As the Digital Markets Act antitrust law passed in the European Union, Apple has until March 2024 to let users...
Japan prepares regulation requiring Apple to allow sideloading::As the Digital Markets Act antitrust law passed in the European Union, Apple has until March 2024 to let users...
30% might be a bit much, but Apple and Google are offering ongoing services for the price you pay as a developer. From hosting, to payment processing and APIs you can use in your apps, I think what they're offering has some monetary value that would be acceptable if it wasn't so damn much. I don't think it's toxic rent-seeking in and of itself. What's pretty toxic is that there's no way around those fees on Apple phones and tablets.
I suspect you're just repeating arguments you've heard, so don't take this internet rage personally, but that is complete bullshit.
Hosting costs nothing. Devs will gladly foot the bill for that if given the option. Even if you distribute your apps on AWS (which is notorious for severely overcharging on egress), your expenses will be no where near 15%-30% of your revenue.
Payment processing is a competitive field outside the appstores. Even 15%-30% is ludicrous when "overpriced" processors like stripe charge 2%-3%
APIs are not something sold to developers. They build them as part of the operating system because they have to. That's how it works. They could try selling licenses, but it would result in devs not building on their fancy new features.
(you didn't mention the ones below, but people with your argument usually do, so I'm adding them for completeness)
Security is also bullshit. The Appstore and Play store are FILLED with malware. It is not physically possible to manually review the sheer volume of apps published to those stores. They also are not incentivized to improve the process much, because each time your kid or grandma accidentally activates a $40/week subscription, Apple/Google take a 15%-30% cut.
Curation/promotion is bullshit. Discoverability on these stores has always been bad, but has been particularly awful since both Apple/Google have started selling search ads in the store. The other day I almost accidentally downloaded a fake ChatGPT app because it was the first result when I searched, it had a very similar icon, "ChatGPT" in the name, 5 stars, and millions of downloads.
These stores also heavily incentivize devs to push subscriptions. I suspect (but haven't confirmed) that the Appstore and Google Play both rank subscription based apps higher than others, and subs tend to pay a lower revshare fee than other monetization types.
I could go on all day about the rotten dumpster fires that are these disgusting stores. The only people who defend them are fanboys and people who have never actually had to deal with them professionally.
legislation is expected to be sent to parliament next year and focuses on four areas: app stores and payments, search, browsers, and operating systems.
I mean, the EU has already done this and now Japan is doing the same. So i guess it's very well possible that other countries besides Japan will also follow suit.
I tried to install an old version of San Andreas recently on my phone cause the last update broke controller support (which I actually bought with money).
Apparently we don't own our Android OBB directories anymore because of "safety".
So far the "we Android users already have this"...
Yep, it's unfortunate that manufacturers are taking more and more control away from users. That's why open-source software like Linux is so important, you can do anything you want to with it.
sideloading would be nice; i have no idea how people can get proper work done on an ipad as of now (especially with apple at one point acting like it was only a matter of time for them to replace laptops). everything is so overly glossy and surface level and designed for children or the elderly; you can't actually DO anything!
Even with side loading, you will still be pretty limited as the iPad is decently locked down. First of all it needs a decent window manager. That alone would go a long way.
But honestly, these things should be running full blown macOS when they are docked to a mouse and keyboard.
They had an 11” air at one point, so screen size can’t be the issue.
Yuh-huh! Just get a terminal emulator from the App Store. I will be just a few dollars a month. Then you can ssh into a Linux server you have somewhere.
People are saying that Flash was bad and HTML5 with heavy JS and all the functionality of modern browsers is good.
Such people are either fine with it, or don't understand that downsides of Flash (or Java applets, or whatever else) were defined by its advantages, which were much more important.
A lot of kids or young people with no particular interest in IT\CS\engineering would use Flash for animations or little cute things which made their simple, possible back then websites more alive. (I've just looked at such one site, abandoned with some trace of a resurrection attempt in 2019, and it's gorgeous.)
You had to know less to make your own stuff in that old Web than you have to know now.
The Web is by its purpose a networked global hypertext system, a living library with common participation.
That some people want to repurpose it, think they've been successful at it, and think others will go along with their wishes, - is sad, but should have no weight.
My iPad has basically become a YouTube machine. There are no useful productivity features, no file manager, and no good games coming out that aren't already on PC with mods.
Back in 2013 I loved my iPad, but now I'm thinking of just getting a surface
I don’t take a laptop with me when I travel, because the iPad is more than enough for my work needs for a few days. Working with large spreadsheets is the only thing I absolutely need a computer for.
I have friends who are programmers and regularly work on just an iPad. As I understand it, they only need a computer for some more horsepower-hungry parts of their workflow.
The real problem with iPads is iPadOS. It’s intentionally gimped so you need a computer for some tasks. The iPad Pro has more than enough processing power and memory for full workloads (as well it should, given the price point), the OS is the restricting factor.
I was against sideloading, because I’m in it for the walled garden and if governments were to use their own stalls to publish their apps, then, actually it doesn’t matter anymore! Our gov apps still invasive anyway, imo.
For the clueless, the particular app scans your face with various coloured screens being blasted through the phone screen, doesn’t matter if you have face ID enabled or not, its their own scan.
Um, I said I believed before. I don’t believe it works anymore (walled garden). And that the government apps already doing this in the walled garden. Even said power to sideloading….
About 90% of my apps from fdroid. A Foss store that will do they're best to ensure no anti or invasive features break through to my phone. I am certain that apple will have a similar store.
Yeah, I'll even go as far as to say that because F-Droid apps are usually not for profit you get actually good apps without ads or trying to sell you anything.
They're just an app that some dude found they needed and developed, and then made available for everyone else.
This is the most jarring difference I find when I go to the App Store, so a FOSS repository for iOS would be so huge.