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…

  • pearable@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Having app developers be able to avoid Apples forced 30% fee is great. The fee is pure rent seeking masquerading as curation.

    • FlorianSimon@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • chitak166@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The #1 thing they provide is exposure.

        The vast majority of users simply won’t download and install something they find on a website on their phones.

      • linuxdweeb@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        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.

      • pearable@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        Agreed, If it wasn’t a forced arrangement I wouldn’t necessarily nave a problem with the price

    • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Their curation is terrible too. The app store has so much shovelware crap

  • _number8_@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    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!

    • M500@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • Tiger Jerusalem@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        This could be the real “pro” iPhone. Running m3, acting as a phone by itself and throwing a full macOS with Office and Adobe Cloud apps when docked.

    • M500@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      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.

      See it’s an entire computer!

    • chitak166@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      That’s the point. They want people to use devices where information is given to them, but they can’t interact with it or give something back.

      They literally want us scrolling tiktok all day before it’s time to get ready for work.

  • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Based Japan once again. I would love to see other countries requiring this too, but I’m not going to hold my breath unfortunately.

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    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”…

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • FMEEE@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        Yeah Android is Linux. But Manufactures are limiting it so hard that it is sometimes nearly impossible to get a custom ROM on the phone.

  • Foçalors@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Great, now force them to open up their NFC, so mobile banking apps can skip Apple Pay for their contactless payment feature

  • suoko@feddit.it
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    9 months ago

    Usb-C, side loading, what’s next? APK or snap packages compatibility?