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Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

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Re: Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

#11

Post by Apocryphon »

olliej wrote: post #10
Apocryphon wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm betting that one would have to opt-in to use those stores in the first place.

Until Facebook is only distributed through their own store that doesn’t require app tracking transparency. Or Teams, or slack, …

I think that's unlikely to happen, for a host of consumer experience and market viability reasons:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30280457

One should note that Meta could create their own Android third party store right now, like Amazon has (pretty much only to support their Kindle Fire devices), yet they haven't had any interest in doing so. One could claim that's because Android users don't pay as much for apps as iOS users do, but that's still a lot of users worldwide, and a lot of data that could be tracked. Yet they don't bother to.

Re: Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

#12

Post by Apocryphon »

olliej wrote: post #9
dm319 wrote: post #3

Good to see the general purpose computer in your pocket being recognised as one.

No talk of extending it to cover consoles though, despite them also being general purpose

What general purposes do game consoles serve, other than being multimedia centers? Do users use the browser and other internet features on consoles extensively? Can you make payments, hail a ride, order food with them? Can you contact emergency services with them? Can they save your literal life?

Re: Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

#13

Post by Apocryphon »

olliej wrote: post #8
im_nullable wrote: post #5

Apple will soon require 3rd party app stores to remit 27% of all revenue.

If not the stores themselves, then presumably the apps will have to pay. I’d also hope that the store are required to enforce the same security protections as the main App Store. I don’t want buying an app to now come with the risk of uncancellable subscriptions, gross invasion of privacy, malware, etc

Presumably, they could just treat iOS like macOS, where there already is a notarization system that covers apps distributed outside of the Mac App store.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizin...

Also, people forget that iOS itself has many security protections built into the platform itself that go beyond App Store review.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30199125

Re: Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

#14

Post by car_analogy »

Apocryphon wrote: post #12
olliej wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No talk of extending it to cover consoles though, despite them also being general purpose

What general purposes do game consoles serve, other than being multimedia centers? Do users use the browser and other internet features on consoles extensively? Can you make payments, hail a ride, order food with them? Can you contact emergency services with them? Can they save your literal life?

Exactly. They are general purpose computers, artificially crippled by their manufacturer, to prevent their (supposed) owner from using their full potential.

Re: Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

#15

Post by lwansbrough »

car_analogy wrote: post #14
Apocryphon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What general purposes do game consoles serve, other than being multimedia centers? Do users use the browser and other internet features on consoles extensively? Can you make payments, hail a ride, order food with them? Can you contact emergency services with them? Can they save your literal life?

Exactly. They are general purpose computers, artificially crippled by their manufacturer, to prevent their (supposed) owner from using their full potential.

This is a silly argument. Nobody is checking their bank account on their Xbox. We can acknowledge that iPhones are needlessly closed platforms while also acknowledging that there are legitimate purpose-built computers in various form factors (gaming consoles being a good example.)

Re: Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

#16

Post by jurschreuder »

I hope some healthy competition will make app development on Apple easier. Submitting to the AppStore is often half of the development time for a simple app, the user experience is terrible. Xcode sucks and they force you to use it. Just let us use third party tools it's better for your own platform also. Just let us make iPhone apps in VIM, like civilized people. Maybe webapps will also now finally get proper support like Android, you just know the platform could be way better if they did not force you past their toll booth, even for free apps.

Re: Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

#17

Post by lizardactivist »

olliej wrote: post #6
wdb wrote: post #4

Then I hope Apple allows an option to enable an opt out for these third party stores

The problem is when some critical app forces you to use their store. I hope at the very least apple can mandate that the additional app stores enforce the same privacy and safety rules, or would the EU consider that allowing people to not be spied on be to much of an infringement of the rights of business?

Apple ecosystem isn't the bastion of privacy and security you think it is.

Re: Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

#18

Post by metadat »

Apocryphon wrote: post #13
olliej wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If not the stores themselves, then presumably the apps will have to pay. I’d also hope that the store are required to enforce the same security protections as the main App Store. I don’t want buying an app to now come with the risk of uncancellable subscriptions, gross invasion of privacy, malware, etc

Presumably, they could just treat iOS like macOS, where there already is a notarization system that covers apps distributed outside of the Mac App store. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizin... Also, people forget that iOS itself has many security protections built into the platform itself that go beyond App Store review. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30199125

Fascinating read, especially https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/for-t...

Re: Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

#19

Post by paxys »

wdb wrote: post #4

Then I hope Apple allows an option to enable an opt out for these third party stores

Android has an explicit opt-in for allowing sideloading, and a whopping 0.06% of users currently utilize it. I really don't know why this issue is causing such a big fuss in the iOS ecosystem.

Re: Apple forced to allow sideloading and 3rd-party app stores under new EU law

#20

Post by paxys »

olliej wrote: post #9
dm319 wrote: post #3

Good to see the general purpose computer in your pocket being recognised as one.

No talk of extending it to cover consoles though, despite them also being general purpose

Game consoles are very far from general purpose.
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