Back in the aughts I was an apple fanboy. Later they no longer had the edge but I won’t say it was completely not an option. Now it is completely not an option.
Just in case, if you’re (still) a Nintendo, Sony, Tesla, Disney, Spotify, … fan, it’s not too late to change your mind about them too :)
We all believed they cared about privacy back then, I just never got one because side loading is essencial for me.
honestly I never liked smartphones. it was mostly about the freebsd based os, large with lots of power and ports (this was the aughts), and the apple care was amazing. Once that went away it just made sense to save money but now its like they could be the cheap option and like no. ewww. linux was not as great at that point to.
This is what sideloading is supposed to prevent
Brings new meaning to Google’s decision to (effectively) block side loading on Android
Being constantly tracked is for the plebs, not the Elites or their enforcers.
People are so stupid in this country. Do what the EU did and make it law that they have to offer sideloading and other app stores and payment methods.
It should be the law to begin with. This walled garden shit is really just another word for controlling what the user does with the device they purchased and not allowing them to do business with anybody else exclusively to add software without apple’s approval and protection racket fee.
Everything is about control. The internet was left open by accident for a while and they are working hard to “fix” it. They are just trying to be slightly less obvious about it than China was. All of the forced AI tools, required apps and stuff like that are just ways to move users away from the open web.
Once most users restrict their Internet usage to ONLY content provided by the large companies (for example, once people no longer click on any Google result), then Internet providers will start granting access to the content from large companies for free and charge a lot more for access to anything else.
In 10, maybe 20 years, we will be needing to tell our internet providers when we change jobs so that they may change which “custom” internet services we get to have access to specifically for work.
EU didn’t do anything except lower the tax on developers from 30% to 27%. And they still require Apple’s rubber stamp to install.
They should have been concerned about OS lock-in, instead of app store lock-in. Imagine being able to install the OS of your choice on your phone.
Why not both?
Yeah, you still can’t install arbitrary IPA files on iOS.
It wouldn’t help.
In this case, even if the app was side-loadable and had a web app, that’s enough of a technical hurdle to kill its critical mass.
In other words, it doesn’t have to be banned; suppressing ICEBlock is basically enough to kill it.
Arguably, if it was normal to sideload apps it wouldn’t be as much of a barrier to users, but they’ve been conditionned to think they need an app and the only place you can ever get them is the store.
It’s a technical hurdle only because Apple decided they want to control everything, and same on Android because of Google’s ever increasing war on sideloading. You used to download an APK from the browser and it would go like “This is an app! Install?”, but now you have to go enable third party installation and all that, and now the whole Play Protect forcing developer validation coming up.
You are overestimating how technical most folks are. I know kids and older adults, on either side of my age, that have no concept of a filesystem, a URL, an APK to download, things like that, because they’ve never needed any of that.
Attention is finite.
Hence, web app’s aren’t really blocked by iOS/Android, but that’s still a basically insurmountable hurdle simply because it’s not the usual procedure for operating a phone. Defaults and accessibility are king (and Apple/Google know it).
Was there any reason to make this an ios app as opposed to a website hosted outside the US? I’m really not surprised by the removal. What did they expect? All the Tech CEOs came to the inauguration with bags of cash.
The only reason I can think of is the cost. Apple makes the map API free if you use Apple Maps on Apple devices. If you are building a website, you have to pay for Mapbox or Google Maps, etc., that can get pricey for indie developers.
Isn’t Open Street Map free?
But anyway, these apps are all about accessibility to regular folks. Believe it or not many people don’t know how to bookmark a website. Also this app gives you notifications, something a website could only do via email or something.
Yeah good point. Plus if it’s a website you can use it in private mode and not have evidence that you were helping people evade the gestapo all over your phone.
Barrier to entry.
Many (dare I say most) folks don’t know how to use a web browser, much less find a web app. Installing an App Store app is much easier.
It’s also much lower visibility for those who do know.
And that’s especially critical for this app, which relies on tons of people using it.
Building an iOS app is faster and simpler than building a web app. The developer also said he took advantage of some privacy features in the iOS development kit that made it easy to keep people anonymous.
But Apple still knows you downloaded and used the app. Apple collects plenty of data on iOS, and their “privacy” marketing only applies to third party apps downloaded from the App Store.
The creator is a dumdum
You don’t own your device.
Wrong
“Ownership“ doesn’t mean “I can do whatever I want with it”.
edit: wow, Redditors are better at accepting the truth, lol
I love when newbie accounts think lemmy is reddit. Makes them easier to ignore.
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edit: wow, Redditors are better at accepting the truth, lol
So go pander to them.
If I own something, I can do whatever I like with it because it’s mine.
If I can’t do what I like, it’s not truly mine.
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The state of having complete legal control of something;
Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property,
the act of having and controlling property
Control is a key part of ownership. If Google controls what you can install on a device, it isn’t yours.
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It should
you think people who own guns should be allowed to “do whatever they want” with them?
how many mass shootings do we already have each week?
