If you pay for a device, you should be able to do whatever you want with it. Apple having so much control over it means that you don’t fully own it.
Apple to Australians: You’re Too Stupid to Choose Your Own Apps
Submitted 2 weeks ago by Pro@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/apple-australians-youre-too-stupid-choose-your-own-apps
Comments
dan@upvote.au 2 weeks ago
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
But… something something security and something something not a monopoly… am I doing this anti-consumer white knight thing right?
lemsip@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
No no no apple knows whats best because they made it. did you make a phone? no? didnt think so. checkmate.
(Pay no attention to the fact that it took apple 14 years to add t9 dialing, one of the simplest features a ‘dumb’ phone could have.)
lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com 2 weeks ago
Apple to
Australianseveryone: You’re Too Stupid to Choose Your Own Appsfix’d
neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Their reasons for not opening the App Store aren’t even good logical reasons like it would make the platform unsafe but then they claim the Mac is a safe platform. That’s what makes it so insulting.
I’d be less frustrated with them if they were just honest and said it’s about the money.
acosmichippo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Mac is only a safe platform due to obscurity.
BossDj@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
I want to hard agree with Apple that people are, in fact, too stupid to choose their own apps, but not following Apple’s greedy logic.
Look at the top apps and sites people use. The tech billionaires. It’s stupid as hell
DacoTaco@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Same. I agree that people are too stupid to know what apps they should use. But that also includes those using some of apples closed down, limited apps and features haha
HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Apple has always said this about their users. Too stupid to allow choices outside of a few curated options.
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, it’s a messed up position. It’s made more complicated by then being half right. People do often like having fewer choices. Making a streamlined OS that doesn’t allow them access to the kernel or crucial components, that they literally can’t break by accident, that is indeed an appealing feature to many. But it’s not appealing because they’re stupid, it’s appealing they’re rational.
This has always been Apple’s method, make everything intuitive, easy to use for anyone and their mother. And a big part of that is removing all the extra clutter from the interface, all the options users would rarely if ever use. This is also the contentious part, removing the advanced options that power users might want access to.
But at least initially, they understood that the reason for doing all this, their goal, was to make their products better. These days it seems like they’re less clear on the goal. The idea that they’re “dumbing down” their products and controlling everything because their users are too stupid, this is a new attitude, and it shows a misunderstanding of the principals their company was built on. Apple was only successful because they made very good products which were comfortable to use. They certainly never won popularity through competitive pricing or having the most powerful machines…
Personally, I think it’s a foolish move to be this controlling over their iOS ecosystem. This is really making the product inferior. Sideloading apps will not destroy their walled garden, it just gives power users the options they want. Apple should be afraid of losing more market share, they don’t have all that much to lose…
scarilog@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
As an Australian, do I have anything I can do to help make sure that these regulations are implemented?
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Tell your rep(s) you’re in favor of it, and if you have a time, visit in person.
Engywuck@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Apple “opinion” -> discarded.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
It’s the “Apple Way”
Engywuck@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
I choose the highway.
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Unpopular opinion, but if I wanted multiple app stores (and all the associated benefits and risks) then I would have opted for an Android.
The walled garden approach works for me, and I don’t want to be inconvenienced and my data put at risk because a particular, necessary app is only available through a 3rd party platform.
Now, Apple being forced to reduce the % of app sales down from 30% to a more reasonable number I am all for.
jjlinux@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
You are missing the point. If you want to remain in the Apple infrastructure exclusively, nobody is forcing you not to. Those who want options will have them. So enjoy your walled garden all you want, and let each user decide if they want to keep being tools or not.
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I respectfully disagree.
If I’m out at a restaurant with app-based ordering, or my Real Estate agent requires payment through their gateway, or to track my utilities usage, or am required to use any other number of niche apps that become only available through alternate app stores? Then I very well risk being put in a situation where I am otherwise forced to.
