Topic: Applepocalypse (Read 41682 times)

TA · « **Reply #320 on:** February 01, 2011, 12:47:36 PM »

Quote from: Classic on February 01, 2011, 12:06:08 PM

... So they're trying to preserve the value of these competing tech toys? What? I don't get it.

Does apple actually believe that their products aren't glorified readers for a significant portion of their user-base?

More likely they're hoping that denying access to the large iOS market is enough of a threat that they can extort money out of Amazon. There is a not-insignificant number of people who, presented with an iPad that has no Kindle app versus any other device that does, will just re-buy all their stuff on the iPad instead, and Apple is essentially ransoming those loyalist consumers to Amazon.

If you have an iOS anything, and have bought any Kindle stuff, it's probably a good idea to install the Kindle app and download everything you have access to before that gets cut off.

Mongrel · « **Reply #321 on:** February 01, 2011, 01:33:40 PM »

Man, it seems Jailbroken Apple stuff is just becoming more and more popular in spite of the risks.

Funny, that.

Thad · « **Reply #322 on:** February 01, 2011, 03:18:02 PM »

Of course, none of this would be possible without DRM.

TA · « **Reply #323 on:** February 15, 2011, 04:02:18 AM »

Speaking of DRM! Remember that whole "Jailbreaking iThings is legal" ruling?

First-party apps are starting to check for jailbroken phones, and will force-close if they find they're being run on one.

TA · « **Reply #324 on:** February 15, 2011, 04:18:00 AM »

Relatedly, that whole e-reader thing comes to a head, as Apple now requires in-app subscriptions that give Apple their cut.

I'm just gonna quote someone else's teardown of the scenario, because they put it really well.

Quote

Lets take two examples;

I sell a swanky tasklist app. We'll call it DontForgetTheMilk. I make it available on android and iOS. I sell it in the market, and the app store. Both google and apple take their cut for marketing, handling billing, and shipping my app. Fair enough. I don't have much of a choice with iOS, as the only way to get apps on there is via the app store.

So now I add web-sync. Your tasks are stored on my server, and you can access them from anywhere - website, local pc app, mobile app. This costs money for hosting, so I sell monthly or annual subs on my website - you get a login account with a valid sub, you put that in the app, and bingo - your offline app now syncs to the cloud. Yay!

Now apple launch in-app subscriptions. As part of the terms of selling my app on the app store - the only way to GET DFTM on iOS - I *must* now add an option to subscribe in-app to my online sync service, and I *must* sell it for the same price as my website subs; I'm not even allowed to tell people in-app I'd rather they'd buy it from the website - so any iOS customer I have, I'm risking they'll use the mandatory in-app channel, and cost me an extra 30% of every sub. For doing bugger-all.

OK, let's try example 2.

I'm a swanky new digital online magazine. I set up an agreement with amazon to sell subscriptions to my magazine; in return, it gets hosted on the amazon store, and subs are available on any platform that supports kindle; PC, iOS, android, etc, etc. I pay amazon my cut for hosting the subs.

Amazon make the kindle app available for free. I don't know if apple charge publishers for putting free apps in the webstore; either way, as a magazine publisher, I don't really care, as that's Amazon's problem.

Now Apple introduce in-app purchasing. Amazon *must* make subscriptions to my magazine available in the kindle app, and *must* make them the same price as the amazon kindle store price.

Now, I, mr magazine publisher, *must* either pay apple 30% for every in-app sub on iOS, or pay amazon for paying them on my behalf - somehow, I doubt amazon is going to eat the cost.

I don't even have the luxury of not making my sub available on iOS, unless I pull out from kindle entirely and set up my app infrastructure that never goes via iOS - and I can't access kindle devices easily any more, as it's quite hard if not impossible to get updating content on kindle e-readers without going through amazon.

So I either suck up an extra 30% apple tax for iOS users that use it, for doing bupkiss, because I sell magazine subs via amazon/kindle, or I pull out of the entire market and go it alone.

Update: Rhapsody says "Fuck you".

Mongrel · « **Reply #325 on:** February 15, 2011, 09:37:57 AM »

NICE EDIT. Likin' those brass balls on the Rhapsody folks.

Ted Belmont · « **Reply #326 on:** February 15, 2011, 11:51:57 AM »

Quote from: TA on February 15, 2011, 04:18:00 AM

Update: Rhapsody says:

Cee Lo Green - FUCK YOU

Mongrel · « **Reply #327 on:** February 15, 2011, 12:41:45 PM »

Yeah, Apple might've had a better chance of actually getting away with it if they had decided to start their rape session with the usual roofies and bullshitting, rather than going straight for surprise buttsex in the middle of the dance floor.

Norondor · « **Reply #328 on:** February 15, 2011, 12:54:44 PM »

this does pretty neatly decide which smartphone i'm getting, though.

sei · « **Reply #329 on:** February 15, 2011, 05:42:54 PM »

*smartphone platform/OS

Norondor · « **Reply #330 on:** February 16, 2011, 08:04:26 PM »

whichever

TA · « **Reply #331 on:** April 20, 2011, 11:39:18 AM »

Own an iPhone? Your exact location is constantly tracked and stored in a perpetual log file on your phone, and any computer you sync it to, and dumped on Apple's servers every morning.

This data also isn't being sufficiently wiped when phones are refurbished for sale, as some curious people are learning when checking phones they bought "new".

Thad · « **Reply #332 on:** April 20, 2011, 11:47:23 AM »

Quote from: TA on April 20, 2011, 11:39:18 AM

Own an iPhone? Your exact location is constantly tracked and stored in a perpetual log file on your phone, and any computer you sync it to, and dumped on Apple's servers every morning.

And they're charging you for the transfer. Great.

TA · « **Reply #333 on:** April 20, 2011, 03:20:14 PM »

It is a nice touch that in less than a month, that burned through almost $30 of data at the 200MB plan.

Thad · « **Reply #334 on:** April 20, 2011, 08:36:55 PM »

If only there were some sort of literary metaphor for a company spying on its customers.

Mongrel · « **Reply #335 on:** April 20, 2011, 08:51:31 PM »

Which a competitor could use in a spicy commercial.

Brentai · « **Reply #336 on:** April 20, 2011, 10:05:25 PM »

Pretty sure I've seen at least two Apple 1984 ads. To be fair, they left themselves wide open and inviting for it.

Mongrel · « **Reply #337 on:** April 21, 2011, 06:23:32 AM »

Quote from: Brentai on April 20, 2011, 10:05:25 PM

Pretty sure I've seen at least two Apple 1984 ads.

Thad · « **Reply #338 on:** April 21, 2011, 10:26:47 PM »

Quote from: Mongrel on April 20, 2011, 08:51:31 PM

Which a competitor could use in a spicy commercial.

Well, they COULD, if they weren't doing exactly the same thing.

Mongrel · « **Reply #339 on:** April 22, 2011, 03:44:40 AM »

Ahahahahaha!

Wait.... did these guys just manage to make Microsoft look good?! (Assuming of course that they're not doing it too - which is far from a given).

News:

Author Topic: Applepocalypse (Read 41682 times)