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They say it's their on-device indicator, but that could mean many things. GPS, external IP, cell phone masts...
Do I really own the device if I can't control what runs on it?
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…
I don't think Wifi triangulation uses SSID, instead it uses the BSSID, which afaik can't be changed.
As someone who used to be in the field of public relations before starting a career in software - I don't understand why they are doing this. Surely they realise that this stuff is going to end up on mainstream media and damage their image? EDIT: I get what people are saying about the App Store fees but reputational damage does cost money, possibly quite a lot.
Say what you want about Apple’s products, but their support is top tier and a major selling point for many consumers. It’s also very expensive to provide.
Relaxing AppStore restrictions reduces both security and expected behavior the phone. People here will argue otherwise, but it is a fact. Alternative web browsers require the ability to make the most dangerous, security compromising system call that can be done by a normal app. Things will inevitably go wrong in ways that Apple cannot control, and users will seek the support they expect. Unfortunately now Apple is at the mercy of Google or whomever to release their own patches while Apple fronts the support costs for problems they didn’t create.
Losing control of the system and being unable to provide the expected level of customer satisfaction is more damaging to the brand than otherwise. Outside of tech circles, nobody cares about alternative app stores or which JIT compiler is running when they browse the web
So now I need to give up my privacy because I need to let Apple use my GPS / IP address? They say it's their on-device indicator, but that could mean many things. GPS, external IP, cell phone masts... Do I really own the device if I can't control what runs on it?
your iPhone has a phone component inside and that phone component knows exactly (well depending on the tower you are connected to) what country are you in.
PS: yes your cellphone network provider knows pretty accurate when you are entering your country and exiting it.
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?
Who exactly are these developers? Because I'm a developer and I find the idea of supporting multiple app stores absolutely dreadful.
Consider the impact. If we're lucky there will be only one necessary re-implementation something major. At minimum we can expect to rewrite all code paths involving IAP. This will require a thick layer of abstraction caked on top to maintain feature parity between the separate builds, further slowing down compile times and making debugging more cumbersome. Yes, there will be separate builds because we rely on Apple to manage our DWARF symbols. That will need a homegrown solution, all new tooling, which of course will be crappy and half baked for many years. Best keep the builds separate.
Separate builds will likely mean new build/deploy pipelines to manage, possibly each having their own separate staging environments, which eats away at productive development time. Of course this will be all tied together with additional layers of abstraction. All tooling involving the AppStore API will be re-created.
Oh and I pity the poor souls that use react-native and it's convoluted, fragile, build environment. It's going to really suck for them. Cross your fingers and hope for the best when you npm install react-native-alternative-store and it's 500 dependencies written by CoPilot in Objective-C by one unresponsive developer on a GitHub page whose only activity is an increasing number of unresolved issues.
And that's not all! We use AppStore analytics, financial data management, beta test tooling, and internal device management. What will be fate of these services without the App Store? More crappy work and less time spent actually making the product better.
So no, this developer is just fine paying 15 to 30%. It's really a bargain for smaller dev shops.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 know developers don’t like the rules Who exactly are these developers? Because I'm a developer and I find the idea of supporting multiple app stores absolutely dreadful. Consider the impact. If we're lucky there will be only one necessary re-implementation something major. At minimum we can expect to rewrite all code paths involving IAP. This will require a thick layer of abstraction caked on top to maintain feat…
The only reason why it's probably not going to be worth supporting the other stores is that the userbase is going to be too small, which makes the potential extra revenue you can get in the other store likely too low to justify the support
But 30% is never going to be a bargain, even if you're a solo developer. It's 30% of the company revenue if they're only on the app store. That's likely more then your wage in it's entirely.
I wonder if the tracking of location of European users will also be declared illegal under privacy laws, making it illegal for Apple to determine whether or not a European user is in Europe.
Though I’m happy to see the 3rd party apps - I really don’t get why people even buy apple devices if they want to side load or do other such things. In terms of camera quality, battery life, or any single criterion it’s not like apple devices are the best anyway. As a side note - I really don’t understand the logic that leaves gaming consoles exempt. As a second side note - how is apple even determining if you are an…
> I really don’t get why people even buy apple devices if they want to side load or do other such things. That's Apple's argument, but it's bs. It's like Microsoft selling you Windows with ads all over the place and then when you complain they say: "I don't understand why you buy Windows if you don't want to see ads, there are other options w/o ads."
Slightly off topic: Haven’t tried it, but does a simple VPN for the EU allow you to access all these great EU features like 3rd party appstores?
Apple says you must be physically located in an EU country to be eligible, as determined by your device, so presumably they are checking GPS and/or cellular location data rather than just IP geolocation.