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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

#221

Post by MiscIdeaMaker99 »

singlow wrote: post #46
crazygringo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any uneven playing field when it comes to grocery stores. The national brands and store brands are always next to each other on the same shelf. So there isn't any problem that needs solving. Also brands already pay for promotional positioning (like the ends of aisles), and when the store puts its own brands in those spots it loses out on those payments, and so is effectively paying equally. So the field d…

The brand names pay for their spot, so its moot. There is no meritocracy in grocery store product placement. For the most part the grocery store doesn't have a formula to decide where to put most things based on sales data. If you sell a cereal or soda or fancy mustard and you want premium shelf height, just pay extra for it. The store basically rents the shelf space out.

This is absolutely true in the USA. Frito Lay has done this for years, paying supermarkets for more and more shelf space, while the smaller, regional competitors were left with less and less room to sell.

This happened to my father in the 1980s when he owned a distributorship for a regional potato chip company here in the Midwest United States.

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

#222

Post by vel0city »

judge2020 wrote: post #203
vel0city wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are tons of resorts and hotels completely unrelated to Disney that exist right at the gates of Disnyworld that offer shuttles. There are even more resorts in Kissimmee that are just a short drive away. As someone who has been to Disneyworld over a dozen times and never once stayed in a Disney resort, there are a ton of places to stay and still visit Disneyworld.

Most of those resorts lease the land from Disney, https://www.wdwradio.com/2005/02/wdw-history-101-how-to-buy-... https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2019/12/30/disn...

As a person who has been involved in real estate around that area I'm fully cognizant that many of the resorts that appear to be outside the gates of Disneyworld are technically on Disney real estate. When looking at maps its pretty easy to see what is and is not Disney property, as soon after you leave Disney property there's tons of chain shops and other stuff right outside the gates. I've still never stayed on a resort or hotel on Disney lands and its disingenuous (I'd say a lie) to say most hotels in Kissimmee that offer shuttle service to Disneyworld are leasing land from Disney. You do realize Disney doesn't own the entire state of Florida quite yet, right?

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

#223

Post by tempodox »

syshum wrote: post #96
musicale wrote: post #49

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....

It's probably better that way. Knowing any details is not their job and would only distract them.

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

#224

Post by mrtksn »

musicale wrote: post #49

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?

Isn't it obvious? They say they don't give advantage to their own apps as a company policy but they made exception to this during an event.

The follow up e-mails indicate that the upper management wasn't happy about this and demanded high level approval before this happens next time.

So it's not really evil Apple caught doing something that they say they don't. Its more like corrupt Apple where someone did something somewhat justifiable(A relevant app being boosted during an event could be justified, though better not make it a habit) and then conveniently forgot to turn it back. Later a high level officer created a mechanism for preventing this happening again.

If it was something fineable, I would have been completely fine if Apple paid a fine and damages to Dropbox and others. Yet, I would stop short from labelling the company as "lying" as their words seem to match their actions with an exception of one event that was taken care of.

Remember the time when it was revealed that Google invited developers to discuss hiring or acquisition but copy their work, apply for patents before them? That also wasn't Google doing it, it was more like "ambitious white collars hacking their way to boost career", to put it lightly.

After all, companies are simply made of people with contracts. Surely the company is responsible for the actions of their employees but there's a distinction between company policy and individuals actions.

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

#225

Post by tinus_hn »

threeseed wrote: post #76
codesternews wrote: post #28

Apple has made life of small developers hard. Mac software and app industry has died. Even after notarising apps they show malicious popup to users. Same practices has adapted by apple like search ad etc etc. They make competing services and steal ideas of developers and those app dies. For eg screen time for Moments app. They have unfair advantage and small developers could not complete. Only handful of indie develo…

> Mac software and app industry has died And yet for me there are far more apps than there has ever been. > steal ideas of developers Nobody owns an idea. > They killed the industry. This notion that Apple killed the mobile apps industry which it arguably started is ridiculous. We have companies like Instagram, Snap, WhatsApp, Niantic etc who built billion dollar businesses on the back of the iOS platform. And a wide…

Nobody goes to that bar anymore because it’s always far too busy!

