I am too stupid. This is true. Too stupid to buy an iPhone too.
As an Australian, do I have anything I can do to help make sure that these regulations are implemented?
Tell your rep(s) you’re in favor of it, and if you have a time, visit in person.
If you pay for a device, you should be able to do whatever you want with it. Apple having so much control over it means that you don’t fully own it.
But… something something security and something something not a monopoly… am I doing this anti-consumer white knight thing right?
No no no apple knows whats best because they made it. did you make a phone? no? didnt think so. checkmate.
(Pay no attention to the fact that it took apple 14 years to add t9 dialing, one of the simplest features a ‘dumb’ phone could have.)
Is there a way to send and receive SMS and send/receive phone calls through a computer? Like if I wanted to ditch a phone for a cyber deck could I? And just use like a mobile hotspot for Internet?
I used this service breifly a while ago. Not enough to say whether it’s good or not, but I remember it working just fine.
This is dope. I live in Scotland, but I’m from Canada, and having a cheap local number for recieving texts from stuff like my bank would be super helpful.
I have 2 numbers with them, no regrets. So far the service has been flawless (except where I have spotty data services or crappy wifi). Absolutely worth it.
As a general rule, if a corpo is against something the EU does, it means your government should do it too because it’s a good thing.
Except breaking end-to-end encrypted messaging. That’s the one sore spot.
The EU like any large government is filled with people of varying quality. Some of them are absolutely amazing at their jobs and some of them can barely operate at light switches.
Normally whenever some dumb tech related regulation comes in you usually find it’s being pushed by the idiots. You can usually tell by reading the text of the legislation and by the end of it you will have come up with about 300 problems.
A good example of this is reading the Tracking Cookies legislation (bad) and the GDPR legislation (good), the difference in the size of the text of the bill is visually apparent.
some of them can barely operate at light switches
Here’s a short story for this fact.
I have sold coffee machine on Monday. Next day got a message that it doesn’t work. I ask what is up with it and she told me it won’t start. I asked if she turned switch in the back in ON position? 1h later she writes me that it works!
I mean yeah, there is a switch in the back and a big ass ON button on the front. But I totally think that basic troubleshooting would solve this enigma before shooting the gun at me for selling a faulty device.
We used to have a poster up at work in the IT room that had a picture of a person scratching their heads and looking blankly at their laptop and the text “I’ve tried nothing, and I’m all out of ideas”.
Some people have zero troubleshooting skills and don’t even try. Their immediate reaction is to try and make it someone else’s problem.
and also introducing hardware backdoors, courtesy of Going Dark
Yeah, but I still feel like the majority of people are stupid. That’s kind of how apple got such a huge market share to begin with. People just happily locked themselves in to a closed garden with shit for options.
This is brilliantly stated. Thank you for sharing the light.
I want to hard agree with Apple that people are, in fact, too stupid to choose their own apps, but not following Apple’s greedy logic.
Look at the top apps and sites people use. The tech billionaires. It’s stupid as hell
Same. I agree that people are too stupid to know what apps they should use. But that also includes those using some of apples closed down, limited apps and features haha
Apple has always said this about their users. Too stupid to allow choices outside of a few curated options.
Yeah, it’s a messed up position. It’s made more complicated by then being half right. People do often like having fewer choices. Making a streamlined OS that doesn’t allow them access to the kernel or crucial components, that they literally can’t break by accident, that is indeed an appealing feature to many. But it’s not appealing because they’re stupid, it’s appealing they’re rational.
This has always been Apple’s method, make everything intuitive, easy to use for anyone and their mother. And a big part of that is removing all the extra clutter from the interface, all the options users would rarely if ever use. This is also the contentious part, removing the advanced options that power users might want access to.
