I'm sick of apps

[Major Seven]

Apple Wallet and Apple Pay aren’t really.apps. Been using for years and they make financial transactions easier for me with essentially no risk. I can pay for my groceries with my Apple Watch, or the phone.

For a fee of course.

 

[slobake]

Then there are free apps like Libby that serves as a library interface, which are also useful.

Yup, I use Libby too.

 

[brianrost]

The car is a 1991 Volvo without a tv screen and has real gauges.

I had two Volvos from that era and they had tape players. The original radio predated USB ports.

If you can get a thumb drive to work in your car, more power to you. My current car supports thumb drives but it flattens out the folder hierarchy and puts the tracks in alphabetical order, making it useless unless I rename the files one by one to create the ordering I want.

 

[brianrost]

Web browsers worked perfectly well for over 20 years. In fact, they still work.

As long as you don’t mind not being able to load most modern web pages. I have some old Macs that can’t run a browser that’s not at least five years old. When I go to most websites, I get either a blank (white) screen or a message saying my browser needs to be updated (which I can’t because of the ancient OS).

I used to create websites 100% in raw HTML so any browser could read them. Of course those sites look archaic. Today, sites are created using tools that generate all the HTML. I’d bet many web designers can’t even read HTML.

After 40 years in the computer business, all I can say it I’m sorry for helping inflict this on the world

 

[Nuisance]

Allow me to remove my tin foil hat long enough to type this out.

Apps can track what you are doing. While websites CAN track where you surf and what seems to interest you, they have a much more difficult time with other forms of tracking. This is what motivates the companies that pay app developers to make their apps easy to use and more feature rich. They don't want you on the web version of their sites.

I read somewhere (might have been in a Graphene OS blog post) that half of the computing power of Android/iOS is wasted on "phone home" activities. Half.

As someone who has directed a marketing team in tech for quite some time, I can tell you there's a LOT of tracking going on.

Edit: Also, look at the permissions an app is requesting before you install. Ethical app developers should NEVER share data with other companies. Look at everything in context. A flashlight app shouldn't be gathering personal data, etc. I can only think of a handful of apps (GPS, Weather, etc.) that should need to access your location.

 

[Nuisance]

Buy a Pixel 10 & install Graphene OS. It is a solution...if you want to break out of data hoarders grip.

This is what I did. Coupled with something like Proton apps, it is a VASTLY more secure environment than running iOS or Android.

Funny thing is, I worked in Tech my entire life. It wasn't until the last several years when I took over a Marketing department that I could see just how much tracking goes on. That's when I moved to Graphene OS.

 

[Nuisance]

I have a flip phone. It makes phone calls. Cost me 6.67 a month. I keep paper maps in the car. The radio in it has a usb port where I put music from my computer in a thumbdrive. My computer lately has annoying popups that block my view asking me if I want to subscribe to annoying popups.
The car is a 1991 Volvo without a tv screen and has real gauges. It is my first fuel injected car. I give you that. Fuel injection does work better.

There are offline map apps you can use on an old phone that won't require you to have cellular service, and won't track you. Co-Pilot GPS and Organic maps are two that you might want to look at. Sure beats paper maps.

 

[friskinator]

Not specifically app related, but my wife and I were at dinner a few weeks ago at a place that typically attracts a crowd much younger than us. The menu was QR code only, and we both left our phones at home. We asked the server if they had a paper menu, explaining that we left our phones at home. She said "that's really cool, actually." She brought us a paper menu, and we were unintentionally the coolest people in the place.

 

[Alkali Ike]

For a fee of course.

Where did you get that idea? There are no fees to the user (you). If you get an Apple credit card, they pay you cash back.

 

[Gorn]

I went to an Argentinean steakhouse yesterday and they had ipads instead of menus with some awful menu app with a script font. I tried to change it and it asked for a password, which after a few tries turned out to be the name of the restaurant. I changed the font to something readable. It was still an awful app. They had excellent blood sausage and skirt steak.

 

[gln1955]

Where did you get that idea? There are no fees to the user (you). If you get an Apple credit card, they pay you cash back.

Sorry, I have an Amazon Visa card. I don't know if it's possible to sell your soul twice.

 

[Alkali Ike]

I went to an Argentinean steakhouse yesterday and they had ipads instead of menus with some awful menu app with a script font. I tried to change it and it asked for a password, which after a few tries turned out to be the name of the restaurant. I changed the font to something readable. It was still an awful app. They had excellent blood sausage and skirt steak.

A new Mexican restaurant here had no printed menus. You had to scan a QR code at the table to bring up a virtual menu. It was ridiculous trying to navigate on a phone. They switched to printed menus within a month.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Web browsers worked perfectly well for over 20 years. In fact, they still work. Most apps are just web browsers that only go to one website. Just let me use my normal web browser.

I was pretty happy with DOS…. And then….we got apple, which opened the door for…. Windows who developed the way to make money, a lot of money, I mean generational wealth kind of money. And now we have ram eating out the hung-yang pop-up ads and stuff lurking in the background unknown to most slowing down the works.

 

[WG Plum]

The menu thing came with Covid. Most places seem to have gone back to regular menus, but certainly not all of them.

 

[WG Plum]

I'm very Pixel-10/Graphene curious now. I only have FB/IG because I'm on the social media monitoring team at work, otherwise TB would be my only social media.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Well done apps are fine. I hate needing an app for every place I eat lunch but if I can save money using the app, I’ll go along with it. Apple Pay / Apple Card are great. It limits my exposure to fraudulent transactions and I get cash back. The key is keeping a zero balance so that you really get cash back.

 

[Major Seven]

As long as you don’t mind not being able to load most modern web pages. I have some old Macs that can’t run a browser that’s not at least five years old. When I go to most websites, I get either a blank (white) screen or a message saying my browser needs to be updated (which I can’t because of the ancient OS).

I used to create websites 100% in raw HTML so any browser could read them. Of course those sites look archaic. Today, sites are created using tools that generate all the HTML. I’d bet many web designers can’t even read HTML.

After 40 years in the computer business, all I can say it I’m sorry for helping inflict this on the world

I too am guilty of early fundamental research in LLMs and robotics. What they call AI is really just probabilistic echos of human nature (artificial stupidity).

 

[Major Seven]

There are offline map apps you can use on an old phone that won't require you to have cellular service, and won't track you. Co-Pilot GPS and Organic maps are two that you might want to look at. Sure beats paper maps.

Still prefer paper maps. I can see the big picture where my destination fits in with the whole. Zoom out means hold the map at arms length.

 

[Major Seven]

Sorry, I have an Amazon Visa card. I don't know if it's possible to sell your soul twice.

Maybe Robert Johnson sold it the second time for the Wheels of Fire album?

 

[Alkali Ike]

Well done apps are fine. I hate needing an app for every place I eat lunch but if I can save money using the app, I’ll go along with it. Apple Pay / Apple Card are great. It limits my exposure to fraudulent transactions and I get cash back. The key is keeping a zero balance so that you really get cash back.

I’m set up to be notified of every transaction by text. I can check my transactions and balance and pay it with a few taps. The physical Apple Card has no numbers or CVC code on it. The CVC changes periodically automatically without messing up existing autopay accounts.