And UK primary schools - catching up with the kids homework, messages from the teacher - requires an app and a smartphone!
It's so frustrating!
Mandating the need of smartphone apps to access critical services and basic life necessities like payments, parking, refueling, charging your car, public transport tickets, etc should be banned under accessibility laws.
All this only benefits the service provider, not the consumer, since if the service is broken in some way (LTE/internet issue, payment processor issue, backend/cloud outage, etc) or has terrible UX, then the externalities and negative effects of that are all on the customer to deal with. Because what else are you gonna do on the spot? Not charge your car? Leave it in the middle of the road? Not board the bus to get to work? The problem they caused becomes your problem to deal with even though you have the money to pay but no easy way to do it because of their crap.
Governments need to hold service prodivers accountable for the misery they cause and have them offer payment solutions and alternatives to smartphone apps for such critical services.
>The wheels of time wont be turned back.
They can be turned back by laws if the direction they've been turning by the unregulated free market lead us to a bad place that's discriminatory and causing misery to consumers, especially for critical services.
We've been able to park and refuel cars fast and efficient for decades with no issues before apps and smartphones. Not all progress is good progress. Sometimes progress is just for the sake of cutting corners to increase profits for businesses at the expense of consumers. I don't want an "Bezos-fication" or "Musk-fication" of essential services.
I also hate apps for everything & want us to be free & have a simple world & life - I love the terminal & its 55 years old.. yeah, we have much in common friend
Just because something is newer doesn't mean it's better. Obviously, the reverse is also true, but there is so much tech naiveté going around that this needs saying repeatedly. We'd have saved our society a lot of trouble if we'd first thought about draw-backs of new technology, before hooking everything in our lives up to it.
Cool, so I assume you'll be able to tell me which smartphone and doesn't require agreeing to a EULA?
I'm required to wear clothes in public (Indecent exposure laws) and I need to have at least a pen or pencil to sign documents and do tax returns demanded by law. But I have a vast array of options when it comes to clothes and stationery, and most importantly I'm not required to agree to a foreign company's EULA to use them, unlike smartphones.
In practice if they do not make it easy to pay then I just park without paying. The 1/10 times I actually get a fine works out to be cheaper than paying for parking up front.
That said, roadside parking is far more hit and miss for ticketing, but as a source of revenue, most councils take it fairly seriously here for the free money.
And if you don't pay hundreds of pounds for a smartphone, you are not allowed to park? Or if your battery is dead? Or if your religion prohibits the use of smartphones?
If true, I bet framing it that way to the public would help get people on board with some law reform.
No one should be depending on Google or Apple at a government or city or educational level in any way, including in the US.
You can usually also find which car parks have spaces with the apps, to save driving around. It is possible to go cash only still - but it is a pain.
That QR code you are always shown when you setup an OTP? It usually uses the TOTP algorithm supported by a dozen password managers or hardware keychain devices that will generate codes for you on demand without a phone.
Say you do not have a compatible phone and the app requirement can be waived by a manager.
Not had a smartphone in 5 years. It is never a blocker.
People quickly find I am reachable at my desk and otherwise am always driving, in a shower, swimming, in a theater, it has a dead battery, every single time. Even in leadership roles.
My time away from my desk is my time, and people learn to respect that, and even empower some of them to do the same.
Source: Not had a cell phone carrier or carried a phone in 5 years and never been restricted from doing anything I did previously, as a frequently traveling tech business owner.
The alternative is that the bank sneds you a clunky OTP machine with a code every time you want to make a purchase or transaction.
In particular, the Personal Time mode of iOS has been a game changer for me: https://ergaster.org/til/ask-smartphone-attention/
The first is is supervised MDM. If you have a Mac you can do it yourself (though you need to learn iPhone MDM). You can also pay companies like TechLockdown, they'll give you a customized remote-controlled profile to install that is not removable at a weak moment. You can set a lock with delay. When you need to wait 6 hours to change the settings, you won't be changing your settings to allow $ADDICTIVE_APP.
The second option is much more complicated and has some caveats, like an inability to update apps, but I'll explain it since nobody seem to know about it.
There is a way to turn an iPhone into a dumbphone, while keeping your banking app, without a Mac, for free.
Go to Settings > Screen Time:
- Set up a PIN for Screen Time. You’ll be asked to provide a recovery account. Create another Apple account with a password hard to memorize, like sjhr3762962826. Write that down.
- In Content Restrictions > App Store, Media, Web, & Games > Web Content, set it to Only Approved Websites. Add all the websites you need to use in your daily life. Start simple, you'll quickly discover which ones you actually need. I'll let you in on a little secret: You don't need news.ycombinator.com in your pocket.
- In Content Restrictions > iTunes & App Store purchases, disallow Installing Apps.
- Personally, I also delete all apps that have any sort of infinite online content (even Wikipedia).
- Set up Downtime for when you are supposed to be asleep.
- Set up Always Allowed for critical apps which you might need even during your usual sleep hours (Health app, WhatsApp, Google Maps, etc.)
- Final step: Let a very close person (like family member) change the Screen Time PIN, and let him write it down somewhere safe. Then give the password and the PIN to the person for safekeeping.
When you need to change the settings (you want to add another allowed website, you want to install a new app, etc.) ask that person to make the change.
There is a way you can not rely on another person, too. I won't detail it here, but it involves timelocking the Apple account's password and the Screen Time PIN. See https://github.com/rayanamal/timelock
With this setup, you can’t change the Screen Time settings yourself, and you can’t reset the PIN using “I forgot the PIN” button either.
Brought to you by years of undiagnosed severe ADHD.
Take the time to do this so others do not have to.
I make restaurants print me menus, and I make theme parks get me a paper map and accept cash so I maintain my privacy.
It sounds like maybe you should go to a different one.
Re-installed the browser.
It's an addiction, plain and simple. I used to throw away my pack of cigs every single day for months. Months! Always bought one the next day. Very expensive. Crazy how quick the mind changes it's mind.
1. Make the screen monochrome. It greatly reduces the appeal of the entire system.
2. Increase the font size so that things don't look as pretty and slick. You deliberately cripple the UX.
3. As much as possible, use a browser instead of an "app" (e.g. X, Amazon etc.) and then set a limit for the time you can use your browser per day.
4. I use this as a launcher on my phone https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qqlabs.min... which prevents has "mindfulness delays" for selected apps and other features that make the usage less smooth.
A combination of these has helped me reduce my attachment to the phone. There are also lots of times when I don't take it with me.