But at least initially, they understood that the reason for doing all this, their goal, was to make their products better. These days it seems like they’re less clear on that goal. The idea that they’re “dumbing down” their products and controlling everything because their users are too stupid, this is a new attitude, and it shows a misunderstanding of the principals their company was built on. Apple was only successful because they made very good products which were comfortable to use. They certainly never won popularity through competitive pricing or having the most powerful machines…
Personally, I think it’s a foolish move to be this controlling over their iOS ecosystem. This is really making the product inferior. Sideloading apps will not destroy their walled garden, it just gives power users the options they want. Apple should be afraid of losing more market share, they don’t have all that much to lose…
Apple to
Australianseveryone: You’re Too Stupid to Choose Your Own Appsfix’d
Their reasons for not opening the App Store aren’t even good logical reasons like it would make the platform unsafe but then they claim the Mac is a safe platform. That’s what makes it so insulting.
I’d be less frustrated with them if they were just honest and said it’s about the money.
Mac is only a safe platform due to obscurity.
To be fair that’s not really true. Gatekeeper is deeply integrated into the OS and is extremely strict.
As opposed to windows, macOS will effectively refuse to run any software that is not signed and notarized by Apple themselves.
I’m not a fan of this behaviour but that’s the way it is.
I’m pretty sure that can be turned off in security stings.
If not, you can hold down control or command when launching the so the first time to have the option to run the software anyway.
As opposed to windows, macOS will effectively refuse to run any software that is not signed and notarized by Apple themselves.
You can put Windows in strict mode but it makes the computer virtually unusable. The other thing been is it there are techniques that attackers can use to bypass these checks thus making the signatures irrelevant anyway.
You can also use an immutable Linux distro (SteamOS being the most popular) and install software with flatpak, which is sandboxed using bubblewrap.
That sounds really interesting!
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Apple “opinion” -> discarded.
It’s the “Apple Way”
I choose the highway.
As an Australian, my government can go for it. None of the tech companies have appreciated the Australian government’s attempts to regulate them
(e.g. trying to make Google and Meta pay for using our journalism).(edit: not a good example)That said, we have had idiots in power from time to time that definitely have worked against us, usually arguing the “security over privacy” nonsense (metadata collection laws, encryption backdoor legislation, etc.).
Happy cake day!
I’d be happy for the Australian government to take them to task over this one. But I’m afraid you’ve fallen for Murdoch propaganda with the journalism thing.
They weren’t “using our journalism”. They provide a direct benefit to the news organisations. It’s a mostly symbiotic relationship, with people going to Google and Facebook because it’s a good way to find news that interests them, and news organisations being funnelled traffic directly to them for free. But honestly, if money should be flowing in any direction, it’s to Google and Meta. The financial benefit for news organisations of the existing relationship is far greater for news organisations than it is for Google and Meta. People would still be Googling things and sharing on Facebook even if news didn’t make up part of that.
Jeff Jarvis is a great thinker and communicator in this space, and he moderates a great discussion on the topic here. About 34 minutes into the video they hear from a QUT professor who is pretty scathing towards the NMBC.
Thanks.
Really appreciate you taking the time to explain that. Unfortunately the journalism issue is one of those that I haven’t had a chance to look into. I like to think I’m aware of the Murdoch propaganda (and the other major “news” outlets here) but there’s still clearly some topics which don’t register as problematic until I dig into them.
Yeah I think this one became particularly tricky and wormed its way into a lot of people’s minds even who would otherwise be wary of it, because even Labor and the Greens stood in favour of it (with some minor tweaks), due to poor tech literacy.
Have they looked at their own app store?
So many people angry about phones in here. Just let people like what they like. Yeesh.
Unpopular opinion, but if I wanted multiple app stores (and all the associated benefits and risks) then I would have opted for an Android.
The walled garden approach works for me, and I don’t want to be inconvenienced and my data put at risk because a particular, necessary app is only available through a 3rd party platform.
Now, Apple being forced to reduce the % of app sales down from 30% to a more reasonable number I am all for.
You are missing the point. If you want to remain in the Apple infrastructure exclusively, nobody is forcing you not to. Those who want options will have them. So enjoy your walled garden all you want, and let each user decide if they want to keep being tools or not.
I respectfully disagree.
If I’m out at a restaurant with app-based ordering, or my Real Estate agent requires payment through their gateway, or to track my utilities usage, or am required to use any other number of niche apps that become only available through alternate app stores? Then I very well risk being put in a situation where I am otherwise forced to.
