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Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire

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Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire

#331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the point that people keep missing. The most common argument is “just let people install whatever software they want and if they install something bad that’s their fault.” But the point is that, if Apple does allow sideloading apps, customer satisfaction with iPhones will almost certainly go down . Can you argue that those new unsatisfied customers are to blame? Sure. But Apple probably actually cares about h…

And if you allow cars to be repaired some cars might eventually be fixed the wrong way and crash. Same with my home appliances. Yet that doesn't seem to be an argument.

People still call the gamebox under the TV a "nintendo" even if it's a PS5 or an X cube, or the browser internet explorer when it's a little fox-ish looking thing...

Tech literacy is in the toilet, and the lack of physicality (seeing Rob the mechanic was you hand over your Toyota for a service) doesn't help with association of whose responsible..

Also typically cars and appliances have warranties and some times the terms call out unauthorized/untrained 3rd party repair.

Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire

#332
post #52

The best result for customers is that there are alternate ways of putting apps on their own phones that do not require apple's permission. Then the customers that trust apple to protect them will just stay with the app store. The customers that try the alternate ways may find problems, but they will also find enormous positive changes in their ability to do new things on their phone. Personally, I would like the abil…

> The best result for customers is that there are alternate ways of putting apps on their own phones that do not require apple's permission. Should Apple still be allowed to prevent Chrome from running it's own rendering, javascript, & other web platform engines? How much editorial & technical control are we going to let Apple keep, if we do allow alternate distribution mechanisms?

That‘s a very different discussion (there were some HN about that few days ago).

If Chrome will get full access to iOS, we are back to the year 2000 with 1 company deciding what the standards regarding Web are and a standardization organization having nothing to say. Not saying that I love the walled garden (not saying the opposite too), but if we love the web, we have to keep this walled garden.

Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire

#333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is opening it up so users have a choice. Third party stores will emerge, and it is up to the consumer, not Apple, to decide whether the extra features are worth the new apps being a little rough around the edges like they are on Android. If it's as bad as you say, the new stores will not be successful anyway.

Why do users care about this choice? What are some top experiences available to Android which aren't available to iOS customers? In fact, isn't it often the other way around? iOS gets things and Android doesn't? Or are users seeing awful prices for the app store? Where are Customers complaining the most?

>What are some top experiences available to Android which aren't available to iOS customers?

Recently, cloud gaming apps and paying for subscriptions. Google Stadia and Xbox Streaming are not allowed through the iOS Store. Netflix and Spotify(not sure about this one) do not allow you to pay for the subscription on their app because Apple asks for 30%.

Apple does not allow other browser rendering engines. So now every iOS browser is just a Safari wrapper and you're unable to do any sort of plug-in, like adblockers.

These features being blocked does not help customers. They only help Apple.

Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire

#334
post #5
post #3

Good! It's about time that our industry's monopoly of the ages is put to bed. Apple put us in the kettle and slowly turned up the heat. They delivered good hardware, good software, but at the same time demanded that nobody else have the ability to run JIT, other runtimes, first-class web, browsers, marketplaces, etc. Over time, Apple rose to 50% of the market, all the while exacting complete control and taxing all ma…

They would just stop making the phone.

Apple will stop making the iPhone?

That's crazy talk. It's literally their most successful product line ever.

Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire

#335
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, and people should be allowed to install whatever they want on their own hardware. We don't need to force Apple to put apps on its app store. Instead, people should be allowed to install whatever they want on the hardware that they own. > So take your own phone and install your own OS Or, instead of that, we could use the court system, to stop illegal anti-competitive practices, and require, by the existing law, t…

You can do whatever you want with your phone already. As I said you don’t own iOS. Install your own OS.

> You can do whatever you want with your phone already.

But, with the court decision, it will become much easier to install other app stores on the phone, if Apple's actions are ruled illegal anti-competitive.

Thats the point. The illegal anti-competitive behavior, that makes it more difficult for people to install other software, could be blocked by the courts.

At which people, people will be able to install other app stores, while also having iOS on their phone.

That sounds like a much better solution to all of this. Everyone gets what they want, and can now more easily install things on the phone that they own.

Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google charges 15% Steam charges 20-30% depending on how big you are, and probably has a sweatheart deal with EA. Xbox and Playstation offer subsidised hardware and arguably have a 0% rate given that so many titles are published in-house. Nintendo offers an effective 25% rate as 5% of spend is rebated to customers' wallets. Microsoft charges 12% Epic charges 12%

Are the different rates reflected in the prices on the store or does the customer pay the same price irrespective of the cut taken by the platform?

The different rates are reflected in the burnout, low pay, bankruptcy and failure - or the opposite - of the developers who launch on them.

Right now for example its basically impossible to make a reliable income just from PC, for the average solo developer or micro-studio, due to the insanely high 30% commission taken by Steam.

Its necessary to launch cross-platform onto consoles, and optimizing the graphics and control schemes for these devices means that PC is not the focus.

Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire

#337
post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPad Pro supports ethernet and general USB devices. And allowing apps to sniff network traffic defeats the entire security model of the device which many of us like. I want more privacy and security in my devices not less.

How does it defeat your security if other people want to look at network traffic on the device they purchased?

Because I don't want apps to be actually sniffing traffic whilst pretending to be something else.

Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most phone users aren’t interested in developing software on their phone. They aren’t interested in developing a better systemd. They have no idea what malware actually is. All that is going to happen if Epic gets their own store is Epic will be collecting the 30% rather than Apple, and the user will get apps that are poorly designed, chew battery, and don’t conform to the UX standards that Apple has set (eg: accessi…

> All that is going to happen if Epic gets their own store is Epic will be collecting the 30% rather than Apple News flash, Epic already runs a store, and competes with another store (Steam) which takes a 30% cut. How much of a cut does Epic take there? 12%. There is a well known example of Epic in a similar situation specifically not doing what you say they will, so why assume they will do that? Or are you arguing w…

And the benefit of Epic’s store to the consumers is exactly 0% because most publishers pocket the difference.

Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire

#339
post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t think Apple has a team of people trying to figure out what you can do with them? iPadOS isn’t designed to cripple the HW, its designed to extract the most from it. Its missing some traditional use cases

in a few seconds I can think of many many ways an ipad is crippled. - look at your data directly and back it up - backup and restore the entire device including apps - use ethernet through the lightning port instead of wifi - use general usb devices through the lightning port - wifi scanner (apple disallowed it in ios early-on) - tcpdump network traffic - change the wifi-off shortcut to actually turn it off (matching…

>look at your data directly and back it up

>backup and restore the entire device including apps

Ironically these areas are where iOS shines. Despite being a heavily walled garden, it grants you full backups and full user filesystem access (including things like keychain) via extracting those backups.

A comparable and unrooted Android tablet cannot be fully backed up, and you cannot inspect app/user settings areas of its filesystem.

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