iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan • Hacker News Board

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#41

Post by websiteapi » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

rendaw wrote: post #39

websiteapi wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tail scale drop is much more complicated than literally copying and pasting on iDevice. that's literally all you do, no setup, nothing and this is just one example for one type of action. https://tailscale.com/kb/1106/taildrop look at all of that, lol. iDevice is literally copy and paste any file or text. the end - you don't even have to set it up.

This sounds like hyperbole. I've never used tailscale, but reading that doc: Installation: Install the tailscale client Sharing: Click on the share menu and select tailscale It's a beta feature so there's also a switch you have to flip for now.

you don't need to believe me. I use it daily. don't know why you're so defensive lol - it's our own opinion. fyi I didn't have to do anything for this to work (clipboard laptop to phone)

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#42

Post by modeless » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 6:04 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #31

Does this mean we'll finally have "real" firefox with support for ublock origin on iOS?

Apple is going to (mostly) obey the letter of the law but they will continue to resist strongly in every way they can. Onerous requirements, arbitrary restrictions, overzealous enforcement, and most of all bad APIs with limited capabilities and no workarounds for bugs.

Shipping a good and complete browser engine on iOS will require more than just developers. You'll also need a team of lawyers to threaten and sue Apple to get their policy restrictions relaxed and APIs fixed.

I doubt Mozilla or Google will be willing to spend the many developer-years and lawyer-years it will take to fully port every feature of a whole engine and properly maintain it in such a hostile environment, just for the Japan market. I expect to see some hobbyist-level ports but not something worth using for a long time. Unless other countries follow suit.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#43

Post by concinds » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 6:07 PM UTC

The separate-binary requirement makes it completely DOA, so they're still breaking the law. Deliberately. It bans actions that make it unlikely for browsers to adopt alternative engines. And they mandate no sharing of login-state with any other app from the same developer, despite violating that themselves (Safari sync is turned on by default, no encryption by default). Funny. And they mandate blocking third-party cookies, great but completely inappropriate for an OS to impose. The most hilarious:

> Prioritize resolving reported vulnerabilities with expedience [...] Most vulnerabilities should be resolved in 30 days, but some may be more complex and may take longer.

Apple does not comply with this.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#44

Post by Longhanks » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 6:07 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #31

Does this mean we'll finally have "real" firefox with support for ublock origin on iOS?

Could’ve happened some time ago already in the EU, so there must be reasons for Firefox an Google not to ship their own engines (yet?).

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#45

Post by JimmyBiscuit » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 6:09 PM UTC

creato wrote: post #25

hu3 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Documentation to guide devs on safe usage of C++ is enough? So any language should be allowed as long as they instruct developers to be careful.

I don't know if they do this, but those conventions could be enforced by a tool.

Theres C++ in military airplanes, they just cut out 90% of the features: https://www.stroustrup.com/JSF-AV-rules.pdf

And heres a nice video about it: https://youtu.be/Gv4sDL9Ljww?si=Z4riPMKAKcIKaU0s

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#46

Post by EA-3167 » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 6:09 PM UTC

drnick1 wrote: post #11

2026 should be the year when every tech-minded person dumps Apple (and Google) for good and either starting running either a free Android OS (Graphene, Lineage or a couple of other variants) or a Linux phone. At this point, Apple and Google devices are nothing more than instruments of coercion and mass surveillance.

This is profoundly out of touch with how almost everyone who isn’t a particularly zealous member of certain movements lives their lives.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#47

Post by crazygringo » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 6:09 PM UTC

rorylawless wrote: post #33

My hope for laws such as the ones Japan and the EU enacted was that companies would see the writing on the wall and change their practices worldwide, if only for cost reasons (it presumably being more expensive to maintain multiple sets of rules.) However, these companies are now so large that they can choose to absorb any inefficiencies on a country-by-country basis.

There are many things Apple does that have anticompetitive motivations, but the browser engine doesn't seem like one of them. It's genuinely about security and battery life and standardization. So if cost was never the reason in the first place, cost is not going to be the reason to change.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#48

Post by arcanemachiner » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 6:13 PM UTC

concinds wrote: post #40

creato wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if they do this, but those conventions could be enforced by a tool.

Yes, they do this, and it's really not an unreasonable requirement.

Of course. It's just a coincidence that they're placing onerous restrictions on competi- I mean alternative browser engines. Restrictions which, of course, they're not obliged to follow themselves.

I am sure that Apple will make no other efforts to impede others from unwalling the garden. That would be completely ridiculous, and frankly, un-Apple-esque.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#49

Post by greiskul » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 6:14 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #47

rorylawless wrote: post #33

My hope for laws such as the ones Japan and the EU enacted was that companies would see the writing on the wall and change their practices worldwide, if only for cost reasons (it presumably being more expensive to maintain multiple sets of rules.) However, these companies are now so large that they can choose to absorb any inefficiencies on a country-by-country basis.

There are many things Apple does that have anticompetitive motivations, but the browser engine doesn't seem like one of them. It's genuinely about security and battery life and standardization. So if cost was never the reason in the first place, cost is not going to be the reason to change.

It is literally done for strategic reasons to put a stranglehold on innovations on the web, so that there is no risk of web app technology developing to a point to threaten the dominance of native apps and the app store.

Anybody that thinks otherwise is hopeless naive, Steve Jobs himself envisioned a web app future as the future of technology; before Apple found out the gold mine that the app store became.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#50

Post by leptons » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

threethirtytwo wrote: post #10

Why only Japan? Seems like something forced them to in Japan.

The US DOJ was attempting to sue Apple in an antitrust suit for many things, including blocking every browser engine except their own Safari browser on iOS.

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/media/1344546/dl?inline

Who knows if this will actually move forward now that "Tim Apple" gave the current leader a meaningless golden trophy.