Recently there was a story about how Apple was changing policies so
e-books from other companies could no longer be bought on Apple
devices. Amazon Kindle user anger was expressed in article after
article on the web. Tech savvy writers typed or dictated lots of text
about how awful this was and what an infringement on their ability use
established apps by Apple competitors.
As an avid reader who uses a Kindle device and the Kindle app to read
I had to check it out for myself. I went to buy a book in my Kindle
app on my phone like I had done in the past and an alert popped up
saying "purchases via this device are no longer supported" or
something like that.
So it was true! They had tied off the ability to purchase ebooks on my iPad.
Having grown up before personal computers were hot and after using the
pre-Internet things like America Online and CompuServe I opened up the
browser on my mobile device and browsed to the Amazon website. I
searched for the book that I wanted to purchase, found the Kindle
format button and made sure I was logged into my Amazon account in my
browser. And I purchased the book with no issues. I then switched
over to the Kindle, downloaded my newly purchased book, and commenced
to reading it.
"Apps" make things very convenient at times, but they have become
herding devices. By that I mean they heard us into a sales funnel
where the app or service progressively moves us closer to the point at
which we part with money. Apps also tend to soak up the data all
around them and sometimes even that they have no right to be accessing
unless we allow it. I tend to shy away from apps because I just don't
trust the company or I just live without whatever it is that the app
is providing.
That's not to say I don't have a lot of apps on my mobile device. I
do! But I don't let what happens get in the way of what I'm trying to
do. If silly stuff like this battle between the giant companies gets
in the way I tend to go to the source of what the app is doing, the
website, and just keep going. So many times I've found that an app is
just a quick exoskeleton that is actually running a browser and
browsing the website anyways but with extra overlays and limits put on
you so that they can control what you're doing.
I guess the moral of the story is don't lead the battles between the
tech giants stand in the way of what I'm trying to accomplish. You
shouldn't either!
