Spyke

Replies

Comment on

Russia launches "social rating" platform to determine a person’s comparative “social status”

Reply in thread

You see, in the States, your credit score is an indication of how likely you are to be responsible and comply with the terms of a loan or other bank-related contract. If you have a low score, you don’t get a loan, because the bank sees you as a risk that you will not give their money back. You can still live your life normally, even with a low score, and possibly even rebuild your score over time. Only what you do with money influences your credit score.

In China, the social credit score is an indication of how loyal you are to the regime. A low social credit score, which is earned by disrespecting the regime or not following the silliest of laws, forbids you from using public transport, buying stuff, or getting education.

You can’t miss that contrast.

Comment on

iPhones in the EU get ability to set more default apps, delete more built-in ones

Reply in thread

An European iPhone, aka an iPhone which will get these features, is identified by a background process named countryd, introduced in iOS 16. Its only purpose is to compute and predict the most likely location of the user (as in country/region) and lock down features accordingly.

These are only some of the factors taken into the equation:

  • GPS location
  • Wi-Fi location
  • Wi-Fi hotspot country codes
  • Cellular/GSM country codes
  • IP address
  • Home and roaming operator regions
  • Apple Account region
  • Device region
  • Satellite reachability

countryd takes in all of these and more as input to provide the most likely country of the user. If that country is in the EU, then 💥 Sideloading, Default Apps, etc etc etc goodies

memes

Comment on

ordering stuff online

Reply in thread

Under EU consumer law, it’s a requirement for the seller to refund you the shipping cost as well, unless you paid for extras like faster delivery. I understand that’s not a thing in the States, though.

Comment on

iPhones in the EU get ability to set more default apps, delete more built-in ones

Reply in thread

As a developer, you don’t really get access to any of that.

Mainly, you can’t access any history of calls and messages at all, nor can you automate sending one. All interactions with calling or texting has to be done with user interaction. Namely, calling requires the user to confirm the call, and sending a message requires the user to confirm, and they can also edit the message beforehand.

I don’t think that’s bad, given that messages are some of the most private things on our devices, and personally, I never had to use any of these or required more access. But more choice is always appreciated.

memes

Comment on

Why can’t they think normally?

Technical explanation:

iOS apps cannot add systemwide actions in context menus, like for text selection. At best, they can create a sharing extension to have their app shown in the share sheet (page where you select who you send something to) and potentially add an action for easier discovery.

The only place they can add a systemwide actions is in their own app, hence why only the ChatGPT app has the Ask ChatGPT action.

memes

Comment on

Just apple things

Technical explanation:

iOS apps cannot add systemwide actions in context menus, like for text selection. At best, they can create a sharing extension to have their app shown in the share sheet (page where you select who you send something to) and potentially add an action for easier discovery.

The only place they can add a systemwide actions is in their own app, hence why only the ChatGPT app has the Ask ChatGPT action.

Comment on

Show me your iOS/macOS bugs

Firstly, I have to thank you for doing this - you’re awesome.

Given your

Can’t help with general UI/UX complaints

I am unsure you can help, but I’ll drop it in here anyway.

Device: iPhone 14 Pro on iOS 18.4 (released by the time of this comment)

Issue: When screen recording, the Dynamic Island activity shows up in the recording - this is intended. However, if I do something in an app which full-screens the UI (as in the app hides the status bar - for example, I tapped a photo in the Photos app to hide everything but the photo, zooming in also works I think), the island activity disappears, but the black cutout remains in the video until a few seconds later, when it too abruptly and weirdly disappears with some weird flickers and other visual glitches. I can’t word it properly, so here’s a video (idk how to upload it so here’s the first way I found to do this - lmk of any other way to do this): https://streamable.com/ko8gsy

My test case: I am playing music, and the dynamic island shows the now playing activity. I start screen recording in order to demonstrate the issue. I then go into an app which has the capability to hide the status bar (clock, wifi/cellular, battery and the dynamic island activities) - in my case, I choose to tap on a photo in the Photos app to hide all but the photo itself. I zoom into the photo before I do that so that the island isn’t on the black part of the UI (issue would be invisible). After tapping and when the status bar disappears, the activity does so too, but the cutout/“pill” remains until a few moments later, when it glitches out when it abruptly disappears too.

Has been happening since the iOS 18 dev betas in the summer at the least.

Sorry for the incredibly bad wording. Lmk if you need more info