Thread

Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy

822 points · 601 comments · MC995

AnonC · 1790088825 · focus · HN ↗
I doubt John Ternus will change direction anytime soon, since it will look like he’s reversing the plethora of eyesore ads that Tim Cook added over his tenure.
But the Apple with ads is not the Apple that had some taste and discernment in the past. For a long time I’ve visited the App Store’s app update page directly (tap and hold on App Store icon to see the context menu option). Anytime I inadvertently go to the App Store home page or the few times I search, it’s an ad filled disaster!
From this article
> repeatedly attempting to prod customers towards even more of the company’s products might seem cheap, even distasteful.
From a recent post by John Gruber:
> Steve Jobs in 2011: 'We Build Products That We Want for Ourselves, Too, and We Just Don't Want Ads' [1]
Looks like Tim Cook, John Ternus and Eddy Cue really enjoy being swamped with ads in their products. Will there soon be a time when Apple executives start carrying some other brand’s devices with them to avoid having a rotten experience?
[1]: We don’t want ads <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/07/28/jobs-we-dont-want-ads" rel="nofollow">https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/07/28/jobs-we-dont-wa...
1. avazhi · 1790092669 · focus · HN ↗
  Jobs would truly lose his shit if he saw what Apple has become.
  Source - worked at Apple ~2010.
  1. someguyiguess · 1790093049 · focus · HN ↗
    I haven’t worked for Apple but you’re definitely correct. Just compare what Jobs said about using a stylus with how happy the company was to announce that you could use Apple Pencil with the iPhone duo. It is self-evident. It’s far from the company Jobs once ran.
    sandcat_ · 1790093967 · focus · HN ↗
    You’re misunderstanding that quote. “If you saw a stylus they blew it!” referred to requiring a stylus to interact with the touch display. Having one optional, mainly for drawing, isn’t quite the same thing.
    That said I doubt he’d be happy at the current Pencil lineup. It’s a mess.
    debo_ · 1790097167 · focus · HN ↗
    Literal pencil-pushers are ruining the product!
    mcculley · 1790104259 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, and it makes sense to add the stylus/pencil after app developers had to learn how to deal with finger taps only. Apple did the same thing with the original Mac. There were no arrow keys on the first model, so that developers were forced to accommodate the mouse.
    SirHackalot · 1790101191 · focus · HN ↗
    I like being able to use Procreate or other image editing software on my iPad, and the only reason I’d consider a foldable in the first place is because I’d like to use it like I use my iPad. What’s so bad about having the option to use a stylus? Who cares what a dead tech oligarch once thought of styluses? Especially when the state of the technology wasn’t where it’s at now. If you could ask Jobs now, maybe he would have changed his mind.
    kalleboo · 1790169761 · focus · HN ↗
    Steve Jobs also repeatedly dissed the idea of an iPod that played video as late as one year before they started selling the iPod Video. I wouldn't take any of his stated opinions as gospel.
  2. jimt1234 · 1790093343 · focus · HN ↗
    Jobs has long been vocal about protecting the user experience. Not 100% sure if it's true, but I heard Jobs was originally opposed to custom apps running on the iPhone (the App Store), because he 'didn't want to turn iPhone in Windows'.
    asdff · 1790095839 · focus · HN ↗
    Jobs was right. Apps are so shitty now I don't even bother. Everything has a subscription now and there's so much noise its hard to actually find signal on the appstore.
    qzw · 1790097862 · focus · HN ↗
    Imagine if he had stuck to his guns on native apps. iPhone would’ve either died or we’d all be living in a web apps paradise right now.
    benoau · 1790098268 · focus · HN ↗
    It wouldn't have died - most apps are still just a thin UI over a corresponding online service, and most of the data and services proprietary APIs provide ended up achievable in a browser too. It is really just the internet that makes apps and smartphones useful.
    All apps really offered was a way to gatekeep payments in games that groom impulsive spending habits, they just happened to start making very serious money on Facebook right about the moment Jobs changed his mind.
    asdff · 1790099682 · focus · HN ↗
    Early on it was different with a lot more stuff actually running locally vs cloud service era. App store predated that for a little bit actually. There weren't microtransactions initially either. What you'd call a AAA game for that platform back then would actually be $9.99 one time payment.
    mahboi · 1790137096 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah, there were a lot of really good early iPhone games
    idiotsecant · 1790104043 · focus · HN ↗
    OK...but basically everyone uses custom apps because they are tremendously useful. You'd just ban all of them?
    [deleted] · 1790137117 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]
    vor_ · 1790115606 · focus · HN ↗
    Of course he wasn't right. Apps instantly became a signature part of the iPhone experience and a huge success story for the platform.
    mahboi · 1790137020 · focus · HN ↗
    Or the app is fine, but I don't want to bother downloading it for some random thing that should just be a website.
    [deleted] · 1790099341 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]
    vor_ · 1790115548 · focus · HN ↗
    Jobs wasn't always correct about things. There are a large number of examples where he wasn't.
  3. anon7000 · 1790097036 · focus · HN ↗
    Didn’t Jobs frequently lose his shit when he did work at Apple?
    onemoresoop · 1790101035 · focus · HN ↗
    Indeed. That’s what resulted in Apple beingn different than competition. Too bad Apple engineers were reprimanded and publicly humiliated, sometimes with no fault. But Jobs had a vision that’s been long gone from Apple and it really shows. Sometimes I wonder if Jobs himself would be corrupted by Apple’s success but I’ll never know the answer to that…
  4. grishka · 1790101629 · focus · HN ↗
    That's not a given. Visionary people sometimes go mildly insane over time. Source: worked at VKontakte and Telegram and watched it slowly happen to Durov.
    flemhans · 1790105487 · focus · HN ↗
    How did it affect Durov?
    grishka · 1790110739 · focus · HN ↗
    Questionable features like being able to delete anything in the conversation on both sides. Tacky UI choices like liquid glass on Android or the excessive use of Lottie animations every-damn-where. All while being completely deaf to feedback, both from within the team (any criticism makes you "toxic") and from the public. The way he treats his employees isn't exactly good either.
    ivm · 1790134356 · focus · HN ↗
    The first one is excellent though, I wish all messengers had it.
    grishka · 1790136041 · focus · HN ↗
    But you can no longer trust Telegram that things you had in your chat will still be there tomorrow. This feature feels like someone has hacked into your device and deleted files they didn't like.
    ivm · 1790137830 · focus · HN ↗
    "Your" chat consists of other people's messages too and they own those. You can also delete your messages on Discord or Slack – it's quite normal as a feature.
    grishka · 1790169878 · focus · HN ↗
    Firstly, I'm talking about PMs, not group chats.
    Of course, I have nothing against being able to delete your own messages for both. A time limit within which you can do that is nice but I can live without one. But Telegram lets you delete every message in any PM conversation, including incoming ones, for both people. Or even the entire conversation, and make it disappear from the other person's list without a trace.

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