iOS 19 and iOS 20 Must Include a Long List of Major Changes, EU Says

[Banan911]

How is taking a feature that Apple likely spent millions of dollars to develop, and uses to differentiate its products, and giving it to the competition, completely negating the competitive advantage that it expected when it invested said millions, not theft?

I don’t want to hear anyone in the EU ever complain about Apple not innovating anymore, because you’ve completely taken away any incentive they have to do so.

They don’t have to give Airdrop to anyone!!

You clearly don’t understand what EU is trying to do. EU wants Airdrop to be compatible with similar functions on other platforms. For example Nearby Share on Android. That way you could send files from an iPhone to an Android. It does not change the functionality of your iPhone in any way and you can still Airdrop to any iPhone user you want. You just also have the option to Airdrop to anyone else.

 

[19callum93]

Is the EU the CEO of Apple now! 🤔

 

[surferfb]

They don’t have to give Airdrop to anyone!!

They literally do. Just because you say the sky is green doesn’t mean it is. Apple is being forced to take something that they use as a reason to buy Apple products and make it work with their biggest competitor.

It’s like saying “Coke must give their recipe to Pepsi so people who like Pepsi’s can design better but prefer the taste of Coke can have their cake and eat it too”.

You clearly don’t understand what EU is trying to do. EU wants Airdrop to be compatible with similar functions on other platforms. For example Nearby Share on Android. That way you could send files from an iPhone to an Android. It does not change the functionality of your iPhone in any way and you can still Airdrop to any iPhone user you want. You just also have the option to Airdrop to anyone else.

I do understand what the EU is trying to do, I just vehemently disagree with how they’re going about it, and think they’re actually going to make things worse (and already have made iOS worse).

You can already share files from an iPhone to Android. There is no need for the EU to come in and declare Apple has to let AirDrop work with Android devices. If the EU thinks the they can design a better phone then they should do that, not take from those who already do.

 

[MNGR]

So basically forcing Apple to open source their business in the EU. Surprised they are not also requiring a revenue share with the third parties. Apple should pull out of the EU at this point. “Anything that differentiates the iPhone/ecosystem or makes it more desirable must be provided to others at your expense.”

Wait a month. It is coming

 

[Regulus67]

EU has nothing else to do than make life harder for everyone. This is only one example from an increasingly central planning government (which we did not elect)

 

[TracesOfArsenic]

If I wanted trash, I'd buy trash. I buy into apple specifically for that tight integration across all of its products. iPadOS sucks, yes, but it all works cohesively together. Do I want my Chinese $10 bluetooth to work like AirPods Pro auto switch on apple hardware, of course I do! But it ain't gonna happen for most obvious reasons.

But my $500 Sony or Bose headphones could when Apple are made to share the APIs. That's a win for consumers.

 

[0049190]

It’s a shame every thread on this topic descends into the same stream of nationalistic, vitriolic and anti-European comments. Whatever happened to balanced and informed debate.

 

[surferfb]

But my $500 Sony or Bose headphones could when Apple are made to share the APIs. That's a win for consumers.

At the expense of taking Apple’s intellectual property away from them. Should Bose and Sony be required to give their proprietary audio profiles to Apple for use in AirPods?

 

[KevinN206]

I might actually give iPhone a try with these charges.

 

[bousozoku]

Luckily the uk left the eu, they want to turn the iPhone into an android

The UK want a security back door.

 

[Shirasaki]

Trump at this point should put tariffs on the EU until they exclude American companies from the DMA. They are stifling innovation
(This is a joke I promise)

As if he hasn’t done so already? And EU will announce their own tariffs too. How about 100% tariff on all electronic devices imported from US? iPhone and certain android phone sale on EU would instantly drop to below 1 million. Now let’s slap tariffs against each other until it shuts down global trade between US and the rest of the world.

 

[Shirasaki]

Give give them base iPhones. No app store, nothing.

Why bother giving them ANY iPhone? Just pull out of EU market at this rate Jesus. And then slap a 2000% tariff on all goods imported from EU.

 

[gigapocket1]

You don’t. You can back up with iTunes. See this partway down:

Back up iPhone

Back up iPhone using iCloud or your computer. If you replace your iPhone, you can use the backup to transfer your information to the new device.

support.apple.com

I’m thinking more so the Apple photos integration.. getting it to sync between devices etc.. just an iCloud replacement that’s far cheaper or self hosted.

 

[Shirasaki]

How would they do automatic third party audio switching without the h1 and h2 chip?

There has been other generic Bluetooth manufacturers achieving automatic audio switching (better than Apple I might add) without this so-called H1 and H2 chip. In fact, because apples auto audio switching is so bad, I turn it off entirely and rely on tapping devices in Bluetooth menu to switch. And EVEN THAT doesn’t always work.

So yeah. If someone else have figured this out without a complex chip, you know you are doing it wrong.

 

[surferfb]

9to5Mac is reporting that

In regards to customer privacy, Apple is especially concerned with the requirements surrounding opening up access to the iOS notification system. The company indicated these measures would allow companies to suck up all user notifications in an unencrypted form to their servers, sidestepping all privacy protections Apple typically enforces.

EU defenders want to have a go at defending allowing that?

 

[frifra]

„Today's decisions wrap us in red tape, slowing down Apple's ability to innovate“

Sure. Innovate what? AirPower? Apple Intelligence? Ohh wait…

Just look at the photos app.
Maybe like this Apple has more time to focus on fixing bugs. Some exist for years.


