Apple is developing a feature for using apps without requiring full downloads

Post by saagarjha » Fri, Apr 10, 2020, 7:14 AM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #84

onion2k wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't remember the last time I installed an app that was only 20MB. Even the most simple things weigh in at 100MB and up these days. The most ridiculous example I've seen lately is the mobile version of the Gwent card game from the Witcher game series. It's 2.7GB. For a card game.

The unnecessarily large apps probably use cross-platform tools that ship their runtime with each installation, losing out on Apple's optimizations or they have multiple ad tracking or 3rd party UI libraries. I am not an expert in mobile dev by any means since I switched from web to native mobile development barely a year ago but when I was still resisting to learn the native way of doing things I was exploring the cr…

Post by saagarjha » Fri, Apr 10, 2020, 7:17 AM UTC

dheera wrote: post #24

diggan wrote: post #22

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It requires three things that are famously hard for Apple (and Google and many others too, not just Apple, to be fair) to achieve: - Work with others on standards - Expose things on a open platform that won't allow you to have full control over what's possible for developers and users to do and use - Admit that sometimes you're wrong and you have to change according to others

If all you want to do is deviate from standards on purpose, just change to and base64 encode the .html file (for no reason) and call the resulting file .iapp. Done. Standards broken. Proprietary status achieved with minimal effort. Change ".css" to ".bss" if you want to go the extra mile. and leave everything else as-is? Sounds like a win-win for both developers and biz dev.

Post by saagarjha » Fri, Apr 10, 2020, 7:20 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #62

diggan wrote: post #6

> this new API, we can say that it allows developers to offer interactive and dynamic content from their apps even if you haven’t installed them Also formerly known as Web Applications but now made by Apple with the added features of less control from the developers, a 30% mandatory fee if you accept any payments of any kind and locked to just one platform.

So tell me again why I would want a slower, less feature fill web app? Also, what makes you think I would put my credit card info on a random website?

Post by saagarjha » Fri, Apr 10, 2020, 7:22 AM UTC

holoduke wrote: post #39

voz_ wrote: post #28

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> That's true. But that's up to the company deciding over the operating system and the browser in the end. The OS is far more powerful, and allows for deeper integration and writing in far faster languages. The browser abstracts away the machine. Most JS writers today have no idea or understanding of the actual computer they are writing against. It's a sandbox for them, and it's the reason apps today bloat to hundred…

What is native? On Android the native Java UI kit is slow and not native. You need a lot of fancy work to get fast c UI libs working on the 1000 different android devices. Goodluck with that. Browsers are probably the most optimized virtual UI machines out there. Sure not native, but I would argue that an integrated webview with proper css3 is much better optimized that using the android component framework or native…

Post by simplify » Fri, Apr 10, 2020, 8:00 AM UTC

kllrnohj wrote: post #40

diggan wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did you provide similar feedback when that was announced? I did not, as I'm a lot more bored at this point in time and also have a lot of more free time. But I do feel the same about both of the platforms movement towards "instant apps" that could have been equally solved by making web apps work better on respective platforms, instead of trying to solve the same problem again.

> But I do feel the same about both of the platforms movement towards "instant apps" that could have been equally solved by making web apps work better on respective platforms, instead of trying to solve the same problem again. The web ecosystem has been trying to solve this for almost a decade now and has made relatively little progress. There's no reason to believe Apple could suddenly solve it in a few months if t…