This has been discussed before, multiple times. Having 2 aging parents that use Android, living across the Sea, I disagree with the statement, not because the steps are not comprehensively, but because the level of warnings that Android gives you at every turn.
Either you believe in Dark Patterns or you don’t I guess.
Yeah, and even more so with Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. I just don’t use the products from companies I don’t like, and one could argue those 3 I mentioned are worse than Apple in their abuses, greed, and industry impact.
His girlfriend had an Apple laptop 20 years ago that he couldn’t fix. I am pretty sure he hasn’t used an Apple product since. Which is fine, who cares, it’s just anytime Apple is mentioned in a negative light, he is the first one there waving his flag.
I believe in dark patterns and I think the Android warnings are perfectly reasonable.
I’m not sure what Dark Patterns refers to. I can download an apk from a web browser and install it with a single warning on my OnePlus, its a very painless process and no more intimidating than the warning when installing an application on Windows.
They aren’t dark patterns.
I didn’t either, so I looked it up. To save anyone else time: It’s when the UI tricks you into doing something you don’t want to do. Like if you think you are buying an app for $10, but really it’s a subscription for $10 a week.
Edit: Although now I am confused by “believe in”? What is there to believe in, these things very much exist.
I don’t think I have ever encountered a dark pattern though. Not saying they don’t exist or that I don’t believe in them.
Oh they’re everywhere. This specific case isn’t one, though.
The Trump campaign did it. There have been a bunch of them on the iOS App Store that got though as well.
Okay, I did some research about it. Actually, many examples of dark patterns (there is more than one type) is something I would naturally bug when I was in QA. Although I didn’t call them dark patterns.
It depends on what you think the goal is. A more cynical person might believe the warnings are designed not to keep the user safe, but to discourage users from side loading by exaggerating to risks.
I freely admit that this position might be on unsteady ground with many people, and I have very little confidence it will pass legal muster.
That doesn’t fit as a dark pattern because the user isn’t being deceived into doing something they didn’t want to do. The actual warning is this:
“Your phone and personal data are more vulnerable to attack by apps from unknown sources. You agree that you are solely responsible for any damage to your phone or loss of data that may result from using these apps.”
Completely reasonable.
Your phone isn’t all that much more vulnerable compared to apps on the android store though.
It’s not like suddenly you left the front door open for everything to come through. All you done is given yourself permission to download things directly.
It’s not like browsing the web is more or less risky after getting that permission. It’s not like your banking app is suddenly more open to hacking. It’s not like you could suddenly get hacked by some one using Blue Tooth connection (no more so then in the past). (I just remember they did that in Person of Interest all the time).
I mean this is literally wrong. Running arbitrary code from unverified sources is literally a greater security risk.
Sure, running the code itself, but giving yourself permission doesn’t.
I still have to actively download the code, and install it, or am I missing something?
If I install code from Amazon, to install their App Store, am I at more risk, and if so, how? I assume the Amazon Appstore does the basic.
What is your original complaint related to Apple and Epic?
That Corporations have too much control over a product after it is sold, and participate in rent seeking because of that level of control.
That it diminishes advancement and the ability to make progress because only progress that benefits the corporation is allowed.
Again - use Android, it puts control back in your hands.
Why buy a product whose policy you dislike, when there is a perfectly functional substitute?
Yes the rent is ridiculous.
Some people like those products because of the control. I think most Apple users like the App Store and don’t want various stores and side loading. They just want Apple to quit using their power to make a fortune off of it and blocking good apps.
This goes back to, if you don’t like that, you are free not to buy it.
Edit: It’s kind of amusing that @Legowarrior complains about Apple so much people think he uses it.
Because they control a large amount of the market, and stifle developers as a whole.
If someone has a great app and needs economies of scale to work, it will inevitably fail if it can’t get traction on the iPhone. And that means it won’t come to android.
And, Apple controlling permissions and charging 30% will guarantee that any apple that goes against there business model will probably fail.
Tile is a great example of that currently.
So is Xcloud.
