Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 330 posts

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#221

Post by millstone »

echelon wrote: post #151
Barrin92 wrote: post #113

Just more evidence that large platform and device owners will try to gate-keep and landgrab as much as they can and try to destroy the open web and force competitors into financial agreements to collect economic rent. There finally needs to be regulation on this. No banning of end user services as long as they're legal, I don't want a phone maker controlling what I do on the internet. It's ridiculous. Microsoft in th…

It's time for the DOJ to break up Apple. Together with Google, they're destroying the Internet and open computing. Soon, it'll be all information that is locked down and controlled. Computers didn't use to be like this. Apple has land grabbed their way here and is now clamping down harder than ever before. If we don't revolt, we're going to wind up in a terrible place where Apple and Google make all the movies and ga…

I demand open computing. I have it, it's cheaper than ever, like RPis are given away in cereal boxes.

I also have an iPad. I know I lose some software access (e.g. Facebook streaming games) but I also gain software, like Slay the Spire and FTL and Bastion. These games are iOS exclusive in part because iOS effectively prevents piracy, which is another way of saying that users cannot run whatever software they want.

I'm quite happy having some general-purpose computers, and also some purpose-built app-console devices. Why must every device be general purpose?

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#222

Post by marketingPro »

canofbars wrote: post #57
sillysaurusx wrote: post #22

Apple has always wanted to block "browser" type apps. If it can be used to install or view hundreds of other apps, then it's probably not a good fit for the iOS garden. We willingly give Apple money under this premise. I'm not sure why this is surprising.

>We willingly give Apple money under this premise. There are not enough competitors for this to actually be something you can choose. I use and will continue to use iphones because I care about privacy and updates. That doesn't mean I like what is happening with this case.

Apple does not support Privacy.

See PRISM

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#223

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

echelon wrote: post #188
threeseed wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am still waiting for someone to explain why an iPhone is a computer but not my Car, TV or Fridge. All of them can access web content, facilitate payments, do shopping and run applications. The reason it's important is because it would be the end of the gaming console model if they were forced to accept anything onto their app stores. Which would have pretty broad implications.

Have fun doing your taxes on your car, your banking on your tv, and your dating on your fridge. I definitely enjoy sending emails and shooting movies on my Nintendo. Speaking of which, should I get Shovel Knight on Nintendo Switch, Wii U, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, or Nintendo 3DS? I have lots of these, and I'm not sure which inexpensive device is the best for playing Sho…

> Have fun doing your taxes on your car, your banking on your tv, and your dating on your fridge.

Thanks! Just got to finish the level of Doom first.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#224

Post by cridenour »

cable2600 wrote: post #220
echelon wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's time for the DOJ to break up Apple. Together with Google, they're destroying the Internet and open computing. Soon, it'll be all information that is locked down and controlled. Computers didn't use to be like this. Apple has land grabbed their way here and is now clamping down harder than ever before. If we don't revolt, we're going to wind up in a terrible place where Apple and Google make all the movies and ga…

Your best time to break up Apple was when Trump was President. Now it is President Biden on Jan 20th, 2021. Biden likes Apple and Trump does not. Apple would be broken up into Mobile devices, Desktops, Software, MacOSX, and Internet services. MacOSX would have to be ported to the PC then with no owning the hardware the same with iOS.

Citation needed.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#225

Post by alexashka »

ravenstine wrote: post #172
echelon wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's time for the DOJ to break up Apple. Together with Google, they're destroying the Internet and open computing. Soon, it'll be all information that is locked down and controlled. Computers didn't use to be like this. Apple has land grabbed their way here and is now clamping down harder than ever before. If we don't revolt, we're going to wind up in a terrible place where Apple and Google make all the movies and ga…

Ain't gonna happen. This is how they want it. If they didn't, Big Tech would have been better regulated long ago. Having top down control over communication through private multinationals that all politically act in unison is exactly what the state desires.

This sounds entirely plausible but I wouldn't be surprised if it's utter incompetence of government workers (most of them are old and have no idea how the internet works) and fear mongering on behalf of tech companies that if we regulate, we'll lose the tech race to boogeyman competitor country of the decade.

Regulating big tech and keeping all tech under government's thumb are not at odds, so it makes me lean towards incompetence as the more likely culprit.

