The app can report your GPS location, phone number, and other informatics back to the app developer and their advertising partners.
Why would a consumer want that?
In order not to have to set up yet another recurring $4/mo subscription, which is what WIRED and The Atlantic require of visitors who attempt to read their articles with Firefox tracking protection or the Disconnect extension enabled.
What will your app do that can't be done in a browser?
Run with JavaScript turned off, for one. A lot of native apps do things that would be very clunky if link navigation and form submission are the only possible means of interaction.
Also run offline. Apple WebKit, the engine of all web browsers for iOS, lacks support for Service Workers.
I imagine some people use Facebook only for the "Connect with Facebook" buttons on other websites. When Spotify first entered the United States market, it outsourced its login for that market to Facebook. The comment section on HuffPost also uses Facebook login.
I suspect it was included as a contrast to other apps for installing apps that aren't in the top 10, namely App Store (for iOS), Amazon Appstore (for Android), and F-Droid. In addition, the methodology could count Google Play Music and Google Play Movies as Google Play, which puts them up against iTunes and Amazon's music and video stores.
nothing stops the user from changing the SSID on their home network or owning their own router.
Other than that if you subscribe to home high-speed Internet in a Comcast territory, and you're not renting Comcast's latest gateway, Comcast will inject pop-up ads for its gateway into randomly chosen HTML responses in cleartext HTTP connections that your PCs, tablets, and smartphones make. (Source; Source; Source) Is this a reason to break down and rent Comcast's gateway? Or to boycott sites not available through HTTPS? Or to ditch Comcast and instead pay nearly 100 times more per GB for satellite or home cellular?
What measurable advantage would the 64-bit version have over the 32-bit version? Do you regularly view HTML documents whose combined state exceeds multiple GB? Or does your file system lack room for 32-bit libraries?
Android 8 "Oreo" has moved "Install apps from unknown sources" from a system-wide setting to a finer-grained permission for each app. This means F-Droid users won't need to put the whole operating system's shields down anymore. So if you have Oreo, and you don't download from Google Play Store, and you "Uninstall updates/Disable" any carrier-installed crap that's not part of AOSP or other core functionality, then you sacrifice a few genres of apps but gain the theoretical safety of publicly auditable software that F-Droid's inclusion policy enables.
As for the install permission on Google Play Store, on the one hand, you'd want to leave it off to keep kids from installing crap. On the other hand, you'd want to leave it on to apply security updates to core OS components, such as Google Chrome and Gboard. But until Oreo gets delivered OTA, I don't know how to find out whether this setting would even work for Google Play Store.
I too rely on Weather.gov, a service of the National Weather Service. But NWS operates only in the United States, and many people who often travel internationally don't want to have to find, install, and learn a different website for each country to which they travel. I'd bet some countries don't even have a counterpart to Weather.gov, either because they're poor or because they've enacted a counterpart to Rick Santorum's NWS Duties bill. This failed bill would have banned NWS from issuing any information to the public other than severe weather alerts, precisely to boost the business of AccuWeather in Santorum's district.
In addition, NWS's radar loop is still using Adobe Flash Player unless you click the out-of-the-way "standard version". First I load the 7-day forecast for San Diego, home of Slashdot Media. Then I scroll down to "Radar & Satellite Image", click the radar picture, and then click "Reflectivity: Base Loop" at the left. It doesn't load because it's SWF, and this PC has no Flash Player installed. But if I click Standard Version at the top left, it loads as a GIF. I'd bet a lot of others couldn't find this.
Well, money is anything that people agree is money. If you and I were to agree on M&Ms as a medium of exchange, that'd be money. If we agree to exchange goods for Monopoly money, that Monopoly money becomes real money.
But a lot of people, perhaps the majority, want to simplify their finances and avoid exchange fees by relying on one currency. This currency ends up being the one in which the local violence monopolist expects payment of protection money.
An app is exempt from the background service restrictions if it uses a foreground service, that is, with an ongoing notification in the notification area.
Seriously when did we decide "coding" was the holy grail of skills and needed to be introduced as early as possible?