Let alone the headaches that will inevitably come from the older, less technologically savvy, and more vulnerable having their default app stores highjacked, and spoof apps stealing their credentials/credit cards.
Then we get into the more general issues of allowing unsigned code to be loaded and run on our smartphones - it will lead to the era of viruses, Trojans and ransomware.
I am reminded of this piece that Last Week Tonight did on Encryption, which is quite cogent given the topic at hand.
Best security practices involve minimising the number of places your sensitive (financial) data is stored. If a website doesn’t accept a known and reputable intermediary like Apple Pay, PayPal or a BNPL provider - I would refrain from using it.
If this is something that you want - then go ahead and Jailbreak your iPhone, or get an Android - more power to you; but please stop trying to enshittify iOS.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
As much as I dig at Apple, this is a fair observation. However I will say that I have Android and have never actually used a 3rd party app store or felt the need to.
vala@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I use F-droid to get my open source apps. Much more trustworthy than Google play. It’s my first stop for anything I’m looking for.
atlien51@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
If Apple cashes in less than 30% next iPhone will be like:
Sorry, we can’t include a box OR wire for
savingsthe wellbeing of the environment
CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
I am too stupid. This is true. Not stupid enough to buy an iPhone though.
wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Have they looked at their own app store?
JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
Is there a way to send and receive SMS and send/receive phone calls through a computer? Like if I wanted to ditch a phone for a cyber deck could I? And just use like a mobile hotspot for Internet?
neomachino@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I used this service breifly a while ago. Not enough to say whether it’s good or not, but I remember it working just fine.
Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
This is dope. I live in Scotland, but I’m from Canada, and having a cheap local number for recieving texts from stuff like my bank would be super helpful.
jjlinux@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I have 2 numbers with them, no regrets. So far the service has been flawless (except where I have spotty data services or crappy wifi). Absolutely worth it.
Mongostein@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
So many people angry about phones in here. Just let people like what they like. Yeesh.
hanrahan@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
We are, it’s near ubiquitous. I’d suggest as high as 80% of us. Those folks will still use anything but the store anyway.
Being generous, most people are overwhelmed with choice … in matters of no inportant (walk down the ceral aisle) , it’s just with matters of importance they are given little choice.
That said I use Android becase I can sideload, some 50+60% of the apps I use regularly are sideloaded, stand out that aren’t are banking and government. To have that taken off me would be shitty.
That said, I’m bemused at people that complain of a wall garden but also enable it to occur by being part of sipping at the kool aid.
My biggest gripe though is governemnt doing it, using Windows, MS Office etc etc and communicating using closed protocols. Maube like Demark and Germany we’ll also move off that toxic shit.
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
EFF has been fighting the good fight for decades. I signed up for their newsletter in the 90s when I was a teen and still didn’t understand enough about the world to be confident that I properly understood what they stood for, concerned that I might have picked the wrong side. I occasionally check their job listings. But they need lawyers and legal experts and I’m trying to run their IT infrastructure. At some point, if I check enough times, maybe they’ll need the skills I have. I’d drop any job to work for them.
AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
As a general rule, if a corpo is against something the EU does, it means your government should do it too because it’s a good thing.
scytale@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Except breaking end-to-end encrypted messaging. That’s the one sore spot.
WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
and also introducing hardware backdoors, courtesy of Going Dark
echodot@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
The EU like any large government is filled with people of varying quality. Some of them are absolutely amazing at their jobs and some of them can barely operate at light switches.
Normally whenever some dumb tech related regulation comes in you usually find it’s being pushed by the idiots. You can usually tell by reading the text of the legislation and by the end of it you will have come up with about 300 problems.
A good example of this is reading the Tracking Cookies legislation (bad) and the GDPR legislation (good), the difference in the size of the text of the bill is visually apparent.
nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
This is brilliantly stated. Thank you for sharing the light.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Yeah, but I still feel like the majority of people are stupid. That’s kind of how apple got such a huge market share to begin with. People just happily locked themselves in to a closed garden with shit for options.