Apple is the one holding back the user experience on their operating systems, not third party developers.

I mentioned game consoles as an example of consumer electronics that function without having yearly updates. This is largely due to giving game devs a performance tagtet to hit, but it shows you don’t need marginal updates every year. Mobile app software could probably benefit from not having better hardware every year, forcing devs to write better software.

From a software standpoint, iPhones are locked down like gaming consoles, focused on consumption and not general computing devices. Apple controls what software runs on their devices just like Nintendo.

I think yearly car updates are also wasteful and the car industry has adopted a fashion style model where the changes are mostly atheistic and they try to make people’s cars feel outdated/obsolete and for them to buy a new model. Cars are viewed as a status symbol, so this works.

Apple has been applying the same play book as the auto industry, though they can actually obsolete hardware through their software.

Maybe they can finally stop releasing new phones every year. We don’t have yearly game console releases.

UT04 > UT03

https://slrpnk.net/post/8404225

Sounds like he has a work addiction.

Why are Messages and FaceTime dependent on WiFi drivers? This seems insane.

As far as I understand, this isn’t changed.

Apple didn’t really open control of iOS as all apps still have be approved by them through notarization, which they said will be done by a person and not automated.

You can’t run unsigned apps on iOS like you can on macOS.

Non-profits are exempt from this install tax.

You can run unsigned code on macOS. Apple makes it seem scary and dangerous, but it is possible.

You need to be running a custom rom to get better privacy than iOS. Stock android is full of Google spyware.

Actually GCD is a library (libdispatch) rather than just a language feature and can be used on other platforms: https://github.com/apple/swift-corelibs-libdispatch

The FOSS contributions from companies mentioned is only at the kernel level. And a lot that use the kernel, but with proprietary blobs for their hardware. I suspect that is because kernel/embedded development is hard and costly.

Most of the dominate OSes people use, with the exception of Windows, is based on an FOSS kernel, with then the layers above and applications being proprietary.

These software systems are being used to lock people in to the specific platforms and perform user hostile behavior. So while having the kernel be FOSS, it doesn’t result in user freedoms imagined by FOSS, it just companies reducing their costs.

There’s some truth to it. I’ve seen devs not clarify something from the designs with other stakeholders due to lack of social skills. You end up with something they implemented to the spec, but makes no sense it reality.

I don’t think it’s fair to blame individual consumers. The whole consumer electrics industry is predicated on planned obsolescence and getting the consumer to buy the latest devices. In reality computers and smartphones have stagnated in terms of functionally for every day people and frequent upgrades aren’t necessary.

Here Microsoft has colluded with hardware manufactures so Windows 11 will obsolete perfectly usable computers. What choice does the consumer have to fight back? Regulation is needed to force consumer electronics to be sustainable and long lasting.

I have problems where when my Apple Silicon MacBook Pro will have been “asleep” for days in a backpack and then I try and use my Bluetooth headphones on another device, it will connect to the asleep Macbook.

I solved it by running a small program that kills Bluetooth when the laptop goes to sleep.

Doesn’t this waste more power being connected rather than actually sleeping? With a laptop lid closed, there’s no screen to show notifications on. What’s the point of this?

But for their laptops the support has dropped to the lowest in years. Some intel MacBooks no longer get the latest version after 6 years.