Let Them Eat 'Apps'
THIS morning Ryan linked to this page (US government site) and then quoted: "The payment site is designed to work with all mobile and desktop browsers. If you have a technical issue related to browser compatibility, we recommend downloading the latest version of Google Chrome. If you still have problems, you may request technical support within your account from the help page."
I am familiar with this phenomenon and wrote about it in 2021 [1, 2], then made a formal complaint that was handled by the Council.
I told Ryan "it is a chrome webapp, proprietary on proprietary" (both Chrome and the "app", probably the operating system too). It's not very user-friendly and if you somehow manage to install this malware (with a "recent" enough so-called 'phone'; old versions won't be supported anymore), then you have no actual person to speak to; they tend to say, "you can go to our site to run our malware on your malware" (browser), but there too there's no actual person who can help. They want people to struggle with finger strokes and unfamiliar (to be learned and used only once in a lifetime) interfaces. They're basically cheapening the service... making it cheaper only to themselves (while you pay with your time, angst and so on).
I joked with Ryan that "you must be a humanoid with "apps"... otherwise, [it's] either hard or persona non grata". I told him that "for accessibility reasons they tend to have paper-based fallbacks" (they always exist but are also well hidden; they'd even lie to some people about the existence of such options, not for technical reasons but because of the above-mentioned cheapening).
"It costs more to file using paper," he says. Yes, they try to punish people one way or another, like today's U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) penalising people financially if they do not use Microsoft's proprietary formats.
I told Ryan, "it also costs more to eat well, but you don't want to live on just bread and butter..."
The latest article by Dr. Andy Farnell speaks about this. He said: "My family and I have been free from BigTech for many years and refuse to use Microsoft, Google or other US services for security reasons. That has sometimes made life difficult, to say the least. But we are resolute and insistent. Despite relentless, cloying propaganda claiming it's "impossible" to be free of US behemoths, we've been happily and more safely living that simple reality for a long time."
'Apps' aren't fast and they typically don't save time considering how much maintenance (set aside costs) a modern "phone" demands. It's like having a pet inside your pocket or purse. It's just an extra responsibility, no matter where one goes. A wristwatch didn't demand battery changes (or charges) every day and you didn't need to constantly upgrade it, worry about bloat, viruses etc.
Go Appless. Not Apples. Appless. █
You feed him data any second it's turned on.