3 ms·
What a nasty piece of scare tactics. I am a big Apple user, in many senses really a fan. But these scare tactics are just off. First of all, the safety promise
by _ph_ 3y ago
What a nasty piece of scare tactics.
I am a big Apple user, in many senses really a fan. But these scare tactics are just off. First of all, the safety promises of the Apple store are way worse than Apple makes them. There is tons of dubious apps around which rob users quickly, just barely within the guide lines. Often enough, bad apps slip through the nets. On the other side, many absolutely legit apps get blocked due to bad review or overzealous restrictions.
Would it be a bad idea to install apps randomly from everywhere? Sure! Would it be a security risk to install well known open source software from a reputably curated alternate store? Most likely not! Also, the system should have more robust implementation which would prevent malicious apps of doing damage until the user explicitly grants entitlements.
And I would be much less interested in installing apps from different sources, if the content of the app store were just guided by safety concerns. But a ton of stuff is blocked just becaue Apple wants to block it. That is, where the demand for alternatives comes in. And lets not even talk about adult content. It would be great for the safety of the users, if Apple would allow such content within the protections of the App Store. But no, even though you have solid age information about your users, it is banned and people are driven to sources outside of the App Store safety and outside of secure payments.
- TheLoafOfBread 3y ago> But a ton of stuff is blocked just because Apple wants to block it I am avoiding to release anything on iOS (even that my customers would love it) because Apple can shut me down anytime they feel like. Can I sideload like on MacOS or Android? Nope. Can I recompile my app into PWA with decent WebBLE support? Nope, because every browser is reskinned Safari with a poor PWA support. So the moment when they decide to shut me down, all the effort to create iOS application will be thrown out of the window.
- Terretta 3y agoAnd yet by far most app devs have no fear of being shut down by Apple.
- pauby 3y agoSource?
- _ph_ 3y agoIs this based on any assertions or just how they feel? While the overall ration might not be terribly high, one can read again and again about cases where Apple did reject apps or app updates out of the blue. Some got resolved later on, others not. A common theme is, that you don't really have a direct point of contact, you can only send appeals to Apple. And when they decide to block you, you are done. There is no alternative. I wonder why lawmakers have not dealt with this topic yet, but alternative app stores would go quite a way of reducing the problem.