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Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

9to5mac.com

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Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#511

Post by koala888 »

Andaith wrote: post #169
andsoitis wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t think the hardware and software ecosystem are superior to the competition?

Not OP, but I think they still have the lead in hardware. However, I'm using an iPhone 14 which apparently released 4 years ago now, and it's still plenty fast enough for all my needs. If it lasts another 4 years, I won't update. That's probably their problem. Do I think the software ecosystem is superior? I _hate_ using the app store with a passion. I _hate_ trying to find an app for my needs(most recently a gym app…

If you need a sub-free gym app check out Strive Gym Log

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#512

Post by VerifiedReports »

m-a-t-t-i wrote: post #298
VerifiedReports wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amen. App-store search is an offense sham, wasting users' time and stealing from developers. And +1 to pitiful Mail search. But Apple has long suffered from a peculiar learning disability in regard to search. Not only does Finder fail to find files matching search strings that it's showing you IN THE CURRENT DIRECTORY... but both Finder and Spotlight provide no option to include WHERE it found stuff in search results…

In spotlight search, you can hold down cmd to show the path of the selected file. And cmd + enter will open the containing folder in finder.

Thanks, but the point is to see the locations IN the result list, so you can eliminate hits that you know are irrelevant (like ones on backup volumes that aren't current, or whatever). Having to click on every hit, one at a time, and hold a secret hotkey is not just undiscoverable but absurdly cumbersome.

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#513

Post by VerifiedReports »

port11 wrote: post #263
VerifiedReports wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amen. App-store search is an offense sham, wasting users' time and stealing from developers. And +1 to pitiful Mail search. But Apple has long suffered from a peculiar learning disability in regard to search. Not only does Finder fail to find files matching search strings that it's showing you IN THE CURRENT DIRECTORY... but both Finder and Spotlight provide no option to include WHERE it found stuff in search results…

The Finder issue can be alleviated if you include the path bar in your Finder window, at least it is so before Tahoe. So you highlight a search result and the path bar shows you where it is. Search on iOS Mail is… what is it doing? I can see the e-mail right there, but Mail can’t find it. Especially if it needs to be « connected to power and on Wi-Fi ». Why?

Thanks, but having to click on every single result one at a time and peer at a path bar somewhere is far from acceptable. This prevents you from sorting results by location, and skipping hits on volumes you know to be irrelevant.

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#514

Post by VerifiedReports »

sunrunner wrote: post #273
port11 wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Finder issue can be alleviated if you include the path bar in your Finder window, at least it is so before Tahoe. So you highlight a search result and the path bar shows you where it is. Search on iOS Mail is… what is it doing? I can see the e-mail right there, but Mail can’t find it. Especially if it needs to be « connected to power and on Wi-Fi ». Why?

I’m not sure if this still works as everything gets a bit more broken in every new macOS, but context menu ‘Reveal in Finder’ used to be my way to figure out where the search result was. My latest macOS gripe is that the ability to copy text out of iTunes (something ridiculous like, say, an album description) has...just disappeared? I’d love to know what UI framework shenanigans just straight up break text selection.

Thanks, but right-clicking on every hit, one at a time, and invoking a context menu option to see where it resides would take longer than searching for, downloading, and installing a competent file-search utility like EasyFind.

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#515

Post by dathinab »

alt227 wrote: post #367
dathinab wrote: post #332

there are already regulations in the EU which say - ADs need to be clearly recognizable as such - bunch of other things related to deceiving users and customer protection - the risk this enables in combination with target ads to trick a user into installing a look alike malware makes such designs IMHO negligent, and in the EU you are responsible for (your) negligence no matter what you put in some TOS so why do we to…

> so why do we tolerate sites systematically blending the lines between ads and content Precisely because it has started to be regulated. Pre regulation, companies were tiptoeing forward, creating a new market and seeing what they could get away with with their customers. Now there is regulation they have a line drawn in the sand for them, and they know exactly what they can and cant do to screw consumers. Therefore…

> cat and mouse game of companies finding loopholes in the regulation and regulators rushing to

but here is the thing, most "loop holes" in this kind of law technically aren't loop holes in this kind of laws (but loop holes in enforcement; Because laws normally aren't based on specific technical solutions, so don't care how "clever" you solution is.)