I predict there will be some government intervention but it'll be clumsy and counter-productive for at least another decade or two.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#226

Post by ShroudedNight »

superkuh wrote: post #159
Barrin92 wrote: post #113

Just more evidence that large platform and device owners will try to gate-keep and landgrab as much as they can and try to destroy the open web and force competitors into financial agreements to collect economic rent. There finally needs to be regulation on this. No banning of end user services as long as they're legal, I don't want a phone maker controlling what I do on the internet. It's ridiculous. Microsoft in th…

I am not being glib when I say: just don't use Apple. Yes, what they do is bad. But it isn't force. It isn't coercion. It's people coming to them and wanting to use their services. Just don't use their services. Just because you feel powerless in making individual choices doesn't mean advocating for the use of force against the company is moral.

Bundling absolutely is coercion. Apple makes some of, if not the best mobile hardware in the world. It would definitely be reasonable to purchase Apple hardware and run third-party software on it, just like on Macintosh. It would also be reasonable to run iOS on alternative hardware. Neither of those scenarios is possible today because Apple uses the compelling nature of individual aspects to force consumers to accept the entirety of their ecosystem.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#227

Post by tomasreimers »

"If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today"; "The solution is patenting as much as we can... a future startup with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants impose. That price might be high: Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors" - Bill Gates, cited in https://youtu.be/uH4RskpUFiA?t=1069

I believe what formerly happened with Software patents is currently happening with platforms. Lawrence Lessig (if you haven't read his works, highly recommend) talks a lot about how copyright is used to restrict creativity / culture / innovation. In this talk [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH4RskpUFiA] he makes the case that:

1. Creativity and innovation always builds on the past

2. The past always tries to control the creativity that builds on it

3. Free societies enable the future by limiting the past

4. Ours is less, and less, a free society

What's fascinating is Apple has gone a step above and beyond here to use their control over a platform to control the innovations built upon it. The end-state is that no one can do to Apple what Apple did to other players (leveraging free software--Unix--and open hardware Schemas to kick off their computing platform). This pattern is one we've seen with other players, and will result in more and more people "defensively" building out platforms (what I suspect Google is doing with Android and FB with Oculus; if Apple's monopoly is allowed to stand it's only reasonable that other companies will need competing personal-computing platforms as a bargaining chip).

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#228

Post by whatshisface »

millstone wrote: post #221
echelon wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's time for the DOJ to break up Apple. Together with Google, they're destroying the Internet and open computing. Soon, it'll be all information that is locked down and controlled. Computers didn't use to be like this. Apple has land grabbed their way here and is now clamping down harder than ever before. If we don't revolt, we're going to wind up in a terrible place where Apple and Google make all the movies and ga…

I demand open computing. I have it, it's cheaper than ever, like RPis are given away in cereal boxes. I also have an iPad. I know I lose some software access (e.g. Facebook streaming games) but I also gain software, like Slay the Spire and FTL and Bastion. These games are iOS exclusive in part because iOS effectively prevents piracy, which is another way of saying that users cannot run whatever software they want. I'…

>Slay the Spire and FTL and Bastion. These games are iOS exclusive

FTL and Bastion aren't iOS exclusive. Here are links to pages where you can find their Linux versions. Out of curiosity, where did you get the idea that they were iOS exclusive?

Edit: I hadn't previously heard of it, but googling reveals that Slay the Spire is also available on Steam. The steam page says it has a Linux version. That means that all of your examples of iOS exclusives could actually run on a Linux box, maybe even a raspi. ;)

I will counter with the claim that no major, artistically significant games of the past decade have been iOS exclusives. I might even go so far as to suggest that there are no leading iOS-only productivity apps (by leading, I mean better than what you can get elsewhere to the point where there's a major platform advantage, a status conferred to applications like Photoshop and Microsoft Office which used to be Windows-only). That's a claim that you might be able to refute, but I can't think of any at the moment.

https://lutris.net/games/ftl-faster-than-light/ https://lutris.net/games/bastion/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/646570/Slay_the_Spire/

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#229

Post by echelon »

martimarkov wrote: post #219
echelon wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Game consoles aren't computers. They're much cheaper and last longer than phones. You can also buy and sell your games.

This statement is a valid as: phones aren’t computers. You can’t have such an arbitrary definition.

Smartphones are very much computers and intended for general purpose computing.

I think people with this notion either work at Apple, love their iPhone, or have lots of AAPL.

Please see what their behavior is doing to the rest of us. Fixing it is more important than any personal stake you have in this.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#230

Post by GarrisonPrime »

Barrin92 wrote: post #113

Just more evidence that large platform and device owners will try to gate-keep and landgrab as much as they can and try to destroy the open web and force competitors into financial agreements to collect economic rent. There finally needs to be regulation on this. No banning of end user services as long as they're legal, I don't want a phone maker controlling what I do on the internet. It's ridiculous. Microsoft in th…

Pretty good regulation already in place.

Don't like it? Don't buy it.

Post reply on HN