True but also if I weren’t drinking mate I would probably drink at least 2 more cups of coffee a day, so all in all I think it comes out as less daily caffeine consumption.
lol Tim Cook yeah. I mean thanks for the links and the discussion, but I'm trying to argue respectfully without name calling. I have things to say but I don't think it's going in a productive direction when you are assuming that I'm somewhat grieving or have a skin in this at all. Anyway, thanks for the respectful parts of your message, not so much for the others. Have a good day.
> There absolutely was third-party content and software on iPhone, at launch. The web browser was one of the biggest selling-points when it was announced, alongside the phone and music-player functionality.
That point is quite moot. If there were only first party content on the phone today, there would still be a browser. Also, this content is not specific to the Apple platforms, you can access all of them from Android too, so it’s not the kind of content that would make an iPhone particularly interesting.
> Many proven monopolies seemingly "improve" their user experience to get users to defend it. Famously, Bell Telephones had imposed a severely-limiting monopoly on phone hardware, but made long-distance calling free as a consolation to users. Bell's new "luxurious market" didn't excuse their prior market abuses, though.
I don’t see how Apple is a monopoly with less than 30% of market share in the EU, so this comparison is not apt. Even the DMA talks about gatekeepers not monopolies. I’m of the opinion that kind of dynamics do not apply here - especially because you can switch platforms and go to the other side quite easily nowadays.
> I'm trying to say the opposite. If Apple was providing first-class support to any of their hardware products, then they wouldn't need to impose anticompetitive limitations on third-parties. What Apple brings to the table is deliberately gimped to manipulate software margins and reduce user choice as a consequence. Third party devs are the only ones bringing things to the table; Apple is charging them for the privilege.
It’s the hardware and the conscious decisions that were made along the way by Apple that partly played a role in creating this lucrative market and it doesn’t seem very out of place to me for a business to charge for a market that they partly enabled. I don’t see what’s wrong here. Third parties still come and try to make a buck, so it also seems to be working for them. The third party creates apps to make money, which in turn makes the platform more attractive and hence increases the amount of customers. Apple continues investing in the hardware and software stack that takes advantage of even better technologies and capabilities each year, enabling people to come up with even better apps and experiences. They also consciously make it a closed platform, the opposite of the other platform that has much more market share, to give a choice to customers who prefer this kind of product. Two sides in this relationship feed each other, one wouldn’t be better off without the other.
> Again, if you want to test this, ask around and see how many people would buy an iPhone with just first-party content. Nobody would, and the clear and eminent reason is that Apple does not provide a superior experience by removing user choice.
Again, you’re assuming things are in a vacuum. If only Apple had first party apps and all the other platforms still exist as they are today - sure, there would be much less people buying iPhones, although I believe some still would. But that’s not a fair comparison: if we assumed all other platforms also had only first party apps and nothing else, then I’m sure people would still buy iPhones in droves. But this is still not a very apt comparison, and the reason is the App Store and third party aspect is part of the product, and it has been for a long time. It’s not a separate entity, it’s a core part of the value proposition of an iPhone for the consumer. It’s akin to asking “how many people would buy a car if cars didn’t have engines” so trying to draw conclusions from assuming they didn’t exist shifts the discussion to be something else. The question is how much this relationship between Apple and third parties feed each other - and to me it doesn’t seem like only one side is doing all the work without getting something from the other side in return.
Also, let’s not forget, the sides who are fighting here are both greedy companies and they try to improve their bottom lines at the end of the day. It’s not like Epic is fighting this just for the common good, also it’s not like Apple is obligated to do charity work for free.
that’s not entirely true. there was no 3rd party software in the first year and people still bought it. On another note they managed to create a luxurious market although the other platform also allows 3rd party apps. What I’m trying to say is, yeah it’s undeniable that 3rd party devs bring something on the table, but so does Apple
Right, but looked from the other angle, if Apple didn’t provide an easy enough experience for developing apps, less 3rd party developers would develop and they wouldn’t have access to a luxurious market. It’s a two way relationship, these things don’t exist in a vacuum.
The real killer for me has been the fact that the keywords or bangs aren’t tied to a single platform/browser. I set them up once and they are available on my iPhone & iPad & 4 different browsers on the mac. Add this the fact that if you set Kagi as the search engine, you can perform all of these from the address bar already.
> Are you seriously saying that Apple providing that as an option is anti-consumer?
I think Apple not providing the other option is anti-consumer. It can be as on the macs, where you have SIP and you can disable it if you so wish, although it takes some effort and is not straightforward. The phone can have 2 modes, a safe mode and an unsafe mode, and it's up to people to choose which mode they want to operate in. So your wife still has the option to have the non-general purpose computer in her pocket, and others can have it as a general purpose computer.
I didn't mean it in an ironic way if that's what you're referring to. I interpreted your statement to say "I don't want my search history connected to my credit card.", sorry if I misunderstood what you said.
If what you mean is you don't believe they are not connected to your account, I can point you to the FAQ entry on their website.
I hadn't seen the first one, nice! Well, the only way to cut back is to make the end-game kb, which will also be a Dactyl for me but I think I’ll buy it from either ohkeycaps[1] or cyboard[2]. cyboard also does measure-to-build[3], it might entice you if you decide to buy it ready-made instead of building yourself.
I see, not sure how far you're willing to pursue this but you _might_ find help on Reddit or Discord. I would be very surprised if you are the first person with short thumbs to want a Dactyl. Someone might have paved the way with a hand similar to yours.
Some subreddits that I know:
r/ErgoMechKeyboards
r/MechanicalKeyboards
r/olkb
Also I know about these on Discord:
SliceMK
KBDFans
BastardKB
SplitKB
QMK
Designing a symbol specific layer[1] that includes all the symbols without needing to shift the keys made programming much more pleasant for me. It took a bit of getting used to but since programming and typing symbols is something we do quite frequently during the day, the brain gets used to it rather quickly.
no one is trying to attack you because of an alternative narrative. if you left out the “let’s not exaggerate” part it would be an anecdote of perfectly equal value, because both are anecdotes by internet strangers as you say. people are attacking you because you were highly insensitive in carrying the conversation to a point where in addition to talking about your own experience, you assumed the other person was trying to tilt the convo to their favor by using emotions, and you are trying to devalue their personal experience. we are humans after all and we are not doing science here, you can show some sympathy for a tragedy and make your point at the same time, they are not mutually exclusive.
Exactly my feelings, the first part just shows some good technical skills and flexibility of Emacs but it was the second part that was much more interesting. I too enjoyed the part about values and it gave me some food for thought. I also can tell the author read Sapiens as there are quite a few points that were discussed in the book. Also some of the links in the article are great rabbit holes as well, like the 80000 hours website. A+ writing overall!
language is fascinating.