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Apple's Shifting Differentiation

(stratechery.com)
292 points kaboro | 9 comments | 11 Nov 20 13:21 UTC | HN request time: 1.557s | source | bottom
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klelatti ◴[11 Nov 20 14:35 UTC] No.25058716[source]▶
> it is possible that Apple’s chip team is so far ahead of the competition, not just in 2020, but particularly as it develops even more powerful versions of Apple Silicon, that the commoditization of software inherent in web apps will work to Apple’s favor, just as the its move to Intel commoditized hardware, highlighting Apple’s then-software advantage in the 00s.

I think Ben is missing something here: that the speed and specialist hardware (e.g. neural engine) on the new SoCs again give developers of native apps the ability to differentiate themselves (and the Mac) by offering apps that the competition (both web apps and PCs) can't. It's not just about running web apps more quickly.

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verisimilidude ◴[11 Nov 20 18:24 UTC] No.25061149[source]▶
It's a nice idea in theory, but I don't see Apple putting in the effort to make this fruitful.

For example, we just saw an article rise to the top of HN in the last couple days about the pathetic state of Apple's developer documentation. Their focus seems to be less providing integrations into their hardware, and more providing integrations into their services. Meanwhile, developers increasingly distrust Apple because of bad policies and press around App Store review. It's a mess.

I agree that Apple could and should help app developers use this cool new hardware. I'm sure there are good people at Apple who're trying. But the company as a whole seems to be chasing other squirrels.

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1. klelatti ◴[11 Nov 20 19:45 UTC] No.25062114[source]▶
Very largely agree (and the chasing squirrels analogy made me laugh!) but of course the speed comes without any extra effort from Apple - so if your native app becomes attractive because its now that much quicker - say some form of video editing - then you're good to go.
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2. fxtentacle ◴[11 Nov 20 20:08 UTC] No.25062402[source]▶
Not quite. If your native app becomes attractive, Apple might replace you with a built-in clone and then use that as the reason to kick you out of the app store.

If I remember correctly, that's what happened with flux.

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3. daxelrod ◴[11 Nov 20 20:23 UTC] No.25062566[source]▶
f.lux was never allowed in the iOS App Store, because it needs private APIs to change the screen color temperature.

Was it on macOS App Store at one point and then kicked off?

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4. ◴[11 Nov 20 20:26 UTC] No.25062590[source]▶
5. samtheprogram ◴[11 Nov 20 22:00 UTC] No.25063536{3}[source]▶
The term GP is referencing is Sherlocked[1]. As someone familiar with the iOS jailbreaking ecosystem circa 2010, you could definitely loan the term to apps that are from outside their walled garden.

That said, it would be silly of them not to in some of these most obvious cases: a flux/redshift comparable feature is now built into most OS’s as we’ve become attached to our devices, and Sherlock was argued by critics of the term to be a natural progression of iterating in their file indexing capabilities.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_(software)#Sherlocked...

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6. kergonath ◴[11 Nov 20 22:42 UTC] No.25063904{4}[source]▶
I am not aware of a sherlocked being kicked out of the App Store for duplicating features of Apple’s version, though. That was quite a bold claim, asserted without any example.
7. Der_Einzige ◴[12 Nov 20 00:19 UTC] No.25064686{4}[source]▶
It's not properly built in. OLEDs support full conversion to red-only light, allowing you to preserve your night vision. No other app or built in implementation except f.lux and cf.lumen allow for turning all colors off except red. This is the main reason that I jailbreak my android phone (a oneplus). Not ad blocking, not side loading apps, but because I want to not get my eyes destroyed every night when I try to go to the bathroom and use my phone as an impromptu flashlight...

What the fuck guys? Do you just not care about astronomers? Why is it that no one has properly implemented all of f.luxs features?

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8. LexGray ◴[12 Nov 20 01:03 UTC] No.25065068{5}[source]▶
On iOS have you tried Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text size > turning on Color Filters and sliding intensity and hue to the far right? Maybe set the triple click shortcut to Color Filters?
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9. ◴[12 Nov 20 07:23 UTC] No.25067353{6}[source]▶