Apple are pretty much the only humanist big tech company. They’re a bulwark against all sorts of absolute nonsense that would reduce the technological landscape to more of a dismal-looking, utilitarian panopticon than it already is.
Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy
121–130 of 329 posts
Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy
#122> Conversely, if Safari refuses to implement some alleged 'feature', it becomes much less useful even if Chrome does implement it. How is Safari not implementing standards seen as a good thing? While I do acknowledge that there might be privacy concerns when it comes to Chrome, I do appreciate that Google is trying to push the Web forward, while Apple is trying to hold the Web back. Safari truly is the worst browser,…
I do appreciate that Google is trying to push the Web forward, while Apple is trying to hold the Web back.
"push the Web forward" is Googlespeak for "gaining control". It gets to decide what the "standards" are and churns them to discourage any competitors while at the same time operating a massive "developers developers developers" style propaganda campaign to gather supporters and help increase its monopoly.
I don't use Apple products and disagree a lot with what it does, but this is really a "enemy of an enemy is a friend" situation.
Related article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9961613
Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right... isn’t that the whole point of progressive web apps? Users get as many features as their browser supports or they permit? That’s the point. If your app doesn’t work like that then it’s not progressive... so you can’t complain it doesn’t support your progressive app because it’s not progressive.
Try explaining to users that the feature they want and expect doesn't work for them because their particular browser doesn't support it, despite it working on every other browser and platform. The only solution I see is telling users to "use the app", which doesn't exist yet.
You tell them it doesn't work on iPhone because of Apple policy such and such and to go complain to Apple if they want the feature.
If enough people do it then maybe things change. If developers continue caving and not letting users know there will be no pressure on Apple.
Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t want websites to be able to send notifications to my phone. Sites abuses this and are always asking on my computer and it’s too easy to accidentally say accept.
> I don’t want websites to be able to send notifications to my phone. You might not, but our users requested desktop and mobile notifications. The notifications let sick patients know when their prescriptions are ready, facilitate care-provider check ups, etc.
Have those users download some simple app if this is so important to them. Or let them enter their phone number to get more reliable text notifications. Just because you have a good use doesn’t outweigh the all the bad abuse.
Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy
#125> (Conversely, if Safari refuses to implement some alleged 'feature', it becomes much less useful even if Chrome does implement it.) The fact that Apple refuses to implement basic features in mobile Safari that Firefox and Chrome have had for years now, and the fact that they refuse to allow other browser engines on iOS is the reason why we can't have nice things like progressive web apps. I recently worked on a heal…
I don’t want websites to be able to send notifications to my phone. Sites abuses this and are always asking on my computer and it’s too easy to accidentally say accept.
>> I don’t want
Who are you? And why does only your absolute opinion matter, when others are asking for a choice?
Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, having to click no all the time on desktop Safari is terrible. Also websites have realized that I am going to click No in the browser, so now they popup first asking if I want to allow push notifications in JavaScript so when I click no, they can ask me again later, vs if they popped up the browser and got a "No" there they could never ask me again.
Did I accidentally disable this or something? I’ve never seen it. Everyone acts like 1. For some reason it has to be some sort of pop up, it could easily be a small icon in your bar 2. Apple couldn’t/wouldn’t design this so that it was unobtrusive 3. If the way they did design it was still too annoying, they wouldn’t make it less so, or make it easy to turn off Why do so many on HN argue from “if it existed it would…
>> it’s a total lack of capability of even the most incremental innovative thinking
Honestly, HN is a cargo cult of native only, anti web app sentiment. It’s frustrating.
Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Edge teams What happened with Edge? I've been out of the loop with MS stuff for years, and last I heard you had to select a browser in the EU or something, but was this also made mandatory worldwide? I'd imagine still being bundled with Windows means their usage is not insignificant...
Edge is now just a rebranded Chromium, and Microsoft's approach with Windows 10 suggests they are betting big on advertising and the "attention economy" thus very unlikely to push towards privacy protection.
They are also adopting the "user herding" trend --- taking away choices and control, bludgeoning the userbase into docile and obedient consumers that they can monetise or do whatever else they want to.
Take a look at the settings for IE, which actually improved with each new version, and you can clearly see which side MS used to be on. Then compare it with the useless dumbed-down "modern" UI of even pre-Chromium Edge.
Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
This app helps sick patients navigate the healthcare system. Notifications were requested by users so that they don't need to continuously go back to the web app to see if there are any updates.
How about sending notifications over email?
This speaks to your inexperience in making applications for the average user - they barely use email.
Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
This app helps sick patients navigate the healthcare system. Notifications were requested by users so that they don't need to continuously go back to the web app to see if there are any updates.
Great. Take their phone number and text them. Amazon charges what, $0.00645 per SMS?
You want to send potentially sensitive health updates over SMS? Or just a link, that then opens the web-app anyways? Definitely sounds like bad UX.
Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t want websites to be able to send notifications to my phone. Sites abuses this and are always asking on my computer and it’s too easy to accidentally say accept.
>> I don’t want Who are you? And why does only your absolute opinion matter, when others are asking for a choice?
I’m the same as the the users of Firefox who deny 99% of notifications https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/11/04/restricti...
We are the the 99%