Sorry, Elon: Our smartphones are already ‘everything apps’ | Hacker News Reader

Sorry, Elon: Our smartphones are already ‘everything apps’

fastcompany.com

13 pointsStratoscope14 comments

>Got an iPhone or Android phone? Then you own a powerful platform tied into your financial life.

Own? It's more like you lease it.

Say for example such an 'everything app' were to exist. What would insulate it from API changes by Apple/Google intended to break core functionality? The fact that WeChat is available for iOS/Android is literally an exception to app store rules. It can only exist in a country where the government can coerce favorable conditions for it's existence.

"I'm 12 and this is smart"

There were rumors of Elon releasing a phone. if he had a phone it could do cellular and satellite. He could blur the lines between platform, phone and app, calling it, say, everything.

When I was a student in the nuclear propulsion program in the US Navy there was a category of incorrect answer called “gross conceptual error” (GCE) which meant the student not only had no idea what the answer was but was guessing in the wrong direction. This title deserves a GCE designation because a phone is not an app. Elon wants to create the WeChat of the western world: an “everything app” for all needs, all scenarios. App, not a device.

The title isn't literally saying they're equivalent. It's pointing out the pointlessness in having an 'everything app' - our phones can already do all these things and cramming it all into one app isn't a significant benefit.

And you're not putting all the functions that everything app can perform under one company's umbrella. That centralizes too much control into one set of hands. And I wouldn't trust Musk (or anyone, really) with that kind of control.

Isn't odd how the Muskovites are almost all adamantly opposed to Googles consolidation behaviors yet fully supports Musks?

Because it's OK if their guy does it. According to them, he's working on the side of the angels and to better humanity. Whatever that means.

In my opinion, there’s certainly a GCE here, but the title was not the first thing that came to my mind.

When it happens in an article like this it's more commonly called a strawman.

Another secret of the nuclear navy: giving someone a GCE is the polite way of saying “you’re a dumbass and a danger to those around you.” This applies to journalists looking for clickbait titles without regard for the truth as well.

Musk fanboys are the best

> Governments bad > Monopolies bad

but also

> Oh yes daddy musk give me that chinese tier big brother "everything app"

There's obviously a massive glaring difference: communication.

Two apps on your phone won't be sharing data other than in awkward ways, it's designed to be this way and I'm not mad. But your bank app won't be sending details of your transactions to whatever other app might make use of them (for example a financial advise sort of app).

In an everything app, this is trivial.

> But your bank app won't be sending details of your transactions to whatever other app might make use of them (for example a financial advise sort of app).

DE Schufa I think the bank was Sparkasse.

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