4 ms·

I was unopinionated about Apple's walled garden until the events of last week. Now I'm pro side-loading. If you've been on the fence, hope this changes your min

I was unopinionated about Apple's walled garden until the events of last week. Now I'm pro side-loading. If you've been on the fence, hope this changes your mind.

alabastervlog 2y ago
I must have missed this one among... you know, everything. What happened with Apple?
- happytoexplain 2y ago
  You're replying to the author - they're referring to their blog post.
  - alabastervlog 2y ago
    Well, color me stupid. Thanks.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- patcon 2y ago
  Heh you're interacting with the author. The "last week" is the family emergency from the article (I had the same thought as you at first :)
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    And you couldn’t go to the website?
    - patcon 1y ago
      I'd read the link. It was the comment framing or maybe the understandable default assumption for readers living in this outpaced world, that one can't keep up with breaking news. Your response is kinda shitty toward the very part where I was trying to validate their misread as reasonable. Decent strangers sometimes do that for one another
- moritzwarhier 2y ago
  Geofencing is not exclusive to Apple. Not even to native mobile apps. As you likely already known :) While the submission does make an important point, it seems a bit obfuscated by accusing Apple exclusively. Seems like main benefit of the side-loading was bypassing the geofence. And while native apps provide heavier geo-attribution (thus, probably harder to fake), I'm not sure if this is solely an Android vs Apple thing.
moritzwarhier 2y ago
Thanks for sharing this. I agree with others that this issue is primarily caused by the insurer (why does this need an app?) and dysfunctional healthcare governed by money and greed. Still it's a good reminder of what you're getting into with walled gardens. More broadly, it is a real shame how corporations have turned mobile internet into the complete opposite of what it could achieve. Ideally, the only thing tied to a specific hardware or software provider should be your identity. And imho, said provider should be controlled by state government, and be accessible from any device, given the proof of identity.
1659447091 2y ago
If I am understanding, you were in United Arab Emirates (UAE), but your phone was logged into an account set to a different region? If that is the case I am surprised that is the first time you ran into a geo locked app and didn't already have another Apple account for that region that you could log into. This was one of the first things I quickly learned to do if I wanted my iPhone to be useful at all when I spent many months living in a (non-Western) country. (using apps for their services)
hofrogs 2y ago
"side-loading"? you surely mean "installing software that you want on a device that you own". don't use abusive corporate language.
- BobaFloutist 2y ago
  "You can't get it from the app store? Have you tried installing software that you want on a device that you own it? Sometimes that works better"
mrgoldenbrown 2y ago
Isn't this more an issue with your insurance company not having a phone number or web site you could have used instead of the app?

I was unopinionated about Apple's walled garden until the events of last week. Now I'm pro side-loading. If you've been on the fence, hope this changes your mind.

alabastervlog 2y ago

I must have missed this one among... you know, everything. What happened with Apple?

happytoexplain 2y ago
You're replying to the author - they're referring to their blog post.
- alabastervlog 2y ago
  Well, color me stupid. Thanks.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
patcon 2y ago
Heh you're interacting with the author. The "last week" is the family emergency from the article (I had the same thought as you at first :)
- scarface_74 2y ago
  And you couldn’t go to the website?
  - patcon 1y ago
    I'd read the link. It was the comment framing or maybe the understandable default assumption for readers living in this outpaced world, that one can't keep up with breaking news. Your response is kinda shitty toward the very part where I was trying to validate their misread as reasonable. Decent strangers sometimes do that for one another
moritzwarhier 2y ago
Geofencing is not exclusive to Apple. Not even to native mobile apps. As you likely already known :) While the submission does make an important point, it seems a bit obfuscated by accusing Apple exclusively. Seems like main benefit of the side-loading was bypassing the geofence. And while native apps provide heavier geo-attribution (thus, probably harder to fake), I'm not sure if this is solely an Android vs Apple thing.

moritzwarhier 2y ago

Thanks for sharing this. I agree with others that this issue is primarily caused by the insurer (why does this need an app?) and dysfunctional healthcare governed by money and greed. Still it's a good reminder of what you're getting into with walled gardens. More broadly, it is a real shame how corporations have turned mobile internet into the complete opposite of what it could achieve. Ideally, the only thing tied to a specific hardware or software provider should be your identity. And imho, said provider should be controlled by state government, and be accessible from any device, given the proof of identity.

1659447091 2y ago

If I am understanding, you were in United Arab Emirates (UAE), but your phone was logged into an account set to a different region? If that is the case I am surprised that is the first time you ran into a geo locked app and didn't already have another Apple account for that region that you could log into. This was one of the first things I quickly learned to do if I wanted my iPhone to be useful at all when I spent many months living in a (non-Western) country. (using apps for their services)

hofrogs 2y ago

"side-loading"? you surely mean "installing software that you want on a device that you own". don't use abusive corporate language.

BobaFloutist 2y ago
"You can't get it from the app store? Have you tried installing software that you want on a device that you own it? Sometimes that works better"

mrgoldenbrown 2y ago

Isn't this more an issue with your insurance company not having a phone number or web site you could have used instead of the app?