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Did Apple Secretly Crush An App Store Competitor In Japan? (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the ulterior-motives dept.

According to Nikkei, Japan's Fair Trade Commission is looking into whether Apple improperly pressured Yahoo Japan to shut down a game streaming platform that competed with the iOS App Store. "Yahoo Japan's Game Plus service allowed people to stream full games made for other platforms and to play HTML5 games on mobile phones, which would have allowed iPhone owners to get games without going through the App Store," reports The Verge. From the report: Nikkei reports that Yahoo Japan slashed the program's budget last fall, just months after it launched, and told partners that it was due to pressure from Apple. It's said to have begun filing complaints with Japan's FTC around the same time. Developers essentially have no good alternative to the App Store on iOS. Their only other option is the web, which is a wonderful place for websites, but the web is rarely as fast or flashy as a native app. There are a great number of features that only native apps can take advantage of, which requires going through the App Store and giving Apple a 30 percent cut of most sales. Yahoo Japan's service was meant, in part, to be an alternative to that, offering better terms to developers, according to Nikkei, and fewer restrictions around how games were updated and sold. Final Fantasy creator Square Enix had even signed on and produced an exclusive game for the platform, which has since been pulled.

89 comments

  1. Would like to hear more about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If Apple starts to actively prevent choice and innovation rather than the opposite then we will know the mbas have killed Apple. You need a key founder/s to make companies survive long term

    1. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You need a key founder/s to make companies survive long term.

      Paging Herman Hollerith and Thomas Watson. Please come to the white courtesy phone.

      No? Paging Thomas A. Edison or Cecil Rhodes.

      No? Paging Will C Durant, Henry Ford, or Kiichiro Toyoda.

      Damn, not having much luck with any of these guys.

      How about W.K. Kellogg? Henri Nestle? Akio Morita? Any of you guys around?

      Amadeo Giannini? John Thompson?

      Yeah, no company ever survives without its founder(s).

    2. Re: Would like to hear more about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uhh steve jobs would have done the same thing and worse. He was a huge asshole and a psychopath.

    3. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Starts to actively prevent choice and innovation?

      Apple has been doing that since forever. Its in their DNA

    4. Re: Would like to hear more about this by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      He was an asshole if you worked for him. But he was also the guy who prevented Jony Ive from making laptops 1mm thinner and needing to change the keyboard mechanisms to unreliable pieces of crap to get that 1mm.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    5. Re:Would like to hear more about this by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design.

      They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    6. Re: Would like to hear more about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Starts? Where have you been?

    7. Re: Would like to hear more about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uhhh, he's the guy who when the first ipod engineering sample was shown to him, when told they couldn't make it any smaller, dropped it in a fish tank, pointed to the bubbles and said "clearly you can still make it smaller".

    8. Re: Would like to hear more about this by aliquis · · Score: 1

      My C2D Macbook Pro was an expensive piece of shit.

    9. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95),

      Some of us are old enough to have used Windows before 95, not just reading about it in history books. What was wrong with the pre-95 UIs? Even back then, it was more consistent and used more color than today's CGA-wanna be.

    10. Re:Would like to hear more about this by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      You need a key founder/s to make companies survive long term.

      Paging Herman Hollerith and Thomas Watson. Please come to the white courtesy phone.

      No? Paging Thomas A. Edison or Cecil Rhodes.

      No? Paging Will C Durant, Henry Ford, or Kiichiro Toyoda.

      Damn, not having much luck with any of these guys.

      How about W.K. Kellogg? Henri Nestle? Akio Morita? Any of you guys around?

      Amadeo Giannini? John Thompson?

      Yeah, no company ever survives without its founder(s).

      Perfect!

    11. Re:Would like to hear more about this by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 0

      Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design.

      They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

      Every single bit of that is a lie.

      CREDIBLE Citations on ALL of it, or STFU.

    12. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So I have a small webapp with several thousand users. For convenience (since quick use is important) the webapp has an option to keep you logged in -- by storing tokens in localStorage. I have lots of iOS users complaining because Apple seems to delete the stuff in localStorage not by frequency of use but by some other metric (popularity?) randomly at times.

      I should mention my webapp users use the app daily and Apple still decides to remove my login credentials right away. I even made a PhoneGap/Cordova wrapped app and iOS still removes its data from localStorage!

      They seem to be the enemy these days, even more so than Google.

    13. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Guessing you are not "TheFake" Tim Cook.

