Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 167 posts

Re: Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

#141

Post by nixass »

tgv wrote: post #61
nixass wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's literally crap and lacks features. See Firefox on Android, compare it to iOS and update your post

That's an absurd statement. I have an Android tablet, and Firefox on that is definitely less agreeable than on iOS. The way it handles tabs, searches, private windows, and data settings, are all inferior on Android. It does have more extensions.

Firefox on Android is ten times more customizable, especially with addons - ads and privacy - iOS/Safari can hide in a hole. Anyway, the issue here seems to be that somw people think browsers on iOS are good, they're not, especially not against their Android versions

Re: Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

#142

Post by philistine »

tzs wrote: post #133
ajvs wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really since CMA also took aim at Google Chrome's dominance. If that is made no longer the default browser then it'd go a long way to increasing browser diversity. I can only hope Gecko (Firefox) grows in the wake of that.

Chrome is not the default browser on Windows yet massively dominates there with around 9x the usage of Firefox (and around maybe 6x the usage of the Windows default browser, Edge).

Aren't OEMs bundling Chrome as an opportunity to sell extensions installs?

Re: Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

#143

Post by philistine »

MthN wrote: post #91
agust wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Competition from Apple? Why would people use Chrome if Safari is as good or better?

"This website works only in Chrome" or "Please download chrome to continue" might become common occurrence on Safari iOS forcing people to stick to Chrome on iOS

The true culprit of Chrome's dominance, I presume, is Google giving Chrome the only ad ever to appear on the google.com landing page. An ad that has been there for close to a decade.

That is the attitude of a monopolist in one area (search) using its dominance to establish dominance in another area (browsers). That nobody has reamed Google for giving Chrome an ad on the landing page without ever selling that space to anyone else is a big miss.

Re: Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

#144

Post by ubermonkey »

timmg wrote: post #114
ubermonkey wrote: post #111

Ah, the never-ending quest to define platform features as anti-competitive in order to make Apple worse.

It's not that Apple ships a browser engine that is the problem. It's that they don't allow you to publish apps that use a different browser engine. Big difference.

I still don't see the problem. Apple is a minority player in this market. Android presumably allows whatever you want, right? If you want the customized experience, use that.

Re: Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

#145

Post by Tagbert »

AndersSandvik wrote: post #42
neximo64 wrote: post #25

It's interesting to hear Apple always talk about the level playing field they've tried to create. From within the company i think they really believe they've got a level playing field. But then Apple has apps that can do much more than everyone else has access to, in ways that have nothing to do with security or privacy. - Apps access to NFC (e.g Apple Pay vs you being able to make your own nfc card) - Inability to h…

If you delete an Apple app and redownload it it will put itself on the homebar or first app page pushing your other apps away. Comman, they dont let other apps do that!

It was Apple Music and they have fixed that in the most recent update.

Re: Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

#146

Post by lupire »

philistine wrote: post #143
MthN wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This website works only in Chrome" or "Please download chrome to continue" might become common occurrence on Safari iOS forcing people to stick to Chrome on iOS

The true culprit of Chrome's dominance, I presume, is Google giving Chrome the only ad ever to appear on the google.com landing page. An ad that has been there for close to a decade. That is the attitude of a monopolist in one area (search) using its dominance to establish dominance in another area (browsers). That nobody has reamed Google for giving Chrome an ad on the landing page without ever selling that space to…

Advertising is not establishing dominance.

Re: Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

#147

Post by lupire »

Gigachad wrote: post #30
tgv wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Samsung browser is a Chromium wrapper. Some people dismiss wrappers around Safari on iOS, although I think there are more important things to worry about than exactly which rendering engine gets used.

The rendering engine is less important than the JS apis. Safari is missing half of them and some of them are flat out broken.

Firefox on Android ia a bad experience because the rendering engine is different and slight changes have a big effect on complex plages on tiny screens.

Re: Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

#148

Post by lupire »

TekMol wrote: post #80
chupchap wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems there is no solution for this? Get YouTube Premium?

I would pay for many things on the internet if there was something like digital cash. But the way it is, every time I pay for something, the mega corporations can tie my identity to everything I do. I am not ok with that. So the barrier to pay for something is very high.

You are watching YouTube. They have your IP, and can tie your identity using that.

Re: Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

#149

Post by TekMol »

tzs wrote: post #132
TekMol wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would pay for many things on the internet if there was something like digital cash. But the way it is, every time I pay for something, the mega corporations can tie my identity to everything I do. I am not ok with that. So the barrier to pay for something is very high.

Depending on your level of paranoia, one of these might work. 1. Buy a prepaid reloadable credit/debit card. In the US you can do this at major supermarkets, Walmart, and I think many convenience stores. You can load this by transferring funds from your normal bank account. Your bank can tie your identity to that, but they don't know what you are using the prepaid card for. The prepaid card company knows what you are…

I'm in Europe. You cannot buy+use credit/debit cards without going through an identification process here.

Re: Apple and Google’s mobile browser ‘stranglehold’ may face UK investigation

#150

Post by TekMol »

lupire wrote: post #148
TekMol wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would pay for many things on the internet if there was something like digital cash. But the way it is, every time I pay for something, the mega corporations can tie my identity to everything I do. I am not ok with that. So the barrier to pay for something is very high.

You are watching YouTube. They have your IP, and can tie your identity using that.

Who? And how would they do that?
Post reply on HN