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iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

developer.apple.com

101–110 of 431 posts

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#101
post #31

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

Probably not, as the same rules were applied to Apple devices in EU earlier, and no third party browser engines appeared.

But right now you can use uBlock origin lite in Safari. Or any other of multitude of other adblockers.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#102
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI. iOS Safari already supports uBlock Origin Lite. iOS Firefox can do the same anytime but it already has some tracking and content blocking built in too.

As someone who has recently switched from Android to iOS, I can tell you uBlock Origin Lite on Safari on iOS is a poor man’s imitation of the real uBlock Origin on Firefox on Android.

are there major sites that don't work for you?

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#103
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.

Can you please elaborate on how iPhones are instruments of mass surveillance?

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#104

I'm surprised Apple haven't thrown in the towel and opened things up worldwide yet. It's only a matter of time until it becomes too confusing and problematic to try and run the same system relatively openly in one country and walled in another.

Good. The sooner I can run Firefox with the legit uBlock origin the better.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#105
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If browser F is worse at battery life than browser S, people will figure that out and adapt for themselves. If it's a big difference, it's self-evident; and small differences should show up in the battery life tool and computer press. Security-wise, the sandbox should limit damage to within the browser, and if it doesn't that's not the browser's fault. Maybe restrict access to password filling and such though / figur…

> If browser F is worse at battery life than browser S, people will figure that out and adapt for themselves.

Unfortunately, the makers of a certain browser also control several major web properties, and regularly make 'mistakes' that break compatibility with competing browsers, while releasing a set of apps that 'forget' users' browser selections on a monthly basis.

Personally, I'd much prefer apple allowed a browser engine with proper ad blocking support. But I do worry that the moment they do so, the almost-monopoly browser market would become a total monopoly.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#106
post #104

I'm surprised Apple haven't thrown in the towel and opened things up worldwide yet. It's only a matter of time until it becomes too confusing and problematic to try and run the same system relatively openly in one country and walled in another.

Good. The sooner I can run Firefox with the legit uBlock origin the better.

While its not Firefox, you can run uBlock origin with the Orion browser from the Kagi people.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#107

I'm surprised Apple haven't thrown in the towel and opened things up worldwide yet. It's only a matter of time until it becomes too confusing and problematic to try and run the same system relatively openly in one country and walled in another.

I've always thought the same. Obviously there isn't much of a technical hurdle since they have the engineering talent. But, keeping track of all these cross-region rules and training your staff+customers on it has to be quite costly in multiple respects (time, energy, mental models, etc.) My personal opinion is that keeping the browser engine locked down isn't much of a profit generator, unlike maintaining full reign…

Hobbling browser engines is a key pillar of app store control. Decent PWA support would be a massive blow to Apple's bottom line.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#108
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought the same. Obviously there isn't much of a technical hurdle since they have the engineering talent. But, keeping track of all these cross-region rules and training your staff+customers on it has to be quite costly in multiple respects (time, energy, mental models, etc.) My personal opinion is that keeping the browser engine locked down isn't much of a profit generator, unlike maintaining full reign…

Hobbling browser engines is a key pillar of app store control. Decent PWA support would be a massive blow to Apple's bottom line.

This is the conspiratorial version.

The more likely explanation is that when every app can bundle their own browser engine, we will not see a competition explosion. Instead, Electron apps will come to mobile, with every app shipping its own browser stack.

You can’t tell me Gecko, which has already failed on desktop, will suddenly be popular on mobile. You can easily tell me every app shipping their own Chromium would be very popular with developers.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#109
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hobbling browser engines is a key pillar of app store control. Decent PWA support would be a massive blow to Apple's bottom line.

This is the conspiratorial version. The more likely explanation is that when every app can bundle their own browser engine, we will not see a competition explosion. Instead, Electron apps will come to mobile, with every app shipping its own browser stack. You can’t tell me Gecko, which has already failed on desktop, will suddenly be popular on mobile. You can easily tell me every app shipping their own Chromium would…

a browser is essentially an app store with no 30% cut for Apple. If you can ship a browser, you don't need to pay the Apple tax

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#110
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the conspiratorial version. The more likely explanation is that when every app can bundle their own browser engine, we will not see a competition explosion. Instead, Electron apps will come to mobile, with every app shipping its own browser stack. You can’t tell me Gecko, which has already failed on desktop, will suddenly be popular on mobile. You can easily tell me every app shipping their own Chromium would…

a browser is essentially an app store with no 30% cut for Apple. If you can ship a browser, you don't need to pay the Apple tax

Has PWA become popular on unencumbered platforms like Android or Windows?

No.

Even if unencumbered on iOS, it will still fail, because PWA is an intrinsically confusing technology. The pitch to non-technical users is terrible. Just like passkeys, which has also been terrible.

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