    14. Re: Would like to hear more about this by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      But the keyboard was still better than the 2016+ MacBook Pros.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    15. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design.

      They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

      Every single bit of that is a lie.

      Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    16. Re: Would like to hear more about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And he was right?

    17. Re:Would like to hear more about this by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design.

      They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

      Every single bit of that is a lie.

      Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

      You do realize, of course, that your "citations" add up to a big "Because I said so.", right?

    18. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design.

      They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

      Every single bit of that is a lie.

      Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

      You do realize, of course, that your "citations" add up to a big "Because I said so.", right?

      Don't be disingenuous.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    19. Re:Would like to hear more about this by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design.

      They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

      Every single bit of that is a lie.

      Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

      You do realize, of course, that your "citations" add up to a big "Because I said so.", right?

      Don't be disingenuous.

      I'm not. Don't be deliberately obtuse.

    20. Re:Would like to hear more about this by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Guessing you are not "TheFake" Tim Cook.

      If i were the real Tim Cook, I wouldn't come anywhere NEAR Slashdot.

    21. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design.

      They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

      Every single bit of that is a lie.

      Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

      You do realize, of course, that your "citations" add up to a big "Because I said so.", right?

      Don't be disingenuous.

      I'm not. Don't be deliberately obtuse.

      I will say this for you: you have that arrogance thing down pat. You have that newspeak thing down pat. You are the reason people hate Apple, you are a fine ambassador. Carry on.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    22. Re:Would like to hear more about this by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design.

      They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

      Every single bit of that is a lie.

      Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

      You do realize, of course, that your "citations" add up to a big "Because I said so.", right?

      Don't be disingenuous.

      I'm not. Don't be deliberately obtuse.

      I will say this for you: you have that arrogance thing down pat. You have that newspeak thing down pat. You are the reason people hate Apple, you are a fine ambassador. Carry on.

      So much blathering, and yet STILL not a SINGLE CITATION!

      Remarkable.

    23. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      So much blathering, and yet STILL not a SINGLE CITATION!

      Google them yourself you pompous ass. Every one of OPs original points is a matter of public record.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    24. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas

      OK, I will grant you that that point is a lie. Apple did have a record of coming up with good ideas until pencil-pusher Tim Cook arrived, now they only have pencil pusher ideas and squeeze more milk out of aging camp follower ideas.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    25. Re:Would like to hear more about this by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      So much blathering, and yet STILL not a SINGLE CITATION!

      Google them yourself you pompous ass. Every one of OPs original points is a matter of public record.

      Google what, exactly?

    26. Re:Would like to hear more about this by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas

      OK, I will grant you that that point is a lie. Apple did have a record of coming up with good ideas until pencil-pusher Tim Cook arrived, now they only have pencil pusher ideas and squeeze more milk out of aging camp follower ideas.

      "I will grant you that that point is a lie?!?"

      WTF?!? That sentence is a completely self-negating non-sequitur!

    27. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I understand that your mind is only able to think one level deep. One button mouse, same idea, right? No doubt you are in awe of your own intellectual superiority. How Apple of you.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    28. Re:Would like to hear more about this by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I understand that your mind is only able to think one level deep. One button mouse, same idea, right? No doubt you are in awe of your own intellectual superiority. How Apple of you.

      Mmmm. You counter with a one-button-mouse meme.

      And yet you have the unmitigated gall to impugn MY "intellectual superiority"?

    29. Re:Would like to hear more about this by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      You make it clear to anybody with the misfortune to stumble over your dreary tracks on the internet that your imagined intellectual superiority is most precious to you. Apple is hollowed out and you are part of the rot.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  2. Re:Front-Page Posts Out of Order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is because that Story was posted days ago It must have had a lot of comments so they put it back on the Front Page Again.

    DUPE NEWS is all it is.

  3. Fuck Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they are dishonest, greedy, litigeous, and they lie, cheat, copy and steal just as much as they accuse others in court of.

    It's high time that countries affected by their shit start to ban their stupid products.

    1. Re:Fuck Apple by Type44Q · · Score: 3, Funny

      they are dishonest, greedy, litigeous, and they lie, cheat, copy and steal just as much as they accuse others in court of

      Yeah, but they're edgy and progressive and wholesomely-gay and fabulously artistic; all the things Apple needs to be to marketable towards those who have a profound urge to blow their money in accordance with the expectations of their peers.

