Live data from Hacker News

UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

bbc.co.uk

1–10 of 48 posts

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#2
Any idea why Apple doesn't allow use of NFC? It's been in devices for ages, I'm surprise to hear it's not available to developers. Given Apple reviews all apps anyway, and can restrict what it's used for any way they like, I can't imagine why they wouldn't allow apps to use it.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#5
post #2

Any idea why Apple doesn't allow use of NFC? It's been in devices for ages, I'm surprise to hear it's not available to developers. Given Apple reviews all apps anyway, and can restrict what it's used for any way they like, I can't imagine why they wouldn't allow apps to use it.

I'm actually very suprised by this article because in iOS 11, over a year old now, they did open up NFC to developers: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corenfc.

The problem could be that they require a different data format then the NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) as that is the only format that CoreNFC supports.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#6
post #2

Any idea why Apple doesn't allow use of NFC? It's been in devices for ages, I'm surprise to hear it's not available to developers. Given Apple reviews all apps anyway, and can restrict what it's used for any way they like, I can't imagine why they wouldn't allow apps to use it.

Maybe they don't want NFC payment alternatives that would rival Apple Pay. And they don't want to restrict it for that use-case because it makes them look weak for artificially blocking out the competition so they just restrict the feature entirely.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#7
post #2

Any idea why Apple doesn't allow use of NFC? It's been in devices for ages, I'm surprise to hear it's not available to developers. Given Apple reviews all apps anyway, and can restrict what it's used for any way they like, I can't imagine why they wouldn't allow apps to use it.

Presumably because they want to force financial institutions to go through Apple Pay, so they can take their transaction fee cut.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#8
post #2

Any idea why Apple doesn't allow use of NFC? It's been in devices for ages, I'm surprise to hear it's not available to developers. Given Apple reviews all apps anyway, and can restrict what it's used for any way they like, I can't imagine why they wouldn't allow apps to use it.

It's really silly – but Apple keep the NFC functionality exclusively for use by Apple Pay. Whilst it is NFC, Apple have never marketed it as such. Presumably they want people to think that it's just Apple Pay 'magic'.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#9
post #3

So what about people with no smartphone? They won't be allowed to stay in the UK? ;)

From the article:

> The Home Office has also [planned] to set up computer terminals at 56 local libraries around the UK to help those without smartphones, or without the necessary digital skills, to apply to stay in the UK.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#10
post #2

Any idea why Apple doesn't allow use of NFC? It's been in devices for ages, I'm surprise to hear it's not available to developers. Given Apple reviews all apps anyway, and can restrict what it's used for any way they like, I can't imagine why they wouldn't allow apps to use it.

It's really silly – but Apple keep the NFC functionality exclusively for use by Apple Pay. Whilst it is NFC, Apple have never marketed it as such. Presumably they want people to think that it's just Apple Pay 'magic'.

Not just Apple Pay anymore, they also use it for certain transit cards and student ID cards. New phones can read tags and launch the appropriate app (via notification like Camera gives you for QR code reading): https://www.macrumors.com/2018/09/12/2018-iphones-background...
Post reply on HN