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Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

macrumors.com

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

#971

Post by fingerlocks »

jamesfinlayson wrote: post #871
kmeisthax wrote: post #678

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, don't the $99/year certs give you signatures that last like a year?

I think the deploy straight from Xcode to your device builds have a pretty short lifetime (I remember it being a month in around 2014 or 2015) not sure now. If you archive and build using a certificate from developer.apple.com they last a year.

As someone with dozens of side loaded iOS apps, all of my apps are working just fine, well over 6 months later. I always build and deploy without archiving.

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

#972

Post by e44858 »

throwitaway1123 wrote: post #748
Crosseye_Jack wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Altserver+Altstore. Altserver will resign your apps, and altstore can background "refresh" your apps so they _shouldn't_ expire on your. It refreshes when your on the same wifi network as altserver, for me it works most of the time, but sometimes I need to kick altserver to get the phone to see it. Doesn't fix the issue, and its a limitation that annoys the hell out of me too, but at least helps mitigate it. (Though…

The only thing that bothers me about Altstore is that it require you to enter your Apple ID and password. I know the app is open source and only sends the credentials to Apple, but the risk of a supply chain vulnerability is terrifying.

You can create a new Apple ID and use it just for Altstore.

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

#973

Post by e44858 »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #458
goblin89 wrote: post #449

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…

I work across the street from a well-known security research group who has been on HN front page before. Every one of them uses iPhones because they cannot be rooted and are encrypted by default. Venn of old people and at least one group of security professionals.

> cannot be rooted

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_jailbreaking

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

#974

Post by NoPicklez »

nerdjon wrote: post #903
NoPicklez wrote: post #785

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do often think people forget that when the iPhone app store was released it was a game changer. The whole idea of a single place to download all apps and games was huge for most people including developers. It meant that everything was there, in the one place and managed through that one app. Now a decade has passed and we're asking for change. That's fine, but we can't forget that when the app store first came out…

> Now there could be an aspect of predatory behavior by Apple in the way they charge developers etc, but that's where I feel the problem should be tackled. Right! Just because I agree with the core part of the App Store doesn't mean that it isn't without faults. But let's not rip up what is there completely to fix other issues, and just make things worse in the process. We saw a similar conversation when Steam came o…

Completely agree!

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

#975

Post by NoPicklez »

tombert wrote: post #945
NoPicklez wrote: post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do often think people forget that when the iPhone app store was released it was a game changer. The whole idea of a single place to download all apps and games was great for most people. It meant that everything was there, in the one place and managed through that one app. Now a decade has passed and we're asking for change. That's fine, but we can't forget that when the app store first came out there wasn't this h…

I mean, I don't know if I'd call it "hysteria", but people have been sideloading alternative app stores on the iPhone for about as long as the iPhone has been around haven't they? I remember when I first got an iPod Touch in 2009, the first thing I did was jailbreak it and install Cydia so I could get emulators working on there. Now I have always been a pretty geeky person, so I'm not claiming that I'm the "norm", bu…

I agree, I had also jailbroken my iPhone back in 2010 with Cydia. However I used that to unlock the springboard and change app icons etc, for me it was a bit of a gimmick with a fair amount of risk involved.

I would say if you looked at it percentage wise, it would be an incredibly small number of iPhone owners that jailbroke their devices to sideload apps. I think you can argue that there might always be some demand, but that doesn't mean it needs to happen.

My point is back when the app store was released developers went wild that there was this publishing place they could put their apps. The iPhone in 2010 was responsible for 99.4% of all mobile app downloads. And by 2010 there were around 30,000 apps & games in the app store.

Going back and reading articles about the app store between 2009 and 2012, there isn't negative discussion around the fees associated with the app store or anti-competitive behavior. There wasn't outrage over only being able to download apps through the iPhone store. There was discussion however about companies building their own Android based app stores, but those failed shortly after.

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

#976

Post by throwitaway1123 »

e44858 wrote: post #972
throwitaway1123 wrote: post #748

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing that bothers me about Altstore is that it require you to enter your Apple ID and password. I know the app is open source and only sends the credentials to Apple, but the risk of a supply chain vulnerability is terrifying.

You can create a new Apple ID and use it just for Altstore.

But don't you need a unique phone number for each Apple ID, which makes it kind of difficult to just create a throwaway account? Or is there a way to circumvent that requirement?

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

#977

Post by noiseinvacuum »

It’s funny how Apple fans here, and on other forums, dislike the seemingly arbitrary heavy handed gate keeping on Apple by the EU when in fact Apple engages in far extreme level of arbitrary gate keeping and this is somehow loved by the same people.

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

#978

Post by simondotau »

zuppy wrote: post #929
pg_1234 wrote: post #874

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU should make a public service announcement. Something along the lines of: "We urge all EU citizens with Apple devices to have an alternate means of accessing critical internet services like banking, to protect themselves in the event we are forced to block all Apple services EU-wide for legal non-compliance." ... then watch AAPL stock drop below NVDA ... ... and Apple come crawling back, suitably obedient.

no, they shouldn't, this will affect customers who already purchased the product and have no fault in this silly war that apple wants to start. no matter what they do, it should only apply to new devices.

Excuse me, Apple started it? That's absurd. Apple have been running their little fiefdom mostly unchanged for almost fifteen years and it's only in the past few years that the EU has chosen to intervene in their marketplace. The EU started this fight; Apple is just doing whatever they can to resist change.

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

#979

Post by simondotau »

tmiku wrote: post #966
JKCalhoun wrote: post #940

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll go further in one regard: the App Store in fact hurts Apple because it has caused a kind of filtering of apps down to those that are the sleaziest. I used to enjoy exploring the App Store — I resent it now. I'll download half a dozen apps only to delete them within minutes of launching them because of their rent-ware attitude or just plain shitty functionality.

Can you elaborate on that filtering? I agree with you that the App Store is full of chaff, but I don't understand why there'd be a causal relationship between a highly centralized App Store and sleazy apps.

Indeed. Put another way, how would lifting Apple's restrictions result in an improved wheat-to-chaff ratio? I can't see how it would increase the amount of wheat, nor can I see how it would reduce the amount of chaff.

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

#980

Post by kuschku »

simondotau wrote: post #979
tmiku wrote: post #966

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on that filtering? I agree with you that the App Store is full of chaff, but I don't understand why there'd be a causal relationship between a highly centralized App Store and sleazy apps.

Indeed. Put another way, how would lifting Apple's restrictions result in an improved wheat-to-chaff ratio? I can't see how it would increase the amount of wheat, nor can I see how it would reduce the amount of chaff.

Different stores can have different rules and moderation.

I'm not going to argue about the signal to noise ratio between e.g. fdroid vs Google Play, but it should be obvious that while the signal looks the same for both, the noise is very different, with fdroid having outdated, "developer UI" apps as noise and Google Play having fraudulent scams and malware as noise.

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