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Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

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Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#881
Is this the same Apple that received tariff exemptions for items imported from China? https://9to5mac.com/2019/09/30/apple-mac-pro-us-manufacturin...

Looks like Apple are getting to have their cake and eat it too. It's good business for the moment, but the wire they're dancing on seems to be getting thinner by the day.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#882

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you that it is more complicated than just leaving or not. Plus, Apple is currently dependent on Chinese manufacturing (a problem of Apples own making for sure). I would love to know what the conversations are between Apple and China right now. IMO, Apple has to be working towards removing their dependence on Chinese manufacturing, if for nothing else for business risk mitigation.

> Apple is currently dependent on Chinese manufacturing This seems like the single most overlooked aspect of this. Bc of this, China has existential leverage over Apple.

The single most overlooked aspect of this is how many Chinese are employed as part of Apple’s supply chain. It is not in CCP interest to destroy millions of Chinese citizens’ incomes.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#883

Blizzard and now Apple. I think this is very serious and it should be a wake-up call. As simple citizens we don't have much choices but vote with our wallets and use social networks to attack the most valuable asset of those companies, their reputation.

I've been using Android since the beginning, and I think Google is making it worse and worse with each passing day. I was thinking of switching to Apple. I really like where they're going with this privacy stuff. But, no, not a chance. Fuck Apple forever over this decision. I will never buy an Apple product in my life unless they make this right.

Apple is pulling an app that's available online as a web site. Google assists the Chinese military in developing AI to round up muslims for organ harvesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqWVH38jtQo

Apple is responding to a threat from China, whereas Google is actively assisting the Chinese. Just thought you'd like to know that.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#884

This is why Apple will always be a second-class citizen to Android. If I have a good reason, I can toggle a setting and install APKs built by anyone. If I have a good reason, I can wipe my phone and unlock the bootloader to literally replace and de-Google the entire OS. When I buy a phone, it's a hardware product I'm buying. Just like when you buy a PC/laptop, what you run on it is your business, not the manufacturer…

> If I have a good reason, I can toggle a setting and install APKs built by anyone. If I have a good reason, I can wipe my phone and unlock the bootloader to literally replace and de-Google the entire OS. This is not possible for many (and I suspect the majority of) android phones.

Which ones? I've used 5 different brands, and all of them could.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#885
post #324

And in one fell swoop, Apple has made it effectively impossible to install this app on your phone. There's no realistic workaround. † Apple should never have been capable of making such a drastic decision for all of their customers. It's one thing to make determinations about what products are allowed in your store, but quite another to unilaterally ban software from what is many people's primary computer. We live in…

>And in one fell swoop, Apple has made it effectively impossible to install this app on your phone. There's no realistic workaround. Make the app a Web App and visit it in Safari. Apple has banned it being notarized and distributed from their App Store but iPhones still have access to the conventional web which Apple has no control over.

OR go to android that allows you to sideload apps from other sources. Of course, you run the risk of malware, then but at least if Google were to pull something like this you could just sideload it.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#886
post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This argument reminds me of the gun control argument. People in favour of "more guns" are fully aware that more guns means a more dangerous society. But they consider the freedom to choose whether to own guns more important than living in a statistically safer society. Whereas, people in favour of "gun control" consider the safety of society overall to be much more important than the freedom to own devices designed t…

This also mirrors Chinese vs. American values perfectly. The Chinese believe in the Apple model of safety, greater good, social harmony, and the ends justifying the means over individual liberties. The concentration camps, great firewall, IP theft, everything we see as dysfunctional about China stems from this belief system. Americans don't believe in the "greater good" or "the ends justify the means" and it results…

This is a terrible generalization and greatly conflates the people and the government of China, which has been ignoring philosophers and politicians extolling such values for decades.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#887

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember you from our earlier discussions as well. Even though we disagreed, I always thought you sounded intelligent and thoughtful. But somehow you felt the need to resort to naming calling and baseless speculations here. The facts are really not on your side, are they?

To be really clear I am not accusing you or the other accounts of being shills or bots. Statistically, you were born in China and were sent to study overseas. The issue is that the aggregate activity of accounts like yours on overseas forums like reddit/HN is effectively a nationalistic propaganda campaign even though you probably don't realise it. The reverse would be if thousands of random Redditors who are enraged…

[flagged]

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#888

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an incredibly weak argument. Android absolutely destroys iOS in market share, it's not even a comparison. That's why it's targeted by malware writers. That doesn't mean it's any less secure than iOS. You have to try very hard to infect your phone. I'd pick being able to run whatever I want over Apples choice of apps any day.

Popularity == better? OK :) "Try very hard" == be on a wifi network, or download an app that appears to be completely legit from the vendor's own digital distribution platform? OK :)

Popularity means that it's a bigger target for malicious software authors.

https://thenextweb.com/apps/2019/10/01/google-play-android-m...

> On the bright side, most of the harmful software appears to have been purged by Google. “If not all of these apps, then definitely most of them are not available on Google Play anymore,” Stefanko told TNW.

This is a trade off of having an open ecosystem. I only install well reviewed and well known, quality apps so I have never had any malware on the dozens of phones I have owned over the years. I prefer having a small chance of being infected by malware by my own actions over a closed ecosystem and only being able to install what Google deems worthy on my device any day.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#889
post #847

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what point you are making. Android isn't closed, the entire os is open source. If anything is closed it is iOS.

AOSP, which is hardly ever run on its own, is open source. Things like the Play store are entirely closed source. A majority of the API shipped by the Play store are closed source. Many hardware drivers are closed source. The majority of the operating system is Apache licensed, allowing a handset maker to ship modified components without publishing their changes. Many vendors also prevent the user from installing the…

Google Play store is a very small part of Android. Just the fact that vendors can ship modified components is a testament to Android being open. Even Huawei shipped a modified version of Android with Google services such as the Play store removed due to sanctions.

Also in comparison to iOS, Android is a heck of a lot more open. Apple can ship whatever they want and no one would be none the wiser. Plus you can't install whatever software you want on an Apple device, and are restricted to what Apple thinks is acceptable.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#890
post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And in one fell swoop, Apple has made it effectively impossible to install this app on your phone. There's no realistic workaround. Make the app a Web App and visit it in Safari. Apple has banned it being notarized and distributed from their App Store but iPhones still have access to the conventional web which Apple has no control over.

> Make the app a Web App and visit it in Safari. Is the web censored in HK?

To the best of my knowledge, no. It's certainly not behind the Great Firewall of China.
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