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this is why having google sign all the apps that can go on your android is a really bad idea and why we criticize apple for being a closed walled garden. please trust the nerds over the corporations bro.
With this and Google stopping side loading in Android, I’m going to be looking hard into Linux phones.
People are so stupid in this country. Do what the EU did and make it law that they have to offer sideloading and other app stores and payment methods.
It should be the law to begin with. This walled garden shit is really just another word for controlling what the user does with the device they purchased and not allowing them to do business with anybody else exclusively to add software without apple's approval and protection racket fee.
Everything is about control. The internet was left open by accident for a while and they are working hard to "fix" it. They are just trying to be slightly less obvious about it than China was. All of the forced AI tools, required apps and stuff like that are just ways to move users away from the open web.
Once most users restrict their Internet usage to ONLY content provided by the large companies (for example, once people no longer click on any Google result), then Internet providers will start granting access to the content from large companies for free and charge a lot more for access to anything else.
In 10, maybe 20 years, we will be needing to tell our internet providers when we change jobs so that they may change which "custom" internet services we get to have access to specifically for work.
It wouldn’t help.
In this case, even if the app was side-loadable and had a web app, that’s enough of a technical hurdle to kill its critical mass.
In other words, it doesn’t have to be banned; suppressing ICEBlock is basically enough to kill it.
Arguably, if it was normal to sideload apps it wouldn't be as much of a barrier to users, but they've been conditionned to think they need an app and the only place you can ever get them is the store.
It's a technical hurdle only because Apple decided they want to control everything, and same on Android because of Google's ever increasing war on sideloading. You used to download an APK from the browser and it would go like "This is an app! Install?", but now you have to go enable third party installation and all that, and now the whole Play Protect forcing developer validation coming up.
You are overestimating how technical most folks are. I know kids and older adults, on either side of my age, that have no concept of a filesystem, a URL, an APK to download, things like that, because they've never needed any of that.
Attention is finite.
Hence, web app's aren't really blocked by iOS/Android, but that's still a basically insurmountable hurdle simply because it's not the usual procedure for operating a phone. Defaults and accessibility are king (and Apple/Google know it).
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Was there any reason to make this an ios app as opposed to a website hosted outside the US? I'm really not surprised by the removal. What did they expect? All the Tech CEOs came to the inauguration with bags of cash.
The only reason I can think of is the cost. Apple makes the map API free if you use Apple Maps on Apple devices. If you are building a website, you have to pay for Mapbox or Google Maps, etc., that can get pricey for indie developers.
Isn’t Open Street Map free?
But anyway, these apps are all about accessibility to regular folks. Believe it or not many people don’t know how to bookmark a website. Also this app gives you notifications, something a website could only do via email or something.
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Yeah good point. Plus if it's a website you can use it in private mode and not have evidence that you were helping people evade the gestapo all over your phone.
Barrier to entry.
Many (dare I say most) folks don’t know how to use a web browser, much less find a web app. Installing an App Store app is much easier.
It’s also much lower visibility for those who do know.
And that’s especially critical for this app, which relies on tons of people using it.
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Do you own an iPhone? Oh, hey, you helped ICE.
Yes, you did.
This is what sideloading is supposed to prevent
Brings new meaning to Google's decision to (effectively) block side loading on Android
Rebrand it with the same tech as something like "Friend Sightings!" It's not a 1A violation because Apple banned it, it is a 1A violation because the government made them ban it.
Back in the aughts I was an apple fanboy. Later they no longer had the edge but I won't say it was completely not an option. Now it is completely not an option.
Just in case, if you're (still) a Nintendo, Sony, Tesla, Disney, Spotify, ... fan, it's not too late to change your mind about them too :)
Totally agree, but what to do? Just forsake all entertainment, media, and technology at this point?
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It’s still on my phone! Sorry Tim Apple!
Still on mine as well. Why were folks slow to add this app?
I didn’t know it existed.
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Being constantly tracked is for the plebs, not the Elites or their enforcers.
- boycott
- problem solved
Yup. That would do it.
Apple fans gave up years ago, though. They don't want to give any effort. That's why you're being downvoted.
ICEBlock was really poorly designed from what I understand.
For people downvoting the above, read some criticisms the app such as:
https://micahflee.com/unfortunately-the-iceblock-app-is-activism-theater/
I don’t know of the take-down legit but the security of the app has been questioned, too.
Edit: The removal was bullshit. Apple should be pressured to put it back. But, the developer or someone else could do much better.
IIRC it's also not open source, which for me is a big barrier to using it and trusting it at all (other than it being iOS-only).
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this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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