Apple Just Lost Me • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Just Lost Me

#51

Post by arjie » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:51 PM UTC

daedrdev wrote: post #9

Any system of age verification will fail to satisfy the writer, because it is fundamentally the UK’s fault by requiring such draconian measures. Credit cards don't work ever time, but the other options of using AI or sending your data to a third company who will resell it are also not great. The only other complaint seems to be liquid glass? It really feels strange because Apple feels on the upswing with their new of…

Reading between the lines, the author of the blog post would have gone along with the verification with annoyance if the verification had worked. What seems to have prompted everything is the credit cards failing. The fact that they couldn't use Wallet and then tried manually with all five sort of illustrates that they would have gone along with it.

Edge cases like immigrants in a different land are typically unmet for these things. I remember once trying to re-activate my Google Fi SIM from my home in the UK before I returned to the US and getting a strange error message that didn't allude to the region. I got the rep on the line and they said "You're in the US, right?" and I had to bullshit something about "oh I had my VPN on" and then turned it on so I would like I was in the US and it worked then.

Anyway, there's clearly one cause and the rest is just kitchen sink argumentation.

Re: Apple Just Lost Me

#52

Post by joshgachnang » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:51 PM UTC

lynndotpy wrote: post #6

The space allocated for "Apple has lost their way" has been maxed out for decades, so it bears stressing that this time is different. This Liquid Glass debacle has disillusioned everyone from hardcore Apple fans to normal people who otherwise don't follow tech. Once the dust settles, this will be a case study for decades to come. Apple threw their hard-won reputational gains off a cliff for _nothing_.

My non-techie friends either barely notice Liquid Glass or go "ooo this is nice!". It has annoyed me on occasion, but I barely notice it any more. Much ado about nothing.

Re: Apple Just Lost Me

#53

Post by jeroenhd » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:51 PM UTC

pfraze wrote: post #11

Age verification has been put into law across the world over the last year. Apple doesn’t have a choice.

Apple has to do age verification because of dumb laws, but they decided to do age verification in a dumb way.

The author tried to go along with the age verification system with five different cards and failed five times. For an account that's older than the legal age that would need to be verified in the first place, mind you.

There are many ways to do age verification, most of them bad, but that's why most companies complying with these laws use multiple methods.

Re: Apple Just Lost Me

#54

Post by hellweaver666 » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #15

I found this to be a very odd and strange rant. The author's three issues with Apple are: 1. Gatekeeping. OK, fine, but at the very least this has been Apple's stance for a very long time now (the author talks about faxing credit card details), so it's not like it's something new. If you wanted full unfettered installation rights, Apple was never the company for you. And while I think it's fine to argue against Apple…

When I got the prompt it just said "your account age is old enough to prove your age" and didn't ask for any further info.

Re: Apple Just Lost Me

#55

Post by tclancy » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

lynndotpy wrote: post #6

The space allocated for "Apple has lost their way" has been maxed out for decades, so it bears stressing that this time is different. This Liquid Glass debacle has disillusioned everyone from hardcore Apple fans to normal people who otherwise don't follow tech. Once the dust settles, this will be a case study for decades to come. Apple threw their hard-won reputational gains off a cliff for _nothing_.

I think this sums up the disconnect between the devotees (I’ve been on Mac since 2005 or so, just long enough to buy the last PowerPC after a decade of Windows) and any corporation. I am not a devotee of any particular OS’ church but Apple’s market cap suggests there was a whole lotta nothing they got in return. I am a firm believer in the way European football fans see their clubs as belonging to them, but the reality with any brand is their loyalty is to money, not you.

Re: Apple Just Lost Me

#56

Post by vwcx » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

baal80spam wrote: post #31

dionian wrote: post #8

I like liquid glass. I liked it since the first betas i tried. Am i the only one

At this point I am pretty sure it's the loud vocal minority that hates it. Vast majority is either indifferent or actually likes it (but liking something doesn't sell).

I think the vast majority's friction points with liquid glass come from the other changes, like the redesign of Messages and the calling functionality.

Re: Apple Just Lost Me

#57

Post by mayhemducks » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

Can we all just agree that cyber criminals suck? Especially if you are a legit developer who wants to offer useful apps to the world?

Don't get me wrong, I can't stand surveillance, and I think age verification is virtue signaling and will have very little affect on actual cyber crime. We need a better way to stop online abuse.

But certificates, GateKeeper, app certification, app stores etc. are all supposed to mitigate serious harm from bad actors.

We need to get much better at security in general if we want to have nice things.

Re: Apple Just Lost Me

#58

Post by williamdclt » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

Pay08 wrote: post #33

lynndotpy wrote: post #6

The space allocated for "Apple has lost their way" has been maxed out for decades, so it bears stressing that this time is different. This Liquid Glass debacle has disillusioned everyone from hardcore Apple fans to normal people who otherwise don't follow tech. Once the dust settles, this will be a case study for decades to come. Apple threw their hard-won reputational gains off a cliff for _nothing_.

You're far overstating the effect it has had.

Yeah. The vast majority of people simply don't give a flying shit, and many haven't really even noticed.

Re: Apple Just Lost Me

#59

Post by dgxyz » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:53 PM UTC

gtirloni wrote: post #45

dgxyz wrote: post #7

We just got fucked by this today. My 22 year old daughter doesn't have a driving license or a credit card but does have a passport and it didn't work. She's now got a kids phone. I haven't tried the 20 year old yet who is in the same situation... They have 5 days to unfuck this or I'm literally rolling out Pixels + Graphene to the family. Exit plan for the Mac is a Linux desktop.

Could you emit a virtual credit card for them that you then cancel after the verification is done? What "unfucking" looks like though? The law is mandated in the UK. What other way of age verification would work better for them?

That is a possibility but it's a stupid verification method as not everyone has credit cards. It's just cheap for the vendor.

Unfucking looks like a "look what the UK government policy is causing" PR disaster and a rollback and consultation.

Edit: I suspect this might happen when MPs start getting upgraded...

Re: Apple Just Lost Me

#60

Post by bsimpson » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:53 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #15

I found this to be a very odd and strange rant. The author's three issues with Apple are: 1. Gatekeeping. OK, fine, but at the very least this has been Apple's stance for a very long time now (the author talks about faxing credit card details), so it's not like it's something new. If you wanted full unfettered installation rights, Apple was never the company for you. And while I think it's fine to argue against Apple…

> If you wanted full unfettered installation rights, Apple was never the company for you

Author started at System 8. They didn't start locking things down until the iPhone.