I was a big supporter of Apple for a long time and welcomed privacy focused initiatives when they first started making noise a while back.
However since then I’ve become much more skeptical. Apple is no less evil or different; okay, I take that back, they are slightly better but I’m no longer a fanboy.
I don’t think the Apple of today, who carefully monitor what everybody does on their macs and make it difficult / annoying to bypass the Mac App Store, cares about privacy or the consumer as much as they lead us to believe. Steve Jobs cared a lot about privacy, from what I have read, but the current group, whilst highly intelligent and producing great innovative products like the M1, are very much driven by profit and not vision.
Examples include not providing basic accessories with their expensive iPhone products (seriously I spent 1,000 for an iPhone 12 Pro Max for my Girlfriend and there is no wall plug? Give me a break with their environment saving reasons, they could easily donate a lot more money if they really cared about the environment and not try to trick consumers that they are do-gooders).
The more nefarious example is how Apple is pushing paid apps and subscriptions so much on their App Store, since they take a cut. It’s a core part of their services strategy. I don’t see too much ethical differences between selling users privacy for ads and aggressively taking advantage of the average consumer and trying to lure them more and more into more paid subscriptions (many which they don’t need and also are overpriced, but since it’s a monthly charge it is harder to tell).
I am not comfortable with Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon being so large and controlling the tech landscape.
I’ve used MacBooks for the past 10 years, my next computer will 100% be a Linux.
The issue is supporting companies in general instead of the actions they take. I think this is a great move by apple to educate people on the privacy they are sacrificing with apps. That doesn't mean I'm a fanboy. Being a fanboy seems like it's almost always a mistake as it will just lead to illogical support of decisions that harm you.
> and make it difficult / annoying to bypass the Mac App Store
I'm trying to avoid cherry picking, but this isn't my experience at all. I use a Mac for work and haven't really made any use of the app store. Nonetheless, I have all the apps I need and homebrew fills in the rest. Is there something I've unwittingly avoided?
No, there really isn't. There are apps that I've bought through the App Store, some of which I actually use at work, and I don't really see value in "avoiding" apps just because they're in the App Store. But most of what I use is outside it, and if an app is available both inside and outside -- as many are -- I usually get the direct sale one.
(While I shouldn't speak for the OP, I'm a little suspicious that this is the "Big Brother Apple is going to lock down macOS just like iOS" narrative popping up again.)
As a recent switcher to macOS I certainly have that leash-like feel.
First, app versions often differ between the Mac App Store and developer's own website. "Independent" versions tend to be a bit less restrictive, packing more functionality or features that Apple forbids for any reason. For instance, the App Store version of Elmedia player does not have a video/stream saving feature. Other apps like Telegram (specifically, the App Store versions) restrict the user from viewing the channels/communities which have been marked as spreading "pornographic"/"pirate" content. Needless to say, the app variants obtained from elsewhere pack all the features.
Second, I was surprised (well, not really) to learn about "notarization" in the latest versions of macOS, which essentially means signing the app by Apple. These days it's not just about scaring the user into thinking that unidentified apps are inherently evil (which the OS does a lot), it's also actively preventing the user from actually opening such apps. In Catalina the default dialog for opening an identified app features something like two buttons, offering to "Cancel" and "Move to Trash". So you have to either go to the Settings and override the security control or know that a control-click spawns the same window with an additional "Open" button being available.
At this point one starts thinking, how long will it take before those overrides and control-clicks get taken away for good.
Privacy aligns with Apple’s revenue model (selling hardware) but not with Facebook’s (selling ads). This is the only reason you should have faith that Apple will work to protect your privacy, while Facebook will work to undermine it.
I don't believe this for a second. Apple's largest revenue growth has been in services, and they are sitting on a trove of data. They have a million bad incentives.
Honestly I can't believe we're even having this discussion. It's like Google all over again.
Apple says "trust us" but gives us no way to verify the trust. Trust without verification is a long-term recipe for disaster.
