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Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

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

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple could be forced to allow alternative stores and browsers. They get money for iPhone there is really no reason for restrict the store. So phone and app store could be naturally cut like for android ecosystem.

I still don't understand what enabling multiple browsers, from an engine standpoint, would achieve. Is it competition? Don't all browsers just implement the same set of standards? What is the lack of competition holding back?

"Enabling multiple browsers" is a red herring. Android enables multiple browser engines, but non-Blink browsers are a rounding error; it's bought nothing in terms of browser diversity.

Really it's just code for "let me, a web developer, target Chrome only, so I can just tell Safari users to install Chrome."

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

#233
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you break any concept/law down far enough, it becomes kinda meaningless. Terms of use, or laws don't have to be written in perfect logical consistency. The important thing is intent. The intent is not to block things that resemble running an application remotely. The intent here is controlling everything that could possibly be sold/distributed as something resembling an application or game. I see these kinds of co…

> If you break any concept/law down far enough, it becomes kinda meaningless. I call bullshit, I think it's mostly just bad laws that become ridiculous when 'broken down'. If you want to convince me otherwise, demonstrate your claim using laws against murder (unambiguously good laws.)

Hmm I'd like to see your "laws against murder" that cover every possibly corner case of homicide being acceptable or unacceptable without relying on intent of the law to come into consideration regardless of circumstance. It would be infinitely long.

There is no unambiguously good law because of the simple fact nothing is unambiguously good. Given billions of people and many years some ambiguous scenario is going to come up even around the most "obviously good/bad" things.

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

#234

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 is increasingly becoming less true as more people purchase the "digital only" version of most of their games. I haven't purchased a boxed copy of a game in many years, both on my consoles (PS3/PS4 + Switch) and my PC (Steam/Origin/Blizzard stores, etc). The only feasible way to resell a game tied to one of these digital accounts would be to sell the entire account.

You do you. But stop thinking that your economic choices and a lack of regulation don't impinge upon my freedoms. There are a lot of other people to consider outside of your circle.

I recently (6 years ago?) decided to purchase thousands of dollars of music on Google Play Music and look where that got me.

I can (and do) still play my Gamecube games.

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

#235
The only reason to have a native app for this is marketing.

Really this goes for the majority of iOS apps since native apps can't do a whole lot anyway. This doesn't even need push notifications though, I don't know why anyone would bother putting up with all the crap native apps take just to have to deal with all the crap apple gives you.

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

#236
post #195

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…

> to destroy the open web Except this rule doesn't prohibit anybody from putting anything on the internet. TFA is only about putting a streaming service on the App Store . Not to say that's not problematic, but Apple's not holding the web back in any way with this rule.

They are. MS could have shipped their browser with features that can support game streaming but they can't.

Open Web on mobile is being held hostage on iOS side.

At least on Android I was asked to choose my default browser and other browsers are allowed to have their engines.

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

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple could be forced to allow alternative stores and browsers. They get money for iPhone there is really no reason for restrict the store. So phone and app store could be naturally cut like for android ecosystem.

I still don't understand what enabling multiple browsers, from an engine standpoint, would achieve. Is it competition? Don't all browsers just implement the same set of standards? What is the lack of competition holding back?

They don’t all implement the same set of standards equally. The one that comes immediately to mind is one that comes up frequently as “hey do you know your website is broken on iOS” on HN is when someone is demoing some really interesting web-tech that requires SharedArrayBuffer (since it enables thread-like behavior in JavaScript and is super useful also for performant interaction with the GPU).

Browsers can of course be non-conformant on other interesting issues. Imagine if a browser came out that allowed the Unity Web Player to work. Instantly, people wouldn’t need to use the App Store to purchase games. Instead, they could just use the browser.

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

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Break up how? Apple's main argument against Epic is that the iPhone (and related devices) wouldn't be successful without the app store and the app store wouldn't be a thing without the iPhone, thus they're both a part of the same product (the Apple ecosystem). It's hard to argue against that, so there's not many more places where it would make sense for an Apple break-up.

Apple could be forced to allow alternative stores and browsers. They get money for iPhone there is really no reason for restrict the store. So phone and app store could be naturally cut like for android ecosystem.

What’s separating the App Store from XBox, PlayStation, or Nintendo? None of them allow third party stores either.

And if you want to remove them, that’s just arguing that a business model is at issue not a specific business. After all Epic is selling ports of the same game across multiple platforms any paying each of them a cut of games sold in other stores. If Apple just takes the same cut and allows more App Stores on their platform, or is that ok or is this just a question of money?

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

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you support any regulations for corporations? If so, what's the difference? Why should trillion-dollar megacorps that run our lives with little competition or escape be allowed such freedom?

I think there's a difference between regulations controlling externalities, or protecting the dispossessed, and protecting people from phones that don't have certain games. Do you not?

No, because the regulation isn't protecting people from phones that don't have certain games. That would be silly.

Allowing over a billion users the freedom to install and use software on their smartphone (a critical computing device and the only one for many) without corporate approval can indeed control externalities, protect the dispossessed and even save lives.

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

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Game consoles run many applications that aren’t games (particularly entertainment), I’m still not seeing the distinction. Even their historical lockdown trends are similar; phones, even early smartphones, have traditionally been locked down and newer consoles are generally less so (e.g. UWP development on Xbox can be done without being a studio and buying a special console). In fact your ability to throw a dart on a board of phone models and hit one that you can root without fighting your manufacturer is as high as its ever been.

For what it’s worth I’ve never worked at Apple, down’t own any AAPL (unless you count indexes), and have bought Android phones off and on. So I’d focus less on acusing everyone who disagrees with you of alterior motives.

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