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I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

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Re: I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

#401

Post by Dylan16807 »

iwontberude wrote: post #297
wk_end wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The beginning of Apple’s backslide far predates any (thus far fairly limp-wristed) attempts by regulators to pry open their iOS walled garden. At least in North America - their biggest market I think? - the iPhone is still utterly locked down. Far more locked down than, say, their Macs were when OS X was at its best. Meanwhile macOS continues to get more locked down and yet still worse. Your theory just doesn’t match…

Every mobile device sold in North America is unlocked for carriers. That wasn’t the case back in the day. Also locking down macOS has been for security. It’s way ahead of other operating systems for sound and app security.

Carrier locks have nothing to do with security or walled gardens. Two things using the word 'lock' is mostly coincidence.

And getting rid of carrier apps was a positive but it was moving from one walled garden to another.

And that happened a very long time ago. It provides zero defense against accusations of apple changing for the worse.

Re: I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

#402

Post by tcfhgj »

bombcar wrote: post #189
PaulHoule wrote: post #176

The more you pay for a subscription, the more valuable it is to advertise to you -- maybe the classic example is The New York Times which has highly annoying advertising if you're a subscriber because you've qualified yourself. Or rather, if you believe you are too poor to afford a $10 a month subscription you probably believe you're too poor to afford anything that is advertised. The model of "premium subscription w…

I would be willing to consider paying for vetted ads - in other words, you pay for the NYT and you get a guarantee that you're only seeing ads that have been personally vetted by the NYT for correctness, appropriateness, etc. Advertising is speech and it used to be that if a magazine/newspaper printed a scam ad, it was horribly damaging to their business, both legally and morally.

> I would be willing to consider paying for vetted ads

why, though?

Re: I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

#403

Post by goalieca »

direwolf20 wrote: post #400
StilesCrisis wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They tried to kill _competitors'_ ads. Everyone else gets "Ask Not to Track" while Apple gets "Personalized Ads." It's so glaring once you see it.

The ad industry can't destroy itself soon enough.

The ad industry basically is the tech industry at this point.

Re: I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

#404

Post by Dylan16807 »

no_wizard wrote: post #367
speak_plainly wrote: post #54

Apple News and News+ represent everything wrong with modern Apple: a ham-fisted approach to simplicity that ignores the end user. It is their most mediocre service, jarringly jamming cheap clickbait next to serious journalism in a layout that makes no sense. The technical execution is just as lazy. While some magazines are tailored, many are just flat, low-res PDFs that look terrible on the high-end Retina screens Ap…

News is ham-fisted as much by news organizations themselves as much as it is Apple. They don't want to sell through the News+ subscriptions, they want to tease a few articles and then upsell you to their subscription . News organizations have really become quite aggressive about negotiating these things now, I think in large part because Meta (aka Facebook at the time) screwed them badly when it stopped revenue shari…

That seems really short-sighted. A fair share of more than $100/year is a lot of money for news.

Re: I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

#405

Post by hunterpayne »

autoexec wrote: post #299
WarmWash wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the "beast" is the Internet content itself. Even HN itself is a massive ad. We are lured here with tech links so YC companies can fish in curated waters for workers. That is explicitly why this board is hosted. The real fix is paying money for everything, but as evidenced by the many attempts at this, no one actually wants to pay. People overwhelmingly want to block ads and backdoor subscriptions. For e…

> Unfortunately the "beast" is the Internet content itself. The idea that the internet couldn't exist without ads is a myth that needs to die. The internet existed, thrived, and was awesome long before it became infested with ads. An ad free internet would be different in some ways, but it'd still be great and filled with endless amounts of content. Your example of youtube kind of proves the point. It was so much mor…

Most people are cheap (or broke). As such they will take for free when they can. In markets like that, ads win out. You should take a look at what happens to human behavior when you change a price from free to tiny (like a penny or a dollar) but non-zero.

Re: I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

#406

Post by snailmailman »

WarmWash wrote: post #113
elashri wrote: post #68

We should assume that all ads in general are scams. The noise to signal ratio is too large to care. Word of mouth and maybe trusted communities like HN is the only way to reliably discover new things.

