baduiux
Joined 1 year ago
Joined 1 year ago
When it comes to native stuff it get’s tricky. As always it really depends on the use case of the app. In our case we develop a navigation app using a native SDK to show a map + turn-by-turn nav + offline maps etc. This is probably the most non ideal use case for a hybrid app. We developed a few plugins to share data between js /native to initialize the map etc. However, the idea of sharing business logic is long gone. There’s so much stuff that’s happening natively and each time we implement it on Android, we have to switch to iOS and implement the Swift version of it.
Some others have also mentioned that a single person now has to know three platforms (iOS, android and Cordova (in our case with ionic + angular). This is true and the real downside. I’m quite familiar with iOS and android yet I’d never call myself a native iOS / Android developer. Yet, I’ve to write so much native code regarding permission handling, geolocation, threading (Ui/non-ui) and there’s always a ton to stuff happening from version to version (e.g. 16 KB Page Size on Android, iOS support for rotation the device/adaptive layout on iPadOS, etc). This is where a lot of time is lost. And the time is not only lost there but also with unmaintained outdated community plugins you suddenly need to understand and fix.
I agree with most of the article, but this part keeps me thinking. Scheduling to contribute later will almost never work. Either I do it now or never. The task is lost in a list of infinitely many tasks. Also, contributing to a dependency (if I understand this correctly) is always something that helps at least two: yourself - doing something good, helping to improve someone’s work, getting something done - and the person who works on the dependency project. The other gets (positive) feedback and knows someone uses their product/software/library
Native apps can in many ways be better than web apps but they definitely lack the client side control that a web app (or any website) comes with. The user is sadly just a consumer and the product at the same time without an opinion.
What I also don’t like are companies that more and more push the user into using the native (I.e. installed) app over the website. I use almost all apps in browser (YouTube, LinkedIn) and the LinkedIn website has a “this content is only visible in the LinkedIn app” banner that is so prominent, it’s disgusting. You’re unable to see details of people changing their job / completing a degree and you’re unable to see the list of “visitors of your profile” (even though this is a silly feature).
On iOS I use YouTube in the browser for a single reason: ads are not shown and/or skippable by reloading the site. Sometimes I use the YouTube app on an iPad and the advertisement experience is so bad. I highly recommend using YouTube in browser (Safari).
Since I’m also somewhat addicted to short, but only use YouTube, I’ve built a chrome+safari extension that allows me to watch X shorts (for longer than 1sec) before closing the page and redirecting me to a different page (whatever you want). This is quite helpful. You can check it out [here](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/youtube-shorts-trac...). I also use it on iOS via the Safari extension but I haven’t published it yet.
I wrote a short blog post on this a few weeks ago: https://baduiux.de/posts/opportunity-fear-of-missing-out/
It helped me a lot that every time a have a new idea or want to start a new side-project that I wait at least two days before I dig deeper and get really started. Only then I really know if I really want this or if it’s just the initial hype/momentum.
I’ll add some shops around Berlin :)
On your GitHub repo your readme says on privacy:
> Your API key is stored locally in your browser and never shared. Text content is only sent to Google's Gemini API for translation. No user data is tracked or stored by this extension.
If I understand correctly, your extension simply sends all text directly to Gemini w/o any privacy layer in between that would redact user data? With that Gemini probably learns way more on you that one would want. E.g. using the extension while being logged in to your online banking might lead to Gemini getting information on your financial situation. Or am I missing something?