Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

danq.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 571 posts

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#151

Post by spogbiper »

craftkiller wrote: post #41
reddalo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Desktop Chromium is Chrome. iOS Chrome is just Safari with a different interface. Apple doesn't let other browsers use their own engine on iOS (unless you are located in the EU).

> iOS Chrome is just Safari with a different interface uhh wow. How did Microsoft face antitrust lawsuits for merely bundling IE when Apple is literally forcing their browser?

i've often wondered how Apple gets away with things like this, I guess its because they never gained the marketshare that Microsoft had

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#152

Post by Telaneo »

zacwest wrote: post #150
Telaneo wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I might be misremembering or misinterpreting, but it seems like you really need an LLC with a mail forwarding service and a cheap second phone line just to avoid the App Store sending the whole internet to your personal phone and address. For something free I can get why this would seem unreasonable (modulo scams, for which this is a hoop I would rather have than not), but if money's involved, a consumer should be…

Developers cannot issue refunds from the Apple App Store. Contacting the developer by physical mail doesn’t have any effect.

> Developers cannot issue refunds from the Apple App Store.

That sounds like something that needs to be fixed.

> Contacting the developer by physical mail doesn’t have any effect.

Ditto.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#153

Post by Rohansi »

gadders wrote: post #142
Grombobulous wrote: post #53

I recently decided to publish an app on the App Store just so I could say I accomplished that, and maybe even make a little bit of beer money on the side. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my actual app is pretty much garbage. I don’t expect it to be popular. It’s basically a worse version of stuff that is already available. I expected this to be a learning exercise about the process of getting stuff published. Lo…

The android store is the same. Jump through loads of hoops, fill in tax information for a bunch of countries, dox yourself, etc etc. I'm finding it hard to reconcile a) how difficult the process and b) the load of absolute garbage apps that are out there.

You'll still find people praising Apple (maybe even Google) for their review process even though their store is full of garbage. Really justifies their 30% cut.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#154

Post by inigyou »

hbn wrote: post #134
inigyou wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a very general European mindset thing. They have a very different approach to privacy there - they basically expect everyone's identity to be public, and then protect those identities from abuse, rather than the more US approach of letting you hide your identity so it can't be abused. You see supermarkets with the owner's full name plastered across the storefront underneath the franchise logo. "This store i…

A store is more reasonable to put your name on because generally if you want to meet the person running it you could just walk into it regardless of whether you know their name. The internet has created a culture of deranged harassment that makes posting your identity online alongside anything you publish more insane than ever. And your market is more or less the entire world rather than your local community.

Europe has basically applied the same principle to websites as to stores, unlike the US where both websites and stores can be fairly anonymous.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#155

Post by Grombobulous »

Telaneo wrote: post #139
Grombobulous wrote: post #53

I recently decided to publish an app on the App Store just so I could say I accomplished that, and maybe even make a little bit of beer money on the side. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my actual app is pretty much garbage. I don’t expect it to be popular. It’s basically a worse version of stuff that is already available. I expected this to be a learning exercise about the process of getting stuff published. Lo…

> I might be misremembering or misinterpreting, but it seems like you really need an LLC with a mail forwarding service and a cheap second phone line just to avoid the App Store sending the whole internet to your personal phone and address. For something free I can get why this would seem unreasonable (modulo scams, for which this is a hoop I would rather have than not), but if money's involved, a consumer should be…

Yes, you’re right that much of this only comes up when you’re trying to charge money for an app.

However, if you’re running your own website you can make those decisions on your own without being forced into most of them.

Plenty of very large “reputable” companies obfuscate their physical address and phone number, and don’t even offer an email address for contact.

I’d also say that this shouldn’t be as necessary when an app platform is involved. Apple takes 15-30% of the revenue and acts as a full retailer. Why do App Store customers have any need to contact the underlying developers in this scenario?

Walmart doesn’t make it easy/possible for me to contact the manufacturer of their t-shirts.

There are even other digital software stores like GOG or Steam that really aren’t selling you software that has a guaranteed point of contact.

Those platforms just have a half-decent to decent return policy and act as the middleman.

