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Then at the end of the four months I move my residence to somewhere outside the EU -what happens to the apps I installed from the alternative app marketplace?
I suppose Apple can‘t deprive you of your legally acquired purchases, if they’re allowing redownloads themselves.

Then again, I can certainly imagine Apple being depraved enough to do it:
„We only have to enable installation for E.U. residents“
 
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In my opinion the increasing EU regulations targeted against American tech company products and services are largely thinly veiled protectionism.

The EU are also being hypocritical when you compare how vigorously they protect their IP. The EU wine and food industry have successfully banned the use of European names on food by foreign producer such champagne.

So when European companies are “gatekeeper” one rule applies, when US companies are gatekeepers another run applies.

Lol protectionism? There are massive farmer strikes in EU these days because the EU is imposing hard restrictions on food and agriculture use of pesticides for EU farmers while allowing foods from south mediterranean countries (i.e Morocco or Egipt) produced using forbidden pesticides to enter and be sold here.

You are either a fanboy or mad for not benefiting from EU rules. That’s the only reason that explains going against things that benefit you as a customer.
 


Apple last month confirmed that iOS 17.4 will be released in March, and the update includes several new features and changes for the iPhone.

iOS-17.4-Feature-Blue.jpg

Key new features in iOS 17.4 include major App Store changes in the EU, Apple Podcasts transcripts, SharePlay for the HomePod, and new emoji. The update also includes preparations for the launch of next-generation CarPlay later this year.

Apple's press release confirmation that iOS 17.4 will be released in March:More details about the new features and changes in iOS 17.4 follow.

App Store Changes in EU

apple-ios-app-store-safari-changes.jpeg

To comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act, Apple announced major changes to the App Store, Apple Pay, Safari, and more. These changes will be implemented with iOS 17.4 for iPhone users who reside in the 27 countries that belong to the EU.

First and foremost, Apple now allows alternative app marketplaces and alternative payment options on the App Store in the EU. Other changes in the EU include a new default web browser selection screen in Safari, the ability for third-party web browsers to use web engines other than Apple's WebKit on the iPhone, the ability for third-party mobile wallet apps to access the iPhone's NFC chip for contactless payment functionality, and more.

For more details, read our recap of all of the EU changes in iOS 17.4 and Apple's overview.

Apple Podcasts Transcripts

Apple-Podcasts-Transcriptions.jpg

Starting with iOS 17.4, the Apple Podcasts app now offers transcripts for podcasts, allowing listeners to read the full text of an episode, search for a specific word or phrase, and tap on the text to jump to a certain part of the episode. As an episode plays, each word is highlighted, similar to Apple Music song lyrics.

Apple says it automatically generates transcripts after a new episode is published. Transcripts are available for podcasts in English, French, German, and Spanish, and they will be added for older episodes in a podcast's catalog over time.

SharePlay for HomePod

SharePlay-Music-Control-Expanding-Feature-2.jpg

Starting with iOS 17.4, Apple has expanded SharePlay music control to HomePod speakers.

This feature allows family and friends to control the music that is playing on your HomePod, if you approve their request. For now, it is limited to the Music app, and the other people do not require an Apple Music subscription in order to participate.

While playing a song on your iPhone, tap the SharePlay icon at the bottom of the screen to bring up a QR code, which another person can scan with their iPhone or Android smartphone's camera to request access to music playback controls. Even a screenshot of the QR code suffices, allowing you to remotely grant access to people around the world.

Apple already rolled out a similar feature for CarPlay last year, allowing anyone in a car to control music playback via SharePlay with permission.

New Emoji

iOS-17.4-New-Emoji-Feature-2.5.jpg

iOS 17.4 adds new emoji, including a broken chain, a brown mushroom, a head shaking horizontally, a head shaking vertically, a lime, and a phoenix.