Everyone says that Apple’s business is selling hardware but that’s changing. Apple Music, Apple TV, iCloud storage and their commission on app sales are all clear software incentives. Yes, they’re still dominated by hardware sales but it’s obvious they are interested in diversifying.
For many if not most people, an iPhone's raison d'etre is to connect to these ad driven services. It is annoying that Apple gets a pass because their business is merely selling shovels rather than mining gold.
I don’t get the charger whining from people. If you add the price of the charger and the wired earphones to the price of the phone then with inflation it’s cheaper than the handsets were in 2018.
I’ve got 7 Apple chargers here as well. This is a completely rational decision which is transitional while we all move to USB-C slowly.
Your general point is right but it’s not the state of the company you need to look at but the direction they are travelling and Apple appears to be heading in the least wrong direction.
> then with inflation it’s cheaper than the handsets were in 2018
Inflation has consistently outpaced increase in salaries, so it still costs more on real terms
> I’ve got 7 Apple chargers here as well
And yet there's a substantial market for third-party chargers, even the smallest convenience stores sell them.
From personal experience the majority of everyday folk have one or two chargers in their house, and as many cables. If they sell or giveaway an old phone then a charger has to go with it.
I am not sure it's whining. Apple is cutting costs while pretending it's for a larger cause.
I might also have 7 chargers, but none of them are for USB-C - the type of the cable that they did include with the box. So I still have to buy a charging brick.
Apple from today is just similar to the Apple from 30 years ago, those that only know OS X post Apple are figuring it out now that they aren't in deep need of cash any longer.
It’s not, I quite like the Unix base of OSX. However there are many things where you need to tinker with the settings quite a bit to get apps to work well, that work out of the box on Linux.
I know Linux has enough / more problems than OSX, but I’m finally quite motivated to take a stance on this, it’s getting ridiculous on how much big tech want to control our machines.
If you mean installing Linux directly on my MacBook, sure that is possible — however I am happy with Catalina for now, so will just upgrade to the latest x86 Linux build in about 3 years. Unless M1 changes the computing world all together....
> I don’t see too much ethical differences between selling users privacy for ads and aggressively taking advantage of the average consumer and trying to lure them more and more into more paid subscriptions (many which they don’t need and also are overpriced, but since it’s a monthly charge it is harder to tell).
If you buy something, you're consciously making a transaction. You're handing money to someone in exchange for a good. In contrast, Facebook entices users to join their platform, and then subtly collects analytics about users through a variety of ways across the internet without any indication that they're there, save for some very subtle fine print.
I don't see how consciously exchanging money is even remotely close to ad-tracking networks. If anything, there should be at least the same level of friction for tracking as there is with a normal transaction -- which is what Apple is doing here.
Yes, Apple is totally motivated to push this, but in a capitalist society, what's your proposed alternative?
However since then I’ve become much more skeptical. Apple is no less evil or different; okay, I take that back, they are slightly better but I’m no longer a fanboy.
I don’t think the Apple of today, who carefully monitor what everybody does on their macs and make it difficult / annoying to bypass the Mac App Store, cares about privacy or the consumer as much as they lead us to believe. Steve Jobs cared a lot about privacy, from what I have read, but the current group, whilst highly intelligent and producing great innovative products like the M1, are very much driven by profit and not vision.
Examples include not providing basic accessories with their expensive iPhone products (seriously I spent 1,000 for an iPhone 12 Pro Max for my Girlfriend and there is no wall plug? Give me a break with their environment saving reasons, they could easily donate a lot more money if they really cared about the environment and not try to trick consumers that they are do-gooders).
The more nefarious example is how Apple is pushing paid apps and subscriptions so much on their App Store, since they take a cut. It’s a core part of their services strategy. I don’t see too much ethical differences between selling users privacy for ads and aggressively taking advantage of the average consumer and trying to lure them more and more into more paid subscriptions (many which they don’t need and also are overpriced, but since it’s a monthly charge it is harder to tell).
I am not comfortable with Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon being so large and controlling the tech landscape.
I’ve used MacBooks for the past 10 years, my next computer will 100% be a Linux.