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ianrip

macrumors 6502
Apple Lawyer "................... '
Obi.jpg
 

Art Mark

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2010
482
1,203
Oregon
I should be allowed to _fill in the blank_ and if not it’s anticompetitive. Nope. Can I force a bookstore to carry my book? Can I force Honda to sell cars with Toyota engines? Does my x-box run PlayStation games? Can I make a hackintosh and sell it with MacOS installed?
 

hagjohn

macrumors 68000
Aug 27, 2006
1,727
3,497
Pennsylvania
I disagree, at least as far as competing with Tile. I'm a (was) a Tile user and it absolutely sucks.
Doesn't matter if Tile sucks or not. Is Apple doing what Tile is accusing them of? When Apple releases their own version of Tile, will it have location services alway on?
 
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squirrellydw

macrumors regular
Nov 22, 2003
239
337
I know, why don't all these companies that don't like Apples terms come together and make a phone and sell it? And let everyone do anything they want on it for free. sarcasm kinda of

seriously though Apple should change some terms but they won't till they feel or are told to do so. Why should they, they are making a lot of money.
 

Internet Enzyme

macrumors 6502a
Feb 21, 2016
999
1,794
and that's the definition of anti-competive and anti-consumer.

Make it so hard for 3rd party that their customers flock to you.

i don’t think it’s “anti-consumer” given the stipulation in my scenario that Apple makes a better service. as for anti-competitive, id argue that apple is under no obligation to provide tile an api that matches whatever apple is able to privately build for their own platform. it’s a major security risk and its an unreasonable ask on tiles part.
 

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,551
21,993
Singapore
"Tile should make a better device"

Exactly how are they gonna do this when the ability to locate devices is entirely dependent on a user mesh network that Apple no longer allows to exist? I guarantee you, when Apple's bluetooth tag comes out, it's going to work, 100%, the same way Tile's does, in that users' iOS devices anonymously update the location info for the Apple tag the way the Tile app did in prior years.

Maybe Apple will actually resolve this issue. They could have an update in iOS 14 that allows apps to share non-user location data, by requiring a user data disconnect at the API level and also. User-paired bluetooth devices cannot be synced to their servers, but non-user-paired bluetooth devices with their own Vendor ID can. I really doubt Apple will go through the trouble, though.

But at the end of the day, the App Store walled garden problem will still be there. I'm 100% okay with people deciding that Apple's App Store is where 100% of their software purchases should go; I just wish that was a choice they were making and not one Apple was making for them.

Are people forgetting that android exists? Funny how everyone likes to crow about the 80+% market share that android enjoys, yet it’s suddenly the end of the world when a company is at a disadvantage on a platform with minority market share.

The problem with tile is that they are a feature, not a product. Even if Apple gave in to their demands, the original problem will still remain. Namely that there simply aren’t enough people using their product to make it really work the way they advertise.

Contrast this with Airtags, which will enter an ecosystem already populated with 1 billion+ Apple devices capable of emitting Bluetooth signals and triggering the “find my” feature, and which uses a mesh network way more secure and complicated than anything Tile will ever be able to come up with.

This has nothing to do with Apple being a monopoly or exhibiting monopolistic tendencies. Tile knows their days are numbered, and they are grasping on to any accusation they can find to try and paint themselves as the victim. The issue is with Tile having a flawed business model that sold crappy products, and no amount of legislation can fix that.
 

dwaite

macrumors 65816
Jun 11, 2008
1,227
1,008
and that's the definition of anti-competive and anti-consumer.

Make it so hard for 3rd party that their customers flock to you.

Actually, Tile going out of business because Apple is able to make a better product is the definition of market competition. I think you were thinking of Apple blocking Tile's ability to make a better product - which they haven't in any way, shape or form.

Tile's whining about having a pop-up for users that they have to either click every so often or turn off in settings. I haven't seen them do jack to make a better product.

Tile's complaint here is that they can't compete with a product Apple hasn't even announced yet. I sure hope they are pouring effort into engineering, because otherwise Apple will eat their lunch even if Tile does get their one-click-always-allow location access.
 

LeadingHeat

macrumors 65816
Oct 3, 2015
1,044
2,608
Not gonna lie, the fact this was taken out is pretty damn annoying to me.

Part of my job involves operating a commercial vehicle. I have an iPad Air2 that has LTE connectivity that runs one application called GeoTab for electronic driver logs.

It constantly asks me do I want to allow the software to know the location :|
You know you can set it to “always allow” right? You just have to go into the settings of the app, then location, then hit always allow. I think this is a great middle ground for privacy. People who want it can have it, people who unknowingly give their every location detail to developers don’t.
 