Next-Generation CarPlay Preparations

Next-Generation-CarPlay-Porsche-1.png

The first iOS 17.4 beta includes code for eight new CarPlay apps:
  • Auto Settings: This app will let you manage paired iPhones and adjust vehicle settings.
  • Car Camera: This app will display the vehicle's rear-view camera feed.
  • Charge: For electric vehicles, this app will display battery level, charging status, time remaining until the battery is fully charged, and more.
  • Climate: This app will provide access to a vehicle's climate controls within CarPlay, allowing you to adjust the temperature of the A/C or heating system, fan speed, heated seats, heated steering wheel, and more.
  • Closures: This app will display if any of the vehicle's doors are opened, and it might also display vehicle warning symbols.
  • Media: This app will provide access to FM and AM radio station controls within CarPlay, along with other media options like SiriusXM. It is unclear if SiriusXM will offer satellite connectivity, or remain limited to internet streaming. Users will be able to select from a list of music genres, such as Top 40 and Rock.
  • Tire Pressure: This app will display air pressure for each of the vehicle's tires, and provide low pressure, high pressure, and flat tire warnings.
  • Trips: This app will provide a variety of driving-related data, including the vehicle's average speed, fuel efficiency or energy efficiency, the total time elapsed and distance traveled on a trip, and more.
Apple recently confirmed that the first U.S. vehicle models with next-generation CarPlay will be released at some point in 2024.

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Article Link: Apple Releasing iOS 17.4 in March With These New Features and Changes
Will the new Car Play be available strictly in future cars, or can late model existing cars get the new Car Play via software updates?
 
Highly doubtful, I would expect Apple will use the open GSMA RCS Universal Profile just like they announced they would
creating their own RCS cloud and using the GSMA RCS UP are not mutually exclusive. I bet money will do both.
 
creating their own RCS cloud and using the GSMA RCS UP are not mutually exclusive. I bet money will do both.
Maybe, but why would Apple want to burden themselves with that when they can let operators take that responsibility?
 
In my opinion the increasing EU regulations targeted against American tech company products and services are largely thinly veiled protectionism.

The EU are also being hypocritical when you compare how vigorously they protect their IP. The EU wine and food industry have successfully banned the use of European names on food by foreign producer such champagne.

So when European companies are “gatekeeper” one rule applies, when US companies are gatekeepers another run applies.
Seriously? Apple is the number one company in the world going after companies that brand themselves "Apple-anything". A couple of years ago they went after a coffee shop in Germany for calling themselves "Apple child" for a logo that had an apple in it.

The "denomination of origin" branding equally applies to European companies btw. That's the thing, champagne is bubbly wine form the Champagne which is a region in Paris, sorry, France, Europe. The same goes for Parmigiano (Italian region), “Nuremberger” (sausages from the German city of Nuremberg) and "Wiener Schnitzel" (meat dish from Vienna made from veal). You wouldn't call wine from South Africa "Californian wine" either. And like I said, same rules apply for European manufacturers. Bubbly from Germany cannot be called champagne either.

The fact that it seems like the EU is going after the our tech industry is simply for the fact that we ourselves have allowed our tech industry to become fat and powerful off of toxic business models, and now Europeans won't swallow that toxicity anymore. And frankly, neither should we...
(sidenote: EU is also going after tiktok btw)
 
The fact that it seems like the EU is going after the our tech industry is simply for the fact that we ourselves have allowed our tech industry to become fat and powerful off of toxic business models, and now Europeans won't swallow that toxicity anymore. And frankly, neither should we...
(sidenote: EU is also going after tiktok btw)
The most sane US American.
 
Seriously? Apple is the number one company in the world going after companies that brand themselves "Apple-anything". A couple of years ago they went after a coffee shop in Germany for calling themselves "Apple child" for a logo that had an apple in it.

The "denomination of origin" branding equally applies to European companies btw. That's the thing, champagne is bubbly wine form the Champagne which is a region in Paris, sorry, France, Europe. The same goes for Parmigiano (Italian region), “Nuremberger” (sausages from the German city of Nuremberg) and "Wiener Schnitzel" (meat dish from Vienna made from veal). You wouldn't call wine from South Africa "Californian wine" either. And like I said, same rules apply for European manufacturers. Bubbly from Germany cannot be called champagne either.

The fact that it seems like the EU is going after the our tech industry is simply for the fact that we ourselves have allowed our tech industry to become fat and powerful off of toxic business models, and now Europeans won't swallow that toxicity anymore. And frankly, neither should we...
(sidenote: EU is also going after tiktok btw)
Another post who wants to replace capitalism with something else. Apple should grow. It produces a lifestyle competitive product that is insanely popular. They should be rewarded for that. Not have their assets made into a public utility. That is my .$02. Same worth as how much it cost me to post this.
 
