This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
also those who dont want to install that spyware shit on their phones. Even if you dont care about the data collection it still consumes battery faster as more and more data is being transferred
This affects me a lot day to day. I have a phone, but it runs postmarketOS, not iOS or Android. It really shows me the importance of open standards. I feel that every business should be required to support open standards for each of the services they offer.
For me, buying train tickets used to be ok, but is getting harder now. Some train operators are really pushing you to use their app now, and getting rid of the option to download a PDF. It really frustrates me: it's not like it costs them more to offer PDF download - if anything, it's much cheaper to offer that functionality than to build and maintain an app for iOS and Android.
Back when I had an Android phone, I used Monzo, and it was so easy to send money to friends, set up standing orders etc. I wish they offered a proper web interface. Now, I use Natwest's online banking, and it's a real pain - I use the card reader to authenticate, then the website logs me out seemingly every 2 mins of inactivity. Some features, like pre-notifying that you'll be travelling abroad, are only available on the app. I only see this trend continuing.
The concert tickets example in the article is insane to me. I can't think of a use case that is better suited for PDFs, and that's what we've been doing for the last 10+ years without any issues. It really is user hostile and excludes people on the edges of society who don't fit, for whatever reason, with what the 80-90% do.
apps allow user tracking and advertising though. Much more valuable to the corpos than a few lost customers.
The whole using your phone for everything from grocery shopping to just doing whatever Like getting deals or whatever?, Can it please go away?
They're collecting our data anyways.
It’s also a gigantic information harvesting ploy.
A mobile app requirement is an easy excuse for me to nope the fuck out.
My old apartment had gates that could only be opened with an app. They took out the card reader and made it app only. Should have gotten out of there much earlier than I did.
the problem is also apple's slow adoption (or outright refusal) to open up various web apis to make web apps more prevalent.
I literally had to switch bank accounts because I couldn't reset my password "on the web" and required me to use Virgin Money's app.
Customer service agent(s) on the phone after prolonged discussions why their app wouldn't work on three Android phones right in front of me surfaced, and I shit you not
Well sir, I have my iPhone here and can login just fine maybe you should buy one of those instead
That day I found out about this
have you tried stop being poor?!
Begin by just getting a house already.
So am so tired of people crying about it.
JFC just ask mom and dad for the down payment.... Can't you holdna a steady job?!
Maybe I could try buying and scalping an iPhone on eBay
:thinky face:
Kids these days just don't want to work
See that's the thing, I work far too hard and after a night shift and then getting onto a "customer support" agent reveals the cracks in our society.
Maybe you could work harder too!
Everyone I know works pretty hard and is underpaid but the teeveeue keeps saying nobody wants to work.
Deep inside I know the teevee never lies 🤡
It was the sheer arrogance of that "supervisor" I escalated it to and I hate to think how someone like a pensioner would've dealt with them that day wanting to access their bank account, especially since all the local branches have been closed 👺
RIP Yorkshire Bank
You don't need an app to use a loyalty card...
But yes I am against supermarkets that only provide discounts if you use their loyalty program, which in turn allows them to track your purchases. Especially since many items are priced with the discount as the "fair" price and the full price is really just a money grab.
Man, I’m torn on this one.
We have two grocery stores in our exurban area.
Kroger, as a corporation, contributes to politicians of both US parties in roughly equal measure. Less than ideal (zero contributions), but not too bad I guess. But, they do have an obnoxious customer loyalty card program. Boo!
Publix, on the other hand, doesn’t have a customer loyalty card program at all. Yay! But, the corporation and their leadership contribute HEAVILY to the new Trumpy GOP, Matt Gaetz in particular. So, fuck them.
I’m boycotting Publix. Lesser of two evils I guess.
I really wish we had a locally-owned mom ’n pop grocery. I’d pay a premium for that.
especially if you don't have an iphone. I have seen so many accessories and apps that were made for use on iphones which would also be useful for android devices as well. my transplant clinic has a patient portal that has an app for iphones but nothing for android so you have to use their website.
Even if you did want apps the majority only offer it from 1 of the 2 popular repositories (" stores "). It's a shame they do not have a way to track that lost sale/interaction.
If you don't have a smart phone in the US, even temporally, your almost a second class citizen.
Then if you don't install corporate apps on your phone, there are even more problems for you.
Social Friendly Browser can usualky get around this
You can still live in the US without apps... For now
i don't have one. i don't want one, either.
There should be a warning label on any establishment or product that requires a smartphone to use.
How about this:
At the apartments I recently moved out of, there were no quarter slots on the washing machines. They were an app that required a bluetooth connection to pay.
So if you lived there and didn't have a smartphone? Go fuck yourself, you don't get to do laundry.
Unless you bothered to check the laundry room when you were looking at the apartment, you wouldn't know. No warnings.
I flat-out refuse to do business with any that requires I use an app. I won't even scan a QR code for a restaurant menu; that's my cue to go eat elsewhere.
Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day is probably the most accurate portrayal of me ever written.
Scan QR code. Order on your phone. Pay on your phone. Asks for a tip.
So uh, what exactly am I tipping you here for dawg?
that stuff is nice as an option. There's a bar I go to that I can order my food and drink to the table my friends are at, while I'm walking to the place, and everything just arrives shortly after I sit down. Other people get offended about how fast I get served, it's always amusing. I also enjoy not interacting with the staff, nothing against them, brain just doesn't brain sometimes.
But what if I didn't have a phone? or if I left home without it? 24/7 pocket rectangle is not natural.
The funny thing about qr codes for restaurant menus to me, as someone that studied menu design. Is that actual menus are designed specific ways make the restaurant more profit and make it easier for people to find what they want. Whereas qr codes often bring one to a hastily designed list of categories which are not only less intuitive but also less manipulative. So people will end up taking longer to order less profitable dishes.
I don't mind the whole online menu thing. It's probably an environmental net positive, but it's bs if they don't have ANY physical copies for those who can't or don't want to for whatever reason.
If they wanted me to install something, though, that'd be a 100% instant nope.
An online menu requires power to be used (on people's phones and the server). Is that really a minor contribution in comparison to printing paper and maybe laminating it?
Considering your average printer is a piece of shit that needs to be replaced quite often, yes, using a website is probably more energy efficient.
That and those servers are going to be running anyway. Powering a simple restaurant website is a grain of sand on the beach of internet usage.
This person has never seen the power bill for running a high-availability server with several failovers once in their lives.
Most companies will be using laser printers, some of which may outlive me. Toner is cheap and lasts an age.
Inkjet printers are cheap for a reason. They’re a scam.
