jc_dc · HackerTrans

2 yıl öncediscuss

Yeah, still have what equates to a scare screen. Tells you file may be harmful upon download, then you need to change a setting which is streamlined to what it was before, but still a scare screen. Now you can allow from source…but the source isn’t the web address, it’s the initiating application eg. Chrome or Files so there’s a huge security hole with this implementation presumably on purpose to manufacture the incident they need to justify their behavior.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

I’ll have to test this tomorrow. Last time I tried sideloading direct from our website I had to flip a switch in settings which came with a scare dialog. If I remember correctly, it was a system wide setting too and didn’t allow for trusting specific sources. If we can self distribute on Android, that will be 3 out of 4.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

Resolution time on native is longer than web. Bugs happen, native, web, doesn’t matter…bugs happen.

Re benefit for who. We will invest our time where it makes the most sense. If you’re familiar with platform risk, you’ll understand that we’re not exactly eager for our existence to be subject to the whims of Apple and Google.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

Tend to agree with all of this. Manifest is way too finicky.

Would be interesting to see how the play store changes in the event of Android honoring code signing for side loading like windows. Eg..no scare screen on side loaded apk’s as long as they’re code signed.

I suspect the App Store would live on as a consumer focused App Store and the enterprise apps would direct distribute which makes sense anyhow cause IAP does t understand account based pricing.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

It’s possible to hate them and recognize why they’re doing at the same time though…although I do think there’s also a hefty dose of arrogance and self importance in there. I’m old enough to remember when we (devs) felt this way toward Microsoft…so if I was Tim Apple I’d include that risk in my calculus cause what came next was two decades in the penalty box.

Seems like they hate us (developers) back though so it’s a mutual relationship I suppose.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

No, I’d say the vast majority of reputable developers are not trying to scam you.

But there are some trying to scam you…and some of those are also in the App Store…as long as they use IAP to scam you all is well.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

Google have an interest in moving people away from desktop applications because they don’t have a desktop OS (not counting Chromebook).

We run 3 SaaS apps. One is strictly native, and the other two are strictly web. Writing for 4 platforms on the native app is an extremely expensive exercise and then we are also subject to the insanity that is the App Store. Long story here, everything from App Store review times on mission critical software to the fact that their billing mechanism simply doesn’t work for B2B SaaS…and by the way, we get zero traffic from the App Store as that’s simply not where our customers are looking for the solution we provide. Fortunately, bulk of our customers start on desktop where we self distribute (code signing on windows and notarization on mac) with ev ssl on marketing sites. Why is the App Store scammy over the open web…search for any number of popular apps and look at how many have been cloned. Sure, you can do this on the web with paid ads and enough SEO effort but it’s much harder.

To this day, Apple continue to allow keyword stuffing, advertising on trademarked names, and blatant copyright infringement in app descriptions and even I (fairly tech savvy) accidentally purchased a clone of poly bridge for my kid cause they’ll list the clone above the real one on an exact term search. What was apples response when I said I purchased the wrong app? Tough cookies!

This is the same reason I hate shopping on Amazon. I simply prefer to have a direct relationship with the companies I buy things from, and from what I can tell, our customers prefer have a direct relationship with us.

But back to why PWA’s are awesome…simply put, iteration time. We can publish dozens of improvements every day and roll back instantly when an issue arises. We simply can’t do that with native as long as the Apple / Google act as a gate keepers. When we allow proper sideloading without the scare tactics and dirty tricks, we’ll take the time to build native again.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

To this day, I prefer windows, and I have to switch between Mac and windows all day every day.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

And to a degree, that’s why developers tend to hate Apple. They paint us as a pack of crims trying to steal from unsuspecting Apple users.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

I don’t buy it. Apple build iOS and I’m sure they will sandbox alt browsers as they do with every other 3rd party app on the phone.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

PWA’s on Android can be installed directly from a website…it’s awesome, less friction and less scammy than the Play Store.

On iOS you need to use the Share > Add to Home Screen which normies have no clue about. You’ll find out if the site supports PWA features AFTER you add it to your Home Screen. This of course is done entirely on purpose to make them harder to find and less appealing than the revenue generating App Store.

For me, I use iPhone entirely because pixel doesn’t support cardav and caldav out of the box…if I can’t use PWA’s on my phone then I’m going back to android cause I can solve the email problem easier than I can solve the productivity tools not being available via PWA’s.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

It’s because you probably had a phone before the iPhone. If you’re not already a vr user then it’s hard to imagine how this will fit in your life.

For me, if I happen to get an opportunity to strap a vr device to my face be interested to play around, but not motivated enough to go out of my way for it.

As a developer, I already spend a fortune on devices and simply can’t see any of our products benefiting from vr…this was true with oculus, and is still true with vision pro.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

Radically different, yes, but linear with the progression of all tech. I wouldn’t say that the iPhone has significantly outpaced Android devices for example.

Likewise, I’d be surprised if apples headset outpaces oculus in any significant way over the next 20 years.

Will it ever be a primary computing device? Not for me..maybe some future generation. Why? Cause I don’t want to spend my workday in a cave. When I pause to think through something, I look away from my monitor etc…

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

The verge very briefly mentioned it in the “magic till not” video.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

We regrettably have one app under apples scrutiny…we won’t make that mistake again.

Open web is the best place for us to invest our time.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

Have you actually used it for general computing tasks? If so, how was it?

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

I loved my htc with the slide out keyboard! Sure, it would reboot occasionally when you slid the keyboard out and it took 45 minutes to send an email on edge but that was back to the future stuff back then.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

Yep, I’d say if this thing can’t sell beyond the Apple services subscribers, it won’t exist in 5 years.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

Not sure how many devs they’ll get. Of course they’ll get some, but we refocused to invest in PWA’s because of Apple and Googles App Store behavior…we’re certainly not the only devs doing this.

jc_dc

2 yıl öncediscuss

Depends on what they want it to be.

For sure there will be some hardcore indies that just love developing for vr.

There will probably be some game studios ready to go.

TikTok will probably be there.

But, why would Netflix, Spotify, every productivity tool…go out of their way to work on this thing at a time where most are diving deeper into PWA’s?

For spatial computing, they’re going to need to improve the dev situation or accept that safari is the star of the show.

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