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

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

hardware.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 305 posts

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

#51

Post by n4r9 »

unishark wrote: post #34
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which is another way of saying "I believe Apple should either not operate in certain countries, or should try to operate in those countries in defiance of the laws of those countries." That's true, but it doesn't mean your beef is only with the governments, in exactly the same way that IBM's collusion during WWII can't be pinned solely on the German government. They can choose not to do business in that country, or…

I think the point is when it comes to censorship, taking the high road of refusing to collude with the government and ceasing to operate in the country (whether willingly or by non-compliance leading to being banned yourself) has ultimately the same effect as following the law. The communication which the govt wants to censor gets censored.

Taking that argument to its extreme, if someone hands you a gun and says "shoot this person for $100 or I'll do it myself", whether you do the shooting has "ultimately the same effect" of that person dying. Still, most people wouldn't.

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

#52

Post by Gravityloss »

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…

I understand similar fragmentation exists in payments for electric car charging. You need lots of cards, accounts, qr codes, sms and calls. This makes all the technological progress with billions poured into it not very useful, if you can't trust that you can charge on a road trip.

Someone could make a single app that would handle all that for you.

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

#53

Post by Razengan »

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.

This.

I just got screwed out of money by Couchsurfing when they started throwing a full-screen extortion prompt that prevents you from using the app or website at all so you can’t even delete your account until you cough up the dough.

They are using their own payment processing system. If they used the standard In-App Purchases, Apple could have given me a refund on the spot and hopefully booted them off the store for this bait and switch tactic.

Apple has always refunded me without question and I am willing to bet that most complaints about the App Store are from those entities that Apple protects users from.

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

#54

Post by yuriko_boyko »

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.

That has to do with more freeware on android too. Android apps lean heavily towards free or freemium.

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

#55

Post by zamalek »

Gravityloss wrote: post #52
Hokusai wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I understand similar fragmentation exists in payments for electric car charging. You need lots of cards, accounts, qr codes, sms and calls. This makes all the technological progress with billions poured into it not very useful, if you can't trust that you can charge on a road trip. Someone could make a single app that would handle all that for you.

It's called Plugshare and it works with most networks, and probably only works on Android (due to Apple's payment restrictions).

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

#56

Post by viraptor »

enriquto wrote: post #26
soperj wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That's true, but it doesn't mean your beef is only with the governments, in exactly the same way that IBM's collusion during WWII can't be pinned solely on the German government. They can choose not to do business in that country, or to be as subversive as they can until they get kicked out. Not doing so is a choice. Same with South Africa and IBM during apartheid.

> Same with South Africa and IBM during apartheid. And same thing with the U.S.A. today! How do you think that this war-mongering country will be seen a few decades from now? My guess is that it will be seen in the same light as the British Empire of a century ago. True, they had very nice things "inside", but they were totally callous on the countries that they controlled for economical interests (e.g., India, South…

I wonder if one day we'll be regularly adding GitHub+ICE to this list.

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

#57

Post by webmobdev »

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.

You do so only because you believe have no choice as you know that your democracy is so crippled that you don't expect them to protect your rights as a consumer any more!

Where as many Europeans and Asians, who also enjoy democratic rights, will tell you openly that we would prefer that our democratically elected government protect our consumer rights through regulations that bind all corporates to behave themselves.

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

#58

Post by webmobdev »

donkeyd wrote: post #45
smnrchrds wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Rules that were unfair. I protest as a consumer as an unnecessary Apple tax to install paid software is an unfair burden that should be illegal.

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

#59

Post by encom »

mdoms wrote: post #35

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

The whole cultue of Apple is so weird, and kind of appalling. Just the fact that their press conferences are broadcast, and they're held in front of an audience that applaud everything the presenter says, and laughs at his jokes. People "live blog" it, like some bizarre court stenographer. And 1.000 threads are posted on HN about Apple keybords having been made even worse. Again.

It's not healthy.

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

#60

Post by lqet »

chadcmulligan wrote: post #36
mdoms wrote: post #35

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

It's more a religion or cult according to neuroscience https://www.cnet.com/news/scientists-apple-makes-your-brain-...

> Religion is a touchy subject. Oddly enough, as I have come to discover in these pages, so is Apple.

This has also been my experience. I know people with whom I just avoid talking about Apple. Personally I just accept that Apple is their religion (some of them have Apple bumper stickers) and that religion is something deeply personal.

Post reply on HN