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Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

rudism.com

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Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#61
post #3

"Whining" is an overly prejudicial word choice for this title. These are legitimate issues people have with what Apple is doing, not mere whining. This echoes the "if you don't like it so much then just leave instead of speaking up" dismissal that is so commonly used as a lampshade for suppressing dissent. Not sure if that's the intent here but that's what it comes off as. And this point from the article needs to be…

Agreed. I feel as though it's akin to saying "if you don't like America, leave!" Voiced legitimate concern can bring positive change.

With that small caveat that "legitimate" is solely defined by the powerful.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#62
post #3

"Whining" is an overly prejudicial word choice for this title. These are legitimate issues people have with what Apple is doing, not mere whining. This echoes the "if you don't like it so much then just leave instead of speaking up" dismissal that is so commonly used as a lampshade for suppressing dissent. Not sure if that's the intent here but that's what it comes off as. And this point from the article needs to be…

Apple sells you hardware, but then tries to upsell, by offering apps through AppStore. The solution here seems to be:

Jailbreak your iPhone and start installing applications from other sources. If Apple tries to stop that then you can sue them that they deny you rights to use something that you legally own (the iPhone).

The only downside here is: I would have a hard time trusting an app from outside the AppStore.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#63
post #16

> The solution is obvious. Stop making apps for iOS. Sure, you’re going to take a huge hit without access to those consumers The solution is obvious. Sabotage your own business. Sure, you're going to go out of business without any customers.

But that’s the whole point of having principles. It costs something to uphold them, which you deem worthwhile to pay.

There are plenty of other ways to make money in software without needing to do business with companies you deem unethical.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#65
"It seems silly to me to cry about monopolies."

Oh, wait. So let's go back in time. When Microsoft was sued and forced to allow other browsers onto Windows. IE was the default and was free.

Microsoft forced OEMs to pay for Windows for every computer they made, whether or not they installed Windows on it. Effectively killing out other operating systems.

If you don't believe in monopolies... if the solution was "stop buying computers that come pre-installed with Windows"...

Or is it that you don't believe Apple is a monopoly but you're still happy Microsoft was forced to allow other browsers to be the default in Windows?

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#66
post #8

I can't stop. I've been buying computers and peripherals and gizmos since 1974. I have a house full of them. I code for food. But I've yet to buy my first Apple product or service. Yes, it's mostly because I'm cheap. But it's also because I avoid walled gardens. I feel pretty good about that now. Climb on out, y'all, the weather's fine out here in the jungle.

Am I the only one who loves Apple products? I love MacOS. I love iOS. I love all things Apple. Customer service is totally top notch. Physical quality is excellent, of course I have my wishes and pet peeves (don’t like cold aluminum, stupid touchbar, keyboard!). I’m willing to pay even double the cost of other cheaply made products from Asus, Acer, Samsung, etc. Not to mention the whole ecosystem thing and I trust Ap…

I think they're fine products but they just don't work for me. I need full control over my stuff and apple won't give it to me. Of course, given that I don't like Apple, some of the stuff they do like iMessage and the hurdles to make apps for ios annoys me

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#67
post #8

I can't stop. I've been buying computers and peripherals and gizmos since 1974. I have a house full of them. I code for food. But I've yet to buy my first Apple product or service. Yes, it's mostly because I'm cheap. But it's also because I avoid walled gardens. I feel pretty good about that now. Climb on out, y'all, the weather's fine out here in the jungle.

Am I the only one who loves Apple products? I love MacOS. I love iOS. I love all things Apple. Customer service is totally top notch. Physical quality is excellent, of course I have my wishes and pet peeves (don’t like cold aluminum, stupid touchbar, keyboard!). I’m willing to pay even double the cost of other cheaply made products from Asus, Acer, Samsung, etc. Not to mention the whole ecosystem thing and I trust Ap…

Every other vendor (and OS) takes my time instead of my money. If I'm not forcing myself to be aware of it I can be fooled into thinking some of this time is work, but it's not—it's pure wasted time. Apple products do sometimes, too, but nowhere near as much. I wish anyone else would get good at this whole "making consumer and 'pro' devices that don't suck" game.

Or if Apple'd take the Mac line back to being somewhat overpriced rather than wildly overpriced, that'd be nice too. They swing back and forth, it seems, and right now the premium is way on the high end, especially with their base specs continuing to lag (a $1300 "pro" laptop should have a base of 16GB of memory, not 8, for instance).

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#68
post #18

"I know that the devices are pretty and feel nice and maybe your friends all have one and you want to signal that you’re one of the crowd, but it’s not worth it." That's quite an over simplification of the appeal of an iPhone and comes off as him whining about whiners. I'd like to switch back to a flip phone from a privacy perspective, but there's a few conveniences that would be hard to go without. I refuse to buy a…

The issue is app stores. Most app developers/companies won't deploy to any stores other than Google's and Apple's, so when it comes to choosing a device that can run most apps its IPhone or Android.

A solution here is to introduce a standard mobile app format, with standard APIs to interact with the OS. Then app developers write one app that can run on any supported device. But good luck getting the duopoly to agree to that.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#69

If you don’t like how Apple does business, stop using their products. If you don’t like how Google does business, stop using their products. If you don’t like how either one does business, stop using technology all together. I am being facetious, but mainly to illustrate the point that we now have a series of entrenched monopolies in the tech world so “stop using X” isn’t a realistic solution.

In principal I agree with you. But consider the case of Gmail. You have to communicate with a lot of people that use Gmail, and Google can block that because one of their robots decides it doesn't like your host/server/domain/IP/face. You have little recourse to resolve this, probably even less so if you don't have a Google account.

The comment you're replying to is making the same point.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#70
post #3

"Whining" is an overly prejudicial word choice for this title. These are legitimate issues people have with what Apple is doing, not mere whining. This echoes the "if you don't like it so much then just leave instead of speaking up" dismissal that is so commonly used as a lampshade for suppressing dissent. Not sure if that's the intent here but that's what it comes off as. And this point from the article needs to be…

You fail to define what the legitimate issues are. They have no real hardware or store monopoly, Android still out numbers them in install base. Legally it’s undecided at all. This is essentially complaining Walmart and Target use different means of revenue generation for placing product. Maybe Microsoft can get a phone and store off the ground that has a bigger install base. Oh wait. Maybe app sellers should have he…

They choose to go "all in" because it is literally the only option to get an app on the devices of ~58% of smartphone owners in the United States. They don't have a choice, they literally have to accept it in this market. Even in other markets where they don't control the majority, it's still a massive portion of the market.

It's hard to imagine how the precedent established by not forcing change here would be desired by anyone. We're not far from a world where basically all of the software you can consume, how you can consume it, and even the price of it, is effectively determined (or at least heavily influenced) by one of 3 companies. We're not talking about just the services those companies offer, we're talking about all of the software services that any company wants to offer.

The cost of building a new operating system in the modern age is incredibly prohibitive, such that we're unlikely to see any meaningful competition in the form of alternatives here. Even if such a project were to happen, they'd have to overcome the incredible inertia secured from walled garden that the major players have built for their own ecosystems.

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