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Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

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Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#851
post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When there's a big power imbalance, putting the onus on the service provider to give a valid reason for denying customers can be more impactful than laying the burden on a user to prove there was discrimination. Depending on your race/ethnicity/disability/socioeconomic status, taxi drivers might refuse service even though it is against the law. It is easier to win against a taxi driver if they're obligated to explain…

I respectfully disagree because that goes against individual freedom. I understand that historically in the US there's been racism but that's no reason to erode individual freedom.

A corporation is not a person, though. It is a "legal person", which is a really unfortunate term precisely because it confuses the matter of natural rights and freedoms.

Now, I would agree with you if we were talking about individuals. In that case, yeah, I think you should be able to refuse service for any reason or no reason at all to whoever you want. But if you go and get a corporate charter from the government that, for legal and fiscal purposes, creates an entity that is distinct from you-the-actual-person, then I don't see any problem with the same government telling that distinct entity what it can and cannot do. That entity has no natural rights.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#852

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In iOS 17.4 Apple allows you to apply to create an alternative store. Apple can still deny your request and kill your alternative store, and this is exactly what happened. Epic opened a developer account under their european subsidiary company, which applied for this, and Apple just banned that account, so Epic can't create a store. Perhaps if someone else (Google, Microsoft, Meta) made a store, Epic might be able to…

Epic has a long history of breaking the terms of contracts they are sign. Most companies won't deal with actors who continually do this.

Most companies don't own market-dominant platforms so locked down that large economic blocks pass special legislation to address the matter.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#853
post #702

First, it’s weird that anyone would take the side of Epic in any argument. Second, it’s obvious that no one had actually read the article. Epic admitted that they have deliberately broken the App Store rules. That’s enough to have anyone sanctioned in any system. Apple are certainly not unimpeachable here, but this blind hatred of Apple is out of control. At least get the facts close to right before spewing your unin…

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Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#854
post #288

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From it's issues I bet you it's infighting from a group trying to kill the vision pro from apple.

The fact that they went to market with a $3.5k price tag tells me they just aren’t serious about wide adoption, period.

The reality is it's a dev demo unit but pride doesn't allow them to say it.

It's over speced with hardware as it won't be mass sold for a few more years at which point the price for the components will have naturally dropped allowing selling it for a more "reasonable" price. This is apple so it still won't be cheap.

It's made with metal to get the brand of being the "best" build, but watch them drop it on future units (while folks still keep thinking of it as best in build)

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#855

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But as of iOS 17.4 they do allow alternative app stores in EU.

Here are some articles that specifically discuss what is wrong with Apple's approach in allowing alternative app stores. https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/06/spoil-the-bunch/ https://proton.me/blog/apple-dma-compliance-plan-trap > Introducing the Core Technology Fee (CTF), a junk fee that serves no purpose other than trapping popular apps in Apple’s current shakedown scheme. By charging a €.50 fee for each install afte…

The CTF is the exact same thing as the Runtime Fee that Unity tried to force on devs last year. Caused a massive outroar that got Unity to reverse course and sack the CEO.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#856

Apple should avoid destroying developer trust as developers aren't forced to write ios apps. Apple needs developers.

At this point Apple's view of what "developpers" means is probably Adobe, Microsoft, Google, Activision etc.

Smaller devs and midrange gaming companies tremendously helped launch the iPhone, but there's clearly just an afterthought in current Apple's mind.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#857
post #783

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> embracing the industry standards The iPhone has legendary levels of crapitude. Consider every app you use on the iPhone that is authored by Apple. Would you or its stakeholders still use it if you weren't forced to? Mail? Calendar? Safari? Photos? Music? Fucking Messages? No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't misunderstand me. I am talking about access to the exact same first party APIs and integrations Apple's software ha…

Safari, Photos and Music are apps that I legitimately like and enjoy using. I wouldn't use anything else. I'm generally happy iPhone user. From Apple's offerings, the one I don't like is iCloud because lacks any granularity whatsoever. I want my photos synced but I don't want to waste my space and bandwidth with the videos. I also would like to have full API access to everything so I can experiment with stuff. Also I…

> I can't stand the Android experience, honestly.

