionary experiences distributed via the App Store. Uber drivers have very little room for differentiation. Be honest.
- aaomidi 3y ago
  Agreed, the power is no where nearly imbalanced.
zitterbewegung 3y ago
I don’t disagree that they are one of the most restrictive walled gardens but to push the narrative of them valuing security misuse of APIs to fingerprint furthers that. But who are we kidding when this can disrupt current strategies to deliver ads to their users by third parties. Also, if you are pushing some kind of software to a platform you are beholden to the platform. This has been argued to the beginning where software repositories run by corporations can get you kicked off of it. All of what you are saying in the second paragraph have been rules for a long time on the App Store and it is the most lucrative for the App Store to develop for which supports developers . If you want to do what you want using android is an alternative but then you have to remove the shovelware or buy a Pixel. Also the google Play store has less to offer and isn’t well policed since the App Store is more lucrative with more rules.
- st3fan 3y ago
  > If you want to do what you want using android is an alternative … I don’t agree with this. Google is implementing many restrictions, checks and rules too. Just like Apple. Their play store rules are equally comprehensive. It is true that Google has a different approach to Android APIs and extensibility but they face many of the same problems as Apple has on their platform and you can see that they react to that every Android release by adding new security and privacy features or policies.
  - zitterbewegung 3y ago
    You can flash grapheneos on your device and then side load which really isn’t possible with an iPhone. I was alluding to this but I should had made that more apparent .
nerdjon 3y ago
But how much do people really actually want any of that (the single exception is emulation for me). We often have developers complaining about certain restrictions on iOS but never ask if users care? For me a key reason I choose iOS is because of the restrictions given to developers. Just to be clear I also find myself annoyed at some of the restrictions, like I find it particularly annoying that given all of their talk about the iPad (and Vision Pro) being a computer I will likely never be able to do my job on one since I can't run my own code there. BUT I don't push too hard for it since I recognize that adding the ability for that opens up other issues that would affect me when just being a normal user.

by jadbox 3y ago

tmpX7dMeXU 3y ago

I disagree with that analogy. I don’t believe that you’ve raised it in good faith. It just agrees with your view. The situation is the situation, plain and simple. There are too many contextual differences. People have built multi-million and multi-billion-dollar businesses on apps distributed via the App Store. You can’t say the same for Uber drivers. People have built truly differentiated, revolutionary experiences distributed via the App Store. Uber drivers have very little room for differentiation. Be honest.

aaomidi 3y ago
Agreed, the power is no where nearly imbalanced.

zitterbewegung 3y ago

I don’t disagree that they are one of the most restrictive walled gardens but to push the narrative of them valuing security misuse of APIs to fingerprint furthers that. But who are we kidding when this can disrupt current strategies to deliver ads to their users by third parties. Also, if you are pushing some kind of software to a platform you are beholden to the platform. This has been argued to the beginning where software repositories run by corporations can get you kicked off of it. All of what you are saying in the second paragraph have been rules for a long time on the App Store and it is the most lucrative for the App Store to develop for which supports developers . If you want to do what you want using android is an alternative but then you have to remove the shovelware or buy a Pixel. Also the google Play store has less to offer and isn’t well policed since the App Store is more lucrative with more rules.

st3fan 3y ago
> If you want to do what you want using android is an alternative … I don’t agree with this. Google is implementing many restrictions, checks and rules too. Just like Apple. Their play store rules are equally comprehensive. It is true that Google has a different approach to Android APIs and extensibility but they face many of the same problems as Apple has on their platform and you can see that they react to that every Android release by adding new security and privacy features or policies.
- zitterbewegung 3y ago
  You can flash grapheneos on your device and then side load which really isn’t possible with an iPhone. I was alluding to this but I should had made that more apparent .

nerdjon 3y ago

But how much do people really actually want any of that (the single exception is emulation for me). We often have developers complaining about certain restrictions on iOS but never ask if users care? For me a key reason I choose iOS is because of the restrictions given to developers. Just to be clear I also find myself annoyed at some of the restrictions, like I find it particularly annoying that given all of their talk about the iPad (and Vision Pro) being a computer I will likely never be able to do my job on one since I can't run my own code there. BUT I don't push too hard for it since I recognize that adding the ability for that opens up other issues that would affect me when just being a normal user.