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

Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 667 posts

Re: Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps

#141

Post by briffle »

johnsea wrote: post #103
_bxg1 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I read that article. It was a pretty bad take. Apple isn't "Thanos-snapping", it's enforcing its own terms of use which are very clearly laid out. Both Facebook and Google knowingly breached those terms, and they got caught. That's all there is to it.

Apple should not have the right to enforce those conditions to begin with. Same as they should not be allowed to kick out apps from their whole platform on a whim. Inacceptable. Such a company should not be allowed to do business in EU. Much worse than what happened with Microsoft in the 90ties.

This is a pretty poor argument. I can think of multiple reasons they should be able to immediately revoke a certificate (or an app) 1. It finds the certificate has been compromised 2. it finds a publisher introduced malware in an update to their app

If some app decides to include a crypto-miner, that burns up your battery, your sure going to want apple to yank that from all the phones, as quick as possible, not sit there an hope your pocket doesn't melt before you can figure out which app to uninstall.

Re: Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps

#142

Post by abraham »

_bxg1 wrote: post #21
dombili wrote: post #4

I don't want to pass judgment on whether Google (or in the previous case, Facebook) was in the wrong, but it doesn't sit well with me that Apple wields so much power on what software their phones can run after it sells them. You may very well think that they're using their power sparingly and benevolently, but who is to say that will be the case next time around?

I used to feel that way, and I used Android for years for that reason. But since switching to an iPhone, I've found that what I really want from my phone is not a totally open platform, but a tool that's simple, secure, and effective. Something I don't have to mess with, something I can trust to do its job and respect my privacy and be pleasant to interact with. They tried going that direction a bit with macOS when t…

Android isn't a "totally open platform". By default you can only install apps from the Play Store and Google exercices a fair amount of editorial control over apps.

Re: Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps

#143

Post by CGamesPlay »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #9
dombili wrote: post #4

I don't want to pass judgment on whether Google (or in the previous case, Facebook) was in the wrong, but it doesn't sit well with me that Apple wields so much power on what software their phones can run after it sells them. You may very well think that they're using their power sparingly and benevolently, but who is to say that will be the case next time around?

> it doesn't sit well with me that Apple yields so much power on what software their phones can run after it sells them At the end of the day, you can compile and run anything on your machine. This is just regulating distribution. Given the specific breaches at hand by Facebook and Google, a balance seems to have been found (acceptable to most users) between freedom and security.

Please correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t this change retroactively prevent installed apps signed with the enterprise license from running on iOS devices?

Re: Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps

#144

Post by ohnope »

gwbas1c wrote: post #115
askafriend wrote: post #43

Let’s say you’re using a Google API like Maps, and you violate terms by snapshotting sections of their maps and storing them on your severs so you can serve static maps without making API calls. They’d shut down your API access immediately Google and Facebook both knew the terms. They both knew that the Enterprise Distribution Program was for internal use only. They still put ads out in the wild to recruit regular co…

Is it really clear? Are the people they were paying technically Google and Facebook employees / contractors?

No, they were random consumers. That's the whole point of market research.

When you are paid to take a survey, do you magically become an employee of the company conducting the survey?

Re: Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps

#145

Post by saagarjha »

ryukafalz wrote: post #33
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it doesn't sit well with me that Apple yields so much power on what software their phones can run after it sells them At the end of the day, you can compile and run anything on your machine. This is just regulating distribution. Given the specific breaches at hand by Facebook and Google, a balance seems to have been found (acceptable to most users) between freedom and security.

If you also happen to have a Mac to run XCode, sure. I don’t believe there’s a way to compile and load iOS apps from any other platform? (And you certainly can’t do it from the device itself.)

You can technically compile iOS apps on any platform, but you won't be able to link against the iOS SDK without Xcode. So in practice it's a bit annoying. Loading iOS apps is pretty simple on any platform with Cydia Impactor.

Re: Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps

#146

Post by nathancahill »

nostrademons wrote: post #110
jdietrich wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth bearing in mind that Google pay Apple billions of dollars a year to be the default search engine on iOS. To my eyes, Apple clearly have the upper hand in this relationship. https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3063669/google-is-...

Android has 85% of the worldwide smartphone market. Apple doesn't exactly have the upper hand in the relationship, but they have enough leverage to make it sting if they decide not to cooperate and to force a reasonable settlement. In my mind, a reasonable settlement includes not installing spyware on users' iPhones through the enterprise development program, so it looks like they're doing precisely that.

Who are the more valuable users for ad providers? Owners of Apple devices or owners of Androids?

Re: Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps

#148

Post by ceejayoz »

gwbas1c wrote: post #115
askafriend wrote: post #43

Let’s say you’re using a Google API like Maps, and you violate terms by snapshotting sections of their maps and storing them on your severs so you can serve static maps without making API calls. They’d shut down your API access immediately Google and Facebook both knew the terms. They both knew that the Enterprise Distribution Program was for internal use only. They still put ads out in the wild to recruit regular co…

Is it really clear? Are the people they were paying technically Google and Facebook employees / contractors?

Facebook was paying 13 year olds to use the app, so that argument isn't really available to them unless they want some pretty significant civil penalties straight from the US Government. (I strongly doubt it'd fly either way, but "we hired underage contractors" really won't.)

Re: Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps

#149

Post by seanalltogether »

_bxg1 wrote: post #3

I feel less vengeful satisfaction from this one, but I respect that they're applying their rules consistently. I just hope it doesn't backfire. On a totally personal level, I'd rather Facebook feel the hurt for its audacity than Apple be forced to backtrack because they made too many enemies.

For me, this is just another reason to be unhappy with the Apple distribution model. I work with IOT devices and we have enough trouble getting Apple to approve our app store releases. We need Enterprise Certs from time to time as a release valve for the inconsistent review policies that stop us from getting into the app store in a predictable manner.

Re: Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps

#150

Post by stevenjohns »

grumpopotamus wrote: post #114
stevenjohns wrote: post #47

Extremely happy with my decision to get an iPhone. Events like these are what is going to keep me as a customer moving forward, too. I unplugged[0] from Google Last year - went DDG for search, went to iOS, dropped gmail for fastmail, etc. As time goes on I’m continually reaffirmed that I made the right decisions. [0] I still use some Google services, like YouTube, frequently, some of my mail still goes through Gmail,…

Is getting an iPhone the only reasonable path? I tried this briefly on Android, but various other apps started complaining that Play was not installed.

It's not the only reasonable path, of course. There are heavily de-Googled versions of Android out there as well.

In this case I'm voting with my dollars and paying a premium for a device made by a company that is, at least overtly, pushing for a bare minimum level of support for their customers.

It certainly doesn't hurt that they're nice phones too, though.

Post reply on HN