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. latexr · 1790090744 · focus · HN ↗
  > Looks like Tim Cook, John Ternus and Eddy Cue really enjoy being swamped with ads in their products.
  I bet they don’t see any ads, because their accounts will have the highest tier (or even a special one above that) of everything.
  1. alentred · 1790092915 · focus · HN ↗
    That’s bad hardening. You are not supposed to use your root account for everyday work.
    gmueckl · 1790094783 · focus · HN ↗
    No, hardening has nothing to do with it. They have a feature flag system deeply embedded in their software. And such systems can totally distribute different flags to different people. And that's how you could easily create VIP accounts with different behaviors than the rest of the world, like all ad festures turned off.
    xdavidliu · 1790097645 · focus · HN ↗
    reminds of me of an instance where the opposite happened:
    > internal email from Bill Gates complaining about the usability of some Windows features. It’s old — from 2003
    <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2008/06/25/you-thought-you-hated-windows-check-out-what-bill-gates-had-to-say/" rel="nofollow">https://www.techdirt.com/2008/06/25/you-thought-you-hated-wi...
    gabrielhidasy · 1790098997 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm 99% sure the hardening part was a joke
    alentred · 1790192513 · focus · HN ↗
    Thank you, sir.
    I am still not sure if the joke was bad or if everyone takes everything too seriously nowadays.
    gmueckl · 1790235895 · focus · HN ↗
    I guess it was simply too close to reality. That's why I didn't register that as humor. Text also doesn't carry tone of voice well, which makes confusion more likely

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.