NY Post Goes App-Only For iPad Users 218
bfwebster writes "Browsing the web this morning, I discovered that the New York Post is blocking iPad users from reading its website via Safari. Instead, iPad users must download and use the NY Post App instead. That app previously required a paid subscription (which is one reason I didn't use it); however, the version I downloaded this morning isn't making any demands for payment. Yet."
And so it begins... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the walled garden got built awhile ago. The moral? Don't buy into walled gardens.
worry... (Score:1, Insightful)
Just spoof the user-agent string...
Oh, wait. Sorry. Enjoy the walled garden!
You can leave a garden (so-called by the owners) as easily as enter it. Since iPad users are prevented from leaving, it could as easily be referred to as a jail by its inmates.
Those who would pay for confinement inside a walled jail must really fear the outside world...
Re:Alternate browsers available (Score:5, Insightful)
even within the "walled garden", there are other browsers available which will let you spoof the user-agent string.
For now. Apple has a history of booting apps that work around restrictions.
Blaming the wrong people (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Walled Garden (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Blaming the wrong people (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Alternate browsers available (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, I'm not sure which Slashdot you've been reading, but Apple hatred is rampant on this one. I have no problem with people not liking Apple, or criticizing their policies, etc., like you claim you are doing, but much what passes for "Insightful" and "Informative" on slashdot is borderline insane.
Taking this specific story as an example, Apple isn't even doing anything, yet this is cited as a problem with the "walled garden". WTF? It makes no sense. Especially since Apple's "walled garden" has alternate browsers which allow one to spoof their way through the NY Post's paywall.
But then *that* has to be spun yet again, and people stating that Apple will just pull these browsers from the App Store get modded up, even though that makes no sense whatsoever.
Re:Blaming the wrong people (Score:4, Insightful)
> . They don't know how things work, they don't care, and they don't want to have to mess with it.
To be honest, this is a little bit of a myth. Yes, most of them don't care until they one day happen upon a restriction that bothers them. For example, my mother who wanted to copy an audio book from her friend's computer onto her iPod Touch. Suddenly she is calling me up saying "I thought I could plug in my iPod and just copy it there but it doesn't show up and iTunes has scary messages about deleting everything!". And all I can say is "there's no good reason for it, but Apple doesn't want you to copy anything onto your iPod unless you do it through iTunes on your own computer. That way they make more money." And then she suddenly cared. So in most cases it's not that they don't care - it's that their lack of technical knowledge shields them from the reasons to care.