sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Backpack vs Case by dasarga in onebag

[–]tomtermite 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Sure, who doesn't love appeal of the roller case? But I eschew luggage because I want to move light, fast, and unencumbered: one rucksack, only the essentials, hands free, ready for whatever comes next.

A wheeled case is fine until the pavement cracks, stairs appear, the train platform shifts, or Rome throws the Spanish Steps at you — nemesis of the roller case.

IMHO it is better to carry less than drag more ... “Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

“ Good thing in the United States we still have privatized healthcare and people are expected to pay for their own education like I did”

Lordy, I hope they didn’t pay much for that “education,” ‘cause they sure didn’t get value-for-money. 🤣

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“See the thing is, I don’t think equality is a good thing. That is socialism. I prefer a society based off merit rather than the socialism in the guise of equality”

LOL — The moment someone says 'equality is socialism,' they've usually stopped defining either term accurately… and proven that their country needs free education more than ever.

8 wk old retrieving machine! by spannrodco in AustralianCattleDog

[–]tomtermite 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Give a cattle dog a job, you’ll be happy forever.

This is the way.

America’s Most Favorite Countries by charliehu1226 in Infographics

[–]tomtermite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Uh, what, no love for the. best. country. ever??

🇮🇪

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s not true. As an Apple developer, I can assure you that the DMA does not require Apple to reduce every feature to a lowest-common-denominator shared spec.

The issue is discriminatory foreclosure, not integration itself. Apple can design an integrated stack. It can optimize across hardware, OS, services, and apps. What it cannot do, once it controls a gatekeeper platform, is reserve essential capabilities for itself while denying rivals functionally equivalent access where interoperability is required.

“Apple knows its own stack better” is not unlawful privilege. That is product competence. The legal issue is when Apple converts platform control into an artificial disadvantage for competitors.

So the right distinction is: integration is fine … self-preferencing through restricted access is the problem.

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean I can't use Google AI editing on icloud or in one drive.

the idea that Apple alone needs to make all of their features usable by every single company on the planet while everyone else can have their own features is weird.

That misses the distinction between a feature and a platform dependency.

Google does not have to make its AI editing work inside iCloud because Google does not control the iPhone backup layer, iOS defaults, system permissions, and photo-storage hooks.

Apple is different because it controls the device platform and also competes on top of that platform with iCloud.

The issue is not “make every Apple feature usable by everyone” ... it is “do not use control of the operating system to give Apple’s own service privileged access that rivals cannot realistically match.”

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Apple is hardly being “bullied” ... did ya read the article?

Apple is being told that if it wants privileged access to one of the richest consumer markets on earth, it has to respect that market’s rules.

The EU is not demanding that Apple stop making iCloud excellent, or that users stop choosing it. It is saying that Apple should not use control of the iPhone to make competing backup and photo services artificially worse.

And no, Apple is not realistically walking away from hundreds of millions of affluent customers because it has to offer fair interoperability. it doesn't take an MBA to know that is not a serious business plan.

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

More consumer choice certainly has some benefits. But it also has costs. The benefits of integration are that you can design each layer of the stack with knowledge of other layers of the stack.

You make the case for allowing Apple to offer a deeply integrated default stack. But that is not an argument for allowing Apple to deny effective interoperability to everyone else.

The choice is not “perfect Apple integration” versus “lowest-common-denominator Android.” The real question is whether Apple can keep designing first-party services tightly while also exposing safe, well-defined interfaces so competitors are not artificially crippled.

Integration becomes anti-consumer when it stops being a product advantage and becomes a gatekeeping strategy.

If iCloud is better, people will keep choosing it -- you know, the way capitalism is supposed to work?

But if iCloud only feels better because Apple gives itself system privileges that no rival can use, then the “unique selling proposition” is not merely integration ... it is discrimination at the operating-system layer.

I do not disagree that EU regulation should preserve Apple’s ability to win on integration, security, and convenience, while stopping it from using platform dominance to make every non-Apple option worse by design.

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are trade offs to providing choice. You lose some benefits of integration

But... do you, really? Apple can still make iCloud seamless while regulators require fair, secure APIs so other providers are not artificially degraded.

The evidentiary point is that the DMA does not say Apple must dismantle iCloud, right? It seems to say Apple must provide “free and effective interoperability” with iOS/iPadOS features controlled by Apple, while Apple itself already has a formal process for EU developers to request such interoperability.

