[Leica] OT: Are mobile apps evil?

[Herbert Kanner]

If you’re having trouble with dictation, you might download a free application called “Dragon”. It has slightly better voice recognition. However, I have found that for memos to myself, that’s fine, but for anything going out, such as email which you want to be correct, that the time spent fixing errors makes the process take longer than instead using an optional keyboard called “Swype”, which first came available with the latest operating system on iPad/iPhone. With this application, you drag a finger from one letter to the next. It continually consults a dictionary for the most likely word despite an error or two. The longer the word, the sloppier you can be toward the end of the word, because after the first four letters, there just aren’t that many possibilities. And it always put up just above the keyboard three alternatives from which you can pick with a touch.

After using it  on iPhone and learning various tricks, I suggested my wife try it on her iPad Mini. I was dubious as to whether it would be of much improvement over the standard keyboard because of the large keys and larger distance to slide, but in a couple of weeks she became an addict. 

Give it a try. Skype is also free.

Herb



Herbert Kanner
kanner at acm.org
650-326-8204

Question authority and the authorities will question you.




> On Dec 16, 2014, at 9:36 PM, Peter Klein <boulanger.croissant at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> [sorry for the repetition, left the subject off when I sent this the first
> time]
> 
> A question for people who may be more plugged in to the mobile app world
> than me...
> 
> Is there some sort of attrition policy or concerted effort by the big
> software and data companies to "break" things on mobile devices' standard
> browsers so people will be forced to use apps?  And if so, is it just
> certain companies, or is everybody doing it?
> 
> I got my iPad primarily so I could dictate emails and short bits of
> writing. And because the gestures of a touch device are different from a
> standard keyboard and mouse combination. All this meant better distributing
> the load on my hands, which sometimes get overworked by too much
> keyboarding, mousing and bassoon playing.  So far, it's worked well.
> 
> BUT... ever since iOS 8.1.1, using dictation (aka "Siri") in Facebook
> replies generate a long, mixed-up word salad using the words I said, but
> chopped up, re-ordered and repeated. I can *originate* a post with
> dictation just fine, but not reply. The buttons to edit or delete FB posts
> after the fact no longer work, and several other things are partially
> broken as well. This all happens with Chrome as well as Safari. And
> everything works just fine with the FB app.
> 
> The optimist in me says that this is just a by-product of the inevitable
> bugs in a huge project like the iOS upgrade. The cynic in me says that this
> is all about steering us towards apps, where our behavior can be ever more
> deliberately tabulated, analyzed and sold to advertisers, and our eyeballs
> ever-more-cleverly and frequently diverted to what "they" want us to see.
> Recently FB said that as of November, they were going to send data about
> users' browsing habits to their "affiliates and partners,"  even when the
> users were not on FB.  And indeed, the most recent versions of the FB app
> run in the background, even after you've closed the app.  I confirmed this
> with a system checker app I have. And FB now knows" when I have new
> notifications even when the app is supposedly closed.
> 
> That's why I deleted the app a while back.  But today, I got fed up with
> the problem (not fixed in iOS 8.1.2), and I loaded the FB app again. So I
> guess they've got me just where they want me.
> 
> Add to this a recent experience I had. I needed a case for my bassoon
> bocals (the bent silver tube that goes between the reed and the
> instrument). Bocal cases from a music store cost $60 and up.  But a
> just-as-good alternative is $15 pistol case. I did a Google search for said
> pistol case. I backed out of the first site when it asked me for my date of
> birth and to donate money to preserve my Second Amendment rights. I
> eventually bought the case on Amazon.  Now whenever I go on Amazon, they
> try to sell me a gun. Not only that, eBay did the same thing a few times.
> How did they know?  "They" are not supposed to look at each other's
> cookies, but I guess they do. Or somehow in IP address I went to looking
> for the pistol case got interpreted as "this guy is a gun owner."  Or some
> other under-the-hood thing.  Regardless of how, it's creepy.
> 
> It seems to me that within a app, the safeguards are less, and "they" can
> engage in more creepy behavior which is harder to detect or prevent.  I
> don't wish to don a tinfoil hat, but I'm starting to get a more and more
> suspicious of apps. It seems like in return for a smoother "experience," we
> get to give up more and more of our information. They have sneakier and
> sneakier ways of getting it, and it will be used in all sorts of ways.
> 
> So what should I do?  Fight?  Give up the Internet?  Take my Soma and be
> happy?
> 
> --Peter
> 
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