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

Apple is a traditional business

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 248 posts

Re: Apple is a traditional business

#181

Post by c22 »

Kalium wrote: post #175
oflannabhra wrote: post #11

> ...this is a time when Amazon is pushing innovations that don’t solve any real-world problems but may create some: like smart speakers, with their threat of big brother-style surveillance in exchange for a minimal increase in convenience, or complex and expensive cashierless stores that won’t deliver much of an improvement to our shopping experience but may cost underprivileged people their jobs. This is a time whe…

> That is a really pointed indictment of our current industry. Wow. Is it? I read it as a series of attacks from someone who thought the status quo was just fine, and doesn't actually understand the value being delivered. Since they don't understand it, there must not be any. Since there isn't any value and it just hurts vulnerable people, it must just be callous evil. For example, Amazon's cashierless store sounds g…

You don't have to talk to cashiers.

Re: Apple is a traditional business

#182

Post by wpdev_63 »

mayniac wrote: post #101
wpdev_63 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just keep in mind that the NSA has remote sudo access to everything on your phone[0]. It's not completely secure and they're known to abuse their power time to time. [0]: https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/

[citation needed] The link you sent just shows that they have zero days on Android: but they also have similar exploits available on iPhones. Besides, the NSA having zero day vulnerabilities is nothing new and not limited to Android. Saying they have "remote sudo access" is misleading also and implies that they were deliberately built into android, although that may not be what you meant. Either way, the NSA will alw…

They must have some really dank hackers cause they are able to remotely exploit iphones without user intervention.

Imagine if one of the thousands of hackers who attempt to jailbreak the iphone had those kinds of skills huh?

Re: Apple is a traditional business

#183

Post by r00fus »

SonicSoul wrote: post #127

Here’s a naive question. This all sounds noble and all , but doesn’t Apple know just as much or more about you via phone / watch / iCloud / iTunes / Apple Pay / Apple TV? Are we celebrating here that they’re not openly selling this information or using as primary business model ? Or that it’s only used for internal business?

Apple has been criticized in the past for having an internal culture/dictates to avoid "synergizing" this kind of info between their products/services - criticized because it affects the quality of features like Siri.

Contrast to companies like Google (who don't directly sell your info but still profit from it) or Facebook (who have had numerous exfiltration incidents over the years and who sell very targetable info that could be used to isolate a single person).

Meanwhile Equifax has horrible security and you aren't even remotely their customer - they just collect your data and get passive income from that.

Re: Apple is a traditional business

#184

Post by dep_b »

snowwrestler wrote: post #142
pier25 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but it really points to how rarely an innovation like the iPhone really occurs Yeah, but don't forget that the pieces to be able to create the iPhone had to be there first.

My list of the enabling technologies for the iPhone is: - USB 2.0 - developed by others, Apple's first use was in computers. - Flash memory - developed by others, Apple's first use was in iPods. - LCD screens - developed by others, Apple's first use was in laptops. - ARM chips - developed by others, Apple's first use was in... iPods? iPhone? Not sure. - Lithium ion batteries - developed by others, Apple's first use w…

> ARM chips - developed by others, Apple's first use was in... iPods? iPhone? Not sure.

ARM was created by Apple and Acorn to create low power chips for mobile devices like the Newton. You remember the Newton right? One of the first PDA's. Didn't make it but they did help shape the wave of PDA's that led to the iPhone.

Re: Apple is a traditional business

#185

Post by dep_b »

Aditya_Garg wrote: post #18
gf263 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to pay anymore.

Actually, if you don't pay the developer fee, you can only install 2 apps per apple account and they get deactivated in a week. If you do pay, I think its unlimited apps and a 3 month long period before they get deactivated.

I think you're confused with iTunes Connect. Whatever I push with Xcode stays on my phone forever.

Re: Apple is a traditional business

#186

Post by _bxg1 »

esrauch wrote: post #157
_bxg1 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is where the exchange of money happens. Because Google's, and Facebook's, Amazon's, and most SV startups' services are free, you get the privacy problems and the ulterior motives and the trust issues. With Apple, you paid for the product up-front. The transaction is done and in the open. They don't have to do anything skeevy to make money off their product.

