Apple-Developer Relations • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#271

Post by makecheck » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

Grustaf wrote: post #252

makecheck wrote: post #152

Yep. It is not surprising at all that the term “insulting” appears three times because that’s how it feels for so many reasons. Remember: - They pretend with a straight face like it was somehow impossible to sell software or reach customers before their magical store made it happen. - They pretend like the current “search” feature of the App Store is not a sad reduction of what it used to be (or what it could be if a…

I think all your points are pretty strange, but this one I don't even understand: > - They pretend to have all these problems hosting apps that are somehow solved by fees, while completely ignoring all the free apps that clearly tax that same infrastructure. Clearly they are not saying that each individual app has to bear its costs, obviously free apps are subsidised by paid apps. And they've never said they are "hav…

> ... obviously free apps are subsidised by paid apps ...

If they were so concerned about getting paid, they could easily have an arrangement where companies like Facebook actually have to pay proportional to their use/benefit, aligning incentives. Instead, companies making billions per year pay just $99/year, while developers with a lot less are literally paying a lot more. Obviously, that affects the ability to compete. Worse, the App Store’s economy is so warped that pricing cannot actually reflect true development costs. If Apple wanted to cover infrastructure costs so badly, why would they allow the market to twist to the point where developers cannot reasonably charge higher prices (of which Apple gets a cut)?

> Do you seriously think that Apple wouldn't prefer a world without scam apps ...

One of the trial discoveries was an E-mail from Schiller showing that, while he seemed concerned about such apps reaching the top in 2013, eight YEARS ago, it is still happening (see Washington Post article from just today[1]). A trillion dollar company that is still making money from scams eight YEARS later is showing that it does NOT care about scams. In this case, actions matter, not just words. Scams are stealing money from people, and Apple pockets 30%.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27413934

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#272

Post by Zanneth » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 12:34 AM UTC

collaborative wrote: post #149

I recently finished porting an app to Windows. I decided to publish on the MS Store (UWP + Desktop Bridge). Don't mind sharing 12% in return for MS's seal of approval But if I could, I would terminate my iOS appstore presence in a heartbeat. This is how different Apple and MS make me feel as a developer. Google falls somewhere in between Everything these companies do is geared towards making us develop (often for fre…

> Everything these companies do is geared towards making us develop (often for free) the features their users want on their devices in a way that their users increase their appreciation for them, not for us.

Be careful what you wish for. MS and Apple constantly build new OS features that 'borrow' ideas from third-party developers.

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#273

Post by worik » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:40 AM UTC

Grustaf wrote: post #265

worik wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Duh! if the_variable_that_might_be_nil == nil { if let _ = the_variable_that_might_be_nil // Nope not really nil I have counted: A bit less than 1% of the time at a certain point in our code. I have seen it, measured it... The Swift ecosystem has important bugs in some corner cases. Fact.

This is different from what you wrote the first time though. This time it makes sense syntactically and compiles, but why would you write it? It makes no logical sense, the inner block would never be executed. If the inner block is actually called, that's an extremely serious bug. I know people in the Swift core team, can you share a code sample with me the exposes the bug and I will bring it up?

The inner block is, roughly 1% of the time (in the code base this is from) executed.

This is my point: The flagship development system of the most valuable company in the world is buggy. It is one example, but I have several examples of flaws like this.

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#274

Post by asow92 » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

I was flagged for saying this, but I agree to disagree, and that should not be controversial. I think we succeed when Apple succeeds and that's just my opinion.

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#275

Post by oarsinsync » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 5:27 PM UTC

Apocryphon wrote: post #225

Silhouette wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone without then apps that run on it is somewhat interesting, but is largely a novelty Others might have a different perspective. For example, personally I use an iPhone because the following are my requirements in descending order of priority: 1. I now need a smartphone running one of the two major platforms. 2. I do not want anything to do with Google, ever. 3. I don't like a lot of what Apple do but they ar…

Ask yourself this, then. Would you be content to replace your iPhone with an older iPhone that fulfills the same needs? Maybe an iPhone 6S for a half-decent camera by today's standards? Or even an iPhone 5c? If you only need it for essential needs, how basic should an iPhone be?

I'd gladly go back to my iPhone SE (2016) if I could downgrade it back to iOS 13, where it was able to do both turn-by-turn navigation and music playback when using wired CarPlay.

The only reason I bought a new iPhone was because that functionality stopped working reliably under iOS 14, and it effectively became and either/or proposition, which wasn't acceptable.