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

#226

Post by rsj_hn »

stephenr wrote: post #219
killjoywashere wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re peeved by “ask” as a noun?! How the hell is “math” plural?! Why maths? The subject (singular) is math (singular). Do you study Englishes? Anthropologies? Medicines?

You know that “math” is just the abbreviated form of “mathematics” right?

"mathematics" may end in "s", but that doesn't make it plural. We say "Mathematics is a science" not "Mathematics are sciences" (replace with "art/arts" if you don't belive it's a science). We also say "mathematics is a growing field", not "mathematics are growing fields". Because it's singular, the fact that it ends in "s" doesn't naturally require shortened forms of it to carry the last letter at the end. I get that in the UK people say "maths", but let's not make this out to be like one side is correct and the other is not because mathematics ends in "s". Particularly as "math" was first coined in the U.K. (much of contemporary U.S. English is an older form of contemporary British English).

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

#227

Post by oarsinsync »

simondotau wrote: post #144
mthoms wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just uninstalled Dropbox and upgraded my iCloud storage. I’ll admit it’s an experiment to see if it meets my needs, but for my use case(syncing between my desktop and laptop), they are absolutely direct competitors.

Yes, iCloud certainly does compete with Dropbox. But Files doesn’t. You didn’t use the Files app to upgrade your iCloud storage, you went to Settings or a web browser.

How do you use iCloud Drive to sync arbitrary files between iOS and macOS? Is there a dedicated iCloud Drive app that competes with the Dropbox app?

I don’t think there is. I think the only first party interface for syncing arbitrary files in iCloud Drive is the Files app.

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

#228

Post by tempodox »

jsjohnst wrote: post #212
spicybright wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still need a $100 a year developer subscription to develop your app though, right?

You need a subscription to distribute your app via the AppStore, not to develop it or to use the app you wrote personally.

If you don't pay the rent-seeking Apple tax, there are severe restrictions for iOS:

• You can only install on a very limited number of devices, and the HW IDs are kept by Apple, so installing from a different Mac won't help. It's tied to your developer ID, indefinitely. They don't mention that in the “On-device testing” bullet point.

• Your app install will only work for a week. After that, you have to reinstall because some certificate timed out.

Nota bene, this is for local installs, no AppStore involved. Yet they bully you into paying rent just so you can run your own app on your own devices.

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

#229

Post by stephenr »

rsj_hn wrote: post #226
stephenr wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know that “math” is just the abbreviated form of “mathematics” right?

"mathematics" may end in "s", but that doesn't make it plural. We say "Mathematics is a science" not "Mathematics are sciences" (replace with "art/arts" if you don't belive it's a science). We also say "mathematics is a growing field", not "mathematics are growing fields". Because it's singular, the fact that it ends in "s" doesn't naturally require shortened forms of it to carry the last letter at the end. I get tha…

I didn't say it's plural, I said it's the abbreviated form. Math and maths are both abbreviations of mathematics.

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

#230

Post by saurik »

mrtksn wrote: post #224
musicale wrote: post #49

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?

Isn't it obvious? They say they don't give advantage to their own apps as a company policy but they made exception to this during an event. The follow up e-mails indicate that the upper management wasn't happy about this and demanded high level approval before this happens next time. So it's not really evil Apple caught doing something that they say they don't. Its more like corrupt Apple where someone did something…

The statement "we do not advantage our apps over those of any developer or competitor" is not about a policy, and is false even if you aren't only doing something "during an event"; eve more to the point: it is even still a lie if you have only done it as some kind of mistake, and even if everyone involved was fired over that mistake. It might be OK that it happened, but it did happen, and you need to explain it and justify the situation... you can't claim it simply doesn't happen and still be considered "honest".
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