skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>As lousy as this is, the consumer experience is dramatically improved.

Is that worth paying $43 extra per year on a HEY subscription?
But Hey.com's iOS app would not force you to use their service. That's the point. Giving the end-user the choice.

Some prefer IaP, like you, so won't sign up to Hey, others don't and may actually have already paid for the service on desktop.
I think this point is worth highlighting. Although I'm not at all on Apple's side here, they are offering something of value. What galls is that they're demanding 15-30% of all revenue for it. Payment processing simply isn't that costly, and I doubt the app store is that expensive either.
"I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
I suppose you’re not affected by app store policies. Otherwise you’d be extremely grateful to DHH to step up and fight publicly, instead of trying to deal with apple in private or just cave in.

It has never felt so close to actually breaking up apple tight grip on its developer community, and it’s all thanks to him.
> Amazon kills OSS business models by offering managed OSS services on AWS at an unbeatable cost.

I don't get the objection to this one. Isn't the point of open source to let the best vendor win?

Too many companies fail to realize that you must relentlessly wage war on cost to survive.
I agree. I used to work for Hypothesis a very long time ago and this is the conclusion I came to as well. Pivoting to serve the academic community annotating PDFs was a good idea (this happened after I had left).
I think people judge because there is an implicit assumption that the poor in the question is poor enough that they might be getting some sort of assistance. If that’s the case, a luxury purchase is essentially being subsidized by tax payers. And THAT now brings a lot of expectations in (i.e. don’t waste what others sacrificed to give you).
So much this. I use an iPhone because of the ecosystem. Apple Pay is massive part of that and that's because of the easy to manage subscriptions.

The biggest issue is how big apples cut is. 30% is a lot for a company that is so impossibly wealthy.
On a side note, I don't know whether it's intentional or not, but the whole story is a great marketing campaign for HEY. Clashing with Apple made everybody learn about the app in a matter of days.
They will when tesla is forced to cough up 30% of a feature when they allow an in-app autopilot or performance upgrade.
I love my Quest too. I use it all the time and really can’t see myself using something tethered.
He took a principled stand and risked he’s whole business and I appreciate that. If apple would enforce the same rules for everyone I think people would give them some slack. But as it stands, they don’t.
That net worth is already pretty much 100% directed toward building these things. The net worth of the "1%" is paper wealth—capital investments in various companies, for the most part. It belongs to them but they use it to make things to sell to other people and then invest the resulting profits in even more capital.

If you want a more meaningful comparison, try investigating personal consumption expenditures for each income group. I'm sure consumption is higher per-capita among the "1%" but I'd be very surprised if the total were over, say, 10% of all PCEs.
Yeah this is business, and they are playing the "follow the rules" unless you have some clout, or the absence of your app would make us look shit.
Was Stalin better than Hitler because he had the interests of the downtrodden proletariat at heart? Or at some level of totalitarianism, did intent not really matter any more? (Or was he really much more a totalitarian than he was a friend of the downtrodden masses, and all that "helping the proletariat" stuff was just camouflage?)
Yes, but only 2nd order...

If all users downloaded in order, then users downloading the file cannot exchange chunks with other downloaders.

That "exchange" is necessary to encourage users not to limit their upload speeds.

In today's world where the vast majority of users just use the default settings for their torrent client, it probably doesn't matter much.
Not to me, but that's my choice to make. I just won't use it.
It sounds like you have the whole social contract of society fundamentally backwards.

_Everyone_ has a pact with rangers that they should be rescued immediately. That's literally what rangers do.

The exact same thing works with a doctor or an EMT. You make it sound like if someone started choking in a restaurant you would expect the EMT to say "well he never made a pact with me to rescue him from choking to death" so the guy dies.
I think that flips the logic around. Because not every startup needs to have a deep moral mission, you imply every deep moral mission is pretended.

Why are you so sure it can't be their true deep moral mission? More importantly; how would you ever be able to recognize a startup that has one in general? Should they hide their moral mission, so people like you won't judge them for it? How is that for honesty?

If you apply this logic to people, you'll only see either 'honest people who have no deep morals' and 'dishonest people who attempt to have deep morals'. you would then feel better about those that openly have lower morals. That's not in your interest.

And you would be making the world a harder place for those that actually try to improve it with their deep morals. And this annoys me, therefore, this long answer :).