    2. Re:Fuck Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly this.
      apple is a cancer in the tech industry.

    3. Re:Fuck Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet they are still better than their competition. Android is a mess, developers hate writing apps for it, and the phones are basically given away because they are crap. Google skims your data and allows other apps to do the same. Apple's biggest hardware competitor Samsung is also an industrial polluter and manufacturer of military weapons.

      No wonder you are here bitching. You hate Android and you are projecting that anger onto Apple.

    4. Re:Fuck Apple by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Maybe he's an angry Windows 10 user, too.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    5. Re:Fuck Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes and the sun shines out of apple ass.

    6. Re:Fuck Apple by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      they are dishonest, greedy, litigeous, and they lie, cheat, copy and steal just as much as they accuse others in court of.

      It's high time that countries affected by their shit start to ban their stupid products.

      So we're going to start banning ALL Companies' Products? Because that is EXACTLY what you are proposing with your "Criteria".

    7. Re:Fuck Apple by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Exactly this.
      apple is a cancer in the tech industry.

      If Apple is a Cancer, then what is Samsung?

    8. Re:Fuck Apple by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      And yet they are still better than their competition. Android is a mess, developers hate writing apps for it, and the phones are basically given away because they are crap. Google skims your data and allows other apps to do the same. Apple's biggest hardware competitor Samsung is also an industrial polluter and manufacturer of military weapons.

      No wonder you are here bitching. You hate Android and you are projecting that anger onto Apple.

      ;-)

    9. Re:Fuck Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So this is fun. I have an Android phone. My family all has Androids. Almost all my friends have Androids. My dad's girlfriend has an iPhone. She liked my custom ring tone and asked to have a copy. I sent her the file and then we all spent quite a while figuring out how to get the offending Apple device to use the audio I sent her as a ringtone.
      I never got it and my answer to her was "get an Android" -- which she said she had and loved but her daughter wanted to Facetime with her so forced her to get an iPhone.

      I think Facetime is one way the iOS virus spreads.

    10. Re:Fuck Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A great company that Apple steals from?

    11. Re:Fuck Apple by iampiti · · Score: 1

      As per your story it seems that, indeed, Apple's trap to spread usage of iOS is working.
      Keeping a loved and/or frequently used piece of software exclusive to a platform is one of the oldest tricks to get people to use said platform
      But if that's the only reason she has to use an iPhone that means iPhones don't have many things over Androids now (I personally think Android is better but I'm a techie so...)

    12. Re:Fuck Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Google skims your data and allows other apps to do the same
      This is what applebois actually think. That their apps aren't fucking crawling with telemetry.

      Do you realize how much is spinning even as I write this? On a desktop browser, where I can at least exert some control over what "my" software is doing. An environment where I'm only partially the software's bitch and the OS's puppet.

      Apps are indiscriminate. Why wouldn't they be? Literally anything that can be logged, ought to be. It's just good business. Even if you don't have a data specialist on payroll, you dump that shit, dump it all, doesn't matter if it seems even remotely monetizable, it costs nothing to archive.

    13. Re:Fuck Apple by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      How could you leave out "arrogant"?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    14. Re: Fuck Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah that's Xerox

  4. Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And nothing will be done because they have the money and therefore the power.

    1. Re: Yes by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      The power is a separe thing from the money. The power is vested in government, which is controlled by the people.

      Sometimes plutocrats like Tim Cook try to subvert this power, but it doesn't end well for them.

    2. Re: Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fake news! We never said that. The government is actually ruled by ca$h. You're a dog.

    3. Re: Yes by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      The government is actually ruled by ca$h. You're a dog.

      The logical conclusion is that Dogecoin is the future of money!

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  5. Re: Front-Page Posts Out of Order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    /. Is turning into every other site where unemployed millennials bitch about things

  6. Re: Front-Page Posts Out of Order by stealth_finger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    /. Is turning into every other site where unemployed millennials bitch about things

    I see a whole lot more bitching about millenials around here.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  7. Re:Front-Page Posts Out of Order by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    Your comment is also out of order, this is neither of the threads about "Fewer Than Half of Young Americans Are Positive About Capitalism".

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  8. "Leak" the source code on the web... by grumpy-cowboy · · Score: 1

    And let's see what happen :)

    --
    Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
    1. Re:"Leak" the source code on the web... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are we playing spot the millennial here? When you decide to grow up a little bit snowflake, you'll know that'll do next to nothing.

