201–210 of 483 posts
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We also weren't using as many walled-garden devices and ecosystems a decade ago. There are certainly a lot of issues with the app store model. But using a service like download.com was also rife with issues.
Why can't we just have the equivalent of APT for mobile devices?
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Who here has read Franz Kafka?
Is that a blog or Twitter account?
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Third choice: buy advice/services from an expert with similarly aligned interests. If the walled gardens charge 50% on top of the manufacturer's price (or 33% what the customer pays), there is plenty of room to undercut there.
> buy advice/services from an expert with similarly aligned interests. For most people, that's probably the walled gardens that people not on HN don't complain about.
How many of us have set up a clueless person's computer? We give them a restricted user account, so they can't install 500 random spyware/adware toolbars. We change the IE/Edge shortcut to open Firefox instead. We install ad-blockers and script-blockers with an overly generous whitelist. Maybe we even install Linux with remote admin, and automatic updates, and just slap on a wm that looks vaguely like Windows. Their expert is us, or people like us, and our services are not always bought with spendable currency.
I don't always enjoy being that expert, or getting paid for it in cookies and ugly sweaters. And in that situation, the walled garden is great. We can all roll our clueless friends up in carpets and dump them over the wall, where they can stumble around all day without getting hurt.
But some people can actually make a business out of it. They do exist. And some of them won't shamelessly price-gouge their clueless customers.
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They've improved user security, but the amount of garbage to sift through is terrible. From my POV, it's like complaining that the seat belt left a bruise after an automotive collision; IOW, missing the bigger picture. I can sort my own garbage, thanks (and that's not to say that you're not right about the quality in app stores). It's easy, and if I screw it up then I've just got a garbage binary taking up space that…
My point was more that they aren't entirely a trade off from ended up a mess of malware and abusive advertising. That second problem remains unsolved (crap apps blasted into the stores just to show ads fit my definition of abusive advertising).
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So instead of fobbing him off they should have said "sorry, on the help desk we can't see that information, I'm escalating this issue to X who will contact you with more information in Y days"
That isn't how you deal with fraudsters. You tell them nothing, complete stonewall. Anything you say about why they were flagged will assist them in not getting flagged next time, so you tell them nothing. Some non-zero percent of time you will flag the wrong person and start a social media shit storm but that's just the cost of doing business.
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>> The EU thinks that they can post-facto change the law to effect Irish companies. This is illegal and immoral. You are severely misinformed. Ireland broke rules it agreed to under treaty in order to join the single market that have been enforced for decades, often regarding EU based companies. State aid is defined as giving advantages to one company but not others, thereby distorting competitive markets. Ireland is…
I'm in no way a Google fanboy: I'm typing this on my Mac, in Safari, which has DuckDuckGo set its search engine. But I think it's kind of nuts that Google could negotiate a tax arrangement with an entity and abide by it in good faith, then have another entity come along and say "your terms are invalid. You owe more in taxes now." For instance, suppose I were the CEO of a company that negotiated a deal with, say, Utah…
Besides, liability laws are a clusterfuck.
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Try contacting Google about anything.
No one was making that comparison.. Being "less shitty that someone else" is not a good thing from any viewpoint..
The thing the pisses me of about these cases is this: "I called them again and they said they can’t provide more information." They terminate your account and then they even refuse to tell you why. A basic human thing, a chance to fix the issue, but no. Go f* yourself from Apple and that's it.
That's very common with anything where a company claims fraud is suspected, because they argue that sharing any details will allow scammers and people doing fraudulent activity to figure out ways to game the system. Google does the same thing when they kill your AdSense account for "invalid click activity" right before you're about to get a big payout. Amazon does the same thing with Amazon Payments. No explanation,…
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This is the first time I've heard of this (not a mac user but am a developer). At least as this is software for developers, I reckon most won't mind buying it outside the appstore, it sounds really useful.
It's a lifesaver on planes where you won't have internet. If only I could download an archive of stackoverflow too, then I'd be set.