For instance, FairPhone, you think they should say 'We try to make a phone that's nice and makes money?'.

https://www.fairphone.com/en/
Microsoft is famously backwards-compatible, and support for RTF is still present in those programs which originally had it, like Write, the included word processor in Windows since Windows 1 (replaced in Windows 95 with WordPad, which retains its features). But is RTF usable for its original purpose – interoperability? Can you open a reasonably complex Word document and save it as RTF, and then open it in LibreOffice? Can you save an RTF document from LibreOffice and open it in Microsoft Word without loss? Is Microsoft working to maintain RTF interoperability in order to promote cross-program document compatibility? No. To quote Wikipedia, “Microsoft has discontinued enhancements to the RTF specification. New features in Word 2010 and later versions will not save properly to the RTF format.”¹

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rich_Text_Format&...
Yes, markups are explicitly forbidden and will get you kicked off the app store.
I’ve been working on a side-project SaaS (primarily the backend to this point) and a few weeks ago I’d decided I didn’t want to deal with the JavaScript front-end world (I deal with it at work) and thought I’d build mobile and desktop clients instead. At this point I’m ready to reverse my decision. Screw Apple and Google. They’ve built these App Store ecosystems to drive sales/adoption of their platforms (Apple sells more hardware and google collects more eyeballs.)

Somewhere along the way they forgot that apps are why people use their devices/platforms.
There wouldn't be uproar if it was 10%. Everything else is perfectly reasonable but taking a 30% cut is extreme.
Honestly - I don't think it would be accepted. But, in either outcome, they're better off:
* If it gets accepted - great, they're unblocked, and can keep delivering for customers
* If it doesn't get accepted, they have even more ammunition to say "look, even when we conform to Apple's rules, they _still_ block us".
1) They /did/ follow the rules.

2) This site is not built by the people who built Hey.

3) The rules are being asymmetrically applied. Why should people be OK with Apple bullying all the companies they think they can get away with bullying?
Basically every app that is used to sell goods or as an add on to a physical product doesn't have to pay Apple a cut. And it makes sense: the app is free and only the means to access a backend service or a something that was paid separately. I just don't get why it wouldn't apply to HEY: no idea of how it works, but I can imagine that for $99/year you get more than a shiny UI. That is only the means to access a backend service that is entirely independent from Apple's ecosystem (and in fact can be accessed through several channels).
If the machine doing the streaming is on the local network maybe.

VR is not a forgiving environment for latency. If your target 72fps (Quest), about 862 miles is an upper bound for distance. That's just to get data round-trip at fiber speed, additional latency sources (wifi, rendering, encoding, wifi again) are going to make things worse. Prediction and "timewarp" only get you so far.

I'm all for wireless headsets to eliminate the tether when using a PC, but to me the Quest is compelling primarily because it's standalone. I can bring it almost anywhere (empty warehouse, a large field outside, hotel rooms) and not need to worry about lugging a bunch of extra gear.

It's also really compelling for quick product demos if that's your thing. We can keep builds of software installed on a headset that can go from packed in a small hard-case to ready to show off in about the time it takes to boot.
So it seems the limitation is more the API for recording video, is this correct?
That's not a thing that exists. You cannot go into the wilderness (at least not in America) and sign a DNR to not be rescued.

Your safety is always the responsibility of the government no matter how suicidal you are.
Sure, if the service is likely to be most effective in areas with low population density, there is little competition for those customers, there is little marginal cost associated with making their service available to rural customers, and serving rural customers does not preclude them from serving urban customers as well.
There's also a subtlety where if you focus too much on what someone said, you might lose why he said it and how it pertains to the situation. I've gotten through some communication problems by focusing on how I understood the person's position, instead of what the arguments he brought forth. When you do that you get this funny situation where it almost seems like each person is participating in different conversations, but at the same time the discussion is progressing effortlessly. I think of it as letting yourself be free to frame and reframe the issue at hand however you like.
They do it at no benefit to the OSS providers, that's the issue.
They didn't build this website.
TVs used to come with circuit diagrams so that people could repair it themselves at home using standard parts. I've not seen anything like that in many years, even for far simpler appliances.
That result is cool, but experimental error is still in the list of plausible explanations. It is too early to say definitely that something outside of the Standard Model is going on.
Right, and - as I said in another comment - being rejected when they are actually conforming to the rules (however asinine those rules may be) will be further ammunition to point out how inconsisently-applied those rules are.
In a sense it already is. The ultra-wealthy own and run the businesses which supply everyone else with all those things, and their wealth is largely just the nominal paper value of a whole bunch of successful attempts to supply society with things. What doesn't and cannot happen is redirecting their wealth in the sense that a lot of the American left imagine, where we can just take their billions and turn them into billions of dollars of healthcare or housing or anything else that would benefit the less wealthy.