The average Android phone is like $180. You can't stand cheap phones, which is legit, but that's what "Android" is.

I don't know if this is in the zeitgeist yet. People spend more on a pair of airpods as people spend on a whole Android phone. That works because 10% of a $1,400 phone is $140. It doesn't work when 10% of $180 is $18.

Where is there space for a third party ecosystem if there's only $18 on the table? Android users used to be 2.5x less valuable than iOS, and maybe it's closer to 5x-10x now.

This is essentially Apple's value proposition to developers: "We have the rich users." And it's true, that's valuable. But do they deserve 30% of every transaction, to the most disfavorable agents in every software category? The way Apple and Steam conduct themselves is apples to oranges.

> Safari, Photos and Music

The Photos app is profoundly shitty. Lightroom Classic is like 13 years old now. How long did we have to wait for Lightroom Classic's 2009 featureset? The sharing features are abysmal. Why not open the API to the same shared photos backend Photos uses? Apple doesn't charge for access to the API, it charges users for storage - what difference does it make to them? It only matters because they are smart people, they know their software sucks, and if they allowed that level of compatibility, people would immediately abandon Photos, and yes, there would be a cross compatible Photos-like experience with Android and desktops, it would be superior, and it would harm Apple's primary idea of forcing people to use their trash.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#859
post #845

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I sold my APPL stock a few weeks back. The experience on iPhone is shit. The web is broken on Safari. They broke PWAs. The vision pro is not a big hit. The notification system on MacOS is a poor experience as it gets in my way all the time. Apple want to extort devs to build apps. The arm macbook chips are amazing but that's old news now. Too much abuse of their customers and not much innovation. It has s…

I love my iphone more than any other tech device I own. Can you elaborate on "The experience on iPhone is shit"? Seems like hyperbole to me.

Fish don't know they're in water until they're out of it. See Android.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#860
post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar here. I like their products, their design and don't have anything better to my needs. I even find some sense about this whole DMA thing to their respect. But their user hostility and "you are wrong we are always right and we never accept that we are wrong" kind of gaslighting attitude of them as a company really makes me lose trust in them as a customer. While I still use Apple devices, I wouldn't have though…

The reason I haven't bought into the Apple mobile ecosystem wholly is because of the power they could exert. My friends' counterarguments were always that they did not currently exert that power to the detriment of users. To which my reply was "Show me a few down quarters, missed growth targets, or a threat to one of their primary sources of revenue and see what they do." Any company should always be expected to path…

Well, they do exert that power to me. I have the Apple Watch Ultra because my Series 6 got water after 3-ish years of swimming and died (while I think it shouldn't have happened, that's OK, I know it hasn't been designed for that much water exposure), I decided to get the "more durable" Ultra as I was getting more serious on my swims.

I had the S0, S3, S6 and never had any problems otherwise. In Ultra, their flagship and most durable watch, it's problematic as I can imagine: the original loop started to wear out in 6 months, the action button sometimes just does nothing, GPS (which should have been more accurate due to more band support etc) goes crazy while swimming (which never happened with S6) and records incorrect data (I see physically impossible "jumps" in recorded swim daya) and most importantly, the screen sometimes goes black (after months of debugging I've realized that it is wrist detection, but no solution other than turning off always on display which for some reason "solves" the problem but I can't have always-on display).

Despite all those problems on the most expensive and "durable" watch which I didn't have on any other watch before, Apple support did a diagnostic and told me there is absolutely nothing wrong with the device, and don't offer a replacement.

A friend had similar problems and they "found nothing wrong" with his AWU either and refused to replace it too (he then switched to Garmin).

As Apple is a company that blatantly refuses problems with their own devices I now hesitate to buy another Apple Watch, or the AVP for instance, simply because I can't trust them anymore.

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