the main problem is hesitant, slow and ineffective enforcement which moves things from "you can't do that and if you do you get increasingly higher penalties the longer you insist to not comply" to a broken "you can do that at a cost lower then your benefit and a bunch of annoying law suite dragging out for years"

best example is GDPR, it's relative clear cut and not vague and most "loop holes" are relatively clear cut not allowed. That is until judges made decisions which where clearly not in line with the text of the law because it was politically very inconvenient that the main business model of all the local news papers doesn't work anymore. Or humoring nonsensical arguments from meta in court instead of just shutting them down the moment meta brings them up. So now companies often don't try to comply with GDPR but instead try to guess "what degree of non compliance is widely allowed" and that is where GDPR compliance becomes complicated and legally unclear.

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#516

Post by latexr »

hdgvhicv wrote: post #510
latexr wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The time that an “App Store” existed and didn’t have adverts was very minimal. The iOS App Store was introduced in 2008. Ads in it began in 2016. We’re in 2026. The App Store has had ads for longer than it didn’t, but the early period was not “very minimal”, it was almost half its current life time.

But the time from smart phones becoming more popular than normal phones was about 2012, so that would be 75% of the time for most users.

That cutoff doesn’t matter at all for the reality of the situation, and your math is off. The moment smart phone use becomes a majority does not mean the majority of people have only started experiencing something at that point. And we’re talking specifically about the iOS App Store ads, and you’re ignoring the iPod Touch and iPad…

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#517

Post by janfoeh »

sunrunner wrote: post #506
janfoeh wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aah, don't worry, that's why they introduced system-wide text recognition in images, powered by Apple Intelligence! Just take a screenshot of that album description, and ... sigh

I never actually thought to try such an obvious and definitely-not-ridiculous approach, and I can (happily?) confirm it works, so thanks for that. Apple are certainly leaning into Think Different with this.

I... well, you are welcome :-)

Playing around with it for ten seconds, it looks to me you might even use the Shortcuts app to

- Take interactive screenshot - Extract text from screenshot - Copy text to clipboard

and assign that to a keyboard shortcut to at least clean up this abominable workaround a bit.

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#518

Post by Hackbraten »

izzydata wrote: post #501
Hackbraten wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I left the Apple ecosystem three years ago and have been daily driving a Linux-based phone ever since. I’m still dealing with the fallout even today. There are tons of things in 2026 that you can no longer conveniently do without an Apple or Google mobile OS. For example, you’re out of all the group chats. No more WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal. You can’t have those on a computer unless you have the account tethered t…

At least in the US people still only use SMS or a program that can be installed on a computer. I've never used WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal. The only thing right now that I need my Android phone for is Duo Mobile authentication to log into my work computer.

In Europe, where SMS used to be ridiculously expensive until the early 2010s, WhatsApp usage is absolutely endemic to the point that many businesses use it as their primary means of communication. It also has a quasi-monopoly on group messaging among friends and relatives.

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#519

Post by lern_too_spel »

spockz wrote: post #500
lern_too_spel wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As with security and privacy, the only real solution is user choice. On Android, if you don't like the app store(s) that came with the device, you can use another one or none at all. On iOS, you have to get apps from the App Store.

This only holds if you don’t need/want/care for banking apps or things like Netflix. More apps are requiring hardware and software attestation like my sibling mentioned.

Attestation just requires an attestation service, not a store, and apps installed outside the Play Store can use Play Services.

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#520

Post by Marsymars »

specialist wrote: post #345
delfinom wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising alternatives to trademarked names is completely legal in every sense. It's known as comparative advertising and is established for more than a century. You simply cannot pretend to be that trademark product/business and you cannot disparage that trademark.

> You simply cannot pretend to be that trademark product/business Some fraction of consumers are duped. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many knockoffs. If I enter Acme Orbital Thrusters into a search engine, the exact match, their actual website, must be the top hit. Otherwise it's a racket, not a search engine.

What if Acme Orbital Thrusters is a long-running, covered-up fraudster? Why should they get to automatically outrank sites exposing their crimes?

Or what about when there are multiple trademarks for different goods and services from different companies that are all exact matches for the search terms?

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