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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

#461

Post by agumonkey »

AAAAaccountAAAA wrote: post #138
agumonkey wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on where you live, a smartphone can be bought for 100 bucks and a basic line (voice, messages, 2GB of data) for less than 5 bucks. It's not ideal but it's not a sacrifice anymore.

If having a smartphone and a cellular plan will become an absolute requirement to partake in the society, carriers certainly are going to hike prices. Here in Finland, cellular plans used to be very cheap, but now the prices have been soaring after the society has become more and more reliant on the phones.

Hmm yeah, usual free market trickery. In France one telco operator forced a 2euro/month minimal plan so everybody can get minimum access.

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

#462

Post by scottmcdoge »

kstenerud wrote: post #384
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 can't buy overnight bunk tickets on Ukrainian trains anymore because I need to authenticate, and the only authentication methods require either Ukrainian citizenship or residency cards. I can't install the app for my new Amex card because my Google account was opened in Canada and I live in Germany now. And it keeps getting worse every year. I'm worried that eventually my American and Canadian banking apps will sto…

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

#463

Post by crusty »

userabchn wrote: post #241
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…

My ugly solution to this problem is to have a free Oracle Cloud VM in the other country that I use to run a VPN (Oracle provides instructions [1]). I then connect to this using OpenVPN on my phone, which allows me have a Google account that thinks I am in the other country and so allows me to install apps that are restricted to that country. I don't have the VPN connected all the time - only when I want to access the…

To be a little pedantic, your solution is a solution to your problem, but only a fraction of the problem you're responding to. Your VPN won't help access the UK apps that require a UK phone localization if those same services aren't also available in the region of your VPN exit node. And since he's talking about UK-specific apps and services, VPNing his US phone back to the US isn't any help.

Netflix? Sure UK NHS? Not so much.

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

#464

Post by thwarted »

roughly wrote: post #425
bee_rider wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 is to collect data, show ads, and “engage the customer with the brand.” Any additional capabilities beyond that are incidental.

The delivery driver is not the customer, but I wouldn't be surprised if some MBA bonehead thought showing ads to workers was a win. "They have to use the app to schedule and do the work, so it's a captive audience!"

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

#466

Post by dwedge »

JustExAWS wrote: post #451
dwedge wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Printing a boarding pass for the return trip when you can only check in 36 hours before departure is a lot trickier than printing at home. I'd prefer to print but this is one of the things that is simpler. The only annoying part is when the app gets battery killed with terrible reception in the airport and then takes 2 minutes to show you the boarding pass it already downloaded.

That’s why you put your boarding pass in your phone’s wallet

I don't use my phone wallet, but I suppose that is the purpose of it.

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

#467

Post by fsckboy »

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…

>2. Tinder is worse than IRL speed dating.

women, and a small pool of men, use Tinder to efficiently find hookups. IRL speed dating is actually a much bigger pain in the ass for that purpose. it's "uber for nookie"

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

#468

Post by scottmcdoge »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #174
noqc wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what if your phone runs out of battery?

I’m gonna say something stupid — the chances of my phone running out of battery and me not being able to charge it is lower than me losing the paper ticket.

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

#469

Post by joseda-hg »

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%.

I do it with my ID because I've conditioned myself to check for it everytime I'm going to move places, or rather, check for my wallet, which usually has my ID inside it, but has burned me on a couple of ocassions

Also, some people do keep their ID on their phones, either directly on the back of the case (I've seen it more on young women, maybe because lack of pockets) or with something like a magnetic wallet

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

#470

Post by eep_social »

rglover wrote: post #307
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. Generally, yes, (it may have improved since I left but the Chicago one was a nightmare a few years back) however the best experience I've ever had was in Nashville (don't recall the company name). I signed up via the web (no app) and then the parking lot has cameras/sensors that detect my plate. Any parking lot owned by that company is now accessible to me in the city.…

Sounds fantastic. Literally not an app. Bring back websites.
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