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AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

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Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#701

Post by zpeti »

sincarne wrote: post #676
brigandish wrote: post #631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can point to a positive change that Apple have made, in this regard, under Cook's watch, then your argument has some merit. If you can't then you'll have to rely on the "it would've been worse but for his efforts" but I doubt you're going to provide evidence for that. What we do know is that Apple have repeatedly sided with censorship, I can certainly provide evidence of that.

Apple very publicly refused to unlock the phones of the San Berbardino shooters, and consistently refuses to back door their phones for law enforcement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93Apple_encryption_d...

In a country with strong rule of law, where it's quite clear where the legality of this rests, and where they had almost nothing to lose by refusing to unlock the phone.

Yet icloud is dencrypted in China as soon as that's what the authorities want.

Standing up for things doesn't really mean much when you have nothing to lose. It's like the world cup players talking about LGBT rights and then stopping it as soon as they are threatened with yellow cards. That's boring cowardly virtue signalling, it's not standing up for something regardless of consequences.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#702

Post by account42 »

vjulian wrote: post #556
int_19h wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be because IRA remains the sole government of Afghanistan recognized by relevant agencies such as UN. Which companies generally defer to when they came, because it cuts down on a lot of individual political decisions they'd have to make otherwise. Yandex is an interesting showcase of how bad this can get - they literally dropped country borders from their maps last year "for better user experience". And I…

Perhaps Yandex maps could be perceived as representing an ideal future devoid of essentially arbitrary political boundaries and silly notions of citizenship.

No matter how much you want such an utopia where everyone gets along, that is not the reality we are living in. Instead, borders are real and which country a particular location in matters in many contexts that involve looking at a map.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#703

Post by account42 »

zerocrates wrote: post #435
throw7 wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truth. And it's not just apple, on android we (U.S.) get a "water gun" for gun and no emoji shows up when you search for rifle.

The gun emoji became a toy on all major platforms everywhere several years ago. This is surely related to the political climate but I believe the entities involved applied that change worldwide.

Well, yeah, US companies are more than happy to export the US political climate as long as it doesn't directly conflict with local laws.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#704

Post by alphabetting »

falcolas wrote: post #449
jsnell wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact is that Google left China 12 years ago and never returned. They gave up on the search ad revenue in the world's second largest economy. They gave up on the app store revenue in the world's largest smartphone market. That's a hell of a thing for a big company to do as a matter of principle. Some exec tried to run a project to re-enter China with search, and the project was axed the moment it became widely kno…

> Why are you trying to tear down the company that's done the right thing in this situation? Yes, Google got out (arguably, they got kicked out) of China. But their stealth attempts to get back into that market matter just as much. Because they display the current direction Google's leadership wants to take the company. They want to take it back to China. And that matters. Opinion time: Wanting to get back into China…

Yeah the company that has been out of China for over a decade (someone tried to renter years ago but idea was killed by higherups) is worse than the company that paid the Chinese government $300B to build out their manufacturing for the pleasure of selling phones there.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#705

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

randomdata wrote: post #674
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Companies don't do anything. People do. The individuals who make up any Fortune 100 company most likely do want to do the right thing individually, but communication at scale is really hard which leads to all kinds of unintended consequences. Maybe the majority of the worker bees. The people who make decisions have a fiduciary obligation to maximize shareholder profits.

> The people who make decisions have a fiduciary obligation to maximize shareholder profits. This is a myth. There is an obligation to serve the share holders' "best interests", but that doesn't necessarily mean profitability. It probably doesn't mean maximizing profitability a lot of the time as shareholders are not single dimensional characters. Often shareholders of public companies are just plain old people with…

> It probably doesn't mean maximizing profitability a lot of the time as shareholders are not single dimensional characters.

If you look at any shareholder lawsuits - it's pretty clear what the obligation means, what you get sued for, and what you'll lose a lawsuit over.

The vast majority of Apple shares outstanding aren't owned by people who want to turn it into the world police or a charity. They want a return on their investment - not to turn their investment into a charitable donation to make the world a better place.

If you wanted to invest in charities - there's better options than owning stocks...

