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'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

theguardian.com

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Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#311

Post by [deleted] »

michaelmrose wrote: post #248
azemetre wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually when people say vote with your wallet, it means those with more money make the rules. What recourse does an individual have if they live in a rural area with 1 or 3 doctors that all use the same hostile software? Should they suffer because they don't have money or the ability to go else where?

Most people don't have 3 doctors let alone 3 which all use the same niche/bad customer facing software. Those that do should organize to make their displeasure known. Senior decision makers are probably incompetent boobs rather than compete assholes. If they live somewhere with 1 doc they should vote with their feet by leaving before the town finishes dying around them.

[deleted]

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#312

Post by Mystery-Machine »

I don't have a permanent address nor a permanent (mobile) phone number. It's impossible to do so many things without these. I have to use my mother's address and my mother is currently suing me in court, so go figure how much mail reaches me. Without a permanent address, you can't open a bank account, you can't use many government services,... It's a "required" field on many online forms. It's such a pain because they don't need those info to give me the services they offer...

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#313

Post by miltonlost »

vladms wrote: post #297
ComposedPattern wrote: post #245

It's funny how people in this thread keep saying "well if you're going to complain about people being penalized for not using apps, you might as well complain about people being penalized for not using telephones/cars/internet"... and yes, I am going to complain about all of those things. I imagine that many or most homeless people don't have reliable access to any of the above. I have an anxiety disorder that makes…

Sorry to hear about your condition, and while I think society can decide to accommodate to some conditions, I disagree with that idea that it "should accommodate". It is a common decision, and sometimes the answer will be "no, we don't accommodate for that, sorry". In the end, everything has a cost (being it effort, resources, time, etc.). Regarding the article, there are many cheap smartphones (<100eur) so I wonder…

In your world, people in wheelchairs would be housebound. But I guess we shouldn't accommodate them by requiring wheelchair ramps or curb cut-outs. They are lesser than us.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#314

Post by marssaxman »

joshdavham wrote: post #127

I’m fascinated by this phenomenon of apps proposing solutions that are far worse than the previous existing solutions. For example: 1. Parking apps are worse than parking meters. 2. Tinder is worse than IRL speed dating. 3. Duolingo is worse than language classes. 4. Airline apps that are worse than just printing a boarding pass. 5. Etc It really makes me frustrated as someone who builds software and generally thinks…

In general, I agree with your observation, but in terms of Duolingo it does not matter whether language classes would have been better, because I was never going to sign up for them. Letting myself get hooked on another daily word game was a commitment I could actually make, and after plugging away at it with steadily increasing enthusiasm for a little over a year now, I've gained a significant degree of fluency I would not otherwise have. Thus I think that Duolingo offers a genuinely valuable service, not directly comparable to language classes.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#315

Post by Carrok »

ksec wrote: post #252

And in the good old day. Apple will force its hands on these sort of issues. But 10 years after Apple Pay and the Claims to replace your wallet. They are still millions miles away from doing it. In many ways Apple without Steve Jobs feels more Google and Microsoft but with better taste of software and hardware. > "So the people who make the company more successful are the sales and marketing people, and they end up r…

> 10 years after Apple Pay and the Claims to replace your wallet. They are still millions miles away from doing it.

Clearly we have very different experiences here, because Apple Pay has effectively replaced my wallet. I don’t carry any cash and carry one or two cards for the rare times when tap to pay is unavailable.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#316

Post by maeil »

joshdavham wrote: post #127

I’m fascinated by this phenomenon of apps proposing solutions that are far worse than the previous existing solutions. For example: 1. Parking apps are worse than parking meters. 2. Tinder is worse than IRL speed dating. 3. Duolingo is worse than language classes. 4. Airline apps that are worse than just printing a boarding pass. 5. Etc It really makes me frustrated as someone who builds software and generally thinks…

>1. Parking apps are worse than parking meters.

The customers for these apps are the parking lot operators and they love the apps.

> 2. Tinder is worse than IRL speed dating.

It is now, it definitely wasn't when it first came out. Prime example of enshittification, but not an example of what you're conveying.

> 3. Duolingo is worse than language classes.

This one I feel has the most merit, but still not a lot. What % of Duolingo users would've actually taken classes were it not for these apps? Also, some people don't learn well from classes (I'm one of them). Not that that makes Duolingo any better, but despite its pretenses it's squarely aimed at extremely shallow, casual, surface-level learning that might be useful on a holiday. And people don't take classes for that.

> 4. Airline apps that are worse than just printing a boarding pass.

In what way? Admittedly I've only used the apps of 2 airlines, but they worked fine.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#317

Post by crazygringo »

ryandrake wrote: post #281
kxrm wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, I do recognize that walking around without a smartphone starting to become "weird" to others though. I don't mind being weird. I live in a major US city and get hit up for cash by the homeless sometimes. When I explain I do not have a cellphone to them when they ask for money through some cash app. They look bewildered. Just 20 years ago I was the only one carrying around such a device for IT reasons. Now I am…

Wait, destitute people who have nothing are asking to send money through a smartphone app ?? I'd argue the world is weird, not us.

Why is that weird?

Almost nobody carries around small cash or change anymore.

And social services provide the homeless and those in poverty with free smartphones, since they're far more effective at ensuring communications with social services.

So how is the world weird? It all seems quite rational and reasonable to me.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#318

Post by whoisthemachine »

reaperman wrote: post #227
7thaccount wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the doctor's office I'll just ask for paper if there is no real website. Apps freaking suck. I probably won't be able to do this forever though. Example of enshitification #456249

I often can no longer ask for a menu at restaurants that expect me to scan a QR code. Well…I can ask, but they don’t have any to provide.

I've seen this trend regressing where I live, most restaurants I go to have done away with the QR codes (unless it's a brewery/distillery kind of establishment).

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#319

Post by LinuxBender »

curious_cat_163 wrote: post #263
LinuxBender wrote: post #124

I think this article is city-centric. I am in a rural area in the US and I have only had a smart phone for 2 years and have never installed any apps beyond Mumla that I use for my own self hosted uMurmur server. I have never browsed the web from the phone. My life today is just as it was in the 1970's in that regard. All the businesses here have printed coupons. There are local printed newspapers. I have zero depende…

I had never heard of Mumla and just looked it up -- looks like it needs some help. [1] Curious, why do you use it? [1] https://github.com/quite/mumla

Amazing audio quality. Text chat. No censorious behavior. The server is ultra light weight in terms of memory and CPU.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#320

Post by crazygringo »

noqc wrote: post #306
crazygringo wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not stupid at all. I think that's the case for most people. It's easy to lose a random piece of paper. Whereas people are generally extremely aware of where their phone is at all times.

It's not that hard to maintain a random piece of paper, you do it with your ID, which presumably you do not keep on your phone. It is much harder to ensure an iPhone won't randomly be miscalibrated and shut off at 30%.

Not it's not hard, but it is significantly harder, and why introduce unnecessary additional complexity into my life?

My ID is in my wallet. A sheet of paper doesn't fit in my wallet. So I have to put the folded paper in a pocket, where it might fall out when I take out my gloves, or I forget if I put it in my backpack, and in which pocket, etc.

A sheet of paper is extra. My phone isn't. And I sure as heck don't bring a phone with low charge to the airport... when I know I'm probably going to be using it for hours... and I've got my charger with me anyways in case I somehow did.

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