But when you’re on iOS you have all the burdens of a third-party supplier without all the benefits.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#156

Post by hollow-moe »

inigyou wrote: post #130
reddalo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily tools such as uBlock Origin let you block all those nasty scripts, _including_ the cookie banner themselves.

I have uBO and I still see cookie banners.

Unlock Origin doesn't enable all filters by default, you can go in the extension settings and enable more filters which removes the cookie banners etc.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#157

Post by Telaneo »

Grombobulous wrote: post #155
Telaneo wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I might be misremembering or misinterpreting, but it seems like you really need an LLC with a mail forwarding service and a cheap second phone line just to avoid the App Store sending the whole internet to your personal phone and address. For something free I can get why this would seem unreasonable (modulo scams, for which this is a hoop I would rather have than not), but if money's involved, a consumer should be…

Yes, you’re right that much of this only comes up when you’re trying to charge money for an app. However, if you’re running your own website you can make those decisions on your own without being forced into most of them. Plenty of very large “reputable” companies obfuscate their physical address and phone number, and don’t even offer an email address for contact. I’d also say that this shouldn’t be as necessary when…

> Plenty of very large “reputable” companies obfuscate their physical address and phone number, and don’t even offer an email address for contact.

This is whataboutism. They should do that too. The fact they don't isn't an excuse for smaller devs or companies.

> I’d also say that this shouldn’t be as necessary when an app platform is involved. Apple takes 15-30% of the revenue and acts as a full retailer. Why do App Store customers have any need to contact the underlying developers in this scenario?

You should be able to contact the underlying manufacturer or whatever of any product you buy. Why should programs be different?

> Walmart doesn’t make it easy/possible for me to contact the manufacturer of their t-shirts.

They should.

> There are even other digital software stores like GOG or Steam that really aren’t selling you software that has a guaranteed point of contact.

More whataboutism. You should have a guaranteed point of contact for what you buy there too.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#158

Post by Grombobulous »

Telaneo wrote: post #152
zacwest wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers cannot issue refunds from the Apple App Store. Contacting the developer by physical mail doesn’t have any effect.

> Developers cannot issue refunds from the Apple App Store. That sounds like something that needs to be fixed. > Contacting the developer by physical mail doesn’t have any effect. Ditto.

Correct! In my other comment within the greater thread I detail how conceptually the App Store should be shouldering more of the burden considering they sell in a retail-like arrangement.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#159

Post by rahimnathwani »

buffalobuffalo wrote: post #148
smcg wrote: post #74

The fundamental problem with the internet is that hosting sucks and no one wants to do it. It's thankless and it's expensive to maintain, both time and money. Apps are a way to not worry about that. By the way, the link doesn't load for me, so I used the archive to read it. https://archive.ph/ByFBN

No, the fundamental problem is ios. There are a bunch of features that ios locks down so that you are essentially forced to use apps. Want to send push notifications? You need an app. Want to be able to wake your app up in the background to do stuff intermittently? You need an app. Want to get your app on the home screen? Once again, you need an app. And before anyone says you can do this with PWAs, yes, that's true.…

"Want to get your app on the home screen?"

Open Safari, navigate to the web app, tap the Share button, scroll down, and select 'Add to Home Screen'.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#160

Post by Grombobulous »

groundzeros2015 wrote: post #94
Grombobulous wrote: post #53

I recently decided to publish an app on the App Store just so I could say I accomplished that, and maybe even make a little bit of beer money on the side. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my actual app is pretty much garbage. I don’t expect it to be popular. It’s basically a worse version of stuff that is already available. I expected this to be a learning exercise about the process of getting stuff published. Lo…

> I’ll be the first to admit that my actual app is pretty much garbage It’s working. Your low quality project you weren’t really committed to got filtered.

I’m not sure what you mean. My app is published. I actually jumped through the hoops because I wanted to learn how to jump through those hoops.

My project hasn’t been filtered at all. I just found the process more of a bureaucratic exercise than made sense (and the end result was that my low quality app was accepted so none of this is done in the name of quality).

Post reply on HN