271–280 of 503 posts
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We can both have our cake and eat it too, we just need either an unlocked bootloader, or the ability to sideload apps over an ADB-like usb interface. People who don't want that functionality will never know it's there and there won't be any decrease in security.
As soon as Apple offers that, companies like Facebook will tell their users that in order to install their apps, they have to sideload it. And people will go willingly into that dark night.
Why does half of HN seem intent on ruining the iPhone for the rest of us? The explicit selling proposition of the iPhone is that it is a closed ecosystem . I and my family buy it for precisely this reason. If you want a choice about what you install, you can have it! It's called Android, and hundreds of phone manufacturers are lining up to sell you a compatible handset. Leave us with the one phone manufacturer who ha…
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Let’s not pretend they do these things as charity. Chrome is open source because, as a fork of WebKit, it has to be. For other things, they use open source to drive adoption.
This is not true, webkit is BSD license. If that were true, then Edge, Opera, etc. would also be open-source.
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When I was in grad school, the university's Student Union provided an extended health insurance plan. To get a reimbursement, you had two options for submitting a claim: (1) Paper forms submitted via the student union or (2) the insurance company's app which was only for Apple devices. The app's only functionality was to facilitate taking a photo (of a receipt) and uploading that photo, along with the user's details.…
For many people, it's too complicated (as in, they don't know how) to transfer a photo into their computer and then upload it separately. Integrating a camera in the app is far easier. Still doesn't excuse being iOS-only, though.
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Good to know, Good for Iceland residents. Note that I didn't say 'all democratic countries'.
Thanks. It's worked very well for us and really helped with contact tracing. But what democratic countries are mandating the use of covid apps?
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How is that legal? Isn't that just incompetent government?
We're living in a time where if you don't have a mobile phone you can't complete the online form and therefore the transaction becomes impossible. This is even worse if you're on the phone and the person on the other end of the phone that works for the company is the one filling in the digital form. The fact that its now further embedded in an app. owned by international conglomerates is hardly suprising. They're slo…
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Whether something's a monopoly depends on context. If I live in a country with only one phone provider, is that a monopoly? To someone living in that country, yes. But, I could live in another country, and use another phone provider. See, I have choice, therefore it's not a monopoly, right? If you buy an Apple device, your only choice for where to get apps from is from Apple's store. Within that market, they are a mo…
There is no “Apple market” and “Google market”, there is just one market for apps. The respective app stores are direct sales channels. This direct sales exclusivity (ie. no resellers) exists in many other industries. The argument is about whether forcing open channel reseller participation is beneficial to consumers. This was done with the American car franchise dealership, which was legally enforced across most sta…
I don’t think this holds.
I shop at multiple grocery stores, but only one mobile app store. Apple has a monopoly on sales of apps to iPhone users.
If I sell fruit I can distribute it through multiple channels. If business though one channel sours I can take my business elsewhere.
If I’m an iOS app maker with a popular app I can only distribute it on Apple’s store. If I can no longer distribute my app through Apple’s store then I’m screwed. Apple has a monopoly on the distribution of iOS apps.
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Google is an ad company. I do not understand why people would choose to use an operating system created by an ad company, designed to harvest their personal information. I'm happy to use an iPhone, knowing my personal information is safe and it reduces my chances of being Harvested by Google.
I have a couple of friends who worked at google. they're always baffled why I would want to block trackers and data harvesters. And I'm baffled why they're baffled. Is the koolaid that strong and that permanent there?
You can have third-party Android app stores. Can you say the same about Apple? While I agree that Google has market-dominance, they are not anti-competition or anti-consumer in the same sense as Apple. Android is open source, Chrome OS is open source, etc. Google is actually providing and contributing something back to the community. Apple intentionally locks people to specific hardware and to their app store.
Incidentally, if you have a business registered for GST in Australia you have to submit a quarterly activity statement. The tax office website had bizarre authentication requirements but the browser plugin was at least cross-platform. They now require you to use the myGovID app, which is - you guessed it - available only on the App Store and Play Store. You can't even run a business without being part of the duopoly.…
Is the Aus Gov able to do this to simply because it is not a corporation? as per http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/cons...