Oh sorry, I was not aware that it used to be like it. I bought a quest last year and did not have this issue, so I was very confused.

yeah to buy apps on their app store you make an account. maybe you could side load without it but haven’t tried

I’m not a former Meta employee, so I can’t say. But from what I know, I wouldn’t be so confident in your conclusion.

Edit: Unless “terrible” is just referencing inconvenience. In that cas, yeah, Apple accounts are certainly more convenient, secure, and seemingly less intrusive.

No, but I did get an email from Tim praising my good work.

We thought it was bs, so immediately spent the rest of the day investigating it. I worked in JAPAC region, so we checked in with our networks around Singapore, Japan, HK, and Australia. Sure enough, he did it regularly. At the time I had gotten a few internal awards and it was assumed they’d get passed onto him along with pre-written text, and then just sent it or it was sent from his internal email. It was meant to be inspiring but was really transparent, especially since you realise how it all works inside.

Most of the data I tracked was customer volumes and contact reasons for online sales, iTunes store activities, and tech support (AppleCare, Apple Online Store, Apple Authorised Service Providers/Resellers, iTunes Store, and every now and then iCloud services specifically if it was clashing with Enterprise, especially Microsoft Exchange profiles placed on iOS devices by the employer organisation). Most of the customer and account data I dealt with was…pretty much everything associated with making and maximising a buck—since it’s probably clear by now I was in the service delivery part of the beast—plus all the strategies to do it, specifically tracking their success. While that obviously meant I dealt with a lot of iOS too, I’d only communicate with dev to indicate what reported issues were tending so they could prioritise fixes. Generally critical issues would be parked for non-critical issues if they were generating high points of contact or hitting the media. Rarely I’d speak with Cupertino since this part of the world’s HQ did SD in Singapore and non-reguinal issues that impact globally (ignoring carriers, licensing, etc.). When I did, it was raising issues in the region that may encroach US embargoes, they’d want to know immediately instead of delay through regional HQs.

My NDA is expired, but still scares the poopy out of me, so I keep it vague. But I know people find it interesting online. I was told Apple will always be there by my side in the courtroom, but will be on my other side the moment I left—no joke, this was said to me with seriousness in my first month. So, it’s a part of my life I appreciate being a part of, but have forcably kept distant. Every now and then I have a few wines, though… There’s a reason why you rarely hear tales from current and ex-employees.