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Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

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Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you gatekeep applications on your device then it's a walled garden. Simple, no?

So why has there never been a horde of torches and pitchforks outside Castle Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo yet? And don’t squeeze out that “cOnSoLeS aReNt cOmPuTeRs” bullshit. They’re closer to computers than a goddamn wristwatch.

I honestly could not tell you, but that's a 'whataboutism' argument, we are not talking about Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo here. But to the extent that they determine what can and can not be shipped on their platform they are - to me - just as much a walled garden.

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#172
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just so that we could all be happy right now To be honest, I'm quite happy about big companies revealing their ugly real face. And some people might benefit from such a reality-check.

I wish the plaintiffs luck in court. I remember apples courtroom privateering where they persuaded the justice system they invented rounded corners and got their competitors phones pulled from the market. If only the same standards and rigor of enforcement could actually apply to them. Once all is said and done I suspect whatever apple has to pay will not meaningfully impact their profitability, and will be seen as a…

Larger discussion:

Is this what being a hacker is now?

Knowing your project is going to get stomped out with uncompetitive practices from day 1,

still doing and carrying it all the the way through to court with a big player?

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#173
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just so that we could all be happy right now To be honest, I'm quite happy about big companies revealing their ugly real face. And some people might benefit from such a reality-check.

I wish the plaintiffs luck in court. I remember apples courtroom privateering where they persuaded the justice system they invented rounded corners and got their competitors phones pulled from the market. If only the same standards and rigor of enforcement could actually apply to them. Once all is said and done I suspect whatever apple has to pay will not meaningfully impact their profitability, and will be seen as a…

For reference[1].

Apple also managed to cause lasting damage to HTC as a brand when they ventured into the US. I don't HTC ever recovered from that, although it might not have been the only problem they had.

[1] https://morningconsult.com/opinions/apple-v-samsung-scotus-s...

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#174

It’s flux all over again. Sometimes they just buy out the app developer. think they did this with Dark Sky?

I have the new Weather app in iOS 15 which is the replacement for Dark Sky and they made it better. This was surprising to me. I can't set custom alerts anymore for e.g., umbrella or UV, but the automatic alerts are exactly how I wanted them anyway... and it's nice that the app changes which data is shown based on the current conditions: if it's going to rain, the map shows weather radar instead of temperature

And unlike Dark Sky there is no iPad version of the native weather app.

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you gatekeep applications on your device then it's a walled garden. Simple, no?

So why has there never been a horde of torches and pitchforks outside Castle Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo yet? And don’t squeeze out that “cOnSoLeS aReNt cOmPuTeRs” bullshit. They’re closer to computers than a goddamn wristwatch.

I'd wager a lot of it has to do with history. Gaming consoles were always proprietary hardware that could only do things approved by the manufacturer, and were purchased with that understanding, unless you did some hacking. Computers were always open platforms that you purchased and then could do what you wanted with, no hacking required. iOS was the first major market computing platform that broke this general understanding.

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you gatekeep applications on your device then it's a walled garden. Simple, no?

So why has there never been a horde of torches and pitchforks outside Castle Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo yet? And don’t squeeze out that “cOnSoLeS aReNt cOmPuTeRs” bullshit. They’re closer to computers than a goddamn wristwatch.

It's a good point, but consoles were single purpose computers. They exist to play games. Now, I'll agree that the line is blurred these days, but they're still generally gaming machines. Nobody is buying an XBox to stream Netflix solely.

I think the difference is that Apple wants people to buy these devices as your primary computing device. Are you OK when Apple locks down the Mac line? What if you couldn't use Brew to install open source software? For a not insignificant portion of their buyers that may be OK.

I agree that consoles have their own anti-competitive issues, but they're not the same. Copy-cat games have always existed. The difference is that Sony's not going to pull a Rockstar game exclusively built for their platform to directly compete. So while I'm trying to see the parallel, it's not quite the same in my opinion.

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#178
This is dumb I still think the high barrier of entry is good for the App Store. Let Apple call the shots, let the developers who are concerned focus on a different platform if they become that worried that developing for Apple devices is high risk, if it reaches a fever pitch Apple will adjust, if not then it’s probably not a big enough problem. Unlike in healthcare I think it’s reasonable in this environment to sacrifice the few for the betterment of the most and for Apple to have the rights to control their own platform.

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#179
post #64

Aptly put by the author: See you in court @Apple https://twitter.com/keleftheriou/status/1437845736951992321

Does the author stand a chance against the army of ivy league lawyers of a trillion dollar megacorp? I guess it would help if he's also American (don't know where he's from) so he could fight Apple on home turf and use the jury system on his side like "Evil megacorp steals from the little guy" (does it even work like this in the US or did I watch too many movies?), but I'm more curious how a lawsuit would go if he'd…

> Does the author stand a chance against the army of ivy league lawyers of a trillion dollar megacorp?

I'm tired of this meme. Getting better lawyers doesn't let you cheat the law.

Re: Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you gatekeep applications on your device then it's a walled garden. Simple, no?

So why has there never been a horde of torches and pitchforks outside Castle Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo yet? And don’t squeeze out that “cOnSoLeS aReNt cOmPuTeRs” bullshit. They’re closer to computers than a goddamn wristwatch.

Arguably, there has been. It’s harder to see because the interface is different in those cases. It’s not as public. Developers have been trying to get around game console lock out for as long as it’s existed. Nintendo’s licensing was very restricted with the NES, and it really annoyed a lot of software developers.

Same case with XBox and PS. You can’t willy nilly write a game for either platform.

For some reason the unlicensed cartridge that always comes to mind for me is the powder blue Bible stories game.

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