araquen

About

Username
araquen
Joined
Visits
16
Last Active
Roles
member
Points
233
Badges
1
Posts
13

Reactions

53Like0Dislike16Informative

  • Beeper's CEO wants to sue Apple for blocking its iMessage bridge hack

    araquenaraquen
    This is patently absurd. Basically the CEO of Beeper openly admitted he wants to steal the iMessage app. Nothing stops anyone from using WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Facebook Messenger, etc. iPhone users can use any of these apps without issues. 

    If this was about fair competition, Beeper would not require any interoperability with iMessage. They would just offer what Telegram and Signal offer. There is no business need to be able to display as a blue bubble in iMessage, which is what this kerfuffle is all about.

    It is not anticompetitive to offer an in-house app that has limited scope, nor does it stifle innovation or competition. There are dozens of calendar apps that offer better user experiences as Apple’s Calendar, and you don’t even need to have Calendar running in the background anymore. There are dozens of to do apps that are for more robust than Apple’s And there are a number of security-driven messenger apps iOS users can use instead of iMessage. All Apple is doing is providing out of the box functionality for user convenience. And *unlike* Microsoft in the 90s, iOS is, globally, only 20% of the market, and in the US, it’s nearly a 50/50 split. This is. not market dominance, and you cannot claim “monopoly” when that market is not a super majority. 

    If Beeper wants to compete in the Apple ecosystem. maybe they shouldn’t be doing so by stealing code, and just offer their own alternative to iMessage.
    Anilu_777Alex1Nigorskystrongyronnwatto_cobra

  • Apple guts internal communication tool, crippling union organization

    araquenaraquen
    Several stray comments.

    1. I absolutely do not understand using corporate resources  to do either personal stuff or stuff that maybe your company would frown at. In all the decades I have been in a corporate environment, I have always kept my personal affairs on personal accounts. There are enough social media platforms. Regardless as to what “The Loop” was intended to do, it was absurd for retail employees to count on this. If I were in their shoes, I would have advocated for Discord, to ensure that we had privacy from corporate eyes.

    2. While I have always been a strong advocate for unions, when the union guiding the Apple retail staff put “tip jar” into the list of demands, I was done. We should be stepping AWAY from tips, not encouraging them. The idea of tipping comes out of Civil War sensibilities and is a way to pay people LESS (and stems from a resentment of having to pay former slaves *anything*). If salaries are not enough, then you argue for higher wages. Tips should be discouraged; and frankly Americans have to stop with that tipping nonsense. If you want to reward a rep, then when you get that stupid survey from Apple, give them all fives (actually you should give them all fives anyway because customer surveys are hot garbage in general, with anything under a 5 being a “fail” condition, even at Apple). So that Apple Store is getting bad advice. Tip Jar. /smh

    3. I’m laying this on Apple Corporate. My understanding is that every store is different. I know of stores that absolutely do *not* want to unionize. Not from fear, but because in general, their store is being run well, and they have no complaints. I can’t say whether Towson is an exception or a norm, but it is not universal. That said, the fact that Apple is union busting instead of investigating why these stores are looking to unionize; and not hold their store managers accountable for creating an environment that fosters unionization is beyond me. It’s very simple: you look at the stores that don’t want to unionize and the stores that do, and you see where the stores that do are failing. You fix that, and it’s a win/win - the staff are getting what they need, and Apple doesn’t need to worry about unions. If an Apple Store's staff is looking to unionize, Apple’s Store management is doing something to provoke unionization. Apple should be fixing the problem, not blaming the staff. It’s like punching an open wound for bleeding instead of sharpening the knife that caused the wound so it doesn’t slip and slice your hand.

    Ultimately, I don’t mind the idea of Apple retail unionizing. The pressure introduced a number of policy changes within Apple as a result, which is how Unions, in general, work. Unions are the tide that lifts all boats.
    iOS_Guy80chasmcoolfactorAnilu_7779secondkox2muthuk_vanalingamred oakbeowulfschmidtAlex1N

  • All the Apple subreddits set to go dark in protest of Reddit's API charges

    araquenaraquen
    With Reddit killing Apollo, I’m done with Reddit. I’m actually in the process of setting up on Beehaw, which is part of the Lemmy fediverse. So far, the vibe is good, but as Mastodon with Twitter, it’s caught in a catch 22 of being better with more people, but people being afraid to join because of the lack of people.

    Personally, I think this reticence is silly. Platforms rise and fall all the time. I lived through MySpace, LiveJournal, Facebook and Twitter. Yeah, it takes a bit of effort to ramp up, but, you know, you are not the same person you were when you joined your last preferred platform, and starting fresh gives you the opportunity to really soul search what matters to you *now* instead of soaking in complacency. 

