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Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

bennettnotes.com

461–470 of 535 posts

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#461
post #24

I doubt this is "Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps", so much as "Apple doesn’t want dev accounts to be an easy backdoor for sideloading apps" and hobby apps are an acceptable casualty.

The casual use of the word "sideloading" is dangerous to society. It is literal newspeak with the intent to eliminate even the idea of "installing" and make it so people cannot even think of applications outside of a corporation (or institution's) walled garden. Users installing applications is the default. Walled gardens are the weird dangerous thing.

Even the concept of 'installing' is rapidly disappearing. Most smartphone users aren't installing new apps or downloading music files. Most computer users don't install anything besides Microsoft Office, and in a lot of cases, it comes pre-installed and only requires activation.

Video games seem to be an outlier, as the enormous size of most games means it can't be streamed well just yet.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also go out of their way to make it annoying to use applications that aren't signed by Apple under the $99/year developer plan.

Right-click open, click open one time ever is well below my personal threshold for annoying.

How do you right-click on an iPhone or iPad? That's what his comment is about.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#463
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember "Bicycles for the mind" well: http://raganwald.com/assets/images/bicycle-jobs.jpeg But as a metaphor, I don't think of a bicycle as an appliance. Mainstream bicycles are brutalist: The chain and gears are usually on display and user-serviceable. Parts like wheels, saddles, and handlebars are standardized in a way that allows users to mix and match components freely. In the days of steel frames you could ma…

I wish they were more like an appliance. The fact that I constantly have to fiddle with the damn things is why I don't ride more. If they were more like modern cars or, indeed, iPads, that'd be ideal. Instead it's like "well, let's go discover what work I'll have to do on my bike before I can ride it...." Ugh. I do enough handy shit, I don't need a bicycle-maintenance hobby.

Pro-tip: I used to curse my bike: the chain fell off all the time, the gears slipped, the shifting was fiddly, the brakes were crap. Then I, by luck[1], stumbled on owning a more expensive mountain bike, and things stopped failing. Cheap bikes are crap.

[1]: I bought a mid-price mountain bike, nothing fancy, in the era before rear suspension was common. It got stolen within a year. I was part of my parents' grandfathered insurance plan that had unbelievably good coverage for bicycle theft. Insurance replaced the bike with one that had all the same features. Not price matching, matching checklist features. Number of gears, etc. It ended up having some extra features, too, because that was what was in the inventory. After that bike was also stolen within a year, they replaced that with one that had all the features that were in the second one. Plus disc brakes, plus many others, because nothing else fulfilled the checklist. The price of my bike more than doubled in two years. No, you can't get that insurance anymore.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#464
post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is 'an offence against the entire notion of' what card games are? It would be if a WOTC employee came to my table every time I tried playing, personally overseeing every turn of the game to ensure that I didn't break the rules, engage in unsportsmanlike conduct, use my imagination, taunt my opponent or profit unfairly with their platform.

No, that kind of thing only happens with Games Workshop games, from what I hear.

Even tabletop gamers are not gullible enough to fall for an agreement that bad.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#465
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember "Bicycles for the mind" well: http://raganwald.com/assets/images/bicycle-jobs.jpeg But as a metaphor, I don't think of a bicycle as an appliance. Mainstream bicycles are brutalist: The chain and gears are usually on display and user-serviceable. Parts like wheels, saddles, and handlebars are standardized in a way that allows users to mix and match components freely. In the days of steel frames you could ma…

I joke that modern devices with modern social media act more like a taxi for the mind. Programming on an iPad? Forget it. Have you thought about doom scrolling instead?

> Programming on an iPad? Forget it. Have you thought about doom scrolling instead?

Current 13" iPad Pro beats original Macbook Airs for dev, plenty people used them.

I'd argue toolchains readily available on iPad Pro with real keyboard and trackpad today is better than any laptop any devs did work on two decades ago.

Stage Manager, in particular, lets you have main + 4 more windows open to swap with a thumb tap, not even counting you can have multiple overlapping panes and drive an external 4K screen with multi-tasking windowing.

Of course if you use Blink (mosh) you can ssh to anything, you can run VSCode or GitHub Codespaces or Cloud9 or any web IDE, you can use any VDI ... even if you don't like the Git file sync and local native Code Editor tools that are compatible-ish with Codea / Textmate / Sublime flavors of editor.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#466
post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there's a class of users for whom a general computing device isn't just overkill, it's downright dangerous I am not sure if you are trying to come off as snobby, but that's how this reads. This 'class of users' is in many cases very technical people who just don't want their phone to be anything other than an appliance. It's quite common to love tinkering with things, while not wanting to tinker with everything .

Consider the impact on living standards for a person [0] who is capable of transferring money without understanding the consequences, ex a child or a demented person. [0] https://www.npr.org/2023/01/30/1152448758/an-older-persons-m...

Except Apple's walled garden doesn't protect you from financial scams.

Apple is more like a television manufacturer that only lets you watch Disney+. The extent to which they protect their walled garden is not for the benefit of the consumer.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#467
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My philosophy is that Apple can do whatever they want (as long as legal and ethical). They made a thing, and you bought it. Why would anyone with a bent on free computing walk into what they know to be a closed ecosystem. Just buy an Android phone. It’s like flying to a foreign country and expecting everyone to English to you imo…

I finally bought an iPhone because I grew tired of all the tinkering I either had to do (or oftentimes just could do) to customize and secure my Android phone. Also, it seemed like no matter how much I spent on one, it would lose support within 2 years. My phone is an appliance. I need it to provide 2 way communications and access to the information on the internet. Apple will provide security updates for the foresee…

What do you mean by securing phone? Latest Android are secure as iPhone. You don't have to constumize Android use default. You can choose Google pixel if you want long support

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When I can't copy MY photos out of MY device, without uploading it to Apple's cloud. Wait, what? (Not an Apple user - genuinely curious)

They probably mean from an iOS device to a PC/Android. It can be done without using iCloud, but you’ll need a macOS machine or special iOS app to do it.

It can be. Sure.

And a house can be painted with a toothpick.

At the end of an export, I have a folder full of randomly named files. Now What about timestamps? Image names? Location? Timezone? Edits I made on the iPhone? Image quality? Is it heic, jpeg, png?

Apple forums are loaded with frustrations as this

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252812655

At a $1000+ price point, I am a customer and I am offended.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS isn't impervious to malware either. Pegasus was deployed effortlessly to tens of thousands of iOS devices, and the App Store had nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, Apple still green-lights exploitative gambling and lootbox services as long as they're promised a cut of the loot. There is merit in pursuing a more secure future for computing, but there is zero merit in doing so alone.

> iOS isn't impervious to malware either. fortunately no one made this hyperbolic claim. > Pegasus was deployed effortlessly to tens of thousands of iOS devices, I can't stop a G20 nation or the people they pay from hacking my mum's phone to steal from her bank account, but I can offer to buy her an iPhone and have her be immune to nearly all real world attacks. it's of course fine if you don't care about the securit…

[flagged]

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#470
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why aren't you backing up locally? You clearly speak like you're used to it "back when you were carrying around a PDA".

I am. It's one of the reasons I only run a rooted android device. Most people aren't so lucky.

Sure, but you can also do one-click backups of an iphone using itunes on Windows or MacOS without rooting anything. It's a stock feature.
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