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. bluepeter · 1790096924 · focus · HN ↗
  Worth remembering that Steve Jobs championed "iAds"... <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2011/12/13/steve-jobs-last-big-failure-iads/" rel="nofollow">https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2011/12/13/steve-jobs...
  1. SllX · 1790097034 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah & they veered so hard into tying to make them tasteful & not suck that it failed. Turns out the real money is in spyware.
    bitpush · 1790114956 · focus · HN ↗
    How so? This smells like Apple Distortion Field. "Yeah our ads are better. Its the other guys' ads that are bad".
    The problem with Apple is they make statements that they walk back gleefully at a moments notice.
    - Nobody wants a bigger phone - iPhone Pro Maxes
    - Nobody wants foldables - iPhone Duo
    - We've simplified the product portfolio .. ahem.
    - AI is bad - Ours is called Apple Intelligence. Totally different thing.
    Think Different indeed.
    godelski · 1790123843 · focus · HN ↗
    > Think Different indeed - Make the phone thinner - Make the laptop thinner - Make the iPad thinner
    Extreme innovation
    coldtea · 1790125444 · focus · HN ↗
    Well, and dozens of other innovations every other company copied, conveniently ignored.
    From shipping a fully certified UNIX with a modern UI, to getting all the music player market and influencing how any music player would be from then on, to seamlessly moving between Motorola and Intel and Apple Silicon with the ability to run the older software from a different architecture with Rosetta, to the first modern touch smartphone, 1 full year before Android came out (and which made Android change its beta design to copy the way iOS worked), to getting wireless earpods (and pairing) right, to designing their own fucking integrated CPU, and even their own broadband chip. Even simple things, like making the best touchpad in the market.
    Modern "services+ads" Apple sucks to the point that I'm moving away, but to say they didn't innovate is laughable.
    godelski · 1790136806 · focus · HN ↗
    I don't want to really downplay Apple but there's much better innovation examples that what you listed. One of Apple's great advantages is that it owns the hardware, unlike Linux or Windows. Those have to work in highly heterogeneous environments. I mean Linux runs on everything from a literal potato to a super computer and everything in between.
    To highlight Apple's innovation maybe mention things like the iPhone or iPod. They weren't the first devices of their kind but Apple's magic was always the mixture of the two Steves. Technical but stylish. But modern Apple isn't the same. The magic is gone

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