So why do you buy products from them and support a company that behaves that way? You frequent a forum for Apple, so I must assume you're an Apple customer.
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Apple Confirms iOS 17.4 Disables Home Screen Web Apps in the European Union
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I know it sounds silly, but get a Google Pixel and get GrapheneOS - if you want, you can still have Google services, PlayStore Apps and purchases or go Google free as ironic as it sounds.
If my current iPhone Mini dies, I'm going back to that.
And yet you continue to buy their products?
No, it will not.
This explanation does not make any sense. They already have to allow the browser engines onto the iPhone. They can't get more access than that. By this move they are only crippling how users can interact with PWA in these alternative browser engines.
I've said it previously, but this sort of thing is exactly why the US should have made it very clear that if the EU engaged in this behavior, it would lead to a ruinously expensive game of tit for tat the EU would lose.
I wish Apple give us an option to continue with the Iphone as it has always been. Maybe not installing third party web browsers?
These kind of trade games have been happening for decades, if not centuries. Ask a european car manufacturer through what kind of hoops they have to jump to sell cars in the US. And no, the DMA is not a trade barrier in the traditional sense. That's at least my opinion.
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I think Apple is being unusually straightforward here, explaining that while it could be done, the engineering and risk required would not be worth the relatively small benefit for a few users. I wish more companies would explain their thinking like this.
Now, their European pricing model, on the other hand...
I don't think there is any obligation to install another browser than safari if you don't want to.
I only use one PWA app (Beestat) and it wouldn't be a huge loss to have it load as a web page, but still. Apple is being so petty here. They really should just open the platform and let users install whatever they want (with proper security warnings).
Couldn't they just make a switch?
Open PWA in Default Browser: on/off
Open PWA in Default Browser: on/off
I'm on the fence regarding PWA specifically, but I agree with this wider point. Sooner or later everyone is gonna rue the day they were clapping for state regulation from governments who are on public record as having designs on backdooring encryption. Each time one of these power grabs gains ground, one inch at a time, we get one inch closer to full-1984.
The Five Eyes, of which the EU is inclusive, do not have the interests of the proletariat in mind. And anyone in doubt needs to investigate Chat Control and the amendments to UK's Investigatory Powers Act. Furthermore, those same folk may want to consider the push notification metadata scandal which Apple claimed they were compelled to keep secret from its users.
Fully aware that people will laugh, mock and scoff at this post, but some day soon they won't be laughing. Be careful what you wish for indeed.
This is of course nonsense, but I think Apple are quite pleased to disable web apps since they have been used as alternatives to the app store for things like emulators, but of course no way they could retract that feature without anything to blame it on.
I don't know what alternative you propose though
Having Corporations with more size, resources and clout than many nations just "decide how the world works" isn't an answer I'm interested in either
Megacorps don't even care if their own actions cause staff or users or bystanders to literally die ... as long as the string pullers are making money
(pick your industry.. could be oil, farming, tobacco ....or low wage staff making iPhones and committing suicide to get away from the horror of the job, country or situation they are trapped in)
That would violate DMA. The DMA says no browser can be favored in any way over any other, which means Apple cannot put in a feature integrated into the OS for Safari without doing the same with other web browsers. Leaving the feature in for Safari-only would be illegal.
Apple is just asking to have a hammer brought down on them for these type of behavior.
Apple entire security argument is complete BS. Apple is just being petty over losing basically pennies.
This is not that part. They are breaking features in complaying with law.
That or does Apple having to admit they have some major security issues in the OS that they have refused to address for a long time and now being massively exposed which could be very much true.
This is a response by someone that doesn’t work in software development. the only reason this worked in the first place was because it used safari/webkit, which Apple had complete control over, if the EU has forced Apple to allow any company to make any browser on iOS, and any browser as a default browser. This simply cannot work, without a lot of changes. And any company in software development looks at a feature and user adoption, and says is it worth it to keep it supported?
One of my favorite features of iphone was dropped due to lack of adoption, 3D Touch.
This is also due to government legislators not knowing anything about tech and how far some things are integrated into systems before making laws they “think” will help people, only to hurt them.
This is ********. I use this all the time just for regular links to frequently used sites (they’re not even trying to offer a web app). I’m not in the EU so this doesn’t impact me directly but this is terrible.
I wrote my first iPhone app as a web app (just playing around with mobile). It’s still on my home screen and I use it all the time (I literally was able to make a custom app just for me without any need to go through the App Store since I don’t want revenue for this).
Apple is basically throwing a temper tantrum over having to comply with the EU rules.
Very disappointing.
I wrote my first iPhone app as a web app (just playing around with mobile). It’s still on my home screen and I use it all the time (I literally was able to make a custom app just for me without any need to go through the App Store since I don’t want revenue for this).
Apple is basically throwing a temper tantrum over having to comply with the EU rules.
Very disappointing.
Well all I know for sure is there's nothing more monopolistic and dangerous than a defacto all-powerful government with publicly-stated dystopian hellscape intentions having absolute power over companies that hold our personal data. I realise it sounds like hyperbole but this is where it's all headed. And fast. I for one would rather take my chances with Apple or XYZ doing some stuff I don't like, especially as I can currently go elsewhere should I choose.
But others feel differently and that's their prerogative 👍
Perfect example of unintended consequence of EU meddling in things they don't understand.
The USA has made it very clear, but the fact is that Eurasia as a whole dwarfs the US in terms of GDP. Entities like the EU (a massively rich, developed trade bloc) and Asian economies such as India and China (that massively growing and increasingly more influential on the international stage) are just too big a markets and so Apple will just have to adapt. And vice versa for all sorts of companies. The world is changing and in the coming decades it will really be multipolar with at least three huge trade blocs. And individual countries, or federal states, or superstates will have far less say than they used to.
They were forced to break this feature. Put yourself in Apple’s shoes. The government is saying you have no right to have any competitive advantages despite the fact your product makes up a minority of sales, and if you leave a feature intact that other browsers don’t get to have, that is a violation of the law. Apple is being forced to spend engineering time ADDING a feature that hardly anyone uses. They had two alternatives: they could remove the feature or they could add it for other browsers. One takes no time at all (probably just toggling a flag in software) while the other takes up time that could be spent working on stuff that people actually use. it’s a no-brainer. As a retired software engineer, Apple’s option is what I would have recommended. If PWA’s were widely used, I would recommend doing the other alternative.