Teaching secondary students to code is one way to ensure that the growing popularity of limited-purpose computing devices (phones, tablets, Chromebooks, and game consoles) doesn't shift the economies of scale in general-purpose computers such that only postsecondary students and professionals can afford them.
there's millions of people out there who don't even know how to format their content properly. Making your text bold in font size 20 does not make it a level-1 heading.
How does the user of a touch-controlled mobile computer go about marking a particular piece of text as "a level-1 heading"? Switching among three or four pages of the virtual keyboard to get to the punctuation required for HTML or BBCode mark-up isn't fun. Even Markdown has several key characters "punctuation page 2".
Why can't you teach them how to use a word processor, _and_ the basics of programming?
Because the school day is only so long. Paying instructors to teach longer would bankrupt a state whose citizens voted to cap property tax and thereby limit school corporations' payroll.
even with limited computers you could teach programming in an after-hours context.
But then how would students who learn programming at school after regular classroom hours get home from school? The buses have already left. Or should we as a society expect students to accept walking three miles (4.8 km) in a thunderstorm?
Me neither, but in my case it's because Scratch relies on Adobe Flash Player. The HTML player is still marked as "upcoming" and on hold since the fourth quarter of 2014, despite iOS being unable to run SWF for a decade, Android only briefly ever being able to run SWF, desktop browsers making SWF click-to-play by default after having offered click-to-play as an option for years, and SWF facing its end of life in 40 months.
If you "replace Javascript" with something, then I will disable whatever that thing is, too.
JavaScript in a modern web browser is the language of an application platform. Anything that "replaces JavaScript" would have to offer a comparable application platform. If you disable whatever "replaces JavaScript", this means you're disabling application platforms.
So if you've disabled all means to add applications to your computer, then what do you do with your computer other than view static HTML documents? Or what exceptions do you make to your general policy of disabling all means to add applications to your computer?
Mostly it's about Sony Computer Entertainment America's failure to adequately support third-party developers during the launch window for Sony's debut console, the original PlayStation. Japanese developers and SCEA got usable docs; North American third parties didn't at first. Because of the timing of that particular console release cycle, Visual Concepts couldn't get a PlayStation version of Madden '96 out by November 1995 without accepting the limits of the engine that had been used for the 3DO version of Madden '94.
I saw Slashdot's posting of this story as possibly egging on yet another PC vs. console debate, with PC fans bragging that their platform's release cycle isn't nearly as abrupt as that of consoles. It would also provoke a debate about whether EA's acquisition of exclusive rights to the rosters of the major leagues for a particular sport at both professional (NFL) and collegiate (NCAA) levels ought to have triggered an antitrust investigation, as competing gridiron football video game publishers would have no league from which to license a roster.
What should application developers do to accommodate people like you, who are very reluctant to enable script-in-the-browser but may be using a minority native platform?
I'm assuming that your preference to omit "Everything else" implies omitting JavaScript. If so, then what do you prefer to replace JavaScript?
Web applications ought to run server-side
Good luck having to click-wait-click-wait-click on server-side image map, with a full page reload each time, in order to use any web application with substantial interaction.
Web applications that require JavaScript ought to be rewritten as native applications
Not only does a native application tend to have even less "sandbox[ing] from the OS" than a web application, but it also works on only one operating system family. Even if using a multi-platform library such as Qt, the developer still needs to acquire an instance of each target platform on which to test each executable. Expect to see a lot more notices to the effect "Sorry, this application is not available for [your OS]. If you want to see this application on [your OS], please contribute to our crowdfunding campaign."
This is likely to run into a definition dispute, sometimes called "no true Scotsman", "misunderstood word", or "Layne's Law". To avoid this, we need to clarify something first:
"WEBPAGES" means "HTML documents", which are parsed into a DOM that is styled with CSS and edited in response to user actions with JavaScript. Is this what you meant? Or do you specifically refer to static HTML documents, whose only forms of user interaction are navigation, form submission, and checkbox-hack hiding and showing?
Slashdot Mirror
The app can report your GPS location, phone number, and other informatics back to the app developer and their advertising partners.
Why would a consumer want that?
In order not to have to set up yet another recurring $4/mo subscription, which is what WIRED and The Atlantic require of visitors who attempt to read their articles with Firefox tracking protection or the Disconnect extension enabled.
What will your app do that can't be done in a browser?