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Which is why I'm hoping Apple will push for upstreaming end-to-end encryption into the official Universal Profile specification, and only support operators compliant to that version.
Carriers don’t even run their own RCS clouds. Google is the only one in the game after others dropped out because they couldn’t handle it. Apple will not use google’s cloud for its customers’ messages, therefore they’ll make their own. We will see whether e2e encryption makes it in, but it’s getting harder to get that past regulators globally. So I think we will get RCS in apple’s cloud with promises of strong encryption and privacy protection and iMessage will remain their marketable “more secure” messaging standard.
 
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The funny thing is that Apple has allowed "alternative app stores" for years now. They were just in the form of corporate MAM/MDM solutions. My device managed by my company has an "App Store" from Microsoft, with a catalog of available applications in it. Behind the scenes, it may just be using the App Store (I haven't looked into the internals), but if it isn't, what's happening there isn't substantially different from allowing 3rd-party distributors.

On whether apps will exodus - seems unlikely, unless the support for 3rd-party marketplaces becomes truly global, and even then, many users (myself included) won't download the alt stores. So it becomes a business decision whether you are willing to lose potential market share.

I think allowing access to NFC for 3rd-party payments is interesting. It'll be interesting to see if the wallet is disabled if you use a 3rd-party wallet application, or if the 3rd-party apps can access the Secure Enclave.

On RCS, I still think it's hilarious how people believe it's an open and well-supported standard. As others have noted, it's not. It's just Google's answer to iMessage - they host the infrastructure for carriers and are the only ones actively developing RCS features and functionality.

And finally, on the EU hyper-regulation, I think there's a lot of good coming out of there, and they're doing the most for consumer protection anywhere in the world. I think the digital marketplaces act oversteps in myriad ways, but generally follows the EU's prevailing theme of the 21st century. I'm just glad Microsoft isn't the only one facing scrutiny now. Really looking forward to seeing how the EU tries to tackle Meta's network effect advantage (and TikTok's budding network effect advantage). I also firmly believe that GDPR is one of the best things the EU has done for consumers.
 
Another post who wants to replace capitalism with something else. Apple should grow. It produces a lifestyle competitive product that is insanely popular. They should be rewarded for that. Not have their assets made into a public utility. That is my .$02. Same worth as how much it cost me to post this.
The problem is not capitalism (well, that’s another matter for another day perhaps) but one player actively preventing others from entering a level playing field in digital markets due to the gatekeeping function the player has.
There’d be no Spotify without iPhone, but there’d be no Apple Music without Spotify. How is it justified that Spotify is at a fiscal disadvantage because they are forced to pay almost a third of their revenue to the platform provider while the platform provider can launch a competing product without losing that part of their revenue?
That’s what it’s about, vital capitalist competition on a free market every new idea and product has equal access to, nothing anti capitalist about that.
 
The problem is not capitalism (well, that’s another matter for another day perhaps) but one player actively preventing others from entering a level playing field in digital markets due to the gatekeeping function the player has.
Apple isn't preventing anybody from entering the market and enough players have made hundreds of millions of dollars within Apples created digital marketplace.
There’d be no Spotify without iPhone, but there’d be no Apple Music without Spotify. How is it justified that Spotify is at a fiscal disadvantage because they are forced to pay almost a third of their revenue to the platform provider while the platform provider can launch a competing product without losing that part of their revenue?
Amazon can sell it's Amazon basics. Costco can see it's Kirkland brand. I'm all for the same fees and commission on Apple Music (since that appears to be the one and only example that everybody likes to cite), but how would that accounting work?
That’s what it’s about, vital capitalist competition on a free market every new idea and product has equal access to, nothing anti capitalist about that.
The app store in my mind does not have to be a free marketplace, and it works similarly to Amazon and Costco. Costco does not have to pay slotting fees (I'm guessing) on it's Kirkland brand.

At any rate it's all settled. Spotify (as an example) will still have to pay Apple something - they just don't get to use the iphone as if they didn't have a care in the world.
 
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There’d be no Spotify without iPhone, but there’d be no Apple Music without Spotify.
Spotify existed before the iPhone did.