    2. Re:"Leak" the source code on the web... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Found the millennial

    3. Re:"Leak" the source code on the web... by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Don't want it.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  9. You are all idiots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple's policy since the dawn of the app store has been to disallow stores-within-stores, marketplaces, and other services that let users circumvent the app store. The policy has always been app store or web app or nothing.

    1. Re:You are all idiots by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Oh shit, you said the "app" word.

      Come to think of it, we haven't seen that guy in a while. Maybe he's dead? Or maybe he switched from being "the app guy" to "the trump guy"?

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  10. Re: Front-Page Posts Out of Order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone on skashdot is at least 40.

  11. Re:Who cares? Trump goin' DOOOOWWWNN!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see many a wonderful future, where I am aghast; filled with awe. So wonderful is this place I envision that I wet my pants a little. A bit of pee streams on my legs, downwards, towards my ankles. Pee on my ankles.

    so it's just another ordinary thursday morning for you then, why did you feel the need to let everyone know you piss yourself regularly?

  12. Betteridge by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    Usually any headline ending with a question mark the answer is no, nut in this case I'd say, probably.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    1. Re:Betteridge by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Betteridge only applies when it lines up with a person’s preconceived biases.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:Betteridge by theM_xl · · Score: 1

      Think we might still call that a no. It honestly sounds like they weren't being secretive about it at all.

    3. Re:Betteridge by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Think we might still call that a no. It honestly sounds like they weren't being secretive about it at all.Think we might still call that a no. It honestly sounds like they weren't being secretive about it at all.

      The question is not why, but how. I mean, it's a website, after all. Somehow Apple forced Yahoo to shut down their website? For what benefit? Did Apple go after all the developers and remove their apps or something?

      What did Apple do that got Yahoo Japan so legitimately scared they shut down their website? I can't imagine Yahoo being such a big player on iOS that removing their app would have any big effect. Perhaps Apple could've gone after the developers themselves and removed their apps, but with some like Square Enix, that seems unlikely. It's not like Apple could suddenly take more than 30% of every sale.

      About the only way I can think of is it would've run like crap in Safari and they wanted to app-ify their website. Even then I don't see the problem since Android is huge over there as well.

      What magic power does Apple have to cause Yahoo Japan to retreat? Something that Android doesn't have?

  13. What about Nintendo? by Bluecobra · · Score: 0

    âoeDevelopers essentially have no good alternative to the App Store on iOS. â What about the poor developers who have no alternative to Nintendoâ(TM)s eShop? Whereâ(TM)s their alternative?

    1. Re:What about Nintendo? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Slashdot can take the time to add Microsoft-only "window.is_euro_union" shit in their code but they can't support unicode in 2018.

      #lame

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:What about Nintendo? by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      âoeDevelopers essentially have no good alternative to the App Store on iOS. â What about the poor developers who have no alternative to Nintendoâ(TM)s eShop? Whereâ(TM)s their alternative?

      Since iOS 8, which, IIRC, is about five years ago now, Developers have been able to Publish OSS iOS Apps, and MANY have:

      https://github.com/dkhamsing/o...

      That, and thanks to Cydia Impactor (which does NOT require a Mac), Devs. have also been able to Publish Precompiled .ipa App Files. There are several Aggregator sites, plus you can Publish those on your own Website.

      https://iosninja.io/ipa-librar...

      https://www.unlockboot.com/bes...

      https://icydiageeks.com/free-i...

      So, you were saying?

  14. Re:Who cares? Trump goin' DOOOOWWWNN!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why was this modded trolling? Just because it's a reply to a Trump-related post?

  15. First commandment of Apple by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    We are Apple, the object of your desire. You shall have no other App Stores before me.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  16. Re:Who cares? Trump goin' DOOOOWWWNN!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    don't be a mormon.

  17. Tech "news" bias by pedrop357 · · Score: 1

    Semi-off topic:
    "Google is expected to lose $50 million in just the next five months because Epic Games was able to skirt the Play Store when launching Fortnite on Android."

    Yes, they "skirted" the play store in much the same way come companies skirt Steam and simply allow their game to be downloaded and installed directly with no Steam activation or client dependency.

    The linked article discussing it isn't much better. So much concern trolling and predictions (hopes?) of problems for Epic games that it makes me wonder if Google simply wrote the article.

    1. Re:Tech "news" bias by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      To lose something, one must have had it.

