Originally Posted by
TgeekB apps can give much better functionality than your average website.
Sent from mTalk on my SP4
See, this is the problem. This perception here. THis is wholly untrue. It's code. Whether the code is in javascript, a java app, html5 or a phone app, you can make it do pretty much whatever you want. It's a matter of devoting resources to doing it right. Right now, the devotion is to phone apps. But this could just as easily be devoted to a webpage that has the same or better functionality.
Originally Posted by Elky64
because "browser/OS" not supported
This here is just bad programmers. If your coding a website, you test it. OS not supported I've never seen, if a browser compiles and runs on your OS, the webpage should work. Browser not supported is a two fold issue. One, you had companies, like microsoft, making their own standards because they thought they owned the world. Two, you had programmers who were just lazy. Even today I visit companies that say oh this internal web page her eonly works with IE. I grant you, it's a problem. But, these problems here are much more solvable by a community or even individuals than waiting for one large entity to "fix" or "include" something.
Originally Posted by Elky64
Right now and IMHO, many apps provide better scaling for smaller displays and simplify what a web page can provided, essentially a much cleaner interface that's more easily navigated.
Right now yes, this is true. HOwever, it's only because web programmers are lazy. Any website can detect what browser (mobil version, screen size etc) is coming in the door and display content based on that. Many do it very very well. Amazon. Newegg, ebay, mcmaster-carr , many news sites, all have very very nice mobile versions of their website . Many won't do something in a webpage precisely to steer you to their app because they can gain more information about YOU, from an app. WHich is behavior, I for one could do without.
Originally Posted by Elky64
Even if it did I cannot see where a browser could be a replacement for the specific functionality of thousands of apps, those that require no data/wifi connection.
I don't know of very many apps that don't require an internet connection. There's some electrical wire and conduit sizing one I use. But even it requires because they want to show you ads. And while I don't like the trend, pretty soon, anything and everything is going to require an internet connection to operate, that's just the trend of how things are going right now. They'll start with, well, you can not connect your new fridge to the internet, but, if you have a problem, it will require it, or they'll deny warranty coverage because they couldn't monitor it for problems or update its firmware themselves constantly because you never connected it. Tesla already does this today. I hope this doesn't come to pass for most things, but, jebus, even light bulbs are "smart" now. My new garage door opener I had to order specifically the "old" model because I didn't want to pay $20 extra for a "smart" door opener. Who the hell cares about the status of their garage door when their not home. Leave, watch it close as your pulling away, your done. I don't need a damn app or need to know the "status" of my garage door via the internet!! Anyway, it's just the trend I see now. While some want all ths stuff, mostly, I see it being stuffed down your throat. I had to go out of my way to find the download version of the tax program I use, mostly they steer you towards their online cloud version. Same with quickbooks. Same with ALOT of stuff. Hell, i'd be surprised if you can buy a harddrive or SD card in 10 years, they're damn near forcing people to use online storage today. There are some apps that don't and shouldn't require an internet connection, say, a calculator, or stopwatch, even games. ANd these should be apps.
I think the main point is, you had lazy web programmers when "smart" phones came out. Apple capitalized on that, and apps were born. Well, Palm had this before, but nobody made apps for palm that duplicated web stuff, and the web stuff worked poorly because you had lazy web programmers.
There's a reason apple wholly refused to let flash run on their phones, because at that time, flash was used on a large number of websites, and flash worked like garbage on some phones, apple wanting a seemless experience, force people to write apps if they wanted access their the people using their phones to ensure a seamless experience. But this was detrimental in my opinion.
Basically, you have two giant companies that control what goes on with your phone, and your best interests are not their primary or even secondary concern. Mabey I'm just old school, I've been around long enough to watch the dawn of the internet for the public as we know it (I was using talk on solaris over the .edu internet to talk with my GF in another state in 1989 because phone calls were expensive!), the browser wars, WAP, Palm's domination for a while. apple and googles rise in the mobile space (Hell, apple and googles rise in general, or in apples case rise and fall and rise!).
Websites CAN function today just as well as any app. SUre some apps just are better suited to being an app and I'm all for that. But the vast majority of apps are just a way to get content off the internet, interact with someone or some business entity, buy something, watch something etc. There is no reason to to have it as an app, IMO. And if there were websites that functioned properly , you'd have less privacy concerns, more platforms and devices, and none of this worrying if "an app" was coming for your device.
The watch Disney Jr app is being shutdown effective 05/31/2017 according to a splash screen when I open the app. While this may not seem like a crucial app for some, my kiddo loved watching shows on it....
Guytronic likes this.06-03-2017 10:16 AM