Apple has plenty of non-aligned incentives, they control the store (+30% subscription tax on Spotify, taking down apps that compete with "core functionality"), they don't want you to repair your phone (and planned obsolescence) where ewaste and their profit is connected.

And Google technically sells hardware. I'm not talking absolutes, I'm talking about where the primary cash source is. Facebook, for example, couldn't be consumer-friendly if it wanted to, because psychological manipulation is core to its business model.

Re: Apple is a traditional business

#187

Post by TheLegace »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #138
wilsonnb wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really wasn't as massive a leap as you make it out to be. It's likely that we would have ended up with something very similar to today's smartphones even if the iPhone had never existed. It wasn't the first smartphone. It wasn't the first phone to use a capacitive touch screen. The first iPhone didn't even have the app store - it launched with the 3G a year after the the first iPhone was released, if I remember co…

We wouldn't have, because Apple was the only company that was user-focused, not technology-focused. Windows, RIM, Nokia, and others had all tried to produce similar devices. They invariably ended up with a clunking mess of buttons and features that appealed to geeks and/or business people, and no one else. The genius wasn't in putting the parts together - although that was a significant achievement. It was in making…

https://youtu.be/auXc0tgdJSo?t=49m1s

Re: Apple is a traditional business

#188

Post by technofiend »

Rjevski wrote: post #46
ekianjo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because it's the only option that takes privacy and security seriously right now. iPhones are a luxury. If you can recommend them it means you already belong to the richest part of the planet. For the rest, they jut can't afford it, and Apple was never interested in making anything cheap.

iPhone SE, or previous models are definitely affordable, and it seems like a good investment considering these devices are supported for 4 years on average, so on a 2 year-old second-hand device you’ll still get 2 years more of security updates, which is something Android can only dream about. Will you also complain about Samsung because their flagship is too expensive?

To be fair the latest Android devices offer three years of updates, so they're now somewhere in the middle.

https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en

>Pixel phones get security updates for at least 3 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store, or at least 18 months from when the Google Store last sold the device, whichever is longer. After that, we can't guarantee more updates.

If my Nexus 6 was any indication, a power user will wear the device out before three years anyway. Batteries are not end-user replaceable parts and require an expensive repair or specific tools and skills. Apple addresses this through IOS updates to throttle processor speed and extend battery life but in either case (Apple or Android) the hardware updates are IMHO compelling enough to trigger consumers to purchase new.

Re: Apple is a traditional business

#189

Post by snowwrestler »

dep_b wrote: post #184
snowwrestler wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My list of the enabling technologies for the iPhone is: - USB 2.0 - developed by others, Apple's first use was in computers. - Flash memory - developed by others, Apple's first use was in iPods. - LCD screens - developed by others, Apple's first use was in laptops. - ARM chips - developed by others, Apple's first use was in... iPods? iPhone? Not sure. - Lithium ion batteries - developed by others, Apple's first use w…

> ARM chips - developed by others, Apple's first use was in... iPods? iPhone? Not sure. ARM was created by Apple and Acorn to create low power chips for mobile devices like the Newton. You remember the Newton right? One of the first PDA's. Didn't make it but they did help shape the wave of PDA's that led to the iPhone.

I forgot Apple played a role in ARM development.

Re: Apple is a traditional business

#190

Post by loxs »

wpdev_63 wrote: post #78
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

I probably now fall into this camp as well. I made fun of Apple for years, but while I still hold an emotional and likely completely irrational dislike for their products, if someone were to ask me for a recommendation on a phone today, the only phone I could recommend in good conscience is an iPhone, because it's the only option that takes privacy and security seriously right now.

Just keep in mind that the NSA has remote sudo access to everything on your phone[0]. It's not completely secure and they're known to abuse their power time to time. [0]: https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/

Even so, I'm not in the USA and don't plan on visiting very soon. And I'm pretty damn sure my government doesn't have access to it.
Post reply on HN