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Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

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Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#181

Post by Siira »

fnordprefect wrote: post #10

This all comes down to the statement near the end: "I believe Apple should simply refuse to cooperate with oppressive governments" Which is another way of saying "I believe Apple should either not operate in certain countries, or should try to operate in those countries in defiance of the laws of those countries." The beef is primarily with the government. Companies are stuck in the middle -- either operate in compli…

Apple doesn’t lawfully sell in Iran; Its products are still ubiquitous in the upper middle class.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#182

Post by varispeed »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #164
ubermonkey wrote: post #151

Honestly, the arguments in this series of posts are not strong. I laughed out loud when I got to his complaints about Apple's headphone chips and the ease of pairing they allow -- and how it's somehow unfair that Apple, having developed this competitive advantage, is refusing to share it with other companies. What IS it about Apple that makes a certain class of tech geek feel like they have to dislike them in such a…

And, on the converse side, why is there a class of tech geek that always strongly defends Apple in the comments? No matter how strong or weak the original criticism is, the top comment basically laughs it out of the room. It is never taken seriously. Could we not equally characterize the defenses as 'public and performative' as well, and if not, why not? In either case, I agree with you people generally have strong f…

It's usually people who feel sour about spending their savings on Apple product and want to justify it so hard, they'll try to shut down anyone with even a hint of criticism for that product. They just cannot feel they might be in the wrong. It's actually an effective litmus test for one's personality and you can more easily filter out your circle based on how well people take such criticism.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#183

Post by wayneftw »

f1refly wrote: post #167
duhi88 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not the underdog anymore, they're very profitable, they make lukewarm claims for headlines that fall apart under scrutiny (the kind of scrutiny that tech geeks are all about), and in recent history have acted pretty badly towards developers. All that said, after building a Linux machine for development and general client work, I consider Macs the best option out there. Everything from being able to copy 2FA c…

Hate to be that guy, but I copy paste clipboard contents across devices with kde connect. It's so reliable that I tried doing it when fixing my mum's computer without realizing it's not a magic built in thing that computers just do for some reason.

I can't find this for iOS, but I only searched briefly.

I did see some Reddit thread about someone creating an iOS port but saying that it lacked all the functionality of the Android app.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#184

Post by modo_mario »

jsjohnst wrote: post #132
donkeyd wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you feel the same way about anything sold on Amazon? Or in supermarkets? Or is that in some way different?

Just to emphasize your point, 30% take is relatively small in the retail world. A store like Amazon or Walmart or Target or Best Buy generally wants a cut of 40-50%, if not more. And that doesn’t include the cut many distributors want to take for being the middle person. (Source: I’ve been on the executive team at startups with products sold in retail stores)

Then I'm sure you'd agree monopsonies due to increasing centralisation and clout in the past few decades aren't all that nice for the consumer and smaller players like startups.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#185

Post by encom »

acdha wrote: post #158
encom wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple doesn't care about racism. Why else would they allow a song called "Fuck White People" on iTunes? https://music.apple.com/us/search?term=fuck%20white%20people

Did you listen to the song? I mean, I’m a white guy and it’s hard to read the lyrics and not say they’re coming from a place of legitimate grievance: https://genius.com/Ajj-fuck-white-people-lyrics This hits the key point: there’s no history of oppression adding weight to that. Someone can not like white people but that’s not linked to a history of violence, financial discrimination, etc. which is living memory for a…

>they’re coming from a place of legitimate grievance

    Kill the white devil
    Kill the white devil  
    Kill the white devil
    Kill the white devil
There's no way to talk around the fact that that's just racist as fuck.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#186

Post by zepto »

sneak wrote: post #49
dependsontheq wrote: post #33

I never in my life bought that amount of software compared to the App Store, it’s convenient and mostly safe. Apple paid revenue in the store is two times higher than Googles. I think this is directly correlated with convenience and safety.

It's also impossible to use (even for free apps) without IDing yourself, and your travel history (via IP geolocation), to Apple. The convenience comes at a cost.

It’s true that you must identify yourself to download any app from the App Store.

But you continue to repeat this outright lie about Apple receiving your travel history.

There is no evidence for it, and this has been repeatedly pointed out to you.

We know if you opt in to certain services they send an anonymized location.

That’s all we know. The part about your travel history being sent is 100% made up by you.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#187

Post by zepto »

fsflover wrote: post #153
matwood wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So a huge step backwards (it doesn't even have NFC) for principles I guess.

You cannot achieve perfection from the first step...

Sure but there is no reason to force people not to buy what they want.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#188

Post by nvrspyx »

wayneftw wrote: post #183
f1refly wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate to be that guy, but I copy paste clipboard contents across devices with kde connect. It's so reliable that I tried doing it when fixing my mum's computer without realizing it's not a magic built in thing that computers just do for some reason.

I can't find this for iOS, but I only searched briefly. I did see some Reddit thread about someone creating an iOS port but saying that it lacked all the functionality of the Android app.

That's because it's impossible to implement that functionality in iOS with its locked-down APIs. It's the same reason that Microsoft's Your Phone app is limited on iOS compared to Android. On iOS, only Apple has the privilege to implement such features and they limit the interoperability with macOS.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#189

Post by acdha »

encom wrote: post #185
acdha wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you listen to the song? I mean, I’m a white guy and it’s hard to read the lyrics and not say they’re coming from a place of legitimate grievance: https://genius.com/Ajj-fuck-white-people-lyrics This hits the key point: there’s no history of oppression adding weight to that. Someone can not like white people but that’s not linked to a history of violence, financial discrimination, etc. which is living memory for a…

>they’re coming from a place of legitimate grievance Kill the white devil Kill the white devil Kill the white devil Kill the white devil There's no way to talk around the fact that that's just racist as fuck.

Again, read the entire song. It’s not exactly profound but if you aren’t cherry-picking it seems a lot more likely that they’re referring to the people who supported the colonization, slavery, and other violence mentioned earlier in the song. That’s why I mentioned the history since those were widespread real problems which still affect millions of people whereas the average white person has no credible reason to fear being mistreated.

Re: Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3: Content and Censorship

#190

Post by specialist »

From the OC:

"Censorship: Apple manages a global set of App Stores and cooperates with law enforcement in each jurisdiction in which it operates. ..."

Okay. We agree. What's the fix?

--

This censorship food fight is at least two problems.

#1 Which rule of law applies to international companies?

This is foreign policy. Just like trade agreements, treaties.

USA flagged corporations like Google, Apple, Facebook need a federal solution. Just like shipping, banking, and so forth. These corporations cannot act unilaterally, nor should they be expected to.

I have no idea what an international treaty covering speech and privacy would look like. Please share any and all ideas.

#2 Need for fair and impartial court system, legitimate enforcement.

FAANGs cannot be governments onto themselves. If my app gets rejected, there must be a separate fair and impartial court system to hear my appeal and adjudicate. If an impersonator takes my profile, I need legitimate enforcement to restore my property rights. If a FAANG closes my accounts, I must have the right to sue for damages.

--

Again: Enough complaining about unfair, arbitrary behavior. We get it.

Start proposing solutions.

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