I'm all for the same fees and commission on Apple Music (since that appears to be the one and only example that everybody likes to cite), but how would that accounting work?
- Microsoft xCloud and Apple Arcade
- Apple TV+ and Netflix et. al.
- iCloud Photos is the only photo backup software allowed to run in the background
- Safari and other browsers
- the list goes on

As for "how would the accounting work" the answer is simple, Apple has NO right to kickbacks for software distributed outside of the App Store. Zero. They can charge for software that makes the development of apps simpler, and they can do whatever they want on their App Store, but they can't be the only distribution avenue, and they can't charge bogus fees or make arbitrary decisions on what apps get to exist when it comes to externally distributed apps. They can make it a pain to install those, and they can build protections for their customers in the form of something like macOS Gatekeeper to improve security. But in the end, there must be some way, however complicated, for a user to "just run an executable", and not "if you've jumped through these 15 hoops, spoken to this Apple server, and only for 7 days, then you gotta jump through more hoops".
 
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I expect it to be opt-in (with lots of warning signs).
Hopefully there will be some emulation app for gameboy Roms available on some App Store :)
Problems start when the developers start skipping Apples App Store and release a killer/must have app on an alternative store. Not many will be able to resist that, and stay loyal to the App Store.
 
Problems start when the developers start skipping Apples App Store and release a killer/must have app on an alternative store. Not many will be able to resist that, and stay loyal to the App Store.
How would that be a problem? I mean, I know how you might see it as a problem if you use the App Store's exclusivity to keep your moral high ground. But if a popular app releases on a third-party app store, either swallow your pride and install it or don't. It's not like your life ends without that app anyway, whatever that app might be.
 
Spotify existed before the iPhone did.


- Microsoft xCloud and Apple Arcade
- Apple TV+ and Netflix et. al.
- iCloud Photos is the only photo backup software allowed to run in the background
- Safari and other browsers
- the list goes on

As for "how would the accounting work" the answer is simple, Apple has NO right to kickbacks for software distributed outside of the App Store. Zero. They can charge for software that makes the development of apps simpler, and they can do whatever they want on their App Store, but they can't be the only distribution avenue, and they can't charge bogus fees or make arbitrary decisions on what apps get to exist when it comes to externally distributed apps. They can make it a pain to install those, and they can build protections for their customers in the form of something like macOS Gatekeeper to improve security. But in the end, there must be some way, however complicated, for a user to "just run an executable", and not "if you've jumped through these 15 hoops, spoken to this Apple server, and only for 7 days, then you gotta jump through more hoops".
If an app is using apples ip (not a web standard in safari) apple is entitled to some fee and it is collecting it.

But we will see how this all shakes out.
 
If an app is using apples ip (not a web standard in safari) apple is entitled to some fee and it is collecting it.

But we will see how this all shakes out.
The existence of an app is not "using Apple's IP". If an app is developed without using any of Apple's developer tools, Apple is entitled to no fee, period.
 
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If an app is using apples ip (not a web standard in safari) apple is entitled to some fee and it is collecting it.

But we will see how this all shakes out.
I want to build apps for my iPhone without using Apples IP. Just give me a way to run my apps, I'll use the open source compiler or just straight up C. It's not rocket science.
 
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In the EU you’ll be assessed a core tech fee. No?
Funny how it started as "Apple deserves a cut of the money generated using Apple's IP" and now you've moved the goalpost to "No well actually, Apple deserves a cut for even gracing you with their blessing to install your totally independent app on their devices." What's next, "Apple should get $100 every time someone thinks of developing for iOS"?
 
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Funny how it started as "Apple deserves a cut of the money generated using Apple's IP" and now you've moved the goalpost to "No well actually, Apple deserves a cut for even gracing you with their blessing to install your totally independent app on their devices." What's next, "Apple should get $100 every time someone thinks of developing for iOS"?
You can ask apple what they deserve and what they will be assessing.
 
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You can ask apple what they deserve and what they will be assessing.
In Italy we say "è come chiedere all'oste se il vino è buono" (which translates to "that's like asking the innkeeper if the wine is good"). They're the innkeeper, of course they would think they deserve a cut, and possibly even a bigger one if they could get away with it.
 
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