Apple to Let EU iPhone Users Delete Safari and More Easily Transition to Android

[TimFL1]

Hi, uh, it's a thing actually

To comply with DMA, WhatsApp and Messenger will become interoperable via Signal protocol | TechCrunch

Meta today is offering more details about how it plans to make its messaging apps, WhatsApp and Messenger, interoperable with third-party messaging

techcrunch.com

No it‘s not. You linked to Meta showcasing their proprietary interoperability solution, not some new standard being showcased.

Please don‘t fall for the „Signal protocol for the win“ bait that‘s been flooding discussion sites, it‘s not what news sites make it out to be (hint: it‘s only Meta saying „to foster e2ee, please use the Signal encryption protocol we already use or show us another method that‘s as secure“. E2EE is not interoperability, it‘s just encrypting content).

 

[jimothyGator]

The DMA is forcing change for… reasons, not because there was a demand for those changes.

I agree with all you wrote, except this.

There is demand for these changes. It comes from the likes of Epic and, especially, EU headquartered Spotify.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

Upnote is amazing, absolutely the best alternative to Apple Notes — looks and works similar, but can be used everywhere.

The slash/ command is a blessing .and markdown ....Jesus

OneNote really was painful for me, having to click around to achieve anything is pretty counterintuitive

Yeah I've finally settled on upnote after having tried 30 note taking app .

The main issue to me is ...e2e and sustainability. But hey, bro, it's markdown! Should issues arise, I have backups that I can export into any markdown based app eheheheh

 

[LighteningMcqueen]

A closed ecosystem. Where you have no choice. It’s so weird that people in the US are so against freedom and choice nowadays. People in the EU are still enjoying the EXACT same ecosystem as before. But have the bonus of more options, which they can ignore.

I am from Australia and 100% against this!
No choice? I can go and buy android and alot of people made that choice and came back
Not sure what freedom this is. You still have the bonus of ignoring something superior and use open android believe me FBI wont knock on your door because I have done it

 

[jimothyGator]

There no irony at all
They are organizations of differing kinds

One is a Government entity, the other is a corporation
The latter must abide by the former

One is a voluntary arrangement where people choose to give their money, and in which you may freely decide to or not to participate in the arrangement at any moment.

One is a coercive arrangement where surrendering money is compulsory and where you have no choice to participate (short of moving to another coercive arrangement with possibly less onerous, but still compulsory, terms).

 

[one more]

Just a few bits regarding the DMA changes:

For people worried about losing their iOS safety - the irony is that nothing implemented so far makes your iPhone less safe than before. If you can think of an example, please share!

For people saying “if you don’t like iOS with its restrictions, move to Android!” The thing is, I prefer iOS UI design and enhanced privacy over Android. Do the newly introduced DMA changes sabotage iOS design or privacy?

 

[PlayUltimate]

why does everything have to be the same? welcome to a world of uniform tract homes and look-a-like malls. All uniqueness is being weeded out under the guise of competitiveness and interoperability. If it was truly a competitiveness issue, continue to let closed iOS compete against open Android rather than making both of them become one.

 

[Plutonius]

How so? Apple sure seems to be putting in a lot of effort to comply with the DMA requirements in order to be able to STAY in the EU.

I'm not too sure that the reason that they are going out of their way is because of the DMA (This would be the first time that Apple went out of its way. In every other case, Apple has resisted).

I think that it's more likely that Apple is making it easier to switch to Android to make it easier to get out of the market in anticipation of leaving the EU.

 

[mejsric]

next. can i have Android OS on my iPhone? it my device i bought, i own it, i can do whatever i want.

 

[zkap]

I can install anything from anywhere on my macOS devices, yet I'm still part of the carefully-crafted ecosystem.

It's fascinating to read this thread on an Apple forum, where presumably a lot of people use Macs which are part of the ecosystem.

 

[VisionRex]

Huh? To transition to Android you obviously made the decision to do exactly that lol (buy an android)

Me? Never! Dad bought me an iPod and I have never looked back. Although those Samsungs are mighty fine. But I guess it is nice to know that if I ever cheated on Tim Apple, it would be easy!

 

[jfreedle2]

Why in the world would anyone want to downgrade to the most vulnerable platform in the world? Actually nobody really.

 

[SpaceJello]

Man Im glad that the EU is fighting back against big tech in general and their monopolistic practices. Someone has to do it and it's not gonna be coming out of the US. Im sick of seeing the way private data is mishandled with no real consequences and how the makers of big platforms rule over everyone like digital lords. Before people start defending tech companies like if they had stockhold syndrom and telling everything "just dont buy it or just dont use it", the argument only holds in a market that has healthy competition, not in a quasi monopolistic one. "Oh you don't like Apple's pratices? Just get an Android (and get all your data exploited by Google)" Two choices isn't synonimous with a competitive market. Governement intervention is required and beneficial when markets fail, as they often do. As much as I love Apple products, Apple also needs to be challenged and held accountable.

While I agree in dismantling monopolies, I am not sure by what measure you have Apple as a quasi monopoly with Android? By which metric are you referring to?

If by the number of units sold, Apple doesn’t have a monopoly. They are far from that.
If by the number of customers, Apple doesn’t have that either.

Everyone keeps bringing up Apple as a smartphone monopoly. How?

 

[VisionRex]

This is the EU we are talking about (full, real, browsers possible, not just all re-skinned Webkit)

Being able to delete Safari may be desirable to eliminate any conflict or issue when using a different fully fledged alternate browser. I'd fall in that camp with FireFox for instance.

The "ease of moving to Android" thing is a distinct bullet point feature here.

