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The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

arstechnica.com

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Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#211

Post by yourusername »

echelon wrote: post #116
nozzlegear wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They shouldn't be strong arming [...] the entire automotive industry. Yes they should, the automotive industry is much shittier. I have a 23 Chevy Bolt EUV with wireless CarPlay. Chevy/GM have been emailing and snail mailing me relentlessly trying to get me to pay for their $150 update to my car's navigation maps, which no longer work in my vehicle (presumably because they're out of date). This is quite the deal, a…

> With all this emphasis they're putting on upselling these $150 map updates, it doesn't take a genius to understand why GM is no longer making vehicles with CarPlay or Android Auto. Because cars are a low margin, high capital business with ruthless competition. Because a trillion dollar duopoly gets to spend a billion dollars on mapping software and give it away completely for free as part of an ecosystem / platform…

When standalone GPS units for $500 were popular the big car manufacturers were still trying to sell GPS as a $2000 option. We've seen time and time again car companies will charge whatever they can get away with. So i'm very skeptical that maps actually cost $150 for the companies that charged me $800 to enable bluetooth calling.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#212

Post by amaccuish »

Next up please do streaming. Chromecast seems so locked down so take AirPlay and make it a standard.

Then instead of just opening up NFC, make Google and Apple Wallet support plugins, so users can have one interface with all their cards but not tied to one payment system.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#213

Post by AdamN »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #186
MBCook wrote: post #3

So they forced Apple to drop an Apple proprietary thing in favor of… a Wi-Fi standard Apple helped develop specifically to replace their proprietary thing. Not quite as strong as the headline makes the case sound.

And that's how regulations work. The very companies targeted by regulations often design and push for them. By doing so they gain a competitive advantage, price out smaller rivals, and move closer to becoming a monopoly. Michael Porter, Harvard Business School professor, talks about this in his book Competitive Strategy.

The moat gets mighty large when the government regulators start making it bigger. That's one of the advantages that the Mag 7 has now - it's not just the scale but it's also the compliance burden for new entrants.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#214

Post by tonyedgecombe »

k310 wrote: post #2

I'll be happy when Airdrop works reliably on Apple equipment. It can't reliably work between two adjacent rooms in my home without arm-waving. A hundred or thousand mile trip through iCloud works tons better.

It depends on Bluetooth to establish the connection so if you are out of Bluetooth range it won't work.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#215

Post by AdamN »

dijit wrote: post #59
lsaferite wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plastic dental picks work great for cleaning USB-C ports.

just don’t apply too much pressure or the center segment can bend over time, becoming weak and prone to potentially snapping off. It happened to me at least.

Yeah you want to focus on the outside corners of the port and be gentle with the inside contacts.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#216

Post by kakacik »

JimDabell wrote: post #136
morshu9001 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had Macs on USB-C for like 7 years before the iPhone. It was going to stay like that. Mac on USB-C meant more dongles to sell, iPhone on Lightning meant cable fees and control.

You think Apple is going to make the user experience on iPhones – a product that makes them hundreds of billions of dollars a year – to sell more cables ‽ How much profit do you think they can possibly make with those cables? Apple came under fire when they moved from 30-pin connectors to Lightning because people wanted to keep their 30-pin connectors. At the time, Apple said that they wouldn’t make people switch for…

Yes of course. How much did the cables cost with replacements for fraing ones. Revenue is revenue, same as with consoles - main device is not the main income source, its the ecosystem and additional devices and services people buy and keep paying for.

This is business 101.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#217

Post by tonyedgecombe »

star-glider wrote: post #5

I'm libertarian, but I have to say watching the EU torment Apple has been delightful and one of the stronger arguments for muscular regulatory action. The USB-C thing just made everything better. It cost Apple basically nothing---maybe a few million/year of profit, which for a company that's worth $3 trillion is nothing, and it made my and many other people's lives quite a bit more convenient. Same with this Airdrop…

The iPad Pro got USB-C in 2018, well before the EU legislation. It seems inevitable the iPhone would have got it even without the EU getting involved.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#218

Post by 1718627440 »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #148
tristanj wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that Apple didn't add USB-C to iPhones because they planned to remove all ports from the iPhone entirely. They envisioned it as a wireless only device. EU regulation stopped this from happening, and now once they added USB-C it's difficult to take this feature away. I predict we'll be stuck with the USB-C port and form factor on most phones for the next decade.

This is completely illogical. There is no world that wireless charging or data transfer was going to be as good as wired. Was the iPhone all the sudden not going to work in the millions of cars that had wired CarPlay?

I share that view, but I don't think Apple would care. I mean Ethernet is way better than Wifi, yet the iPhones don't have an Ethernet port.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#219

Post by vineyardmike »

pavlov wrote: post #189
vineyardmike wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple said from the day that they made lightning cables that it would be supported for 10 years. They literally contractually guaranteed that to third party manufacturers in exchange for them creating a massive availability of cables for Apple users. The EU “forced them” to switch to the standard they helped develop (USB C) on the 11th year after developing lighting. I’m sure it was all the EUs doing.

Chinese cable manufacturers don't need contract guarantees to compete for the lucrative iPhone user market...

The cables have proprietary chips that need to be purchased from apple. And the target is companies that join their "Made For Apple" (MFI) program.

Re: The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

#220

Post by Longhanks »

isodev wrote: post #154
madeofpalk wrote: post #27

People keep mentioning Wi-Fi Aware with this, but so far haven't seen anyone actually prove that this is the case. Apple undoubtedly added Wi-Fi Aware support to iOS https://developer.apple.com/documentation/WiFiAware , but its not clear whether iOS actually supports AirDrop over Wi-Fi Aware. Apple clearly hasn't completely dropped AWDL for AirDrop, because you can still AirDrop from iOS 26 to earlier devices. Note t…

It’s funny how we’re all trying to piece together the stack from bits and obscure clues. Would be so cool if Apple and Google finally embrace their role as “essential public infrastructure” and release their specs, interoperate, etc.. so one doesn’t end up trapped one way or another when picking a personal device.

> "essential public infrastructure"

If people wanted these devices and services to be public infrastructure, they should be developed and maintained using public funds.

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