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Comment by onemoreact | Hacker News Reader

Your forgetting about the web. Apple does not veto websites just things in their little walled garden.

Considering how Apple controls the operating system, the app store, the browser and the whole device in general, it wouldn't be technically hard for Apple to censor websites either.

Plus, Apple is restricting the browser on purpose, to make it less useful. Tell me, how can you create an online image editing software, if Apple doesn't allow you to upload files from iPhone's browser?

And what Apple is doing today would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago. Censoring the web is perfectly within their grasp and you should see that, otherwise you're not seeing the forest from the trees.

The most popular home computers have always been walled gardens where the manufacture got a cut from every peace of software sold. A huge chunk of all consumer software runs on them and there approval could easily make or break a software development house. We just called them 'game consoles' and conveniently forgot that their approval process was far more expensive and difficult than anything Angry Birds needed to bother with.

So, I don't think there is anything all that novel about the iOS approach and I find it hard to think of such things as an erosion of control when consoles predated the PC in most peoples homes and tended to be far more draconian than iOS. Do you even remember how bad phones and their app stores where like pre Apple?

PS: Microsoft had no problem getting skin into this game and started taking their cut well before Apple produced iOS. Despite what the article says.

People mention 'game consoles' a lot, as if that's a good thing.

However, the best games have always been running on PCs first, often with exclusivity. Starcraft, The Sims, World of Warcraft, Half Life, Counter Strike, SimCity, Quake, Diablo 1 & 2 and the list can go on.

I own a Wii as it came free with my Internet subscription. It's gathering dust since last year. The games are simply not addictive. And this feeling I had on PS 2 too - the games feel too dumb and non-engaging, lacking taste. Which is why I never bothered.

Some people like these games consoles. I never did.

> However, the best games have always been running on PCs first, often with exclusivity. [list]

Confirmation bias. See Mario, Contra, Chrono Trigger, Sonic, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Halo, Alan Wake, Uncharted, Metroid, Heavy Rain, Sega Rally, Gran Turismo, Tekken, Street Fighter, Soul Edge, Forza Motorsport and the list can go on.

Games consoles don't pretend to be anything other than games consoles. They don't try to make it sound like you should service all your computer needs with one.

At least, I've never seen even the faintest hint of a games console implying it could be used to email the boss a copy of the spreadsheet you created on it.

Originally the PS3 was advertised as being able to run LINUX on so you can create a spreadsheet on a PS3 and email it to your boss. HDMI = 1920 x 1080 resolution screen + USB keyboard and Mouse + 60GB HDD and it's better then many office computers of that time period. They also advertised some people that built a cheap super computer, and others used them for blue ray players so they where not targeting just the gaming market.

Well, and Sony got their deserved payback when they pulled that feature for no valid reason whatsoever.

Game consoles are not PCs. Consoles have never been generative devices. They are appliances.

Until a judge orders Apple to blacklist or redirect a list of domains for any legal reason. Yesterday it was because of counterfeit purses. Tomorrow it could be about national security.

We shouldn't make it easy.

Once a federal judge tells you to do something, you pretty much have to do it, no matter who you are.

The point is that without a gatekeeper, who does that judge order around?

The author addresses that as well. By making a change to the only permissible browser on iOS and Apple could block sites they don't like as well. It's fortunate that they don't currently do this but we shouldn't let them get into a position where they can.

edit: grammar, attitude.

True, but if people spend more time in apps than browsing the web, then web apps might be harder to monetize than native apps on mobile devices.

And god forbid if we let users spend more time to the kind of apps they love, instead of forcing them to use the web so we can monetize it better...

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