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Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

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Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#291
post #281

Why is an app needed to display things on a map? Isn't that something a website can do just fine? Which brings up an interesting, more general topic: Why do we need apps at all? What is the fundamental difference to websites?

This argument has been waging since the app store was first introduced. For games/graphics intensive applications, sure an app is fine. Everything else displaying some text, the web should be standard.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#292

What's weird is that if you google: "Hong Kong" "Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau" -apple You come up with surprisingly little. Basically two stories. One about preventing scams in Hong Kong, and one about fake checks. I was expecting tens of thousands of results. Is there a more common name that's used in English for this entity? I'd like to research more about who they are other than the generality of a wi…

I am a Hong Kong local. Never heard of this "Bureau" until now.

https://www.police.gov.hk/ppp_en/04_crime_matters/tcd/tcd.ht...

Looks like it is a department in the police force. So Apple's response basically boils down to "We are requested by the cops to remove the app".

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#295
post #281

Why is an app needed to display things on a map? Isn't that something a website can do just fine? Which brings up an interesting, more general topic: Why do we need apps at all? What is the fundamental difference to websites?

Apps provide better user experience through higher performance. I'm this case though website is sufficient: https://hkmap.live/

Why is the performance of Apps higher? Isn't both just code executed on the client?

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#297
And in one fell swoop, Apple has made it effectively impossible to install this app on your phone. There's no realistic workaround. †

Apple should never have been capable of making such a drastic decision for all of their customers. It's one thing to make determinations about what products are allowed in your store, but quite another to unilaterally ban software from what is many people's primary computer. We live in a digital age, and software is a form of free expression. We wouldn't find this acceptable with eBooks, and we should not find it acceptable for applications.

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† Unrealistic workarounds include paying $100 per year for a developer account, reinstalling the app once every seven days, or finding a shady, stolen enterprise certificate. These are not real alternatives for 99% of people.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#298

It helps to know a little bit about what's been going on in Hong Kong, before you all decide to line up and take your daily dump on China. It all started a few months ago when someone committed a crime in Taiwan and fled to Hong Kong. To prevent HK from becoming a safe haven for criminals, the Chief Executive of HK proposed a new law to facilitate extradition of these crime suspects from HK to various jurisdictions i…

There have been accusations that agents of PRC mixed with the HK protestors with the goal of escalating violence and vandalism. I’d be careful definitively attributing HK natives with instigating riots.

Re: Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

#300

It's time that North Americans take a stand and use economic power for something other than furthering that goal. There are so many places where a simple refusal to kowtow/censor or technical attack on censorship infrastructure could help so many that don't have the luxury of living in our world. If we're not going to use all this economic power for good, what's the point?

North Americans? The people in the 23 countries that make up the North American continent.

Why not western nations in general?

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