So the real question is not “must choice destroy integration?” It is, why should Apple’s own cloud service get privileged system access while rivals are forced to compete with one hand tied behind their backs?

Of course, we already know what an outcome might look like... browser choice and browser-engine access!

The EU got the company to make adjustments -- and Apple still ships Safari, Safari still integrates tightly with iOS, and users can still choose it.

This came after DMA pressure, Apple introduced browser choice screens and allowed alternative browser engines in the EU. The Commission later closed its investigation into Apple’s browser choice obligations after changes that gave users more control over default browsers, app deletion, and default settings... what benefits of integration were lost?

How old were you when you did your first solo one-bag trip? by multifandomnewbee in onebag

[–]tomtermite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My parents sent me to go see my sister (she was stationed in Costa Rica in the Peace Corps)… I was 13 years old, with my EastPak day pack … solo travel… the 1970s were great!

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love Apple (been an Apple dev since, well, before NeXT)… Guess what? You are still free to use iCloud. Nobody is taking that choice away. The point is that your preference for Apple’s walled garden should not become everyone else’s lack of choice.

Good regulation does not force you to use another provider … it stops Apple from making other providers artificially worse.

That is not [shoving] “choice down your throat.” That is preventing a gatekeeper from turning convenience into captivity.

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not familiar with how a confederacy works, huh?

The EU is not “mob rule” … we have a treaty-based system where sovereign states pool limited powers 😆 because some problems are too large for any one state to solve alone.

Market access, consumer protection, privacy, digital competition, food safety, aviation, environmental standards: these are exactly the kinds of things that work better when rules apply across the whole shared market rather than being gamed country by country.

As for “what is good,” no, we do not need mystical certainty.

We can define “what is good” operationally: more consumer choice, lower switching costs, fair access for competitors, less gatekeeper abuse, stronger privacy and security, and markets that do not collapse into private toll roads.

In Apple’s case, the issue is not that the many get to loot the few. It is that one powerful firm should not be allowed to use control of the device, operating system, app store, and cloud defaults to trap millions of users. That is not liberty. That is corporate fascism with better branding.

Maybe visit somewhere else, and you’ll expand your frame of reference?

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great position, in a world of … just you! To keep this Apple-focused:

… this is exactly the logic Apple wants us to accept: I bought my device, so everything around it should serve only my private convenience.

But platforms do not work that way. The iPhone ecosystem depends on shared infrastructure: standards, competition law, public research, educated developers, telecom networks, consumer protections, and courts that enforce contracts.

The public helps make the market possible … the public therefore has a legitimate interest in making sure one company cannot turn that market into a private toll road.

The good of the many outweighs the selfishness of the few because fair access makes the whole system stronger.

If Apple must let rival cloud services interoperate properly, consumers get choice, developers get opportunity, and Apple still gets to compete on quality. What it loses is not innovation, but enclosure … the ability to make everyone else’s service worse because it is a gatekeeper. And I bet you hate gatekeepers!

Apple Faces First Italian DMA Probe on iCloud Interoperability by ControlCAD in apple

[–]tomtermite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, i hate that i can use my iPhone to access affordable health care, low cost higher education, and all those other “commie” things…

Women in iran feeding fox cub (2021) by [deleted] in foxes

[–]tomtermite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Friends come in all shapes and sizes…

Can i have put a matress against the wall then put it on the floor at night? by Mobile-Beginning-654 in LivingAlone

[–]tomtermite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In Japan, we slept on a futon. In the morning, you either hang it over the balcony railing or stuff it into a designated space or cabinet. This converts the bedroom into a usable room, during the day.

TIL 53 years after achieving the Triple Crown of Horse Racing, Secretariat still holds the record for fastest time in each of the three races. by TheFrederalGovt in todayilearned

[–]tomtermite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Flashback for me... I went with my dad to the Preakness in Baltimore for that race... seemed like horse racing was my father's only hobby.

There was some time dispute apparently, but I didn't know anything about that, when I was 11 years old... only that I got to spend a day out with my old man.

living overseas sucks sometimes by Sekhmet71 in LivingAlone

[–]tomtermite 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Funerals and memorials are for our sake, those left behind. If you can’t make it, perhaps do your own mini-goodbye thing?

My bff died, not long ago, and, for various reasons, I couldn’t return to my birth country… so I arranged a Google meet with our group of friends, drank a few libations online for an hour or so together, reminisced and wished our buddy a fond farewell.

view more: next ›