Yay! Now I can install Chrome that I never use. I am glad everyone has the choice now! I’ll continue using the greatest browsers on the Market: Safari, Edge. Firefox is just old hat now, which is sad. And Chrome is a spying resource hog.

 

[NicosAccount]

the market is competitive. Apple does not have 90% of total market sales.

I included Android in that statement. Two choices for an operating system isn't a competitive market. Both of them have near 100% of the market outside of China except for a few linux phones. I don't remember reading anything about duopolies being efficient.

 

[SpaceJello]

next. can i have Android OS on my iPhone? it my device i bought, i own it, i can do whatever i want.

You can have that when I can install WebOS (LG) on my Samsung SmartTV (Tizen), and vice versa. 😁

 

[NicosAccount]

While I agree in dismantling monopolies, I am not sure by what measure you have Apple as a quasi monopoly with Android? By which metric are you referring to?

If by the number of units sold, Apple doesn’t have a monopoly. They are far from that.
If by the number of customers, Apple doesn’t have that either.

Everyone keeps bringing up Apple as a smartphone monopoly. How?

Because it's either iOS or Android for almost 100% of the market outside of china. The "almost" is because of the few linux phones out there. Apple and Google form a duopoly and it's not efficient nor good for consumers.

 

[SpaceJello]

Because it's either iOS or Android for almost 100% of the market outside of china. The "almost" is because of the few linux phones out there. Apple and Google form a duopoly and it's not efficient nor good for consumers.

Duopolies are not monopolies. And as far as I can tell, they aren’t working together to control the market.

Where was EU when Microsoft, BlackBerry and Palm were still around making smartphones? Shouldn’t the EU have encouraged and foster a more competitive environment by supporting these companies or aiding them when they were failing in the first place to “keep the market competitive”?

What about creating incentives for new smartphone OS? Or assisting Chinese smartphone companies to make an inroad in the region? 😂

Or helping Nokia, that’s from Europe.

 

[VisionRex]

Well, that's what the function/process would be for i.e., someone who currently has an iPhone but wants to transition to an Android-based phone.

Why would you want to do that? A friend of mine left Android for an iPhone and was totally lost for a while getting used to it and the lack of certain features before he went back. If you don’t know already what you want, you’re probably fickle or young or both. It amazes me how some people switch and then complain. That’s like leaving your wife for a new one and then want the old one back. Android is a great ecosystem and I can understand why someone might want to leave Apple for it, but that’s a lot of things a smartphone does now that you have to go setup somewhere else.

1. Banking
2. E-Wallets
3. Password management (200-300 websites easily)
4. Smart speakers (How you use HomePod with Android is beyond me)
5. BT Headsets, Keyboards, etc (more a hassle)
6. Digital ecosystems such as Sonos, etc
7. Gaming has to be rebought unless cross platform
8. If you have a Mac, loss of Continuity. If you have Windows, then you’re ok Especially with new connectivity.
9. Picture library (mine is 40GB as of today going back 15 years)

I setup a Galaxy Note 10+ years back to see how hard it is to transition to Android, even with a walkthrough and good software and it was a massive undertaking. Why someone would wanna do this more than once is beyond me. But people do. My problem is more of why is the EU so uptight? Is there large minority of iPhone users that want to switch or is this an undercurrent of Google feeling the pressure from a serious shift to iPhone, so they are manipulating the democratic process to surreptitiously throw shade on Apple? That’s the vibe I get from Spotify and Epic, who feel they are losing steam in their growth and need to cast shade on someone else to distract from a shift in the market balance?

 

[fathobbit]

Yep, we are waiting for Apple to be forced to allow Android to be run on our iPhones.

Why would that bother you? If someone wants to install android on their iPhone, it’s their property to do as they choose.

 

[npmacuser5]

Wonder why the EU is not in any way competitive with the USA technology. Maybe right here!

 

[Agent007]

oh wow, sounds nice

It'd be great if we could transfer apple notes data to the app of our choice (currently it does it with native app/oem's notes app only )

being lockdowned rly is painful

OMG I still can't believe there's NO WAY to bulk-save notes from the Notes app. After like 10 years! Apple literally instructs users to individually copy and paste, note-by-note, on their support forum. Is there a script I can write to do this automatically?

 

[NicosAccount]

Duopolies are not monopolies. And as far as I can tell, they aren’t working together to control the market.

Where was EU when Microsoft, BlackBerry and Palm were still around making smartphones? Shouldn’t the EU have encouraged and foster a more competitive environment by supporting these companies or aiding them when they were failing in the first place to “keep the market competitive”?

What about creating incentives for new smartphone OS? Or assisting Chinese smartphone companies to make an inroad in the region? 😂

Or helping Nokia, that’s from Europe.

Regulations can have multiple effects. We don't need to be giving incentives to other companies to create something that doesn't fit in the market and that would be pretty much doomed to fail just looking at the barriers to entry in the OS market. You need to be a giant to develop anything that can compete with Android and iOS and microsoft and Amazon can't even do it.

What they can do though is to make sure that companies we do have making phone software and exploiting user data do so in ways that do not harm the general public

 

[CEmajr]

Will the EU eventually decide Apple is required to support the installation of Android or other operating systems on Apple devices?

When they need more revenue they'll just fine Apple a few billion until they open the iPhone up to alternate OSs.

 

[SpaceJello]

My problem is more of why is the EU so uptight? Is there large minority of iPhone users that want to switch or is this an undercurrent of Google feeling the pressure from a serious shift to iPhone, so they are manipulating the democratic process to surreptitiously throw shade on Apple? That’s the vibe I get from Spotify and Epic, who feel they are losing steam in their growth and need to cast shade on someone else to distract from a shift in the market balance?

Lobbying. I am sure these companies are spending a bit to influence these decision makers for their benefits.