The reason this isn't possible is that their wealth doesn't represent actual resources they're claiming. When we say that someone like Jeff Bezos is worth $150 billion dollars, that doesn't mean they're personally using $150 billion dollars worth of land, materials, equipment, people's time, etc that can be redirected into houses or healthcare, whereas someone who buys a $200 TV is making use of something like that amount of actual resources that cannot be used for anything else. Houses and healthcare need land, materials, and lots of workers' time, which then cannot be used for other things, and it fundamentally has to be the people who'd have those other things who ultimately pay for this.
Getting 30% from the whales and scammers is worth too much and a bit of bad PR or the loss of good apps isn't going to change that. They need the big players like Netflix, but after that scummy, high margin, do nothing, trash apps are the best for profits.
Unfortunately, Google Photos is the source of their grief. Thanks though!
Perfect choice of words, pun intended?
Well, he said pretty much the same thing today:
https://mobile.twitter.com/_MarkusBraun/status/1273974132531...
It's so insulting they have an open issue and said they're working on it for more than 2 years when Firefox extensions framework is 99% compatible with Chrome extensions. Probably just have to repackage and publish, but apparently they can't be bothered.
Gears of War:General Raam is an example of outcome of not culturally aware team
Both the frontend and server seem to be open source.

https://github.com/hypothesis/h

https://github.com/hypothesis/client
This site is really cool, but I think the person who took the screenshots should charge their phone.
-XLinearTypes down, -XDependentTypes to go :)
Because they are being ridiculous already. It’s one thing to help developers and try to bring up their stories and issues with the App Store, it’s another thing to come up with ridiculous examples (Tesla, banking apps, AirBnB and so on, that have nothing to to with SaaS, subscriptions and IAP) and this insane campaign for their own product.
Thanks, great recommendations!
Heading out into the wilderness for months at a time alone is an extreme event. So is flying in a wingsuit, or downhill skiing in a remote location full or rocks, or free soloing a difficult mountain. One one hand, you can say, "Think of society, think of the people who would bear the responsibility of cleaning up after your death if you were to fail."

On the other hand, there are always people who are going to pursue extreme ventures. But given how few people are willing to enter into life or death scenarios like I described, I don't find the the argument that these people have any noticeable effect on the economies of the state very convincing.
This isn’t just about a safety net it’s about public spending in general.

In the U.K. median households are not net contributors, the U.K. tax base is exceedingly small the vast majority of people get much more than they put in.

The average public spending in the UK is around £10,000 most households don’t pay that in income tax and NIC. Even if you take VAT into accounts it’s not enough because the primary expenses such as housing and food and transportation are VAT exempt and other common expenses like utilities have a reduced VAT of 5%.
The cool part is you can have S3 serve a torrent, and then disable access to the object with permissions once it reaches an adequate seed level. You’re no longer charged for outbound data, but S3 will continue to act as a tracker for the swarm.
I disagree about the value of the ecosystem but that's just personal taste. From an economic perspective, Apple is raking in cash and it only investing part of it back into feature development. They're 30% in-app purchase rent could just be 15 or 20% and they'd still be able to easily fund their UX teams. They're not charging what they need to operate, they're charging as much as the market can bare. And the market can bear a lot because users allow it.
Is there a simple site or a table somewhere with services/products saying whether they support MFA or not? Kind of like https://pyreadiness.org for MFA.
Yea this is probably the best year to introduce unpopular, rent-seeking rules. You'll never be forced to see any of these people in person and the government has enough on its plate to even consider thinking about anti-trust issues.

I'm confused why they don't rip the bandaid off and just charge everyone at the same time though. Charging Tesla 30% probably isn't feasible but this seems like an ideal time to introduce fees for all companies that are currently allowed exemptions (Netflix, Lyft, Airbnb, Uber, Audible, Airlines etc). Yes they could put up a fight but at least some of them would cave.

Until the government gets involved, they are totally allowed to selectively and arbitrarily enforce the rules. Banning Hey but not Netflix just makes them look like hypocrites and makes them less money. Seems like the worst of both worlds.
Apple has never had a problem with physical goods not paying the 30%. So WeWork, Tesla, AirBnb, airline tickets, etc would all be fine. The 30% cut was on digital goods as I recall. My last company sold things like gym memberships and bicycle rentals and Apple never had an issue with it. Although they did question us the first time we hit the App Store and the Mac App Store. Once we explained we weren’t selling digital goods we got approved.
Thank you for the link; I really like the [why?] footnote style. Also, keeping the terms so short mean summaries really aren't needed :)
This is kind of a weird response, do you disagree with that coverage map or something? I don't know about your friend, but it's not unreasonable to give technical people on HN a little more credit then that. I kept thoroughly abreast of every possible broadband option even in my area and I know they do too. "A friend's flat" doesn't sound like a semi-rural or rural zone, where as simple geography you can be miles away from even the nearest village. DSL falls off pretty hard with distance, when you're at 15000+ feet/5000+ meters there isn't much to be done, even with bonded lines (if that's even an option). Nearest cable TV service to me is about 3.5 miles off and has been that way for 20 years now at least. Various WISP efforts have added new possibilities in the last 5 years, but mountainous regions still result in very hit/miss service and since many of them are quite ad hoc and local performance is also hit/miss (though they're often a lot of fun to actually deal with, good technical enthusiastic people you can have a real conversation with and come up with creative solutions with like the old days). It's a real miracle that fiber came through here via our great local ISP, though another few houses/mile away and I'd have missed it. And now everything is on hold again due to lock down.

