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    27. What would make app stores better?

      Ask (survey)
      There was a recent discussion about the Windows App Store where people said they don't like using it. I'm in the Apple world, and people here constantly complain about the Mac and iOS app stores....

      There was a recent discussion about the Windows App Store where people said they don't like using it. I'm in the Apple world, and people here constantly complain about the Mac and iOS app stores. I grudgingly use Steam to download games that are only available there. Everyone seems to hate using app stores, but most agree that having them is better than having to find stuff on the web or in bricks and mortar stores.

      I don't tend to "shop." When I decide I need a product, I do research. I try to find unbiased sources, though that's problematic in itself. But I don't go browsing for anything because it's largely pointless and tends to drive you towards what the company that's best at selling wants you to buy rather than what's best for your needs. So for the most part, my interaction with app stores is searching for a specific program and either finding it or not.

      What do people think would make app stores better? Complaints I've heard include:

      • Too hard to find a product you want when you don't know the specific name of a particular one (like you want a photo editor that can make a photo mosaic, but don't know the name of a specific photo mosaic app)
      • You search for a specific product and the top hit is a paid placement for a competitor
      • Stores are full of crapware with similar names and similar keywords
      • Top apps are all games

      How could app store makers improve the situation? What would make using an app store a joy for you?

      21 votes

    30. Tech people of Tildes, what have you automated in your life?

      Ask (survey)
      Talk about anything you have "automated" in your life. No restrictions on the tools or things to automate. You have a simple "silence your phone at work" thing? Great job! Do you have a complex...

      Talk about anything you have "automated" in your life. No restrictions on the tools or things to automate. You have a simple "silence your phone at work" thing? Great job! Do you have a complex thing with hundreds of lines of custom code? Wonderful! All are welcome!

      I myself have automated a bit of stuff, and am constantly looking for more (that's why this thread exists):

      Home:

      • My room will turn on the lights when it detects the brightness inside is going down, but will slowly do it relative to the current brightness so it doesn't suddenly turn on at once. (Tries to keep a certain brightness at certain times)
      • I can send "loff", "lon" or, "lauto" through XMPP to turn my lights off, on, or toggle the automatic mode mentioned above from anywhere. I am blocking internet connections from my smart light hub so I had to re-implement that manually

      Computer:

      • Copying any YouTube links (or Invidious links, which get translated into YouTube) will automatically prompt me about opening them under MPV

      Phone:

      This is where I do the bulk of my automation, as Tasker is a very convenient way to automate stuff.

      • Toggle full brightness and/or auto rotation on specific apps (Gallery, NewPipe, etc.)
      • A couple of Android "Share" targets for
        • Uploading dumb images to https://ebc.li/dump/
        • Adding links to Miniflux (abusing it's bookmarklet functionality)
        • youtube-dl through Termux
      • And some (mostly gimmicky) text-to-speech notifications for calls and XMPP messages

      Planned:

      • Miniflux notifier over XMPP. My last attempt failed because Node-RED apparently doesn't reconnect over to XMPP when its connection drops :(
      26 votes

    42. [Update] A recent question about upgrading my iMac desktop

      Text 205 words
      The previous post is here. What a strange turn of events! Also, I'd like to thank everyone that replied in the previous thread. You all are so very well informed and helpful! I was preparing to...

      The previous post is here.

      What a strange turn of events! Also, I'd like to thank everyone that replied in the previous thread. You all are so very well informed and helpful!

      I was preparing to make the transition from my current iMac to the one suggested here. I have 2 external hard drives. One of them is a 6 TB drive that is used for backups. The other is a 500 GB drive that I use for media storage. I bought this media storage drive around 5 years ago so the official site, probably, isn't up to current specs.

      To explain more, I moved all of the media files from that 500 GB external drive back to my iMac since it supports 1 TB of storage. No problem there and I still have plenty of additional storage.

      Slowly I began to notice that my iMac was responding a little faster for some things. Intuitively, I decided to 'eject' the 500 GB external hard drive and physically unplug it from my iMac.

      After I did this, my iMac began responding to anything with lightning speeds! I guess this problem is solved and I have no idea what may have caused this in the first place.

      11 votes