Live data from Hacker News

Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

macrumors.com

461–470 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#461

As a user, I cannot recommend iPhone to my older relatives if there is a way to run arbitrary code beyond Safari’s JS sandbox. Simple as that. It is a nuanced question with a computer[0], but for a phone (increasingly used for more important transactions and sensitive private data by people more naive when it comes to security) it is simply a no-brainer. Unless cyber crime is prosecuted as robustly as robberies, I wa…

If you need to infantilize your relatives because they cannot be trusted with their devices, then MDM them, or even have that be the default. But we do not need to surrender in the war on general purpose computing for it.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#462
DMA is absolutely unfair. Why it doesn't include consoles? Why manufacturers are allowed to prevent users from running their software? And Apple isn't. Some animals are more equal than others?

Also, it is notable how free market fails to solve the problem: almost 100% of consumers seem to not care about freedom to install any software on their devices.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

~20% of Apple's total earnings (not revenue) could come from the App Store: https://deepwatermgmt.com/apples-app-store-is-an-important-p... When you look at the multiple on services - the App Store could easily be >40% of Apple's total market cap. They're going to stick their fingers in their ears as long as they can to defend that. You don't give up the golden goose. You defend it.

Good thing goose is eaten in Europe traditionally.

It's not even the harshest thing we do to that sort of bird.

Patè des californiens is going to be delicious.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#464
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically AT&T is bigger now than it was when it was broken apart.

Size wasn’t the issue, it was being a monopoly. AT&T today has big and small competitors in every space. They used to own the phone in your house.

In wireless internet, ATT competes with Verizon and T-Mobile.

But for fiber internet to the home, ATT is still a monopoly for its customers since there are never 2 fiber ISPs.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#465
post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any particular reason you are picking on US companies? or big companies? Most, if not all, monopolies are sustained by government via laws, regulations, and so on. So let's get specific, which monopolies do you think should be forced to split up and we can test that theory and see if we can identify what government actions sustain the monopoly.

Having the OS, the hardware, and the app store, along with a lot of the (almost mandatory) cloud services AND the most popular apps, all made by the same company.

iCloud is in no way mandatory

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#466

Apple isn’t considering that they are the baddies? I suggest strong regulation of the complete BigIT and two chairs for public observers at minimum. In addition they are not allowed to enter any new market. Why? Because it worked well with AT&T . Results: * UNIX * C * Open-Source * Public Documentation Sounds good? Until the Reagan administration appeared, allowed them to split up (Baby Bells), the UNIX-Wars followed…

[dead]

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#467
One prerequisite is:

"Be a member of good standing in the Apple Developer Program for two continuous years or more, and have an app that had more than one million first annual installs on iOS in the EU in the prior calendar year."

The realistic part of me thinks this sounds like more resistance to the DMA.

Another part of me thinks this will be good for security. Some random can't get a dev account and publish malware payloads on a hidden URL that will happily run on iOS devices, and are installed via a Safari zero day.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#468
post #375

The terms and conditions for web distribution [0] are concerning to say the least. In short, you have to have at least one million first installs annually on iOS to even qualify, in addition to other terms such as "good standing in the Apple Developer Program for two continuous years or more". I doubt Epic and the like would be considered in good standing as far as Apple is concerned. Also, quote unquote, developers…

Agreed. Apple's stubbornness and clear attempts to retaliate against everyone for these changes are not going to go well for them, and they need to realise that at some point. It's genuinely shocking how petty the company is acting with these changes, and how obvious their attempts at only doing the bare minimum to follow the law are.

Remember when Apple taunted bigger companies to sue them, in the name of technological freedom? Pepperidge Farm remembers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sosumi

So sad to see them on the other side of the table now, using every trick in the book to screw over the entire sector. Mr. Cook, tear down this wall!

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#470

As a user, I cannot recommend iPhone to my older relatives if there is a way to run arbitrary code beyond Safari’s JS sandbox. Simple as that. It is a nuanced question with a computer[0], but for a phone (increasingly used for more important transactions and sensitive private data by people more naive when it comes to security) it is simply a no-brainer. Unless cyber crime is prosecuted as robustly as robberies, I wa…

If you need to infantilize your relatives because they cannot be trusted with their devices, then MDM them, or even have that be the default. But we do not need to surrender in the war on general purpose computing for it.

> MDM them

Many of us cannot afford the luxury of working overtime as tech support for relatives. I personally do not even think I can do a good enough job at that for myself, in fact—I would have to be a professional information security researcher.

Furthermore, I am sure if there is enough misplaced outrage, MDM will be unable to restrict this.

> But we do not need to surrender in the war on general purpose computing for it.

Where is that war? General purpose computing is everywhere, with all of its associated benefits and liabilities[0].

iOS has more or less been the only island where it is reliably not an option, that making it preferred for the reasons I mention.

[0] How many of us literally airgap machines that run unvetted code (at least once you realize that all vitalization and containerization is circumventable), not letting any personal data on them? How feasible is that with a phone, and by an average person that is not exactly infosec-savvy but who is obligated to have a phone to simply get on with daily life?

Post reply on HN