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iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

developer.apple.com

151–160 of 431 posts

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#151
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…

Firefox is really good now on android. It's my go to browser now for everything. It just needed full addon support but when that was finally there it was great.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#152
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.

So far as I can tell, Linux phones are still ass.

Linux on mobile is probably even more behind than Linux on desktop was in the 90s.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in a hardware level, this is easily obtainable, and Apple already does it. Chinese iPhones? They have 2 physical SIM card slots and no eSIM. EU iPhones? 1 SIM card slot, and 1 eSIM. US iPhones? 2 eSIM card slots and no physical SIM. US iPhones also have mmWave when other countries do not. If Apple wanted to, keeping a Lightning US iPhone was easily on the cards. The EU’s role in forcing the issue in the US is ex…

My dad got his phone stolen on day 1 of a monthlong trip. He went without a phone the whole trip, in part because he was nervous he wouldn't have the right radios if he brought a euro phone home.

That's true they are different. It'll still work, but the bands aren't exactly the same so it may lead to coverage issues depending on the network.

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#155
post #57
post #31

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

Probably not, at least not from Mozilla themselves. They cite onerous requirements and the difficulty of having to maintain different apps for different regions. https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/26/24052067/mozilla-apple-io...

Yeah malicious compliance :(

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#156
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Okay now that we have come to the topic, How is Orion browser on App store whereas all others aren't?

is there a way to make more innovation in this area and maybe an extension or two developed adding more perms etc or forking Orion or the know-how behind it and replicating it could finally allow PWA on apple iphones?

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#157
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people will figure that out and adapt for themselves No they won't. People on HN will. Not the average person. > Security-wise, the sandbox should limit damage to within the browser The problem is, arbitrary code execution vastly expands the risks. Your "should" is doing all the work there. > Standardization, eh? Forcing Safari on iOS and not making it available on the mass market platforms Huh? Apple follows web s…

>> people will figure that out and adapt for themselves >No they won't. People on HN will. Not the average person. Yes they will, Apple has made it very easy to see. To check iOS app power usage, go to Settings > Battery, where you'll see a breakdown of battery consumption by app for the last 24 hours or 10 days, showing usage time and background activity, allowing you to identify power-hungry apps and manage setting…

> So yeah, it's easy to see which app is taking the most power, and users can do this easily, unless you think Apple's UX is so bad that users won't know how to read it?

It's easy to see, but seeing doesn't mean the user will do anything about it. I guarantee that for the average user, their list goes something like Instagram/TikTok/FaceBook/Twitter, and they haven't uninstalled any of those yet due to battery drain...

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 They will continue to do so for as long as it remains profitable. Navigating the complexities of multiple jurisdictions is the bread and butter of MNCs - it's the price of admission into the multinational club. Apple is guaranteed to have lawyers, admins, an…

Lawyers, admins, and executives, sure. But what about the complexity on the engineers who now have to maintain an exploding matrix of modes? I can definitely see that becoming burdensome.

they make $1b in revenue and $300mm a day in profit

Re: iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

#160

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.

At a hardware level it seemed to work. Looking at USB-C on iPhones for example. Software wise? Fail. EEA gets to disable start search in Windows 11. RoW does not. Interestingly EEA membership is decided at install time based on your selection, and is not changeable afterwards. iPhones on the other hand have a daemon running that checks your location. It's not based on where you set up the phone. So traveling from Eur…

Sounds like a market for Faraday GPS spoofer boxes.
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