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Apple confirms it's breaking iPhone web apps in the EU on purpose

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Re: Apple confirms it's breaking iPhone web apps in the EU on purpose

#501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> DMA does not tell Apple that every app with embedded WebView should offer users possibility to switch the engine. I don’t see how that’s related to the issue being discussed. > In the meantime current solution could stay simply because it does not hinder any competition. Why do you think “you can install a third party browser, but if you do, you can’t add PWAs to the Home Screen” doesn’t hinder competition?

> Why do you think “you can install a third party browser, but if you do, you can’t add PWAs to the Home Screen” doesn’t hinder competition? Because you can't add PWAs to the Home Screen if you use the first-party browser, either. The whole point of this article is they're turning off PWAs for Safari so that they're all on the same feature footing.

The comment I replied to said “In the meantime current solution could stay”. In context, I can’t interpret “the current solution” else than as what’s in shipping iOS now.

Re: Apple confirms it's breaking iPhone web apps in the EU on purpose

#502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope EU comes down HARD on them for trying to pull this shit

What exactly does that look like, in your mind? The EU coerces Apple engineers to work for free?

Apple want sell shiny device. Law say "don't trick customer". If apple trick customer, apple not allowed to sell no more.

Re: Apple confirms it's breaking iPhone web apps in the EU on purpose

#503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No.

Yes. Every conforming cable supports 3 amps and 20 volts. If you think something's incorrect with that, be specific . But the spec is pretty clear. The exact details of the faster cables are murky because there's old and new versions of that section of the spec, but very few devices use enough power to care about that.

> Every conforming cable

The problem is all the non-conforming cables that people have, that look exactly the same as conforming cables.

Re: Apple confirms it's breaking iPhone web apps in the EU on purpose

#504
post #5

I don’t think Apple’s pettiness is gonna work in their favor. I am not in the EU but my next iPhone is almost certainly not gonna be an iPhone despite me having used a non iPhone for about 6 months in the last 15 years. Their throwing their customers under the bus just to throw a tantrum in the EU does not bode well for how they would treat their customers in other situations.

Im going to ditch my iPhone in favor of a Pixel. This attitude has pushed me over the edge, and the device isn't really any better than Android. Some aspects yes, but other are much worse. Dark patterns like the appstore/web/browsers restrictions and iCloud upselling are a big no-no. Never again.

Re: Apple confirms it's breaking iPhone web apps in the EU on purpose

#506
post #364

I am on Apples side here. I have been a macOS and iPhone user for over a decade now, but have had Android devices and I use Windows for games and work. I think what the EU has done to Apple is unfair. It is unfortunate in my opinion that they can’t just tell them to get stuffed. They have had to build probably 100-million LOCs just so EU have the right to pick their own browser, and yet Safari works just fine. In fac…

> They have had to build probably 100-million LOCs just so EU have the right to pick their own browser haha are you serious?

There are literally 1000s of new APIs and I can only imagine what the web services, OS/kernel side and test infrastructure looks like, so I am thinking it’s in the 10-100mLOC ballpark.

Re: Apple confirms it's breaking iPhone web apps in the EU on purpose

#508
post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>and 'whatever browser engine you picked here' is responsible for correctly implementing these additional security features. so, Apple? Since Apple has also required browsers for years to use their own safari backend, this isn't even an issue of "oh well it doesn't work on Firefox". Sounds like they cornered themselves there.

Apple’s hand has been forced to implement changes that didn’t fit their vision and roadmap. I imagine that if you’re on HN you are close to developers or are a developer yourself. And if so, I imagine that you have already had an important customer (to who you cannot say “no”), completely change your plans and architecture with a new feature request while setting an aggressive deadline (ie, you don’t have time to imp…

That is simply just nonsense.

They had 1,5 years from the time of being identified as gatekeepers to work on this.

The DMA was voted on by the EU parliament and then the council in july 2022, Apple was identified as a gatekeeper in september 2022, the law became legally implemented in november 2022, with gatekeepers required to comply with it by march 6th 2024.

I do not buy for a second that the richest tech company on the planet, that owns, designs and manufactures the whole tech stack their product uses was unable to respond in due time to the legally required changes and so 'just had to go this route due to time constraints'.

Re: Apple confirms it's breaking iPhone web apps in the EU on purpose

#509
Regardless of who is the bad guy here, the outcome of this is just devastating for the free web. For me the future trajectory of Apps were PWAs, which worked reasonably well lately. As small company, creating one App that works everywhere and is available without AppStores was just great. Much money spent on PWAs just wasted.

This is a terrible outcome, again caused by "well meant" but unpractical EU regulation.

Re: Apple confirms it's breaking iPhone web apps in the EU on purpose

#510
post #5

I don’t think Apple’s pettiness is gonna work in their favor. I am not in the EU but my next iPhone is almost certainly not gonna be an iPhone despite me having used a non iPhone for about 6 months in the last 15 years. Their throwing their customers under the bus just to throw a tantrum in the EU does not bode well for how they would treat their customers in other situations.

This is exactly why this legislation is stupid: if you don’t like the way Apple does things just buy an android.

This entire mindset is wrong and is exactly what the DMA is trying to address. Apple, Google and other big tech companies aren't just small random companies whose product you can switch between every time they do something you dislike. Due to a lack of interoperability there's huge switching cost associated. They're digital gatekeepers with platform effects massively working in their favor.
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