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Comment by nikodunk | Hacker News Reader

This is the first time I've been excited about the future of mobile computing in a while. It's also the first time I've read an article on MacRumors in a while.

I really hope a few of these early experiments work out, and wish them luck!

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I'm just not looking forward to the inevitable subscription billing dark patterns that are almost guaranteed to be rife in alternative app stores. Call to unsubscribe, early cancellation fees, unsubscribe "errors", etc. Say what you want about the App Store, but the fact that you can quickly and easily see all your subscriptions in one place along with how much they cost and the ability to cancel them easily is incredibly nice.

The exciting thing will be a real open source repository. An entire app source with no dark patterns of any kind.

But then there's the flip side of how inflexible the app store subscriptions are: https://www.hey.com/apple/iap/

If those stores comply with EU law, that shouldn’t be the case. See for example https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_.... I can see how stores will pop up that don’t care about laws and regulations, but I would be hesitant to pay for anything there.

have you seen spotify’s new app in europe?

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-01-24/the-dma-means-a-bett...

they pushed hard for apple to open up in order push more ads.

It's not "more ads". It's what Spotify has literally been offering forever, but couldn't show to people because Apple's rules literally prevent anyone from linking to any payments/purchases outside of App Store.

Good news is that nobody is forcing you to use the alt stores. You can stay in the Apple App Store all you want.

And hope an app you need to use is always available on the Apple App Store.

Is this not the case on Android?

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