4jasontv

Suspended
Jul 31, 2011
6,272
7,548
if someone is so daring as to piggy back on the iPhone's success, they'd better have a Plan B when Apple copies your idea and pushes you out of business. It has happened numerous times over the years. If Apple really likes your product- you're pretty much screwed.

Everyone slowly looks at SuperClock!.
 

cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,471
California
and that's the definition of anti-competive and anti-consumer.

no it’s not
[automerge]1585799750[/automerge]
Doesn't matter if Tile sucks or not. Is Apple doing what Tile is accusing them of? When Apple releases their own version of Tile, will it have location services alway on?

If it does, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s apple’s platform. It doesn’t have a monopoly in the platform market -in fact, it’s an extreme minority compared to android.
 

Appleman3546

macrumors 6502
May 13, 2019
405
687
Puts pressure on Apple to delve into the same location setting hoops that devs do or face privacy/anticompetitive scrutiny... let’s see if Apple likes it’s own restrictions that it places on devs
 

Stoke

Suspended
Jul 29, 2019
15
17
Tile is holding their customers hostage with their app and data collection. That's the thing that has gotten worse.

In the beginning they just would hide their intentions and the way they kept tracking you. You could just opt out of the location-based functions.

Meanwhile they annoy you everytime with multiple banners and dialogs to give them location access (fills a whole screen) before they let you trigger you key ring (sic, key feature).

If there's practices that should be looked closely at it's those of Tile, who will sell you an excellent hardware but then will keep you a step away from using it the way you want so that you will accept their actual business model and let them track your whereabouts at times.

I can only wish that Apple's product strategy will hurt them. I'll gladly exchange any of the bought Tile trackers for ones of an less intrusive company (other trackers have become good and loud, too, meanwhile), be it Apple or others.

And thank you Apple for helping enforce this privacy even it looks like competition in this case.

If Tile had just let me disable tracking, I would have second their arguments, but they plainly show how far they will go to get their way and give a **** about their customers' rights and decisions.

I hope Tile will pay for that in the end and judges will look at Tile's practices.

Can't say if there's anything one can do about an app being that aggressive and limiting the value of a good that they sold you. Apple can't probably update the store guidelines amid the given accusations, but I would prefer if they created a rule that forbids these kinds of practices.
 
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Deliro

macrumors 65816
Sep 20, 2011
1,142
1,336
Tile can still hold a portion of the market. I’m sure that apples airtags will be double the price and won’t have replaceable batteries. While having it all in find my is nice but only if competitively priced.
 

cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,471
California
Tile can still hold a portion of the market. I’m sure that apples airtags will be double the price and won’t have replaceable batteries. While having it all in find my is nice but only if competitively priced.

Most mobile devices, by far, are Android devices. That’s a plenty big market for Tile.
 
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AdonisSMU

macrumors 604
Oct 23, 2010
7,297
3,047
Apple has had find my app since 2010. They essentially recycled Apple's idea. I wonder if Apple could file a patent lawsuit against them.
 
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DamoTheBrave

macrumors regular
Apr 20, 2011
212
334
I love my Apple hardware, but I honestly hope they lose the ever-loving **** out of this case. They've left too much of a ****ing graveyard of companies by basically stealing their ideas outright and then effectively locking them out of the market they built via either pricing or kneecaping their featureset.

We really need a legitimate option for fully-third-party software. This arrangement where Apple markets their iOS devices like computers but then manages their software ecosystem like video game consoles isn't a great arrangement for anyone involved but Apple.
If losing this case means they can't release the 'Tile competitor' then I feel it's ending badly for consumers. Tile was full of promise but rarely worked well in my experience. The Apple model looks far more solid (based on rumours, granted).
 
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TheFluffyDuck

macrumors 6502a
Jul 26, 2012
741
1,859
Really? No...Say it isn't true. A company that has garbage Intel integrated graphics cards as the entry, or the only card in some models of their "pro" line (except the model that costs as much as a good second-hand car), is being anti-consumerist. No way, I refuse to believe it.
 
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cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,471
California
Really? No...Say it isn't true. A company that has garbage Intel integrated graphics cards as the entry, or the only card in some models of their "pro" line (except the model that costs as much as a good second-hand car), is being anti-consumerist. No way, I refuse to believe it.
Nobody is forcing consumers to buy the same machines. They obviously satisfy the needs of people who buy them, unless you think everyone is an idiot.
 
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44267547

Cancelled
Jul 12, 2016
37,642
42,491
It’s obvious Tile feels threatened, why else are they speaking out now about this. They realize Apple is in the market to create their own ‘tag’, and when Apple enters the market pretty much for anything, they dominate it. If I was Tile, I would be scared For what’s to come with the added competition.
 
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