Live data from Hacker News

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

theguardian.com

411–420 of 870 posts

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

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> The whole point of having an app instead of a website is to have more processing occur locally, right?

One would think this is the case. I agree it should be.

> That’s bizarre.

Unfortunately, it's not. It's normal operation.

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

#412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m gonna punt on the question of where the line is for hostile actions and use some past legal justification of “I know it when I see it” and I see it clearly here. The second part is the more interesting question to me: Appropriate reactions would seem to include: - finding a new doctor/practice/provider. Super hard in practice as they seem to be geographical monopolies a la the cable networks - providing appropria…

VOTE MOTHERFUCKER Local government politics work. State politics even kinda work. The fact that murder is on your list but not voting is mind boggling.

I vote. I am 50. I have voted in every election I was able to. In my life my preferred candidate has won exactly twice: Obama’s second term and Biden’s first. This includes local, state elections, and national.

To quote George Carlin: “If voting mattered, they wouldn’t let us do it”.

Trump lost in 2024 but took the win because his cronies disqualified enough voters in enough states to win.

So, please, spare me. We’re up to violence already. You’re just well behind the times unfortunately.

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

#413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't say they are expensive anymore, you can get an updated android phone for less than $50 new or less second hand. Can't say about monthly plans, as that depends on the country. Privacy is a different matter and always dependent on the technical literacy as opposed to hard costs.

It's still an additional 'tax' on individuals.

Anything can be a "tax", if we want it to be.

Is the requirement of wearing clothes in public a tax? Maybe.

But today definitely someone can still live without owning a phone, if they have access to a computer nearby (e.g. A library or friend).

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

#414
post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You equate doing things for other people without money transactions, with slavery?

If it’s mandated by law, yes. What would you call it if you were required to work—paid or otherwise—under threat of criminal punishment?

Make it so I can pay without using an app and a new login to keep track of and you'll get paid.

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

#415
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…

> Unless the app is exceptionally horrible you can just export it to Apple/Android wallet which is much more convenient than having to find a printer. Why do iOS and Android phones have a "wallet", and why a boarding pass would have anything to do with it? There's an electronic solution strictly better than the app, for when you have no printer handy: just give the user the goddamned PDF ! Works everywhere, works off…

The wallet allows activation by proximity like RFID. So if the pass is in the wallet you don't need to go digging around for wherever the PDF is stored in the phone. Tap, the pass is requested, the pass responds, go.

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

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s mandated by law, yes. What would you call it if you were required to work—paid or otherwise—under threat of criminal punishment?

Make it so I can pay without using an app and a new login to keep track of and you'll get paid.

That’s not a condition you are entitled to create or enforce. If you want that to be enshrined in law, speak with your local representatives.

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

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Like following the GPS instructions onto a logging road, or into a lake.

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

#418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, not so much city-centric as it is population-centric. Cities are population centers, so there is correlation. The scale you are thinking in is comparable to a small web forum being sustainably moderated by the owner of the site, while the majority of the world exists in a place like reddit that has more moderator users than even large web forums have in total. Reddit would not be sustainable if they had to pay…

I'm not trying to gatekeep here, I'm just saying I don't see why you find this topic interesting? My ulterior motive and secret agenda is to let people know they can escape that nonsense. Many rural areas are getting faster internet but are much more chill. There are pros and cons people can research themselves. For me most of the cons are pros. If I can save even one person per year from the social, government and s…

I for one very much appreciated your response. I am pleasantly surprised to hear life like that still exists in the US

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

#419

I have a big issue with this, and the truth is that the majority of people simply do not care and/or do not understand the implications. By tying your service to a smartphone your are basically refusing to provide service if the costumer doesn't agree to Apple's or Google's TOS. If the app doesn't complain about emulation or something different than Android or IOS you are in luck, but that's not the case with most ba…

Did it occur to you that a nurse is a nurse because they are good at nursing sick people and not because they are good at customer support?

I want my nurse to take care of my health, not to know where I can find stuff. You are misplacing your anger...

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

#420

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 have an account at a credit union that only offers SMS 2FA, and requires it for every login. I can't connect to that phone number when I'm abroad, so I can't access my account.
Post reply on HN