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iOS 17 app sideloading might only be available in Europe

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Re: iOS 17 app sideloading might only be available in Europe

#491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any evidence backing this idea? It is reasonable to believe that the closed platform allowed for the platform to be more trust worthy making it grow faster due to more people seeing it as a platform they can trust. Or maybe an open platform would have led to mass piracy of apps meaning there is less motivation for developers to make apps.

> Do you have any evidence backing this idea? First search in Google. https://source.sheridancollege.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?articl... Also, from my own discussion over the years with different people, security topic popped up only when iOS fans tried to diss Android users.

This paper does not show that being closed was negative to the success of the iphone.

It does mention that "perceived security" was a factor.

Re: iOS 17 app sideloading might only be available in Europe

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they get a scary security warning that prevents them from running it. The huge difference is that's only a warning, and not a cryptographically locked-down system unlike Apple's.

Actually, in a way, it is. All Microsoft has to do is revoke your application's signing certificate and Windows Defender will prevent it from running on Windows computers. Apple does the same thing with Notarization and Gatekeeper on macOS. If they choose to revoke your signing certificate, Gatekeeper will prevent your software from running on macOS. That means if you do, say or compete with something that Microsoft…

> That means if you do, say or compete with something that Microsoft or Apple doesn't like, they can prevent your apps from running on their platforms.

Are there examples of Microsoft actually doing that?

Ability to prevent known malware from being run in the majority of PCs after detection seems like a useful feature from the Internet health point of view.

Re: iOS 17 app sideloading might only be available in Europe

#493
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you are just paying some sort of admission fee to a tightly controlled service iphones act as social signaling for alot of people

I've heard this, I haven't seen this. Maybe a smart phone was a status symbol 10 years ago, they are just commodities today.

It'll probably depend on where you live, what type of person you are, and what communities you're a part of; teenagers will see them a lot different from tech bros; others get really excited when seeing a new model. I mean the first people with smartwatches or Google Glasses were the center of attention (positive or negative) for a while.

In my own communities (work), I'm one of the few with an iphone, most have Android.

Re: iOS 17 app sideloading might only be available in Europe

#494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they want it, download the app then. Allow others to not download it and use a PWA if they'd like. Actually I believe you're wrong: if people actually preferred Apple's way of doing it, Apple would have no reason to restrict other ways. They restrict it because people prefer the other way, and that would harm Apple's profits.

They continue to restrict it because look at how much trash was (is?) on the Android store; they restricted it even more in the early days because of the torrent of low effort fart / gag apps.

That's a problem of having a single app store everyone has to go through. Why would you care about a thousand fart apps existing as PWAs online? They wouldn't affect you at all.

Re: iOS 17 app sideloading might only be available in Europe

#495

I wonder how the apple store operates in the EU on devices that have sideloaded apps. Theres a bunch of liability apple can effectively shift to the end user everytime without question “sorry you sideloaded this app which may have given your malware, we cant help you”. It’s ridiculous i know but also seems plausible.

[dead]

Re: iOS 17 app sideloading might only be available in Europe

#497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. You say it works fine and then in the same breath you make a point to show it isn't and then choose to ignore it. What you're missing is that Safari shouldn't have that bit hard wired in.

(ah, the juxtaposition was the point. I'm bad at humor early in the morning)

Np, I'm apparently equally bad at spotting it :)

Re: iOS 17 app sideloading might only be available in Europe

#498
post #143

I think the central question here is: .) whether you buy a phone as a piece of hardware and then own that hardware - which gives you certain rights regarding the usage of that owned hardware or .) whether you are just paying some sort of admission fee to a tightly controlled service, and are basically "lent" a piece of hardware that you have no ownership rights over. All the other stuff about walled gardens, monopoli…

Yes. The HN crowd is overcomplicating the issue, and Apple has as much a right as an individual to design their platform as they wish. We like to talk about giving businesses the freedom to build the products that they want and keeping regulators out of the picture and instead letting people vote with their money, yet when people actually vote with their money to buy Apple products precisely for how they are built, w…

We aren’t overcomplicating the issue. The premise of this question is wrong, and you like it because it has a very obvious “winning side”, which happens to be the “side” that you’re on.

Re: iOS 17 app sideloading might only be available in Europe

#499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard this, I haven't seen this. Maybe a smart phone was a status symbol 10 years ago, they are just commodities today.

I do recognise it; large iPhones and Apple Watches are still about twice the price of the competitor. And people with Android phones are considered poor here.

There’s still a massive leap in logic that you aren’t including in your comment. It sounds like you should check your priors.

Re: iOS 17 app sideloading might only be available in Europe

#500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That limits what they can do, but it doesn't mean they can't do anything malicious. Someone could make a YouTube app which removes ads, but steals your session so that they can viewbot or spam comment sections with legit accounts.

This is something which would also work using an app store app -- where's the app store benefit in your point?

Distribution is centralized and Apple can end distribution if the app gets reported and add the malware to their malware scanning.

While possible, it should be more rare. When working on massive platforms it is typically the goal to minimize metrics like malware installs as opposed to trying to make them 0. The relative probabilities are important.

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