The US Department of Justice and 16 state and district attorneys general accused Apple of operating an illegal monopoly in the smartphone market in a new antitrust lawsuit. The DOJ and states are accusing Apple of driving up prices for consumers and developers at the expense of making users more reliant on its iPhones.

  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The apple watch thing is kinda interesting.

    So you make a watch and it has super tight integrations with OS level software on the phone.

    I can’t imagine they can force apple to write an Android app, which doesn’t even have the same system level access as their OS app and provide some sort of degraded service.

    Maybe they could force them to let it function in some limited way but where do you draw the line on forcing them to write android apps?

    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      I can’t imagine they can force apple to write an Android app, which doesn’t even have the same system level access as their OS app and provide some sort of degraded service.

      No, they can’t really force it. But it’s evidence in support of the accusation.

      But I wanted to point out, Android is much, much more permissive in what peripherals and apps can do. And they’d likely be able to bake Android support in by utilizing the already available Wear OS API.

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        But I wanted to point out, Android is much, much more permissive in what peripherals and apps can do.

        That’s kinda true, but not what I was getting at. Android has restrictive background processing limits and the APIs around it keep getting more restrictive and the OEMs like Samsung keep ignoring the rules of how things should work and break your apps when you do it right anyway… Ultimately it’s incredibly difficult to write an app and guarantee background work.

        Apple, is even worse on its restrictions of background work, but Apple owns the OS and and can bypass it all for their watch.

        Apple will never get to bypass the fuckery you have to deal with on Android, only the Android OEMs get that.

    • generalpotato@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      This. Smells like me too (the expression, not the movement) as opposed to a well thought out plan as to how they’ll tackle the monopoly.

      • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        Biden appointed a bunch of pretty vehemently anti-monopoly people to power, this is just how long it actually takes them to conduct an investigation thorough enough to bring suit.

        • generalpotato@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Right. Real Estate is a shit show and has been a shit show for decades with corporations buying out SFH homes and properties, driving up prices and making them unaffordable for the average American. If I was stack list of problems to tackle impacting Americans, that would be pretty high up the list instead of a tech company.

          Of course, you can and should do both, but considering time and money are finite resources, it’s very on the nose to pick this fight instead of the one that impacts Americans the most.

          I don’t think monopolies should exist, but also, we should be looking at regulations and law making instead of law suits.

          • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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            3 months ago

            I don’t know how much of that falls under the DOJ’s purview. Based on what I’ve heard from various congressional staffers, a physical letter mailed to your congressional representative actually does mean something. You can also go to your city council meetings and tell the city council they should do something about housing.

            • generalpotato@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Oh, I’m in the heart of a place well known for exorbitant property values, and there’s been plenty of talk of “fixing housing”. Literally everybody runs on the platform of lowering property values, so I’m sure the letting your congressional staffer know has been done to death.

              In addition to that, countless articles, op-eds, research has been published in the last 4 years alone and the point I’m making is, that this DOJ move seems more political theater than anything, which is surprising coming from folks that are supposedly about consumer rights and protections.

              We need actual problems to be solved, not grand gestures and showboating of supposed take downs of “monopolies” when the laws around monopolistic practices are about as ancient as the presidential candidates trying to win points with their voter base.

  • UristMcHolland@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I don’t hate Apple but I do hate their influence. They release some wireless earbuds and then suddenly all the manufacturers “don’t have enough room for a headphone jack”, …get the fuck out of here.

    • iopq@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Actually it coincided with IPX rating for smartphones. The last headphone jack smartphones did not have water resistance, but the newer models did. People voted for a more sealed phone with their wallets.

      These days you can get both, but my phone has a 3.5mm jack and NO ipx rating that I could find

      • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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        3 months ago

        Actually it coincided with IPX rating for smartphones. The last headphone jack smartphones did not have water resistance, but the newer models did. People voted for a more sealed phone with their wallets.

        My rugged phone is IP68 but it has Usb C connector and SIM/SD tray, so adding a headphone jack while having an IPX rating seems not impossible.

        • iopq@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          It’s not impossible, they just didn’t do it back then so we ended up in the situation we are in now. By the way, the DAC in my phone is low quality, so I hear popping and distortion when I play

          http://plasticity.szynalski.com/

          at the same time, my phone doesn’t do output to a DAC through USB because it already has a 3.5mm port, so I can’t use something higher quality

          • uis@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            I don’t think DAC is reason behind popping and distortion. Probably shit power circuit or amplifier.

            • iopq@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              It’s both, because I hear little bells in the background even at low volume. An IEM is very sensitive so needs very little power, the amplifier will perform worse as it needs to output more power.

              In fact when I use over ears, it sounds better because I increase the device volume which increases the input voltage

              Anyway, the $9 Apple dongle blows my phone’s 3.5mm jack out of the water. My tablet and desktop have the same issue, but when I connect the same devices to my ancient laptop they sound perfect.

              The point is the 3.5mm jack actually gets me worse sound quality because my phone doesn’t output audio to usb, so I only use it with my TWS. Which, by the way, also sound like crap in the same game, but it might just be Bluetooth issues

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        People voted for a more sealed phone with their wallets.

        LOL imagine if capitalism actually worked this way…

        Edit: People seem to be missing the point. I am aware that phones with 3.5mm jacks exist. I also just understand that capitalism and “free markets” don’t actually work the way people seem to think they do. Maybe if the headphone jack was the most important feature to people, it would do better. Or maybe if it was an mp3 player and not a phone. Or maybe, simply, if it was manufactured by a brand people have heard of. Sometimes it’s literally that simple.

        But that isn’t the case, is it?

        • iopq@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          There are still phones with 3.5mm jacks and they are not the best selling models

          • prole@sh.itjust.works
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            3 months ago

            Maybe people aren’t spending $500-$1200 on a device just because it has a headphone jack. Like that’s anyone’s top concern.

            • iopq@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Zen phone 10 has everything you need and a 3.5mm jack

              Why isn’t it outselling the rest of them?

              • prole@sh.itjust.works
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                3 months ago

                Are you asking me to explain microeconomics to you? Ask 100 people in the US if they’ve ever heard of Zen Phone, and 99 will tell you no.

                And, again, that’s nobody’s top concern. Maybe if it was an mp3 player, rather than a phone, whether or not it has a headphone jack would be higher up on the priority list.

                • iopq@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  If it was that important, people would have heard about it