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Apple will cut off 3rd-party appstore updates if iPhone is not in EU for a month

theverge.com

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Re: Apple will cut off 3rd-party appstore updates if iPhone is not in EU for a month

#51

Post by walterbell »

jncfhnb wrote: post #45
walterbell wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly from a handful of apps, why limit everyone else?

Because there’s dozens of billions of dollars on the line and they don’t give a fuck about anything else

Why not make rules for the apps which generate "billions of dollars"? Constrain those apps via special APIs subject to Apple policy. Why stop at 30% extortion, go for more. Leave the rest of apps alone, until a new billion dollar category appears, then it can get the same mafia treatment.

This is Platform Sherlocking 101. Let new crops grow before demanding a cut. Don't scare everyone from farming.

Re: Apple will cut off 3rd-party appstore updates if iPhone is not in EU for a month

#52

Post by walterbell »

pests wrote: post #41
walterbell wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if on-device location is disabled?

This is how the online casinos do it in my state. They require location access on mobile or a dedicated download for desktop. I recently spent a bit of time trying to bypass the location check (out of curiosity) and they have it pretty locked down. The key is they require WiFi to be on so they can get around GPS spoofing. I had even attempted re-creating all the SSIDs and other networks nearby my spoofed location but…

> There is no way to enable location services but disable WiFi triangulation in any mainstream browser.

An opportunity for alternative browsers?

Re: Apple will cut off 3rd-party appstore updates if iPhone is not in EU for a month

#53

Post by jhanschoo »

The inability to update an app installed from a 3rd party appstore is clearly a threat to the platform integrity of iOS. If Apple believes its own convenient rhetoric [1] it must forcibly uninstall those apps or allow installed apps to continue updating.

[1]: as outlined in, e.g. https://developer.apple.com/security/complying-with-the-dma....

Re: Apple will cut off 3rd-party appstore updates if iPhone is not in EU for a month

#55

Post by jncfhnb »

walterbell wrote: post #51
jncfhnb wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there’s dozens of billions of dollars on the line and they don’t give a fuck about anything else

Why not make rules for the apps which generate "billions of dollars"? Constrain those apps via special APIs subject to Apple policy. Why stop at 30% extortion, go for more. Leave the rest of apps alone, until a new billion dollar category appears, then it can get the same mafia treatment. This is Platform Sherlocking 101. Let new crops grow before demanding a cut. Don't scare everyone from farming.

I’m unclear if you’re genuinely asking why, or playing out rhetoric for show.

Re: Apple will cut off 3rd-party appstore updates if iPhone is not in EU for a month

#56

Post by pests »

walterbell wrote: post #52
pests wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how the online casinos do it in my state. They require location access on mobile or a dedicated download for desktop. I recently spent a bit of time trying to bypass the location check (out of curiosity) and they have it pretty locked down. The key is they require WiFi to be on so they can get around GPS spoofing. I had even attempted re-creating all the SSIDs and other networks nearby my spoofed location but…

> There is no way to enable location services but disable WiFi triangulation in any mainstream browser. An opportunity for alternative browsers?

Potentially but not yet. Tried Brave and a few others with no luck. I really didn't want to patch and compile myself so I abandoned this avenue.

Re: Apple will cut off 3rd-party appstore updates if iPhone is not in EU for a month

#57

Post by walterbell »

jncfhnb wrote: post #55
walterbell wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not make rules for the apps which generate "billions of dollars"? Constrain those apps via special APIs subject to Apple policy. Why stop at 30% extortion, go for more. Leave the rest of apps alone, until a new billion dollar category appears, then it can get the same mafia treatment. This is Platform Sherlocking 101. Let new crops grow before demanding a cut. Don't scare everyone from farming.

I’m unclear if you’re genuinely asking why, or playing out rhetoric for show.

I'm asking why not have application-specific fees and policy, instead of both Apple and regulators dancing around the revenue issue, while using the rhetoric of generic business actors and app-neutral policy.

There's a reason that only gaming companies have taken Apple to court.

Why should the economics of low-volume and low-profit medical or security applications be subject to the business mechanics of addictive games, which generate billions of revenue for Apple and gaming app developers?

Re: Apple will cut off 3rd-party appstore updates if iPhone is not in EU for a month

#58

Post by walterbell »

mikeocool wrote: post #40
kbf wrote: post #19

This is very interesting because there’s really no reason for this limitation to exist with regards to EU users. The only reason I can see for this is that Apple knows their rules are so unpopular that users from the rest of the world might go as far as travel abroad or start trafficking devices to get around them.

> Apple knows their rules are so unpopular Are they? I know developers don’t like the rules, but I don’t know a lot of iPhone owners who feel particularly stifled by them. If they did, presumably they’d just buy an Android phone?

> I don’t know a lot of iPhone owners who feel particularly stifled

The existence of iOS Unix shell emulators (iSH, aShell) suggests otherwise, at least on iPads.

Perhaps that will change with forthcoming iPad Pro + macOS-subset VMs.

Re: Apple will cut off 3rd-party appstore updates if iPhone is not in EU for a month

#59

Post by kbf »

jncfhnb wrote: post #44
kbf wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know how it works, but I don’t see why it would need to leave the device.

… how? If I click download the epic game store and it says “No” then it has been told my location Edit: I suppose technically it could be a client level rejection and the App Store says “idk what went wrong”

There’s a process in iOS called “countryd” that calculates a country code based on sensor data from GPS, cellular and wifi. If the country code matches an EU country, you get DMA features. I assume the thirty days is how long you have to be abroad for the country code to update, but I don’t know that.

Re: Apple will cut off 3rd-party appstore updates if iPhone is not in EU for a month

#60

Post by jncfhnb »

walterbell wrote: post #57
jncfhnb wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m unclear if you’re genuinely asking why, or playing out rhetoric for show.

I'm asking why not have application-specific fees and policy, instead of both Apple and regulators dancing around the revenue issue, while using the rhetoric of generic business actors and app-neutral policy. There's a reason that only gaming companies have taken Apple to court. Why should the economics of low-volume and low-profit medical or security applications be subject to the business mechanics of addictive gam…

The regulators have largely paid very little attention to the magnitude of the fee and revenue cut Even though it is outrageous.

The us judgements in fact suggested that epic should have focused on that issue as the unfair bit

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