      I lose millions of dollars every week because I'm not a billionaire.

    2. Re:Tech "news" bias by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Semi-off topic:
      "Google is expected to lose $50 million in just the next five months because Epic Games was able to skirt the Play Store when launching Fortnite on Android."

      I'm having trouble understanding how Google can "lose" something that isn't theirs.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    3. Re:Tech "news" bias by MoralCharacter · · Score: 1

      I could see them saying they are expected to "Miss out" on $50 million - that absolutely makes sense.
      I know better than to just assume it's dumb word choice when every media outlet seems to have an agenda these days.
      We're expected to hear Google is losing $50 million (how much was that last EU fine again, Google?) because a company has the gall to release their APK without using Googles app store. I can tell you from firsthand experience - you can most definitely install any Android app WITHOUT an app store. Many phones have an option in their settings that blocks 'unauthorized' APK installs by default - it's childsplay to enable it. Plug your phone, drag the APK over, open it from the file manager. Android will take it from there and install it. This is largely how I got development versions of my app to a co-worker who telecommutes.
      I doubt this is even news to most people on /., but there's plenty of alternatives to Googles Play store. Amazon's got one, there's several communities that run their own and so on. We don't hear about Google 'losing' money on the apps upload on those, do we?

  18. Re: Front-Page Posts Out of Order by aliquis · · Score: 1

    Communists never learn so we get the same crazyness again and again.

  19. Apple Always Kills there Compition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is there Business Model!
    If they can not Dictate What you get to use!
    But also Collect $$ And a healthy sum from every App that you buy.

    It would not Surprise Me at all that they Pressured anyone that even tries to bypass the Apple Store.
    They will say something about Security but that is Bogus it is all about the Money.

    1. Re:Apple Always Kills there Compition by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      That is there Business Model!
      If they can not Dictate What you get to use!
      But also Collect $$ And a healthy sum from every App that you buy.

      It would not Surprise Me at all that they Pressured anyone that even tries to bypass the Apple Store.
      They will say something about Security but that is Bogus it is all about the Money.

      Bullshit:

      https://apple.slashdot.org/com...

  20. Secretly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought the main defining feature of the iPhone, the very first thing anyone ever learns about it, the one thing about it that distinguishes it from all other personal computers and makes it be "An Apple" as opposed to anything else, is that it locks you into Apple's store. How is this ever going to become a secret?! Preventing third party stores/repositories is the iPhone's essence and without that, it's just another average-quality product among dozens just like it.

  21. Bad move, Apple by omfglearntoplay · · Score: 1

    Being a greedy bully is a dangerous thing when your image is your way to make more money.

  22. Uhm, this article makes a sille comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Their only other option is the web, which is a wonderful place for websites, but the web is rarely as fast or flashy as a native app."

    Yahoo Games Plus was web based, it's wasn't native. Hell, it wasn't even an iOS specific service.

  23. No by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    According to Betteridge‘s law of headlines.

  24. Original iOS apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remember, Steve Jobs himself introduced the first iPhone with web apps only from third-party developers. It was only after developers pushed hard for native apps that Apple came out with the App Store. Now that Apple makes so much money off its cut of native apps in its monopolistic App Store, it seems that Apple is even going after the web apps which Jobs had initially praised.

  25. Re: Front-Page Posts Out of Order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    true, true, that!
    i wonder when they will stop bankrolling 90% of murikas dept ...

  26. Re: Front-Page Posts Out of Order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see a whole lot more bitching about millenials around here.

    Of course you do. It's news for nerds AKA fat old neckbeards who were born 1989 or eariler. Those pesky millenials who were born later are the ones responsible for everything that's gone wrong since 1990.

    And I mean everything. Student loans becoming such burden to the national economy, flooding the job market with cheap worthless degrees, the Great Recession, snowflakeism, Drumpf becoming president or hindering at evey step President Trump's attempts to make America great again, destroying the profits of every industry on earth, waning support of Capitalism, rising homelessness / live with their parents, rising antisocial behavior, mass shootings, and the worst of all transgressions: Avocado Toast!!!

    If you don't believe that, then you're a part of the problem you double-ungood worthless undesirable!

    /sarcasm

    Of course, all of these societal problems are complex and have many causes. They cannot all be entirely pinned on one group. But, it makes those that have an arguably bigger role in creating those problems, and maintaining the status quo, feel better to have someone to blame everything on. Just as the generations before them did.