Thats Apples and Oranges. Owning a phone is not like owning a a gun.
but the law is the law: just because you own something doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want with it.
it’s illegal to kill someone with a smartphone, too
Right, you can’t break the law
This is more like the gun manufacturer coming back two years after you bought it and preventing you from using bullets from a vendor they don’t approve of.
Except we aren’t talking about the law. We are talking about corporations that sell you something and then retain control over it.
You have no say in the process, you have no representation. These are not rules that we as a society have determined to be in the best interests of all of us. These are unilateral decisions placed upon us. You have no recourse if you disagree other than don’t use the thing.
Guns don’t prevent you from doing anything. You still have the capability to do whatever you want with the thing. However, if you use it in a manner than harms someone else, in a way that we as a society have proposed, voted, and created laws prohibiting, then you deal with the consequences. But that is very different from having something in the gun that prevents it from taking ammo from another manufacturer. Or making it unable to shoot unless you pay a monthly fee.
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What a fucking stupid moronic take. Go back to reddit
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They can do whatever they want with them, that’s why we have shootings.
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If they couldn’t, then they wouldn’t, but they obviously can, because they do. This is not complicated.
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If they don’t break the law then yes
But that’s what it means. Or at least, it used to
it never meant that you can do whatever you want.
But possessing something indicates that you have rights over it that others do not. In this case, you have no rights that G doesn’t.
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A stitch in time saves nine
Wrong
You can’t sew time.
With this and Google stopping side loading in Android, I’m going to be looking hard into Linux phones.
They’re not stopping it, they are planning to introduce it to the platform; no one sideloads on Android today, because it’s not a walled garden yet.
Sorry, you’re well out of the loop on this one, boss. Sideloading has been common practice for thousands? millions? of users since the beginning of android. There are plenty of apps not listed on Google Play - the ones that come top mind are Fortnight for a time and now the Epic Games Store app, and some VPN apps that couldn’t offer features like ad/malware blocking in their Play store versions. Sideloading means downloading an executable install file (an .APK file in this case) rather than installing from Google Play. And they are SEVERELY limiting this ability next year.
F-Droid is a staple of the FOSS community and it will effectively be shut down due to these changes.
Could the EFF or individuals sponsor apps from devs who refuse to identify to Big Goog?
Dev sends EFF the source code,
EFF registers with Google,
EFF submits the app,
Everybody’s happy except a number of people for obvious reasons but at least the app’s verified
That sounds like just changing who is verifying the developer. Whether it’s the EFF (because they aren’t going to put their name and reputation at risk for unreviewed source code) or google, the issue is the same.
Someone has to be the middle man in deciding what is allowed to be installed.
No one said it would be shut down, the thing all these clickbait articles leave out of the headline is “as we know it”, which means it will change significantly.
It’s still on my phone! Sorry Tim Apple!
Pretty sure Tim Apple couldn’t care less, he just has to appease the Tangerine in Chief.
Still on mine as well. Why were folks slow to add this app?
I didn’t know it existed.
Some people are republicans? 🤷♂️
(I know, I can’t explain it either.)
- boycott
- problem solved
ICEBlock was really poorly designed from what I understand.
For people downvoting the above, read some criticisms the app such as:
https://micahflee.com/unfortunately-the-iceblock-app-is-activism-theater/
I don’t know of the take-down legit but the security of the app has been questioned, too.
Edit: The removal was bullshit. Apple should be pressured to put it back. But, the developer or someone else could do much better.
IIRC it’s also not open source, which for me is a big barrier to using it and trusting it at all (other than it being iOS-only).
Stop. Fucking. Using. Apple. Products.
Why would you pay 1k+ for a phone you don’t even own/control?
You’ve heard about Android, right? We all have like six months to find a new platform.
on google based phones if using google services, the product is you
Stupidity.
Intelligent people don’t use apple products.
All the apple fans out down voting today…
FYI this may not be the time to take allegiance with them if you at all understand what is going on.
I have a great dislike for Apple, and have never bought or used any of their products. I still downvoted the comment because it’s wrong (use doesn’t define general intelligence), toxic, and misguided (attacks those that we would prefer to change).
You thinking downvotes are (mainly? fully?) apple fans speaks volumes.
OK I’m sorry for excluding people.
Apple fans AND self-righteous morons.
Hope that is more equitable and does not make you feel left out!
❤️
If you understand what is going on then you understand that, as of right now, all mobile users are thoroughly fucked. Google is about to gatekeep all Android app development and we don’t have any serious third options. The monopoly noose is tightening around the world’s neck.
Apple, Google, they are both greedy, evil, abusive corporate oligarchs. “Apple bad” helps nobody. Google is just as bad. We need more options. Until Graphene works on non-Google devices, it’s not much of an alternative. Until UBPorts gets more support and adoption, it’s not much of an alternative either. We’re in a very bad place.
I’m very well aware, but the apple folks tend to be a LOT more dogmatic and vocal. When people talk shit about android, nobody really cares. Do it to apple? Jfc.
I am pointing this out because the current mess will never change for the better until apple users stop supporting apple. No, you dont have a lot of choices, but stop signaling support for them. Get mad and demand better. Be vocal about THAT.
the current mess will never change for the better until apple users stop supporting apple
And you think calling them unintelligent will get us there?
