Definitely not peak, my kid asked for a Rubik's Cube solver app which turned out to be subscription based, then wanted to tune her Ukelele with an app which turned out to be subscription based.
replyGotta keep up with pitch inflation!
replyThat's what makes me sad about the current Tetris game, on iOS.
replyOne of my favorite games ever, and I'd gladly pay for an ad-free version, but they don't have it. I assume there's much more money to be made with ads, over subscriptions.
Play the Gameboy version. I bought every single official Tetris version and they all suck in conparison.
replyGameboy emulators are now available again in the iOS app store or even as a a web app. Or just play on real hardware.
I think there's money to be made with both, but there's more money to be made by not maintaining two separate models, so ads win.
replyIt's not that rare for games to offer a "remove ads" option for a few bucks. That model doesn't require a lot of extra "maintenance".
replyI think a few bucks for ad-free brings in more money for most developers, but that still pales in comparison to a recurring subscription model (or models where people keep spending in-app on consumables).
A penetrating observation that feels true. Too bad.
replyOh, the Rubik's Cube app has both actually - the subscription gets rid of the ads you have to watch to get more solves.
replyThis sort of nonsense is what I think will drive adoption of AI for personal apps. Tell it to create a ukulele tuning app and you get one without ads without subscription that you can make work exactly how you want. I wonder whether this is something that only privacy and tech oriented folk will do and care about our whether it will be adopted generally.
replyThe source of this problem is that it costs $99/year + the churn of having to keep up with the latest ios api updates to have an app for iphones. Which kills the normal free software that would have filled this role. As well as the fact that the subscription apps can pay for adverts to sit at the top of the search results.
replyOnce governments force Apple to allow sideloading we should get some kind of f-droid for ios which only lists open source user respecting apps.
Meanwhile Google is going to block apps sideloading in Sep 2026, including F-Droid installed.
replyOnly applies to Android. Apple make it deliberately expensive to publish apps and deliberately annoying to run your own apps locally (have to refresh every 7 days).
replyMetronome apps are paid now or have an 'ad' tier. I took my money and spent it on a real metronome.
replyDid you buy it or show them a better way of doing it?
replyMan, you don't want to know. But I guess I've answered you anyway.
replyThis is why some hardware is still supreme. I've had the same Korg chromatic tuner for 20 years and would not be in the least bit surprised if it goes for another 40.
replyThere was some video on reddit that I saw the other day where a man struggled to take a photo with his camera app because it kept popping full screen ads in front of everything else.
replyResume viewing... resume viewing...
replyYeah, at that point it's better to buy an external lens for the Iphone. Single purchase and better pictures.
replyOr an actual camera that can afford more area for a non-miniature sensor.
replyApple customers are just built different.
replyThere is Halide which I find completely uninteresting because I have a Sony A7iv. (Funny my latest piece of “gear” I am learning to use is a selfie stick because I can do stuff like https://mastodon.social/@UP8/tagged/selfie and I don’t see third party apps really improve on the official camera)
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