How many apps in the app store are just webviews? I myself have paid apple to publish webview wrappers around pages because they strictly raise users to expect these, instead of the web apps they have no control over (and cannot take 30% of every transaction).
She's using an iPhone specifically because Apple doesn't go for shenanigans like multiple ways to get apps on the phone. The point is to have an App store and funnel everything through it. There is enough sensitive stuff on a phone that I'm not even sure running a full web browser is a good idea for her. "Limited capability" really is the name of the game here.
It isn't just we don't care because Apple doesn't support it. We are in fact grateful to Apple for not supporting it. This is value-add by Apple. The "App for Everything" model of interacting with iPhones is/was a brief golden age for unsophisticated users where Apple was more than earning its commission. Android phones are technically fine, if people wanted this sort of thing they would go buy Android.
there should be a way to make a phone secure (including via optionally disabling features - and giving those controls to the user, instead of being at whim and will of manufacturer), without giving up that functionality for literally everybody.
and they kinda did make something like that, didn't they tout their "senior mode" thing recently? assistive access. there's the solution. so put their phone into a "more secure" assistive access mode, or parental control mode with limited apps, and leave everybody else who actually knows how to do things to their own devices.
bottom line, even without sideloading or whatever, app store still exists, as does internet, browsers, voice calls (the regular phone ones) and sms. all run a possibility of getting scammed any way. if you're so concerned, might as well opt for a dumb phone, or no phone at all.
They shouldn't. Everyone should buy the phone that best suits their needs. That might be an Android phone or a whatever. Windows maybe. They're all good phones.
The issue is, for my family that is iPhones and people like Mr. Sweeney are trying to wheedle the EU into making iPhones worse for iPhone buyers. We don't need regulators trying to help by making iPhones worse. If you don't like what iPhones do, don't buy one. I think literally every manufacturer in the phone market has figured out how to make a great phone that looks and acts like an iPhone with minor differences.
not letting sideloading in doesn't mean that app store doesn't have its scammy apps with in-app purchases and whatever, and not allowing pwas doesn't mean that those exact same web apps aren't available via safari as a website. if those are the kinds of things, installing apps and going to websites, things that are very much available on a regular iphone, that are being deemed unsafe for somebody, an iphone is not a good fit for them.
But it seems Adblock would come out of the box in a user friendly mobile operating system. I’m guessing Google, Samsung, etc aren’t much better than Apple in this regard.
What do you mean? If the browser blocks ads, they'll be blocked in the PWA too, won't they?
> As of March 2023, 31% of US adult consumers said they used an ad blocker to protect their privacy, with baby boomers (31%) being more likely than Gen Zers (27%) to use the tech, according to Tinuiti.
> As of Q3 2021, 37.0% of internet users worldwide use ad blockers, according to GWI data cited by Hootsuite. Among those, younger consumers are more likely to use ad blockers, with 25- to 34-year-olds taking the top spot. In the US, just over 50% of adults use an ad blocker on their desktop, per March 2021 CivicScience data.
No matter how much I tried nothing stuck. At one point I tried using the Twitter PWA as I could block ads, but that's about it.
It's like roasting Toyota for taking out a manual handbrake. Sure it sucks, but come on, do you really think the average Toyota owner cares their Prius has an electric e-Brake?
How would you know? Do you ask everybody?
They might not choose to limit functionality as much but Android does not have first-class support for web apps either.
Windows uses executables and msi's as programs and users know that these programs are first-class citizens. Almost nbody on mobile knows about apk's and ipa's. These systems were designed to inherently educate the user that software can only be installed via one place.
I’ll go first - notifications. What else.
Not defending web apps or anything, but sometimes the way to a customer is through their wallet.