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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

#401

Post by __turbobrew__ »

2shortplanks wrote: post #167

One thing this article doesn’t mention is how this all falls apart when you spend time in more than one country. My UK bank (Barclays) won’t let me install their app on my US iPhone (i.e. my phone that uses a US based iCloud account). Tesco won’t let me use their loyalty app. I can’t install an app that’ll let me order Starbucks or McDonalds in the UK (I only have access to the US versions of these apps). I can’t wat…

I recently travelled to Europe and found that a number of transportation apps disallowed me installing them. Toll road apps, public transit, etc…

It was a major pain, and to make it worse I got fined €130 by Ausfinag for not paying tolls, but I couldn’t install their app and I bought the wrong sticker at the gas station because as it turns out there are a bunch of special areas with additional tolls above the base toll. I tried my best to comply but the system is totally user hostile.

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

#402

Post by _Algernon_ »

Henchman21 wrote: post #375
_Algernon_ wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies need to be held accountable for their negligent behaviour

How? What do you propose?

Holding C-level executives criminally liable for the actions of the company would be a start.

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

#403

Post by mixmastamyk »

internet2000 wrote: post #331
RhysU wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you not also paying attention to the gate itself and to departure boards? Why do you need your phone to tell you what's posted on numerous displays that you walk past?

> Are you not also paying attention to the […] departure boards? I’m not, not anymore. > Why do you need your phone to tell you what's posted on numerous displays that you walk past? Convenience.

So you disregard what's in front of your face, in preference to your device.

Other folks here were talking about how their devices did not update in a timely fashion. They had to force refresh several times to get a response. Meanwhile the gate screens have a single job and update within seconds.

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

#404

Post by invalidname »

eesmith wrote: post #393
invalidname wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? It's a tool. Do you complain when the bank requires you to sign something with a pen? We require computers today for many things. Why not force websites to provide phone service with exactly the same pricing. Guess what the effect will be? Higher prices. The same is true with apps, some things make no financial sense without them.

I would complain if the bank requires everyone to sign with a pen as there are disability reasons for why someone is unable to sign with a pen. Eg, https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/250d63/was_u... has "We used prints as my partner was dying and lost motor control." Or, think of Stephen Hawking, able to communicate but unable to operate a pen in the later part of his life. Wouldn't you complain if he ha…

Accessibility is a great point. In that regard apps often exceed pens in their accessibility support and laws such as the ADA require organizations like banks to comply with accessibility regulation.

Just as a disabled person would have a caretaker sign as a proxy for them, such a caretaker could use the app for them in such a case.

Better yet. A person who is bedridden or incapacitated could use an app from the convenience of their own home instead of physically going to a bank. A blind person could avoid the walk to a distant location. It's a mixed bag in terms of accessibility.

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

#405

Post by nayuki »

rapind wrote: post #363
maximilianthe1 wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, inside buildings in very urban areas

Also in my house in the first world because our telcos are an order of magnitude worse than third world telcos.

> my house in the first world because our telcos are an order of magnitude worse than third world telcos

Hello fellow Canadian

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

#406

Post by __turbobrew__ »

noah_buddy wrote: post #397
pqtyw wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Parking apps are worse than parking meters. I certainly don't agree with that one. I really don't miss having to pay for a fixed number of hours and then having to figure out what to do if I'm running late (or wasting money if I get back early). > 4. Airline apps that are worse than just printing a boarding pass. Unless the app is exceptionally horrible you can just export it to Apple/Android wallet which is muc…

The idea of a parking app is better than the physical process of using a meter generally. But I have not really seen an app flow better than the physical process despite having parked in many cities. In fact, I can come up with a simple physical process better than the apps by far: tap the meter in and tap the meter out with your NFC chip in the card. Pay for the exact time, or if you forget, pay the full time period…

The Pay By Phone app works well for me. It automatically figures out what parking area you are in from the phone GPS, it already knows your license plate, and it has your credit card.

Basically the flow for me is open the app, and hit how long I want to park for. And then the app will let me know when my parking is running out and I can add time on my phone without going back to the car.

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

#407

Post by bee_rider »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #396
bluefirebrand wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For any normal CRUD app, it should take milliseconds to do whatever task. Even with network delays, 150 milliseconds is a reasonable upper bound for end-to-end processing This is only really true with stable, high speed internet connections. We still cannot take for granted that everyone has that, especially not in rural areas and double especially not on mobile devices

So many places in apps just wait for no reason. Let's take a hypothetical situation: Suppose you're doing gig delivery. You're delivering to two customers in the same neighborhood on the same run. You drop the first order, take your photo of the drop, and the app spins. It's waiting for the photo to be delivered before it moves on. You can't get directions to the next customer until the app moves along. Why can't it…

That’s bizarre. The whole point of having an app instead of a website is to have more processing occur locally, right?

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

#408

Post by andai »

ndriscoll wrote: post #283
fifticon wrote: post #120

My doctor/'s office was just forced to switch to app-instead-of-website for patient interation. Ironically, the old and this new software came from same megacorp I work for (different department, same story). The old web interface was rather good and rather sensible-practical-sane. It was almost as if someone had asked a doctor what he actually needed for his patients, and then understood his answer and also managed…

The perpetual spinner thing happened at my last job too, and I developed the opinion that putting a spinner into your site at all is a sign of incompetence. For any normal CRUD app, it should take milliseconds to do whatever task. Even with network delays, 150 milliseconds is a reasonable upper bound for end-to-end processing. If you have an animation at all, then your thing is either ridiculously slow or broken. Eit…

>150ms

Server in Australia?

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

#409

Post by mixmastamyk »

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…

Yes, in the digital world these folks feel like they can strongarm you, in a way they would never have the gall to do in person. By demanding full information and customer-hostile rules. Sorry, we don't "support" anything else at this time!

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

#410

Post by bee_rider »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #385
Henchman21 wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re a protected class I would assume yes. IANAL this is not legal advice and this is not a real situation anyway

That's my question, am I a protected class for not being able to operate a smartphone? I think many of a typical doctor's constituency fall into that category.

I don’t think “person who is unable to operate a cellphone” is a protected class. There might be some overlap between those people and people in other protected classes. But it is hard to say just based on a hypothetical, right?
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