Apple is beginning to push fullscreen pop-up ads for the iPhone 6s to people opening the App Store app on some older iPhone models, according to a rush of user complaints.
[…]
Apple has previously marketed new devices through things like App Store banners and collections, but this is the first time Apple has temporarily prevented people from using an app simply for the sake of marketing – at least when excluding the Apple Music sign-up screen seen after launching the iOS Music app for the first time.
I got the ad as well, but on my iPhone 6S, which makes even less sense. This is just sleazy and scummy.
Apple’s been pushing a lot of sleazy advertisements into iOS lately, which is kind of ironic when you think about it. The company that keeps spouting the “if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product” nonsense, is the one pushing sleazy advertisements into their mobile operating system, while Google, the advertising company, is not.
I’d be interested to know what all these other sleazy ads are. This is the first one I’ve heard of – and it seems targeted at older devices which will surely be coming to the end of their iOS support.
The fact it’s showing on your new one is strange – perhaps some privacy setting you’ve turned on which stops them from seeing what version of iPhone you have?
Are there ANY tech companies left that haven’t sold their soul to the devil? Even Firefox surreptitiously changes my search preference from Google to Yahoo on occasion, without asking.
Sounds like a bug relating it forgetting that you chose Google rather than just sticking with whatever was default when your profile was created. (Combined with a bug that makes it forget it’s already applied that default setting migration and re-apply it… likely a second manifestation of the same bug.)
I switched my search to DuckDuckGo and I’ve never had that happen.
Edited 2015-12-15 01:00 UTC
Isn’t it interesting that these ‘bugs’ always seem to default to whatever will make the company in question the most money? In other words, I call horse BS
Edited 2015-12-15 04:31 UTC
Trust me. They don’t.
I encounter tons of frustrating bugs that involve loss of settings or metadata (eg. Unexpectedly smashing all of my tabs into a single tab group) or other things that are either neutral or counter to making money.
Firefox is just a massive, ancient codebase with lots of flaws.
Wait a minute here! Wasn’t that ad blocker supposed to block the crappy ads? iPhone users don’t get ads because they pay premium. And Apple does not use user data in order to serve ads. The fact that only the older models get the ads is pure coincidence.
Did you miss the part where Thom wrote I got the ad as well, but on my iPhone 6S, which makes even less sense.
I haven’t actually seen the ad so I can’t comment on how annoying it might be. It certainly does seems lame, by Apple standards.
That said, the ad – by your own admission – is not targeted as it’s showed on your iPhone. In contrast, right now, on OSNews, I am seeing an ad from a company whose site I visited earlier today. I’ve seen this ad on dozens of other unrelated sites.
Which do you think is worse? The company pushing their product on one of their store fronts or the company which is tracking your browsing habits and following you around various websites?
Thom, I struggle to understand why you think the total invasion of privacy like this is ok? Imagine if the EU, in the name of protecting us against terrorism, decided to electronically monitor all the websites you visit – pretty sure you’d be up in arms – why is it a ok for a company to do this?
I have no objection to advertising mind you, I just hate the notion that I have to be spied on to support someone’s business model!
The company putting sleazy fullscreen ads inside my applications, installing entire unremovable applications onto my phone for advertising purposes, and pestering me with endless iCloud and Apple Music ads on my phone, all the while endlessly parading their holier-than-thou attitude regarding advertising, is definitely the worse of the two.
Edited 2015-12-15 01:47 UTC
So in a typical day you will see approximately 1 unwanted apple ad and approximately 3000 unwanted google ads. According to Thom logic that is therefore exactly the same thing, and that one ad is sleazy.
To be accurate, those 3000 aren’t Google ads, they are the ads of the many websites you use, which websites made the conscious choice to serve you ads (and selected Google as their ads provider).
Which do you think is worse? The shit I took last night or the one I took this morning?
Pun intended: that’s very apples versus oranges. On one hand you have a product you paid handsome money on, and when bought was expected not to serve ads. On the other, is a service you use at no charge.
http://betanews.com/2015/10/15/microsoft-now-uses-windows-10s-start…
when i saw win10 in my parent’s computer for the first time last month i found this to be rather appalling.
does jailbreaking the iphone help with this?
Edited 2015-12-15 11:13 UTC
It’s not the same thing. The screenshot shows a very small add for a related product.
“The same thing” would be a fullscreen ad saying “Upgrade to Windows 10 now”.
MS did promote windows 10 to win8/7/* users but it was a lot less intrusive.
Then the question is: is it fullscreen on the iPhone because most things are fullscreen on such a device anyway ?
Android has ads for a long time and I’ve never seen a fullscreen ad there. I have no doubt it was possible to make a regular ad instead of a fullscreen one.
I will say the same thing I said on The Verge:
“I almost would like to see the Hell and Brimstone this comment section would be if it was Microsoft that did the same thing on a Lumia, or Google with a nexus device. It’s mind-boggling Ridiculous(r)(tm) the stuff Apple can get away with just because it’s Apple.”
geez calm down —
your OSNews website tracks me all over the internet so that when i read your site i get ads from other sites i’ve visited in the last year. i’m counting 2-3 ads per page view, or about 10-20 views per visit for me.
your windows OS has recently become fully ad-supported by 3rd parties as opposed to sold in retail.
your android OS is literally owned and developed by one of the largest advertising companies in existence and every hook, feature, and product line meant to increase your targeted ad exposure and google’s tracking of your online movements.
apple wants to entice existing users to upgrade their device so they put an ‘ad’ into their own product – their own software distro store? That’s not an “ad” at all, it’s a promo from the very company you are dealing with.
much ado about nothing. apple asking you to upgrade your phone (even erroneously) is nothing like selling your soul to google or open-internet cookies.
Edited 2015-12-15 13:47 UTC
This is nasty, though I haven’t personally gotten one of these yet. Doesn’t hold a candle to what Microsoft has been up to lately, but still dirty nevertheless.