Generally if all the ads you see are scammy, it means you probably are using some form of tracking/privacy protection. When an ad network has a strong profile on you, legitimate companies pay good money for those ad slots. When they don't really know who you are, only bottom feeders bid on the ad slots you see. In a way, it almost acts as retribution for not submitting to the anti-privacy machine.

I used to run YouTube with “ad targeting” turned off. The ads were 100% scams. Lots of AI slop. Deepfakes of celebrities pitching all sorts of scams. Lots of nsfw products and even occasionally illegal things like drugs or guns. Also lots of ads in languages I do not speak.

I recently learned that if you turn on ad targeting you can block certain ads and never see them again. So I’ve turned it on just to block the worst of the ads. But googles ad targeting still can’t target ads to me. It’s maybe only 70% scams now. But their targeting still sucks and I still get ads in foreign languages that I do not speak.

On my desktop I just use Adblock. I really try to avoid YouTube on mobile at all costs because the ads make it completely unusable.

Re: I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

#407

Post by eek2121 »

MBCook wrote: post #387
manuelabeledo wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Commercials in TV+ are as bad as ads in News+, e.g. it seems I cannot open the app without getting blasted at with a Peacock commercial.

What? I’ve never seen a single commercial on an Apple TV+ show.

Something like 70% of the comments I've seen on this thread show that either:

1) The user has never owned an Apple Device in their life. 2) They are trolling super hard.

There are complaints to be had that I definitely agree with, however, I see a TON of fiction for every single legitimate complaint.

No, not an Apple employee, shareholder, etc. (I am broke and dependent on my wife because I am disabled lol)

Re: I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

#408

Post by eek2121 »

diegof79 wrote: post #227
esskay wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arcade is comically poor value. I can't tell if Apple doesn't care, or they're just so deluded due to their insular nature and crap attitude towards gaming that they genuinely think its a good service to offer mediocre mobile games for a premium.

I agree that Arcade is poor. However, I’ve been subscribed to it since its inception because it is the best way to have games that my kid can play without shady ads or engagement practices. I know that is not going to last, as my kid is now a pre-teen and likes other types of games (like Hollow Knight) that are not available on Apple Arcade. But the current state of the gaming industry is terrible, especially on mobi…

Taste is subjective. I get it. There are Triple A games on Arcade. Things like Civilization 7, for example. I don't know what the current standalone price is because we use Apple One Family, however, it used to cost $5/mo.

Apple one is a steal IMO. Apple TV, Fitness+, 2TB, Arcade, and other smaller perks like News+ make it an easy sell. Compared to something like Netflix? Netflix is $25/mo for their top tier streaming alone. Apple TV consistently has higher quality content. So does Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness...then you get 2TB of storage to back your crap up to.

Ask Google or Samsung what they are doing for the cost of an Apple One subscription.

Not a fanboy or anything. I'm basically critical of all tech companies, however, Apple is doing something that is working well for them.

Re: I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

#409

Post by rootusrootus »

shermantanktop wrote: post #390
smt88 wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TV productions are a product, not a service. Apple TV is the service.

Apple has a tv service and Apple also has exclusive content, which they brand with “Apple TV”…so it’s kind of both. Same for the other big streaming services. Some of them (Netflix, Prime Video) are more involved in content production, up to and including having production facilities and an in house staff. But a lot of the “exclusive” branded content is made by semi-independent production companies.

> Apple has a tv service and Apple also has exclusive content, which they brand with “Apple TV”…

And of course the device itself. I wish they would have distinct names.

Re: I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

#410

Post by rootusrootus »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #179
ksec wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever since Apple moved to Services Strategy in 2014 it has been like this. Services were not there so they could provide a better experience for its " customers ". I use the word " customer " here which is what Apple / Steve Jobs used to call their loyal fans, and not user . But to further growth their Revenue pie because they foresee iPhone one day will stagnant. You now have Apple Fitness+, Apple TV, News, Music, A…

TV is pretty good even for my English sensibilities. Severance is some of the best television I’ve seen in a long time.

And Slow Horses, which is perhaps my favorite show in years. I'm not a big TV watcher, and this show got me to subscribe (at least for a while) to Apple TV.
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