Want an example? Use the mobile hotspot of your iPhone from your iPad. Tell me how long you can use it before being disconnected. That problem is discussed in forums for years and only one example of many.


What about typing in notes on the iPad - especially in tables. Apple puts letters in words at the beginning of a word even though it was typed afterwards. It got fixed for a short moment of iOS and is back for quite some time.

 

[Regulus67]

As if he hasn’t done so already? And EU will announce their own tariffs too. How about 100% tariff on all electronic devices imported from US? iPhone and certain android phone sale on EU would instantly drop to below 1 million. Now let’s slap tariffs against each other until it shuts down global trade between US and the rest of the world.

There is a reason Apple products, and other tech have a much higher price in the EU and UK.
We pay much higher taxes. Call it VAT or tariff or whatever, it is taxation under a different label.

I had the vain hope that perhaps we could lower taxes. That our politicians would admit the level is to high.
Instead they double down, and will raise the taxation

 

[surferfb]

Maybe like this Apple has more time to focus on fixing bugs. Some exist for years.

Yes, I’m sure having to dedicate 500 engineers to implement and maintain a bunch of ridiculous interoperability requirements imposed on them by non-software engineers is going to do wonders for Apple’s software quality.

I’d rather have them work on fixing those bugs, then giving Apple’s competitors free access to Apple’s hard work, but what do I know.

 

[psingh01]

Also for the record, Apple devices are based of ARM technology, which is a UK company, which sadly isn't in the EU anymore, but was when they started working with Apple.

Did you know that ARM was founded by three companies? Two of them are American. One of which is Apple itself.

 

[deathcab]

It’s also common in the carworld already. Your window shield is broken? You can get a new one from Mercedes for $ 5999 or another one from brandname X for $ 2999. They’re both the same quality. You choose 😊

Also reminds me of the right to repair…

This is different. What the EU is doing is make like forcing Toyota to write code that allows Mercedes keys to work to start / operate the Toyota, and forcing Toyota to pay for all of that coding that breaks their own security to allow the Mercedes keys to work on the Toyota vehicle.

 

[Abazigal]

It remains an interesting observation that the companies being targeted by the DMA are US tech giants. It does make you wonder just what is up with the EU. Many people here love to tout that the EU comprises of a larger market than the US, and what is there to show for it, exactly? The bulk of consumer tech we use today continue to hail from the US, such as windows, macOS, iOS, android, google services, Facebook, twitter, tik-tok, Instagram, WhatsApp, amazon and chatGPT. Even "alternatives" like Threads and Bluesky are also US-based.

There's Mastodon, and it's still a very niche platform which is not utilised by the bulk of creators.

Perhaps instead of trying to legislate these companies (which I view as a bandaid over the greater overarching issue that excessive legislation in the EU has effectively strangled any desire to innovate amongst their businesses), perhaps the EU should do what China did and work towards propping up their own homegrown alternatives. Fund the development of a EU-branded smartphone, mobile App Store and supporting ecosystem. Have their own local alternatives to services such as YouTube. Otherwise, you run into the same problem all over again - that any such legislation serves only to entrench the status quo.

Heck, I can argue that Apple could just remove all these features from their devices come iOS 19 and probably not see a hit to their sales in the region.

Finally, I won't be weighing in as much because I continue to have faith in Apple's ability to navigate the DMA with minimal hit to their bottom line. That was never in doubt. How Apple will eventually respond to it, well, we will know in time, and in the meanwhile, life goes on.

Now, back to contemplating whether to upgrade from my M1 MBA to the 15" M4 MBA or not... 🤔

 

[watchthisspace]

9to5Mac is reporting that



EU defenders want to have a go at defending allowing that?

This one I find interesting.. Example - I have a Garmin watch paired to my iPhone, and I get notifications from my apps to the watch as is.. so with the EU proposing the Apple allows for third party devices to be able to 'interact' with notifications.. why is this a privacy issue all of a sudden?

What currently is stopping third parties from storing my notifications at the moment?

I do agree with Apple sharing privacy concerns however - if interactive notifications meant Garmin had to have infrastructure in the middle, rather than it being device-to-device, I would be questioning what they're storing.

 

[applefan8254]

Can EU also require apple watch to work with android?

also, can EU require apple to bring multiple users to iOS?

thank you

 

[surferfb]

This one I find interesting.. Example - I have a Garmin watch paired to my iPhone, and I get notifications from my apps to the watch as is.. so with the EU proposing the Apple allows for third party devices to be able to 'interact' with notifications.. why is this a privacy issue all of a sudden?

What currently is stopping third parties from storing my notifications at the moment?

I am not technical at all, but I maybe the current method is read only, and that allowing interactions would necessitate giving the device the ability to copy?

I do agree with Apple sharing privacy concerns however - if interactive notifications meant Garmin had to have infrastructure in the middle, rather than it being device-to-device, I would be questioning what they're storing.

I am sure it’s a real issue, Apple isn’t going to highlight something with an easy fix as the one “look at how bad this is” example in the press release.

I suspect most users aren’t going to realize that clicking “yes, let my Meta sunglasses show me notifications” means that Meta is hoovering up all data about the content of those notifications to sell ads against, completely negating the benefit of App Tracking transparency (which apparently the Germans think is illegal anyway) and Apple will be prohibited by the EU from warning users about it.

But competition! Who cares if it massively damages EU citizens’ privacy?

 

[watchthisspace]

But competition! Who cares if it massively damages EU citizens privacy?

Agreed here Especially with the UK govt forcing Apple to soften its iCloud encryption so they can access it *sigh*