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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

#61

Post by tshaddox »

webmobdev wrote: post #57
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 righ…

Well, okay, it may be the case that our democracy is so crippled that it can’t protect basic consumer rights. But even so, what are we supposed to do? Quit our jobs, abandon our livelihoods, and take to the streets until our government decides we’re too much trouble and hands over power to a more consumer-friendly replacement government? Or just continue to want to use subscriptions through Apple where possible?

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

#62

Post by tshaddox »

mdoms wrote: post #35

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

Aren’t you just equivocating on the phrase “in love” though? In this context it just means a strong preference for products manufactured by a certain firm in a certain industry, which isn’t particularly abnormal.

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

#63

Post by encom »

Lutger wrote: post #30
throwawaysea wrote: post #18

Complaints about Apple’s censorship shouldn’t be limited to just foreign governments, which is a myopic and self-serving stance I often see in posts like this. It’s important to demand transparent free speech policies across the board for everyone. Like other big tech companies, Apple also censors content that doesn’t align with their progressive biases. They’ve banned numerous conservative apps from their App Store,…

If by conservative you mean antisemitism, white supremacy, far out conspiracy, racism and hate speech: then yes they banned 'conservative' platforms. That's trying to make a cultural war of broadly accepted, democratic values. It got nothing to do with progressive politics. If you want to go full libertarian and demand Apple to give freedom to all these medieval hate platforms, you'll have to allow IS and the Al Qaid…

Apple doesn't care about racism. Why else would they allow a song called "Fuck White People" on iTunes?

https://music.apple.com/us/search?term=fuck%20white%20people

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

#64

Post by netsharc »

encom wrote: post #59
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.

I remember seeing a video of a Musk presentation. It was like that too, but Musk was so awkward and charmless, it was so cringe-enducing.

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

#65

Post by donkeyd »

webmobdev wrote: post #58
donkeyd wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you feel the same way about anything sold on Amazon? Or in supermarkets? Or is that in some way different?

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

#66

Post by theshrike79 »

zamalek wrote: post #55
Gravityloss wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

YMMV.

I can't pay on any of the charging points I use, not on iOS or Android.

Even if I could, it'd most likely use the roaming price of $FUCKTON, so no thanks.

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

#67

Post by theshrike79 »

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.

Paypal can be used as a third party, but they're not a bank so it comes with risks.

The other option is to use a different virtual credit card for each subscription and just cancel the number when needed.

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

#68

Post by theshrike79 »

sudosysgen wrote: post #24
fnordprefect wrote: post #10

This all comes down to the statement near the end: "I believe Apple should simply refuse to cooperate with oppressive governments" 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." The beef is primarily with the government. Companies are stuck in the middle -- either operate in compli…

The solution is incredibly simple. Allow the iPhone to be fully unlocked, which makes it possible to install any software. Then, Apple isn't in the position to apply the censorship to begin with, and it can both allow for a way to install these apps, and follow local rules. It's not some issue that everyone else has to contend with. You can buy a Pixel or an LG in China and install anything you want on it. It's only…

> Allow the iPhone to be fully unlocked, which makes it possible to install any software.

There isn't a disclaimer in the world that would make this worth it. If someone bricks their phone with a dodgy app after "fully unlocking", they WILL be going after Apple, not the app developer.

I consider the locked nature of Apple devices a feature and an useful at that.

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

#69

Post by microtonal »

tshaddox wrote: post #61
webmobdev wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 righ…

Well, okay, it may be the case that our democracy is so crippled that it can’t protect basic consumer rights. But even so, what are we supposed to do? Quit our jobs, abandon our livelihoods, and take to the streets until our government decides we’re too much trouble and hands over power to a more consumer-friendly replacement government? Or just continue to want to use subscriptions through Apple where possible?

I don't know, perhaps vote for politicians that do have your rights and not corporation's rights at heart? Convince people that protecting their rights and livelihoods is not socialism or unamerican? I know that this is difficult in the US, both because there is so little choice in elections and it is difficult to convince other people to vote differently.

But you can be sure that if everyone puts all their eggs in Apple's (or more generally FAANG's) basket, their only interest is and will be their corporate profit, not your or content creators' rights.

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

#70

Post by joosters »

zamalek wrote: post #55
Gravityloss wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

...and now we have one more incompatible standard (insert obligatory XKCD link here)
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