    The Lemmy fediverse has a lot of potential and there is already a growing list of fediverse analogs to Reddit’s offerings: https://kbin.social/m/fediverse/t/4331. This is a great opportunity to get in on the “ground floor” of the next, best “thing” - to basically be a part of something when it was new and fresh.

    And for iOS, there is an app in development, available through TestFlight, called Mlem, though it is no Apollo, plus someone is developing a kit to allow existing Reddit apps to port over to the Lemmy? Beehaw? APIs.

    Anyway, this blackout is the perfect opportunity to check out the Lemmy fediverse, if you haven’t already. I’m excited for it, and can’t wait to see what comes of it.
    freeassociate2williamlondonappleinsideruserdrdavidforgot usernamedav

  • Former Apple retail head Ahrendts says worker retention hit almost 89% under her watch

    araquenaraquen
    Ahrendts is trying to spin this. I have a number of friends in retail, and the complaints about check-out, and GB are pretty accurate. She just surrounded herself with "yes men" and now can't handle that she didn't actually pay any attention to the details.

     And let's not forget the fact that the customer surveys are structured like any old hack company (only top marks are a pass, and anything 4 or under is a fail, even if the question was about APPLE or a product and not the rep, and they get dinged if you don't fill out the survey at all--and the employees are not allowed to even mention the surveys, so you just have to know to fill it out and give top marks so the associate who helped you doesn't lose their job for something they can't control at all). However, I am not an employee (nor was I) so I'll mention it, because its a bogus system, unbecoming of the kind of company Apple purports itself to be. Apple literally pays no attention to criticisms about itself in those surveys, so all you're doing is making the specialist/Genius/Creative's life miserable. You're effectively punching down. If you want to punch up regarding an APPLE policy, write directly to Tim Cook. He does read the emails. 

    I'm also very skeptical of Deirdre O'Brien. All you need to do is check Glassdoors and see that Apple's HR is not in a good place. The most common complaints were "ineffective" and "unresponsive." If she's where the buck stops for HR, and this is what HR is like, I can't imagine she's going to do a better job as the Retail lead. Not when she's the one who decided to use customer surveys as the primary and nigh sole method of evaluating employee performance which, as we mentioned, is a broken model, one in which anyone with half a brain knows companies use to justify firing staff without having to jump DOL concerns.

    Ultimately, the problem is that Tim Cook is not a visionary, and he knows it. But he doesn't hire visionary people either. Apple Retail management is the best 1997 has to offer, and all Ahrendts did was make it exclusive. Cook needs someone who can look at retail and say "how can I reimagine this for the 21st century, both for the consumer and for the retail staff, who are not only 18 year olds putting themselves through college and looking for high paying careers afterwards, but also working adults seeking to support a family, where stupid-crazy, volatile work schedules and unpredictability is antithetical to the kind of lifestyle Cook seems to keep implying Apple wants for everyone - everyone but their own staff, it seems.

    And Apple wonders why there are efforts to unionize.

    The only reason Apple is an adequate place to work as far as retail is because of the health benefits. Beyond that, Today's Apple Retail culture is actually worse than it was under Jobs and Johnson.
    FileMakerFellerhammeroftruthbyronl

  • Apple Watch can detect early signs of diabetes with 85% accuracy, study finds

    araquenaraquen
    I am fairly critical of the eHeart Study. 

    They classified me as having COPD because I used to have chronic bronchitis, which was brought on by a dust allergen (the bronchitis immediately cleared up when I took an antihistamine. Pretty sure COPD doesn't work that way). I haven't had bronchitis in years since I started working from home. This is not symptomatic of COPD at all. Nor do I smoke or have emphysema. It's not even a condition my own doctor diagnosed or considers me a risk factor for. 

    When I told the eHeart Study people of the error, they told me they "couldn't fix it" but to tell any surveys I do not have the condition. This is stupid. For one thing, as a consequence, I will NOT be asked to join any non-COPD related studies. I will also no qualify for any COPD related studies. Effectively, they categorized me out of the program.

    When I told them I wanted to leave the program BECAUSE they have no process to correct a mis-"diagnosis" they never responded. And there is no opt-out in the app. Once you're in, you're in forever. 

    So I uninstalled the app and whenever the eHeart Study people send me an email I unsubscribe. 

    But if they are completely unwilling to fix bad data, and have no desire to make sure that they're accurately collecting data to begin with, I can't see how this study can be in any way effective.
    airnerdSpamSandwich