Run with JavaScript turned off, for one. A lot of native apps do things that would be very clunky if link navigation and form submission are the only possible means of interaction.
Also run offline. Apple WebKit, the engine of all web browsers for iOS, lacks support for Service Workers.
I imagine some people use Facebook only for the "Connect with Facebook" buttons on other websites. When Spotify first entered the United States market, it outsourced its login for that market to Facebook. The comment section on HuffPost also uses Facebook login.
I suspect it was included as a contrast to other apps for installing apps that aren't in the top 10, namely App Store (for iOS), Amazon Appstore (for Android), and F-Droid. In addition, the methodology could count Google Play Music and Google Play Movies as Google Play, which puts them up against iTunes and Amazon's music and video stores.
nothing stops the user from changing the SSID on their home network or owning their own router.
Other than that if you subscribe to home high-speed Internet in a Comcast territory, and you're not renting Comcast's latest gateway, Comcast will inject pop-up ads for its gateway into randomly chosen HTML responses in cleartext HTTP connections that your PCs, tablets, and smartphones make. (Source; Source; Source) Is this a reason to break down and rent Comcast's gateway? Or to boycott sites not available through HTTPS? Or to ditch Comcast and instead pay nearly 100 times more per GB for satellite or home cellular?
there is also another "application platform" on any given machine: the operating system.
Which operating system? Windows, macOS, X11/Linux, iOS, or Android?
What measurable advantage would the 64-bit version have over the 32-bit version? Do you regularly view HTML documents whose combined state exceeds multiple GB? Or does your file system lack room for 32-bit libraries?
Android 8 "Oreo" has moved "Install apps from unknown sources" from a system-wide setting to a finer-grained permission for each app. This means F-Droid users won't need to put the whole operating system's shields down anymore. So if you have Oreo, and you don't download from Google Play Store, and you "Uninstall updates/Disable" any carrier-installed crap that's not part of AOSP or other core functionality, then you sacrifice a few genres of apps but gain the theoretical safety of publicly auditable software that F-Droid's inclusion policy enables.
As for the install permission on Google Play Store, on the one hand, you'd want to leave it off to keep kids from installing crap. On the other hand, you'd want to leave it on to apply security updates to core OS components, such as Google Chrome and Gboard. But until Oreo gets delivered OTA, I don't know how to find out whether this setting would even work for Google Play Store.
I too rely on Weather.gov, a service of the National Weather Service. But NWS operates only in the United States, and many people who often travel internationally don't want to have to find, install, and learn a different website for each country to which they travel. I'd bet some countries don't even have a counterpart to Weather.gov, either because they're poor or because they've enacted a counterpart to Rick Santorum's NWS Duties bill. This failed bill would have banned NWS from issuing any information to the public other than severe weather alerts, precisely to boost the business of AccuWeather in Santorum's district.
In addition, NWS's radar loop is still using Adobe Flash Player unless you click the out-of-the-way "standard version". First I load the 7-day forecast for San Diego, home of Slashdot Media. Then I scroll down to "Radar & Satellite Image", click the radar picture, and then click "Reflectivity: Base Loop" at the left. It doesn't load because it's SWF, and this PC has no Flash Player installed. But if I click Standard Version at the top left, it loads as a GIF. I'd bet a lot of others couldn't find this.
I don't think Apple allows things like WiFi sniffers / analyzers
And many customers choose Android devices for precisely this reason. It's why, for example, Mozilla Stumbler is an Android exclusive.
Yes. When a pay TV provider dropped TWC, toonces33 installed Weather Underground to get TWC back.
Well, money is anything that people agree is money. If you and I were to agree on M&Ms as a medium of exchange, that'd be money. If we agree to exchange goods for Monopoly money, that Monopoly money becomes real money.
But a lot of people, perhaps the majority, want to simplify their finances and avoid exchange fees by relying on one currency. This currency ends up being the one in which the local violence monopolist expects payment of protection money.
An app is exempt from the background service restrictions if it uses a foreground service, that is, with an ongoing notification in the notification area.
How haven't Koei (Tecmo's parent), the NFL, NFL Players Inc., and current exclusive licensee EA already shut this down?