Starlink definitely will be able to at least smooth out the current total patchwork. The question will just be if it's a low density area and (while constellation is building and before optical interlink sats) if it's in a covered zone. Won't always be the best option I'm sure, but it won't be the case that two people a mere half mile away as the crow flies with a small hill between them have to deal with total feast/famine differences.
The distinction between app and web is blurred and I don't think it's easy to make this distinction.

Can anyone explain why some apps are mobile only, like the Shop app? I have not tried it yet as a result. Also, does Apple take a cut of those sales?
I feel like that's a disingenuous comparison, given how complex the electronics of appliances must be nowadays (disclaimer: I have absolutely no idea, my experience is strictly at the software level) - but the general principle should still apply to be able to use products that you own in a (non-harmful) way that you choose.
Still implies a HUGE cell, though. I have doubts that this will work well in anywhere but the very most unpopulated areas.
Comments can do more than just express support or opposition.
It's a bit of a joke to be honest.

Hey are trying to market an app on the app store as a 'free' app. Not offering sign up also means they don't have to add the 'offers in app purchases'.

So they're advertising the app as free. Even though its $99 a year.

Apples 30% cut is obscene and should be less. But Hey are using a 'free' label to market their app.
I don't see how Apple can win this one TBH. If Hey isn't offering in-app sign-up, they're in the clear IMO - the precedent for this is well established. So they'll have to either apply the same rules to everyone, or disclose the special treatment for the likes of Netflix, which does exactly what Hey does.

But I'm sure folks who defended Amazon banning Kindle books they don't like will just say that Apple is not a monopolist, and DHH is free to build his own mobile platform. /s
Tesla is definitely one of the easier cases to think about, the rest are in a grey area.

But even with Tesla it's not 100% crystal clear. There might be some buyers who pick Tesla specifically because of the fancy tech features like Summon mode. It's impossible to use Summon mode without the app. So for one of those buyers, the app is an essential part of the purchase, just like HEY subscribers who expect to read emails on their phone.
I think the standard response should be to allow the in-app signup/purchase with a 42% marked up rate and a very clear line item that it is the "Apple platform tax, not charged via other distributors".

Worth doing the same to Google IMO.

I think the "right" amount to charge would be something like a standard credit card processor - 30 cents + 3% or so. Maybe a flat 5 or 10% for apps under a certain price. I can't imagine Apple's payment processing and app screening being much more expensive than Visa's payment processing and fraud detection.
> On average, out of 88 claims that pass the credible fear screening, fewer than 13 will ultimately result in a grant of asylum.

Why use 88 rather than 100 to illustrate this statistic?
I don't know if it a requirement that comes from our customers or from the law, rear view camera must be available within 4 seconds from door opening.
Why do they need to benefit the OSS provider? The license doesn't contain anything suggesting otherwise.

If authors want credit and money, the license needs to state as much. You can't publish something saying "do whatever you want" and then complain that people aren't being fair to you.
Solid investment on the long domain name for a single article.
They're not charging for the payment processing though. They're charging a premium because you're using their platform/store as part of your sales funnel. They know that being able to sell your stuff on iOS devices is worth a lot of money and that you'll make more money after the 30% cut than if you didn't sell in the store at all.

Apple knows that customer acquisition is extremely expensive outside the store and is charging accordingly.
Open-source software has large positive externalities and if those are being captured by private entities then this will pretty much lead to a demise of open source software, or open-source software will slowly but surely being turned into software that is more and more incompatible and de-facto in-house software.

This is already happening. A lot of projects that are nominally open source are more and more influenced by the decisions of particular companies which erodes its purpose.
I reject the implication that police will only use facial recognition on people who are attacking the police, or that the repercussions for being present at (not necessarily instigating, or using violence during) a violent altercation will be proportional.
You can override their decision by jailbreaking your phone.
As an Indian myself ... this is one of those instances where it is quite a stretch. Looking for controversy imo.
I mean, there's satellite and such, but do any use p2p to distribute files?
Netflix is a "free" app.
My biggest issue (and it is an issue that has been brought to my attention), is the old "Emperor Joseph" issue:

"Too many words."

I trend prolix. In my essays, this can be corrected by post-edit, but it is not so easy to do that in realtime.