341–350 of 388 posts
>Applebot is the web crawler for Apple. Products like Siri and Spotlight Suggestions use Applebot.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd imagine at some point depriving sites of revenue will lead to adversarial outcomes where many if not all will simply refuse to load. So if ad blockers become mainstream it will be interesting change to the web.
I was quite shocked when I discovered that some people with deep pockets think of ads as product information. Their behavior is entirely the opposite of ours. They click on all of them and buy stuff just to be sure they are not missing out. I on the other hand click 1 banner per year and I click search ads if I'm searching for that specific product. If I block ads on all pages except search (where I use them) google…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
#5 is the key point to my mind. For example, you can’t just add new search engines to iOS Safari with just a URL. There are a few alternatives to Google but there’s no easy way for a new entrant to get in there. EDIT: Interesting. I’m picking up downvotes for this, is there some way to achieve this (other than jailbreaking) I’ve missed?
I’m guessing the issue is because there isn’t a lot of merit in saying Apple and Google are totally stitched up when the options change by region and for the plaintiff there are at least 4 additional options other than Google. EG Ecosia is a recent entry, so it does seem that Apple does look into this and introduce new options that can serve their audience size with sufficient quality results. Getting included seems…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost any time anyone brings up accusations of anticompetitive behavior against Apple for the iOS ecosystem, notice that what they’re saying is “in order to make the smartphone market more competitive and give customers more choice, Apple should be forced to make their smartphone offerings less distinguishable from Android, the only other smartphone ecosystem.”
If more like chrome means more openness and choices for the public than who cares if it is like chrome or not like chrome. If Apple decided there next phone would have no screen or phone it would automatically make it a better choice because it is so much more different from android? I don't buy that line of thinking.
Because it will make iPhones worse for a huge number of iPhone users. You might say “I don’t care if you’re less satisfied with your iPhone because you now have ‘more choice’ according to my limited definition.” But Apple presumably actually cares about how satisfied people are with their iPhones.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're entirely correct. Google and Apple operate as a cartel. If the web experience wasn't 90% Google (outside of social media), and the phone experience wasn't 50% Apple / 50% Google, everything would be cheaper due to competition. Just look at the percentages app developers pay. In a free market with five alternatives, there probably wouldn't even be an app store. We'd do native app downloads over the web and inv…
> We'd do native app downloads over the web and invest a ton of energy into security and privacy controls. This has been demonstrated to be false. This scenario is exactly what we used to have in the windows PC era and no one invested "a ton of energy into security and privacy controls". That unfulfilled need is exactly what propelled Apple to the #1 spot when it came to the mobile era.
Anti-virus?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
#5 is the key point to my mind. For example, you can’t just add new search engines to iOS Safari with just a URL. There are a few alternatives to Google but there’s no easy way for a new entrant to get in there. EDIT: Interesting. I’m picking up downvotes for this, is there some way to achieve this (other than jailbreaking) I’ve missed?
I don't know why you get downvotes, this is true, at least for iOS. There's no way a user can add a new search engine, they can only choose one of the five choices.
- Google (default, duh)
- Yahoo
- Bing
- DuckDuckGo
- Ecosia
There is no obvious option to add another search engine. Just as an additional data point here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't believe I've never considered this. They really should have a "custom" option in there as well. Is it possible to do using .mobileconfig profiles maybe? (Off topic: Is there a specification somewhere on what's possible using .mobileconfig profiles?)
It’s possible to do via extensions now. Hyperweb is an extension that allows for adding atmos search engines.
If Apple wrote a search engine, would it only return one result? (the right one, of course...)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not defending Apple. I’m rebutting the ridiculous idea that what is printed in the Guardian is what ‘everybody agrees’.
I did not suggest that an article in Guardian means everybody agrees with that. In this case, Apple themselves agree that the iOS platform is closed for many things.