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Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

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Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#41

Post by pfranz »

john_minsk wrote: post #28

I just paid for 12 months worth of Skype subscription which I have used for just 2 calls back in January. I want ALL my subscriptions to go through Apple Pay and App store. Once I subscribed to New York times. The newspaper that was advertised to me for years in all Hollywood movies as a place where honesty and freedom are of highest priority. I had to spend an hour on a phone with their representatives to cancel it…

A similar thing happened to me years ago. I was a monthly contributor to This American Life. I switched credit cards and wanted to update my payment, but they had changed their website or something and there was, as far as I could tell, no way to change or cancel or any "account" page or "login" system. I couldn't even find support or a phone number. I think I sent email to a generic account and waited a week. After not hearing back I canceled the credit card.

I tried to stick to PayPal to manage subscriptions for a few years since it was centralized and I could change payments or cancel. Patreon seems to have taken over a lot of this--but it's even more niche.

> Big hope that fin tech will blow it up, but unfortunately start ups didn't deliver.

I just can't imagine the ROI needed to satisfy VC funding...especially without it becoming shady or predatory itself. Or, like you said, the regulations involved for a self-funded startup. I think the other aspect is that big companies aren't motivated to play ball. Yodlee is probably the biggest player and has had spottier integration as companies have added 2fa and other security measures. Very few have gone as far as adding tokens to support 3rd parties like Yodlee.

> Each bank got their app and added some obvious features there

I suspect if something does happen (I'm not particularly confident) it will be a spinoff from a bank like how Allstate and Discover Card were spinoffs of Sears or Kingsford Charcoal from Ford Motor. Do companies do this anymore?

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#42

Post by tommilukkarinen »

qz2 wrote: post #37
john_minsk wrote: post #28

I just paid for 12 months worth of Skype subscription which I have used for just 2 calls back in January. I want ALL my subscriptions to go through Apple Pay and App store. Once I subscribed to New York times. The newspaper that was advertised to me for years in all Hollywood movies as a place where honesty and freedom are of highest priority. I had to spend an hour on a phone with their representatives to cancel it…

Spot on. Managing subscriptions is a shit show generally. Doing it in one place is the right thing for the end user.

Right, this is the network effect behind it. There is never before experienced convenience as you buy your apps, movies, books and songs from one place, which is in your pocket. Then there's the other store for all tangible things (Amazon). The list goes on, MS for business apps, Facebook for social media. Google for information?

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#43

Post by [deleted] »

Hokusai wrote: post #40
john_minsk wrote: post #28

I just paid for 12 months worth of Skype subscription which I have used for just 2 calls back in January. I want ALL my subscriptions to go through Apple Pay and App store. Once I subscribed to New York times. The newspaper that was advertised to me for years in all Hollywood movies as a place where honesty and freedom are of highest priority. I had to spend an hour on a phone with their representatives to cancel it…

> I want ALL my subscriptions to go through Apple Pay and App store What about defining a standard subscription protocol that allows any company to offer subscription management, and allow consumers to change their subscription manager if they are not happy? Putting all your eggs in one nest because you currently like it is a very risky gamble. Banking has worked with standards for decades that allow interoperability…

[deleted]

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#44

Post by bluescrn »

webwielder2 wrote: post #5

Framing your technology choices as a romance might not be the healthiest lens to make decisions through in the first place.

The ‘sexiness’ of the hardware can seriously distort people’s opinions of Apple.

An attractive enough person or product can get away with things that others couldn’t...

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#45

Post by donkeyd »

smnrchrds wrote: post #3
jolux wrote: post #2

Saying that Apple banned Epic for "fighting back" is definitely twisting the truth a bit. Epic released a behind-the-scenes software update in direct contravention of the App Store rules, which they knew was going to get them banned.

I would consider Epic's action the corporate equivalent of civil disobedience , which is a form of protest. Fighting back seems an apt description for such a protest.

The term being correct doesn't take away that they weren't banned for fighting back. They were banned for breaking rules that were clear beforehand.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#46

Post by laurent92 »

mdoms wrote: post #35

It's really not normal to be "in love" with a corporation to begin with....

I always find it funny when people describe the beliefs of middle-ages as bigoted, believing God more than Galileo (or so the legend says) when clearly today, some masses clearly believe in states being the originator of public good, and some corporations being worth worshipping.

Civilizations have evolved, but humans still be humans ;)

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#48

Post by bilbo0s »

pmontra wrote: post #39
qz2 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spot on. Managing subscriptions is a shit show generally. Doing it in one place is the right thing for the end user.

I agree but I don't want that place to be tightly tied with the maker of my phone. I want to be able to change phone and not loose anything. Phones are commodities to me. Who makes them is as important as the brand of gas I put in my car. Browser, mail client, WhatsApp, camera, maps, banking apps are about all I need. The subscription management service should be a third party.

But you can have a third party if you want. (Though my personal preference would be NO party. I want total control over it myself with zero privacy leaks. But that likely won't happen.) In any case, the point is that you could buy something other than an Apple phone if that's important to you. I mean why buy a horridly overpriced phone that can't do what you want it to do? I wouldn't buy a Ferrari to haul farming implements around the back roads of Wisconsin.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#49

Post by sneak »

dependsontheq wrote: post #33

I never in my life bought that amount of software compared to the App Store, it’s convenient and mostly safe. Apple paid revenue in the store is two times higher than Googles. I think this is directly correlated with convenience and safety.

It's also impossible to use (even for free apps) without IDing yourself, and your travel history (via IP geolocation), to Apple.

The convenience comes at a cost.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#50

Post by oblio »

pmontra wrote: post #39
qz2 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spot on. Managing subscriptions is a shit show generally. Doing it in one place is the right thing for the end user.

I agree but I don't want that place to be tightly tied with the maker of my phone. I want to be able to change phone and not loose anything. Phones are commodities to me. Who makes them is as important as the brand of gas I put in my car. Browser, mail client, WhatsApp, camera, maps, banking apps are about all I need. The subscription management service should be a third party.

It should actually be a banking service and it should be portable between banks. There should be a banking standard for this.
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