Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My iPhone 8 Refuses to Die: Now It's a Solar-Powered Vision OCR Server

terminalbytes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 198 posts

Re: My iPhone 8 Refuses to Die: Now It's a Solar-Powered Vision OCR Server

#61

Post by bigyabai »

aerostable_slug wrote: post #34
behnamoh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Apple fee is one of the most absurd things they do. Like, how is it even justified—does Apple really spend $99 on infra maintenance and server costs to host your app? When I buy a device I want to know that I own it, but Apple keeps pushing the narrative that "we LET you use this device in ways we see fit". So basically the customer is just borrowing a device from Apple while paying the full price. I'm a longtim…

I think it's fair to also cover the fairly rigorous testing that occurs for each app store submission. I'm not sure a hundred bucks is the right number, but it's not fair to say all they do is host the file.

"fair" would be letting me sideload if I didn't want to go through Apple's vetting. Their expensive review process is only required because they decide it's arbitrarily necessary and unavoidable.

Re: My iPhone 8 Refuses to Die: Now It's a Solar-Powered Vision OCR Server

#62

Post by eddythompson80 »

phire wrote: post #52
Gigachad wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is not unreasonable for something listed in the App Store. It is unreasonable that you can’t sideload though.

I'm pretty sure the $99 fee is explicitly there to prevent "normal" users from side-loading.

It could be playing 2 roles, acting as a limiting gate for the App Store spam and preventing a simple 2 step tutorial to enable side loading.

Re: My iPhone 8 Refuses to Die: Now It's a Solar-Powered Vision OCR Server

#66

Post by rkagerer »

behnamoh wrote: post #29
nancyminusone wrote: post #12

>I’m saving approximately $84-120 CAD annually. I suppose most of this is eaten up by the need to pay apple $99 per year just to run your own app on your own phone for longer than a week.

This Apple fee is one of the most absurd things they do. Like, how is it even justified—does Apple really spend $99 on infra maintenance and server costs to host your app? When I buy a device I want to know that I own it, but Apple keeps pushing the narrative that "we LET you use this device in ways we see fit". So basically the customer is just borrowing a device from Apple while paying the full price. I'm a longtim…

This is why I switched to Android 10 years ago. Unfortunately the grass isn't looking much greener over there these days.

I'd love to hear from individuals who worked at these companies whether it disgusts them as much as it does me, and ideas (from a business perspective as much as technical) on how a new platform might wrest control back into the hands of users/owners.

Re: My iPhone 8 Refuses to Die: Now It's a Solar-Powered Vision OCR Server

#67

Post by asimovfan »

behnamoh wrote: post #29
nancyminusone wrote: post #12

>I’m saving approximately $84-120 CAD annually. I suppose most of this is eaten up by the need to pay apple $99 per year just to run your own app on your own phone for longer than a week.

This Apple fee is one of the most absurd things they do. Like, how is it even justified—does Apple really spend $99 on infra maintenance and server costs to host your app? When I buy a device I want to know that I own it, but Apple keeps pushing the narrative that "we LET you use this device in ways we see fit". So basically the customer is just borrowing a device from Apple while paying the full price. I'm a longtim…

what is it that you "love" about Apple?

Re: My iPhone 8 Refuses to Die: Now It's a Solar-Powered Vision OCR Server

#69

Post by slg »

HenryBemis wrote: post #60
slg wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also the roughly $1k in costs for the solar and battery hardware even if we consider the iPhone itself free since it is so old.

I was just checking the combo he is using [0] (River 2 Pro + 220W solar generator) and it's currently at USD 619. In the post, the author sums it at USD 780. I assume price dropped because of newer models, etc. [0]: https://us.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-pro-portable-power-s...

There were also $280 of other vague miscellaneous costs listed among the initial investments that I was including as part of that "roughly $1k"

Re: My iPhone 8 Refuses to Die: Now It's a Solar-Powered Vision OCR Server

#70

Post by ajross »

nancyminusone wrote: post #12

>I’m saving approximately $84-120 CAD annually. I suppose most of this is eaten up by the need to pay apple $99 per year just to run your own app on your own phone for longer than a week.

That was exactly my thought. Out of the whole universe of development platforms we have to choose from to do an off-label maker-think gadget hack, iOS is inarguably, and by a huge margin, the worst.

There are literally home appliances with more customizable app development and deployment stories than iPhones.

Post reply on HN