[HN Gopher] Apple's Testy Developer Relationships Threaten to Ha...
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       Apple's Testy Developer Relationships Threaten to Hamper Vision Pro
        
       Author : mfiguiere
       Score  : 31 points
       Date   : 2024-01-21 15:56 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com)
        
       | MDWolinski wrote:
       | Meh. This is just latching on to some large companies (Netflix,
       | etc) who already stated they won't be building custom apps for
       | it. Netflix doesn't even have a native Mac app, so it's not
       | surprising that they wouldn't have a native app for the Vision
       | Pro, especially if the built in Safari can do everything a native
       | App could or would.
       | 
       | Now, if there was an advantage to building an app for Netflix, et
       | al then they will. I suspect that the success of the device (or
       | failure) will determine if/when these large companies start
       | thinking more seriously about native apps.
       | 
       | Many companies jumped on to the Apple Watch bandwagon only to
       | find its limited nature hindered app development too much. Apple
       | pitched the use case for the Watch in 3 areas, turns out it
       | thrived on notifications and fitness tracking.
       | 
       | Talk to me after the Vision Pro launches and users start
       | providing feedback on needs, etc and what the actual use case is.
        
         | wilsonnb3 wrote:
         | > especially if the built in Safari can do everything a native
         | App could or would.
         | 
         | No downloads without a native app, which could affect the whole
         | "using it on a plane" thing people keep mentioning.
        
         | signatoremo wrote:
         | > This is just latching on to some large companies (Netflix,
         | etc) who already stated they won't be building custom apps for
         | it.
         | 
         | Incorrect. They could have allowed their iPad apps to run on
         | Vision Pro, but they specifically chose not to.
         | 
         |  _Developers who offer software for the iPad automatically see
         | their apps pop up on the Vision Pro App Store. That is, unless
         | they opt out -- as Netflix, Spotify and YouTube are planning to
         | do._
        
       | lijok wrote:
       | I struggle to see what new capabilities Vision enables that
       | justify its inconvenient form factor.
       | 
       | Apple had how much time to come up with a killer app for Vision?
       | And what did they come up with?
       | 
       | Apple should be bursting at the seams with crazy innovative app
       | ideas. If they can't come up with anything interesting, I doubt
       | many independent developers will.
        
         | dharmab wrote:
         | The only use case I see is for someone who lives alone and
         | doesn't have space for a home theater. Compared to the cost of
         | a huge OLED TV and surround sound system, it's worth
         | consideration.
         | 
         | Otherwise, what use case is worth 3.5k? It's not a work device,
         | because the sidecar is limited to a single display. It's not
         | compatible with OpenXR, so it's not a simulation device.
        
           | wkat4242 wrote:
           | The effective resolution will be lower than 4K of course.
           | Because each display is roughly 4K per eye but both have a
           | lot of overlap (necessary for the stereo effect) and the
           | virtual display doesn't use the full visual field because
           | that would be incredibly uncomfortable. Like sitting too
           | close to a cinema screen.
           | 
           | I have my doubts about productivity too. One or two displays
           | doesn't really make the most of it and you still need a Mac
           | to run serious computing (better than iOS or iPad OS) apps.
           | 
           | I also wonder how well the eye tracking mouse pointer plus
           | finger pinching for clicking will be when doing this for real
           | work. I'd imagine it fatigues quickly. Oculus uses hand
           | movements plus finger pinching and that's way worse for
           | comfort than using the VR controllers.
           | 
           | And of course there's the elephant in the room, the price
           | tag.
        
           | lttlrck wrote:
           | For watching movies I'd take a short throw projector over any
           | VR HMD for the foreseeable future. Plus even if I were
           | single, I'd probably be planning on guests at some point.
        
             | dharmab wrote:
             | I've got a projector home theater, there's a couple of
             | issues:
             | 
             | 1. You need to have a lot of control over the room
             | lighting. If you can't block out all the light the image
             | quality suffers a lot.
             | 
             | 2. You need to have a clear wall or projector screen, which
             | might mean giving up some useful space in your home.
             | 
             | 3. The black levels are awful compared to OLED.
             | 
             | As for guests, other than the occasional movie nights, we
             | usually play a board game or are making something as our
             | activity.
        
         | x0x0 wrote:
         | And against a low hundreds of thousands potential installed
         | base with apple stealing 30% -- ie well over half your profit
         | on typical 50% saas margins. How can developers make money on
         | that? A super-high 10% of tam is optimistically 40k copies
         | sold. That's borderline for a solo dev, and doesn't come close
         | to covering the opportunity cost for any larger software shop.
        
         | zachkatz wrote:
         | Phones have completely fucked our posture because they have to
         | be hunched over and our fingers need to contort into unnatural
         | shapes and do repetitive motions. The form factor of being able
         | to stand up straight (or sit back) naturally while computing
         | _is_ the killer feature.
        
           | dharmab wrote:
           | I assure you our posture was already terrible
        
           | lijok wrote:
           | That's an interesting take, and I can agree with it. How will
           | you sell this however?
        
       | wkat4242 wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/DSSWg
       | 
       | Ps this site was really nasty with its paywall.. it even
       | _literally_ told me to turn off dark reader. That 's just to
       | improve readability, it doesn't block or bypass anything. Luckily
       | archive.ph bypasses all that crap.
        
       | 0x38B wrote:
       | I've come to prefer websites over apps on my iPhone. I have more
       | control and privacy protections in the browser thanks to my
       | adblocker (1) and even userscripts (2).
       | 
       | But it's not just control and privacy; the experience is better,
       | too:
       | 
       | - YouTube without ads (depending on the adblocker-YouTube war).
       | 
       | - Spotify lets me play any track I want with 'request desktop
       | website', or an album from start to finish - in the app, it's
       | shuffle-only without premium.
       | 
       | So using Safari for YouTube and or Spotify on the Vision Pro
       | isn't a big loss for me.
       | 
       | 1: I pay for 1Blocker.
       | 
       | 2: https://github.com/quoid/userscripts
        
         | wodenokoto wrote:
         | For me the main benefit of a browser over apps is you can have
         | multiple windows open of the same thing.
        
         | dzhiurgis wrote:
         | I've switched to web version of fb messenger.com as they
         | finally respect "request desktop website" in safari. Still it's
         | pretty broken, doesn't do push notifications and forces you to
         | log in each time. All obviously on purpose.
         | 
         | Instagram is a little better, but won't let you post videos for
         | whatever reason.
         | 
         | TikTok is fairly useable if you manage to log in.
        
           | 0x38B wrote:
           | I don't know if it's worth the time, but a userscript to
           | change some CSS and move or delete some elements could make
           | Instagram or FB better on the small phone screen. That's on
           | the long-tail end of my "this would be cool to do" list.
        
       | usernamed7 wrote:
       | Apple has an opportunity to once again lead and make new things
       | possible. But I think they are also seeing this as App store 2.0,
       | and that's a shortsighted move which is obviously causing a lot
       | of groans. This is disruptive tech, but apple isn't using it to
       | disrupt.
        
       | kj99 wrote:
       | For god's sake, who buys a Vision Pro to listen to Spotify?
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-21 23:01 UTC)