Let alone the headaches that will inevitably come from the older, less technologically savvy, and more vulnerable having their default app stores highjacked, and spoof apps stealing their credentials/credit cards.
Then we get into the more general issues of allowing unsigned code to be loaded and run on our smartphones - it will lead to the era of viruses, Trojans and ransomware.
I am reminded of this piece that Last Week Tonight did on Encryption, which is quite cogent given the topic at hand.
Best security practices involve minimising the number of places your sensitive (financial) data is stored. If a website doesn’t accept a known and reputable intermediary like Apple Pay, PayPal or a BNPL provider - I would refrain from using it.
If this is something that you want - then go ahead and Jailbreak your iPhone, or get an Android - more power to you; but please stop trying to enshittify iOS.
Again, I can understand where you come from, but it’s been proven, time and again, that using apps from the main app store (ios or Android, doesn’t matter) is not inherently safer or more dangerous than getting apps from other stores. The problems are the apps not the stores. Additionally, I have yet to see any company, institution or organization publish apps exclusively in alternative app stores,which means that, as far as I’m aware, every app “needed” will be in the platforms own store, which means that nobody has to get an alternative app store if they don’t want to.
These facts render your arguments to block giving owners of devices options completely invalid.
Yes, if you feel safer with the platforms’ default stores, you’re free to remain there and avoid anything else, as this is your device, and therefore your choice. But these arguments you bring take away CHOICE for absolutely no good reason.
What you want is basically a recipe for the web turning into an exclusively corporate wasteland. Lack of installation freedom doesn’t provide security from anything when the A/G app stores are already full of malware. Real security - security for users - lies in our ability to exercise choice - to use a FOSS app, or to pay conventionally via the web instead of having to put up with creepy opaque vendor portals (or worse, an app)
Phones are generic computing devices. We must able to operate and maintain them however we wish.
If this were to happen it would have happened on Android a long time ago but it didn’t.
Just because you aren’t aware of it, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening already.
I was talking about the point you made in your first paragraph. Where businesses would suddenly start providing their apps only in third party stores.
Well you weren’t very specific, so I wasn’t sure which point(s) you were disagreeing with.
I’m sure there are a number of apps which were only available on one storefront (Google, Samsung, F-Droid etc.).
China is in an even worse spot, as Google is outright banned - there are a dozen or so competing Android app stores; however their saving grace is that literally every digital transaction goes through either Weixin or AliPay - so there’s a somewhat lessened risk of credit card fraud.
Why would smaller, niche apps move to alternative stores on iOS? To (rightfully) avoid the excessive fees charged - so yes, a restaurant would be a prime example of someone not be willing / able to give 30% to Apple (nor should they, it’s downright extortion).
BTW, this only happens (usually!!) if you install from the web, which… like, if you don’t have the tech literacy to figure out what’s fake or not (especially banking?? Any reasonable bank HAS an app in official platforms, like the play store) then you don’t need and shouldn’t sideload, BUT the option is there for people like me, who use F-Droid and other FOSS-related apps.
The only downside is that unless people literally ignore warnings from the system for downloading apps (maybe first time stuff, then either the warning design sucks, or again, user error) then maybe just maybe they should read, if it’s not official play store.
But this also happens in the official stores as well. While it does happen less in ios than in android, the fact remains that it happens in official stores ss much as I alternative stores, which makes this argument irrelevant at best.
As much as I dig at Apple, this is a fair observation. However I will say that I have Android and have never actually used a 3rd party app store or felt the need to.
I use F-droid to get my open source apps. Much more trustworthy than Google play. It’s my first stop for anything I’m looking for.
F-droid is something I genuinely enjoy browsing through, reminds me of the early days of Android 2.0-2.3 when I actually enjoyed using and customising my phone.
I miss the old days of phones being fun and looking forward to both hardware and software upgrades.
If Apple cashes in less than 30% next iPhone will be like:
Sorry, we can’t include a box OR wire for
savingsthe wellbeing of the environment