Seriously when did we decide "coding" was the holy grail of skills and needed to be introduced as early as possible?
Teaching secondary students to code is one way to ensure that the growing popularity of limited-purpose computing devices (phones, tablets, Chromebooks, and game consoles) doesn't shift the economies of scale in general-purpose computers such that only postsecondary students and professionals can afford them.
there's millions of people out there who don't even know how to format their content properly. Making your text bold in font size 20 does not make it a level-1 heading.
How does the user of a touch-controlled mobile computer go about marking a particular piece of text as "a level-1 heading"? Switching among three or four pages of the virtual keyboard to get to the punctuation required for HTML or BBCode mark-up isn't fun. Even Markdown has several key characters "punctuation page 2".
Why can't you teach them how to use a word processor, _and_ the basics of programming?
Because the school day is only so long. Paying instructors to teach longer would bankrupt a state whose citizens voted to cap property tax and thereby limit school corporations' payroll.
even with limited computers you could teach programming in an after-hours context.
But then how would students who learn programming at school after regular classroom hours get home from school? The buses have already left. Or should we as a society expect students to accept walking three miles (4.8 km) in a thunderstorm?
I'm not so enthralled by Scratch
Me neither, but in my case it's because Scratch relies on Adobe Flash Player. The HTML player is still marked as "upcoming" and on hold since the fourth quarter of 2014, despite iOS being unable to run SWF for a decade, Android only briefly ever being able to run SWF, desktop browsers making SWF click-to-play by default after having offered click-to-play as an option for years, and SWF facing its end of life in 40 months.
If you "replace Javascript" with something, then I will disable whatever that thing is, too.
JavaScript in a modern web browser is the language of an application platform. Anything that "replaces JavaScript" would have to offer a comparable application platform. If you disable whatever "replaces JavaScript", this means you're disabling application platforms.
So if you've disabled all means to add applications to your computer, then what do you do with your computer other than view static HTML documents? Or what exceptions do you make to your general policy of disabling all means to add applications to your computer?
Mostly it's about Sony Computer Entertainment America's failure to adequately support third-party developers during the launch window for Sony's debut console, the original PlayStation. Japanese developers and SCEA got usable docs; North American third parties didn't at first. Because of the timing of that particular console release cycle, Visual Concepts couldn't get a PlayStation version of Madden '96 out by November 1995 without accepting the limits of the engine that had been used for the 3DO version of Madden '94.
I saw Slashdot's posting of this story as possibly egging on yet another PC vs. console debate, with PC fans bragging that their platform's release cycle isn't nearly as abrupt as that of consoles. It would also provoke a debate about whether EA's acquisition of exclusive rights to the rosters of the major leagues for a particular sport at both professional (NFL) and collegiate (NCAA) levels ought to have triggered an antitrust investigation, as competing gridiron football video game publishers would have no league from which to license a roster.
What should application developers do to accommodate people like you, who are very reluctant to enable script-in-the-browser but may be using a minority native platform?
Any of what? Whether or not the user assumes that "WEBPAGES" include script?
I'm assuming that your preference to omit "Everything else" implies omitting JavaScript. If so, then what do you prefer to replace JavaScript?
Web applications ought to run server-side Good luck having to click-wait-click-wait-click on server-side image map, with a full page reload each time, in order to use any web application with substantial interaction. Web applications that require JavaScript ought to be rewritten as native applications Not only does a native application tend to have even less "sandbox[ing] from the OS" than a web application, but it also works on only one operating system family. Even if using a multi-platform library such as Qt, the developer still needs to acquire an instance of each target platform on which to test each executable. Expect to see a lot more notices to the effect "Sorry, this application is not available for [your OS]. If you want to see this application on [your OS], please contribute to our crowdfunding campaign."Firefox is used to visit WEBPAGES.
This is likely to run into a definition dispute, sometimes called "no true Scotsman", "misunderstood word", or "Layne's Law". To avoid this, we need to clarify something first:
"WEBPAGES" means "HTML documents", which are parsed into a DOM that is styled with CSS and edited in response to user actions with JavaScript. Is this what you meant? Or do you specifically refer to static HTML documents, whose only forms of user interaction are navigation, form submission, and checkbox-hack hiding and showing?