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#706

Post by account42 »

oceanplexian wrote: post #685
kelnos wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't make it better, though. Plenty of companies have decided not to do business in China on ethical grounds. Hell, even Google pulled out of China way back when, a company I certainly don't think all that highly of. Yes, not doing business in China means less revenue, and unhappy shareholders. This is why capitalism sucks: it more or less requires companies do unethical things, when not doing those things me…

I know it’s in vogue to blame capitalism, like our economic system is a faceless AI that decides things in a perfectly efficient market (It’s not). Behind the curtain there are humans making decisions. They may be hedge funds, investors, board members, etc. There are humans that deliberately want to do business with China and know exactly what is happening with those workers. It wasn’t capitalism that outsourced iPho…

Capitalism is blamed because it is the system that lets those morally bankrupt people get rich of those decisions without any real consequences.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#707

Post by standard1123 »

mmmpop wrote: post #383
whimsicalism wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple certainly tailors the emojis available to the local political climate. They don't, for instance, have the flag of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, instead using the flag of the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

I can still see the Iran flag in all of its unaltered glory here in the US. I guess they missed the memo?

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/person-lotus-position...

Here's a podcast interviewing someone who created an emoji

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#708

Post by xpe »

lazyeye wrote: post #633
xpe wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or perhaps your comment is not considered useful. Be open to the possibility that you can share interests with people that criticize you. > I guess this is the kind of blind obedience to an authoritarian regime that 275 billion dollars gets you https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/07/apple-chi ... But never mind, they have rainbow hashtags and censor pepe memes so they are the good guys... Speaking for mys…

Can you provide examples where Apple has taken a stand (at their own personal cost) against China? Doesn't seem to be such a "complex power dynamic" at all maybe? Maybe some "dumbing down" might be useful to a crowd that is disconnected from reality and likes to hide behind language?

> Maybe some "dumbing down" might be useful to a crowd that is disconnected from reality and likes to hide behind language?

Please describe your data justifying the characterization about the crowd you are referring to. The HN crowd, you mean, right? Please use a statistical understanding and don't overgeneralize.

Does it justify "dumbing down" or exaggeration?

At this point, based on what you've written so far, it seems to me you have an overly pessimistic and stylized view of the audience here.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#709

Post by xpe »

lazyeye wrote: post #633
xpe wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or perhaps your comment is not considered useful. Be open to the possibility that you can share interests with people that criticize you. > I guess this is the kind of blind obedience to an authoritarian regime that 275 billion dollars gets you https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/07/apple-chi ... But never mind, they have rainbow hashtags and censor pepe memes so they are the good guys... Speaking for mys…

Can you provide examples where Apple has taken a stand (at their own personal cost) against China? Doesn't seem to be such a "complex power dynamic" at all maybe? Maybe some "dumbing down" might be useful to a crowd that is disconnected from reality and likes to hide behind language?

> Can you provide examples where Apple has taken a stand (at their own personal cost) against China? / Doesn't seem to be such a "complex power dynamic" at all maybe?

I don't need to provide examples in order for my point to stand: the power dynamics between China and Apple are not about blind obedience. What I mean by power dynamics is well understood. It applies to geopolitics, economics, as well as personal relationships. It means (approximately) that the parties are aware of their relative power and influence and act accordingly. This is clearly different than "blind obedience".

If you are looking for examples by the way, there's plenty of discussion of this around this general thread. I don't need to repeat it.

Additionally, and arguably more importantly, there is observational bias: outsiders are unlikely to be privy to all relevant negotiations between China and Apple. If we were, perhaps we could better understand the "push and pull" (a phrase referring to power dynamics) and therefore Apple's influence and corporate policies and "ethics" if you want to call it that.

In these comments, my goal is not to defend Apple, blindly or otherwise. Rather, I'm trying to show that there are nuanced and useful ways to discuss these topics. I get it -- it's common to be annoyed, disappointed, or even irate at how Apple behaves in comparison to its PR and branding. Hypocrisy is not something I overlook either.

(Aside: But I aim for a standard higher than "common" when I put comments onto HN. I get the impression many other people do too. Even more of this would help a lot.)

But are such emotions and vocalizations primarily the result of a quest for truth? Or do they mostly serve some other purpose?

I have a guess. Based on your comments, I think you are expressing dismay in a way that is too blunt to be useful to many people here.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning the Hacker News guidelines that discourage comments or complaints about down votes. I waded in and replied to your complaint because I hoped you were a bit curious and not completely dug-in to your position. I'm not sure at this point. It has been very challenging for me to try to give you feedback in a way that you will consider to be useful.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#710

Post by grumple »

sam0x17 wrote: post #473
grumple wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't tell you how many "normal users" ask me whether there is an open source equivalent they can use so they don't have to pay for X I don't think I've ever had a non-dev ask me about "open source". Asking for free alternatives, sure, but it's very rare that I'd recommend open source alternatives for whatever normal people are doing.

I've had many people come to me asking for "that open source office thing instead of word"

Have you really? I worked in an org full of fairly technical non-devs and never had someone ask that. Mostly because corporations usually have no problem paying for Word... and google docs exists.
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