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Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

marketwatch.com

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Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#361

Post by leppr »

tommymachine wrote: post #319
Barrin92 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And virtually unavoidable in the smartphone app space because of the gatekeeping function of the stores. I don't know exactly how we got here given that nobody would have accepted this sort of curation on a desktop, but we somehow just walked into it on our phones.

And arguably far more necessary. We have our phones turned on and with us almost 100% of the time we are alive. They can track our locations and hear everything we say. It's more important to control what apps can have access to with smartphones than it was on any prior platform.

And yet open source solutions seem way less popular on mobile than their desktop equivalents.

Seems more like a justification for passive acceptance to me.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#362

Post by omegabravo »

simonh wrote: post #342
omegabravo wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which major operating system doesn't have an app store equivalent?

Thats being pretty pedantic. Introduce one successfully is a pretty obvious implication. Even after almost a decade of desktop app stores they’re still really struggling to get user acceptance outside a few niches. In fact the only one I’d count as an actual commercial success is Steam.

indeed, my mistake I misunderstood the post

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#363

Post by r_c_a_d »

tommymachine wrote: post #319
Barrin92 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And virtually unavoidable in the smartphone app space because of the gatekeeping function of the stores. I don't know exactly how we got here given that nobody would have accepted this sort of curation on a desktop, but we somehow just walked into it on our phones.

And arguably far more necessary. We have our phones turned on and with us almost 100% of the time we are alive. They can track our locations and hear everything we say. It's more important to control what apps can have access to with smartphones than it was on any prior platform.

My phone is on and with me for less than 50% of the time.

Just saying; phones are not as important to everyone as you think.

(yes, I am over 40)

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#364

Post by masonic »

tommymachine wrote: post #319
Barrin92 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And virtually unavoidable in the smartphone app space because of the gatekeeping function of the stores. I don't know exactly how we got here given that nobody would have accepted this sort of curation on a desktop, but we somehow just walked into it on our phones.

And arguably far more necessary. We have our phones turned on and with us almost 100% of the time we are alive. They can track our locations and hear everything we say. It's more important to control what apps can have access to with smartphones than it was on any prior platform.

  control what apps can have access to with smartphones
But the Play store doesn't do that. It just documents what permissions are sought by the app, not whether this privileges are appropriate... hence flashlight apps seeking Contacts and Location.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#365

Post by michaelmrose »

tommymachine wrote: post #352
michaelmrose wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if apple agrees to censorship in order to do business with communist china or a future even more authoritarian US. Hard to control billions of users that own machines easy to strong arm a few vendors that don't want to be excluded from lucrative markets.

Sounds farfetched.

You don't believe the Chinese government would force companies that want to do business in China to censor things they don't agree with or you have failed to notice the US trying to force companies to use compromised encryption so that they can spy on all communication?

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#366

Post by cm2187 »

threeseed wrote: post #282
Donzo wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess what we're seeing here is a developer/development-first ideology versus a platform-first ideology. Should the developer/development have to resubmit to the benevolent platform? Or should the platform have to support the development that has occurred? I don't really care, but I know that I'd rather develop somewhere where my contributions aren't under constant threat of being wiped off the landscape. Again, go…

You have painted this false dichotomy. In Apple's world: The users come first. Everyone else second.

I strongly disagree. Apple has made a lot of user-hostile moves recently. Suppressing ports to sell more dongles, constant nagging for apple paid services, uping prices to make up for lack of growth in volumes. Profits first, users and developers not on the map.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#367

Post by cm2187 »

scarface74 wrote: post #330
Donzo wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess what we're seeing here is a developer/development-first ideology versus a platform-first ideology. Should the developer/development have to resubmit to the benevolent platform? Or should the platform have to support the development that has occurred? I don't really care, but I know that I'd rather develop somewhere where my contributions aren't under constant threat of being wiped off the landscape. Again, go…

And then you end up with Windows. Hack upon hack upon hack to keep old software running. It increases the surfaces of bugs and security vulnerabilities.

And you need that if that platform is to be used for anything serious. I don’t see Macs in the enterprise. And linux has the same obsession with backward compatibility / not breaking user space when making changes in the kernel.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#368

Post by teekert »

Dear Netflix, I want to use your services but you are the only app that I can't find in the play store of my not-rooted, fully Play store capable Lineage OS device. It's a pain. And why do I need the app? Because Chromecast is the only convenient way to start watching Netflix on a TV (for an Android user). Why won't you make a Kodi plugin?

If you want to be independent, be serious about it, make it easy to find the latest apk on netflix.com/apk, instead of apkmirror. Make it easy for users who pay to enjoy your service the way they want to. Seems to me like Netflix themselves are the ones pushing Play and App store official routes on official, completely locked-in devices.

I was on a app diet when I still had my first gen Moto G (with 8 GB of memory) and I found that almost everything I used apps for before had websites that were as functional as the app (or even more functional in the case of Facebook), minus all the obligatory tracking (if you choose so).

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#369

Post by PhasmaFelis »

r_c_a_d wrote: post #363
tommymachine wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And arguably far more necessary. We have our phones turned on and with us almost 100% of the time we are alive. They can track our locations and hear everything we say. It's more important to control what apps can have access to with smartphones than it was on any prior platform.

My phone is on and with me for less than 50% of the time. Just saying; phones are not as important to everyone as you think. (yes, I am over 40)

Good for you. Unfortunately, your personal habits aren't really relevant to the global impact of these policies.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#370

Post by cm2187 »

threeseed wrote: post #259
Donzo wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A website from 1996 will look much the same in a modern version of Chrome. Good luck with your SDKs.

What a hilarious statement to make. Sure a website from 1996 will look the same. It will also have no accessibility, work terribly on mobile, be largely like reading a Word document and have none of the interesting features of modern web sites. Your world is not the world most people want.

There is a lot to be said about adaptive web fails, text or graphics overflowing outside of the screen while locking the zoom level, botched overrides of browser behaviors. A simple old html page is often more readable on a smartphone than a page where the developper tried hard to fuck with the way it is rendered on a small screen. If the text is too small you can easily zoom in. And most smartphones these days have large, high dpi screens.
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