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Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

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Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#91

Developers of ios (and soon macOS) platform have no one to blame but themselves for situations like this. Alarm bells should have been raised among us developers when Apple suddenly asked everyone to shell out $99 for the "privilege" of making an app available on the "App Store", and treated it as something normal. And later, more so, when Apple demanded a percentage cut too on every sale you make from your app. It i…

> Alarm bells should have been raised among us developers when Apple suddenly asked everyone to shell out $99 for the "privilege" of making an app available on the "App Store", and treated it as something normal. Somebody has absolutely no idea how high developer fees on proprietary platforms used to be. >Double Fine's Tim Schaefer pegged the cost of submitting an Xbox 360 patch at $40,000 in an interview with Hooksh…

Yeah, people seem to forget that when Apple announced the mobile app store with a $99 fee and 30% cut, developers were applauding. It was a radical change from the existing mobile development model and stores, and made it possible for many more developers.

The problem is that Apple never updated with the times. If they had simply done what one of the emails from the trial said (scale the fee back once the store was making 1B), then much of this could have been avoided.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#92
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I care that searching for "Dropbox" doesn't give you "Dropbox" in the first page of results, because of some knob Apple is able to turn any time they want.

When a “page” of search results consists of 1 ad and 1 result, it’s really not very meaningful to talk about “pages”.

"Below the fold" doesn't have meaning? Is that not what he was effectively saying?

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#93
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slightly off topic, but I do love the translucent terminal on the Mac. It is very cool

Pretty sure gnome-terminal and terminator both have this.

Quite a number of terminal emulators have this feature. Alacritty and xfce4 terminal as well.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#94
post #84

Does anyone else just…not care? Files is a system app like Windows Explorer. It’s not meant to “compete” with anything. Does anyone think Control Panel competes with Android’s Settings app? iCloud Drive is a cloud storage competitor that Files works well with, but Files also supports Dropbox and Google Drive and many other storage competitors (anyone who wants to implement the API gets to be in Files). Also, the argu…

This is not the only case.

For example it was reported that Fortnite wasn't the first result when searching for "Fortnite".

So Apple has no problem giving users poor results in favor of ads. I guess it's only annoying when Google does it right?

Showing File above Dropbox for a "Dropbox" search only adds insult to injury here.

edit: the amount of hand waving Apple gets around these parts is irrational. 2 instant downvotes for stating facts.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#95
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need to re-evaluate what "rights" mean in a digital age. Apple should not have a monopoly on digital stores on iOS. "Apple made it so they can do anything they want. Take it or leave it" - is not an acceptable position (in my opinion). >By that logic costco has no competitors whatsoever that sell kirkland signature products. Can you explain how you came to that conclusion and what 'that logic' is?

Honestly, if I were to make a platform and someone else were to come by and somehow force my hand regarding what should be allowed on it and how they should be ranked in it, I’d just shut it all down, even the company if need be, give their money back to whatever investors there may be, and walk away. Let them have fun building it themselves if they want it to run any other way. But that’s just me, and it probably sp…

> Honestly, if I were to make a platform and someone else were to come by and somehow force my hand regarding what should be allowed on it

It's not just "a platform" Apple's Market cap is 10% of the US GDP. What they do has real consequences for the world.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#96

Apple PR: > we do not advantage our apps over those of any developer or competitor Apple employee Debankur Naskar: > I think the Files app was manually boosted ... during last WWDC. We are removing the manual boost So which of these is true? Or is PR technically correct because they do not currently "advantage" their apps?

Apple PR often says things that are not reality... It is almost like Apple PR does not really know what is happening inside of Apple....

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#97
post #84

Does anyone else just…not care? Files is a system app like Windows Explorer. It’s not meant to “compete” with anything. Does anyone think Control Panel competes with Android’s Settings app? iCloud Drive is a cloud storage competitor that Files works well with, but Files also supports Dropbox and Google Drive and many other storage competitors (anyone who wants to implement the API gets to be in Files). Also, the argu…

Care about the principle not the individual case.

Ha ha

We must apologize for the sins of Apple. We always apologize.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mac software and app industry has died. Even after notarising apps they show malicious popup to users. I maintain a handful of open source apps for macOS, and have for years. If I don't pay the $100 Apple tax, macOS will treat those apps as if they're radioactive, and it will trick users into believing the apps are either broken or malicious. In order to run them, users must know how to change arcane settings and d…

Absolutely this. Apple's holier-than-thou approach to every settlement they reach is starting to blow back in their face, as the rest of our economy starts to realize how parasitic and destructive this tax-collection model is. Now that Apple can effectively set their own margins, they have no incentive to treat their users or developers fairly, and recently have started to bring the hammer down. I had a few friends w…

Market and use emotion, trick the masses.

The intellectuals will be dragged along.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their use of ‘advantage’ as a word reminds me of this classic Calvin & Hobbes strip. https://www.languagetrainers.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/201... Looks like the 80s/90s kids that were brought up on these skits are finally taking over!

You can also "noun" verbs. One I hear in SV is "an ask". I find myself a bit peeved by it but I don't know why.

With no context, that sounds like a trading term to me, like "a put".

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#100
post #89
post #84

Does anyone else just…not care? Files is a system app like Windows Explorer. It’s not meant to “compete” with anything. Does anyone think Control Panel competes with Android’s Settings app? iCloud Drive is a cloud storage competitor that Files works well with, but Files also supports Dropbox and Google Drive and many other storage competitors (anyone who wants to implement the API gets to be in Files). Also, the argu…

I don't think you read the article. Apple boosted their generic Files app above Dropbox for the query Dropbox . That is the controversy.

Upvote for you and downvote for OP.

I think there will be more tricks from Apple to handle search result of other apps.

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