Often, the apps are there just to collect ad information for you in a way browsers don’t allow.
this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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Unpopular Opinion
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And send notifications
And collect email addresses, to send ~~important messages~~ spam
Ding ding ding. It’s all about the tracking data. Also, notifications. They want to be able to buzz you with spam, to remind you that the app exists.
Is there a way to insulate apps in my phone from looking at stuff they shouldn't? Kinda like Firefox Multi-Account Containers.
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This is a very popular opinion
You won't see unpopular openion on your feed because people downvote unpopular openion and op knows it's popular openion
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I hate propietary apps that are just services or stores and especially when they refuse to have a website and make you download their app.
I do not need 200 apps on my phone. Just one web browser app will do.
With 200 open tabs
Ahh, I see I have finally found my people
And not every program needs an installer.
Just because I downloaded a program to write ISOs to a USB drive, does not mean it needs to be installed on the system. Unless it's something like MS Office, why does it need to be installed? Just give me a zip file, I will extract it and delete it when I don't need it anymore.
Your problem here is you're running windows
I can tell you're a Linux user lol.
You can tell he's not a FreeBSD user because he doesn't have to dive in and alter the source to make it compatible.
Yeah, who needs an installer when you can just ./configure, then ./make and ./make install, just stopping to fetch and build missing dependencies occasionally, upgrade some others, then retry.
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Windows doesn't require you to install most things though. Developers just choose to do so unnecessarily sometimes.
Why hate windows for this of all things? Isn't it normal to "install" packages in Linux as well?
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If you’re on Windows and looking for a portable ISO burner, Rufus works great and is a 1.4mb portable .exe for that. It works great for when I overwrite Windows with Linux.
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My 401k company just created an app for onboarding new participants.
"If you'd like me to run company software, you'll have to provide a company device for me to run it on."
Never install work software on a personal device. Security, Privacy, Expectations (regarding personal resources).
Along with this, never use personal software/accounts/services with company devices. You can't be sure who's watching and can't be sure you'll have a chance to remove/collect your personal data before being locked out of said device.
That’s not their employer. It’s the company they have their 401k retirement plan with.
Empower, John Hancock, fidelity, vanguard, whoever.
100% this. I put my foot down at my last job after finding out their app demanded device location when it wasn't being used.
I got the fuck out the next week. Place is already sliding downhill fast
I rather have an app and a way to control the chicken coop offline that depend on the internet connection to whether my chicken coop works or not. That is in my opinion a right place for an app instead of a website.
Most online services don't need an app though.
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Totally agree. I’m hoping web apps make a comeback as well — a lot of apps in App Stores are just websites in an “app wrapper”. Start rejecting that shit and tell people to publish it as a web app.
I make WebApps for exactly this reason! PWAs for the win!
What can your chicken coop do that needs programming ? Genuinely interested
Probably heat, maybe timed doors, timed food, or something like that.
I hate how all smart devices need their own apps. Lights, vacuum cleaners, doorbells, fans, etc. super annoying to go through my phone and see so many random apps.
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Wait, explain this chicken coop
They want your precious data
Programming your chicken coop?
yeah right what does that even mean
Mood lighting and music.
Get the chickens completely relaxed with smooth jazz, then steal their eggs.
I’m imagining it probably has temperature, humidity, maybe automatic feeding, water capacity and maybe the ability to turn on a heat lamp.
I program my chicken coop from the touchscreen panel on the outside. I don't need an app for it.
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Nothing needs an app.
I rather have an app when I need that stuff to work regardless of the internet connection.
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Yeah my work just switched payroll companies and they want us to download an app to do timesheets and stuff. No way in hell that's going on my phone. A least it works in desktop browsers too.
Not everything needs and app
But then they couldn't scrape maximum personal data, collect your contacts, have access to your mic and camera, and track your every physical movement. Your so selfish!
I agree. Same with every business doesn't need a freaking app. It's why I've avoided the app development sector of programming in my career. I don't want to crank out shitty apps for every local business for the rest of my life. talk about boring.
True. Not everything does.
Is this actually unpopular? Give me web interface that works OK on mobile and I'm usually a happy camper.
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Its like when restaurants want to get people to order via a QR code on the physical menu and place your order on their website or app.
Like no. You are making this so much more awkward than it needs to be for the sake of novelty.
Restaurant near me tried to implement this during Covid. At the time I get it because people were trying to minimize risk and might have been worried about being around a waiter and getting infected etc.
But they still haven't stopped it though. The worse thing is that the signal there is terrible so it takes 5 minutes for the damn thing to load in the first place.
I don't know if you can communicate over Bluetooth via a webpage to program your chicken coop.
Oddly enough, it doesn’t use Bluetooth. It’s a light sensor on the door. The phone actually flashes the screen at the light sensor to program it. I’m sure by being a native app it gives them more control over the screen but still….
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I once had to download an app to get my hair cut. Never walked out of a barber before so that was a first.
"Download our app to see our menu"
walks out
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