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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

#851

Post by tremon »

ptx wrote: post #731
archon810 wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're on Android, apkmirror.com or another similar site is a good and safe solution.

On the safety point, how would I ensure that e.g. the APK for my banking app is authentic and unmodified?

Good point. How do you ensure that the APK for your banking app is authentic on the Play Store?

Maybe we should ask all banks to publish their apps via F-Droid build service so the build hashes on both the Play Store and its mirrors can be checked for third-party modification.

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

#852

Post by tremon »

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.

Here in NL, parking apps show predictions of available parking spaces and some even allow reservation: you book a timeslot and enter your license plate, and on arrival the gates open automatically when it recognizes your license plate. No more fiddling with tickets, no queueing at the payment console.

For on-street parking, the apps usually allow two ways of parking registration: either you enter the location where you're parked (via manual lookup or phone GPS location), or you scan a QR code displayed on road signs. I'd call this one a solid win.

4. Airline apps that are worse than just printing a boarding pass.

The train service here has this reminder in various locations: "If you use your phone to store/buy your ticket, you are responsible for keeping it charged. If your phone drains empty, you don't have a valid ticket and will be fined." I wouldn't want to be in the situation where I need to transfer after a long-haul flight and find my phone empty. For me, paper always beats battery for longevity of important documents.

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

#853

Post by otterley »

cess11 wrote: post #668
otterley wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s mandated by law, yes. What would you call it if you were required to work—paid or otherwise—under threat of criminal punishment?

Is the threat of criminal punishment the only incentive that works on you? You never do things because it would make someone happy or you a better person?

This isn’t about me; let’s not make this personal.

The question was, “why shouldn’t doctors be required to treat patients?” It wasn’t, “should doctors treat some patients regardless of ability to pay?” There’s a big difference between these. The first is about compelled behavior; the second is about voluntary behavior.

There’s an analogy in the legal world in the U.S.: while lawyers aren’t required to take cases for free, there’s a time-honored tradition of reserving some time to take some cases for free (aka pro bono).

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

#854

Post by mixmastamyk »

kelnos wrote: post #759
mixmastamyk wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is all these things should be options, not single points of failure. We should be able to pay by coin/tap, or app when at a place we frequent. Apps should use a single system per region, props for being an open standard. We have the technology.

I don't think anyone is arguing that. While I wouldn't be surprised if app-only parking situations exist, I have never encountered one. Every place I've needed to park that had an app also offered the ability to pay with card (and often cash) at a meter or machine.

I saw it once and was so disgusted I haven’t been back to the location, for years. Have heard they went back to the old system but my habits have changed permanently it seems.

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

#855

Post by slater- »

acdha wrote: post #780
genewitch wrote: post #707

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but if everyone or a plurality of people did that because they disagreed with the business practices? An individual may not be able to do much in all circumstances, but a lot of people might.

Yes, boycotts can be effective but they work by not buying things rather than pretending theft is noble. Most people have a moral objection to that.

Towing my car to an impound lot and ransoming it back to me... is that not theft?

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

#856

Post by rad_gruchalski »

esafak wrote: post #630
rad_gruchalski wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re already at the airport. Just look around, stop staring at the phone.

Why is the old way better? That's just a default bias.

I didn’t say it’s better. I only said “take your nose out of the phone and look around”.

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

#857

Post by catlikesshrimp »

pqtyw wrote: post #141
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. I certainly don't agree with that one. I really don't miss having to pay for a fixed number of hours and then having to figure out what to do if I'm running late (or wasting money if I get back early). > 4. Airline apps that are worse than just printing a boarding pass. Unless the app is exceptionally horrible you can just export it to Apple/Android wallet which is muc…

> 1. Parking apps are worse than parking meters.

Not the appS for parking in your location. ( I say apps because I would have to register to two apps and those don't cover 100% of districts)

But where I live, the parking apps are buggy and resource hungry (could be just another bug)

We can still buy 15 min / 30 min ,60 min tickets. The problem is each district has its own tickets :/

I still prefer the tickets. At least I know with certainty if I can park or not (depending on my having of tickets or not)

But usually there is a private parking lot around the corner. Which is another argument agaisnt installing yet another app.

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

#859

Post by tharkun__ »

olowe wrote: post #827
strken wrote: post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I remember of Thunderbird and Outlook, they both showed a visual loading indicator somewhere in the UI. Am I missing a detail of terminology here? By "loading spinner" I meant it in opposition to "do absolutely nothing for three full seconds and make me refresh the page with the network tab open." I didn't mean to suggest any particular indicator of a pending network request, only that there should be an in…

Yes see what you mean now. Sorry - I was imprecise with my wording. As a fellow Australian I feel the pain too by the way :) > do absolutely nothing for three full seconds and make me refresh the page with the network tab open This is what I was talking about. A pattern I see is papering over this deficiency with a massive “spinner”. Barely noticeable for the devs accessing the app on 127.0.0.1 on fancy machines - so…

And ndriscoll is also unfairly generalizing. Which usually happens when you generalize because it's impossible to take all eventualities into account.

For example, I've worked on add-ons to other software. But it's cloud and you gotta make certain calls back to your "host" app. Said host app responds to most calls in more than the 150ms they claim is the max. Because of what guarantees our plugin makes to the user and despite us caching whatever we can we need to make multiple such calls to make our guarantees... well guarantees.

So what can we do? Of course we show spinners while we make those necessary calls and make absolutely everything we can get away with async.

But we can't get away from things potentially taking more than a second when something isn't in cache, the host app is slower than usual and under 150ms is impossible for anything that doesn't just hit our own database.

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

#860

Post by stodor89 »

fifticon wrote: post #120

My doctor/'s office was just forced to switch to app-instead-of-website for patient interation. Ironically, the old and this new software came from same megacorp I work for (different department, same story). The old web interface was rather good and rather sensible-practical-sane. It was almost as if someone had asked a doctor what he actually needed for his patients, and then understood his answer and also managed…

> So instead, whenever an error happens, you just display the '... still loading..' animation... forever.

Gotta love how everyone copies the nasty things Apple does (hi beach ball of death), but not the good things Apple does.

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