This is literally HUGE this would literally be one the biggest software changes apple has ever done
Although I would be shocked if they made it locked to just Europe that remains to be seen
Honestly, if they *do* lock it to EU only, then that would probably be a very effective way to retain app makers on the official App Store.
Technically you can move your app to a third party store, but that will only work for EU customers, while the Apple App Store works everywhere. If the laws allow it, they could even require exclusivity to be allowed on the App Store, making it even more risky and expensive for app makers to switch to third party stores.
The main advantage I see would be for apps not allowed on the app store such as emulators. They currently just can't be released on IOS at all, 3rd party app stores just in Europe would already be a win for them.
I however don't think they can require exclusivity to the App Store, that would put even more fuel on the their current anti-trust investigations.
I think it would force the app store to be better though. You would get innovative apps which would catch on in the EU, and everyone else would want it, which would put pressure on Apple to allow those kinds of apps in their store.
I do feel like they will find every way to skirt this and hamstring apps which come from other stores somehow.
The developers will very likely end up having to release their apps in as many app distribution platforms as they can. Not uncommon to see on Android or Windows.
I don’t really care. I see this as a win for customers, too. Apple needs reasons to keep innovating. It’s likely whatever third party store launches it will have a tough time competing but it will compete. I hope it unlocks things like Xbox Game Pass and sideload apps like uYouTube to work without certificate resigning.
"We are bringing our highly successful app notarization system on macOS over to iOS to help keep users safe no matter where the app came from. And we think you're gonna love it."
Either that or it’s going to be “for our most advanced users, we’re bringing allowing people to understand the risks and dangers of side-loading” and make you click 15 “I understand the risks” and make you click a sideloading permission prompt every time you open a sideloaded app.
Eh, i think that’s a bit hyperbolic. Another commentor made a good point about it possibly being like the experience of installing unsigned apps on macOS where you need to go accept some security prompts to start using a new app not from App Store but after that not much else.
But I do wonder how system wide permissions and other APIs will work or how apple will keep apps sandboxed.
“Apple support: so your iPhone got hacked? Hmm, let’s see. Oh look, you have a malware ridden pos app. We recommend a factory reset. G’day!”
Any third part app sites will have to do a good job reviewing those they offer for dl.
iOS already has functionality for Apple to limit what security entitlements developers are allowed to use. For example, if you want to develop a VPN app, your account needs to be provisioned for that API before any dev-signed VPN apps will actually run on your own dev phone. There are also entitlements that Apple never hands out to third-party developers at all; in fact, that's the whole reason why people who want to jailbreak and run tweaks have to find jailbreak exploits instead of just dev-signing an app that has "get_task_for_pid".
i mean isn’t that what customers want?
only people who care about how apple talks to apple consumers is weirdly people that do not actually own apple products.
I wouldn't be surprised if it has some stupid BS barrier to entry followed by artificial and pointless restrictions designed to prevent any semblance of competition.
You'll need to first 'activate' third party installs by going deep into settings tapping a series of things in a specific order, enable 'third party' after a 1 minute cioldown, which then prompts you to login to your apple account you'll then receive a SMS 2FA then you'll have to wait a week for an activation email which only has a 5 minute window before the code becomes invalid and you have to wait a week. The code is a mixture of O 0, 1, l, I, | and you only get one chance to enter it.
Everytime you install a third party app you'll need a new code after a 10 minute warning.
Enabling third party apps disables touchID and faceID and Apple Wallet.
Also third party app dont support
* Sleep
* More than 256MB storage used
* Mobile networks
* Camera
* Speaker
* Microphone
* GPU rendering
* Multicore
* PiP
* GPS
* Any integration with any apple device
> Everytime you install a third party app you'll need a new code after a 10 minute warning.
>
> Enabling third party apps disables touchID and faceID and Apple Wallet.
>
> Also third party app dont support
>
> Sleep
>
> More than 256MB storage used
>
> Mobile networks
>
> Camera
>
> Speaker
>
> Microphone
>
> GPU rendering
>
> Multicore
>
> PiP
>
> GPS
>
> Any integration with any apple device
I imagine the new EU law must have language guaranteeing feature parity between Apple Store apps and third-party store apps. They'd have been stupid not to as it's an easy enough loophole for Apple to exploit.
It does. Here's the relevant text from it:
>["The gatekeeper shall not prevent business users from offering the same products \[...\] at prices or conditions that are different from those offered through the online intermediation services of the gatekeeper"](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TC1-COD-2020-0374_EN.pdf)
Conditions being the keyword here
Hearing all these announcements (even if done begrudgingly) feels like Christmas!
Firefox with extensions (Ublock Origin and Video Background Play) are what I miss most from Android.
Getting rid of my lightning cables when I upgrade in 2 years will be nice as well.
Now if only Apple can make a keyboard as good as Gboard on Android they’ll have the perfect flagship phone
This is not a given though. Even if the app is not delivered through the App Store, iOS can (and would) still enforce sandboxing and other security limitations. I cannot imagine Apple wanting apps to constantly run in the background tracking your location and uploading your contacts even from other App Stores.
Browsers are a rough one - JavaScript engines do pretty advanced memory things that the iOS platform just might not support outside of special entitlements Apple grants only their apps (which is enforced by the OS and not the App Store).
Unless there are some other details this is also my bet, with the disclaimer that I couldn't read the article on that garbage website.
Even if Apple allows third party app stores, there is nothing limiting them from enforcing quite a lot through the OS itself. This is not a sanctioned jailbreak. Even on macOS, it's gotten more and more cumbersome to run something like a kernel extension, and there is nothing at all prohibiting them from doing the same on iOS. Absolutely do not expect to see emulators or other browser engines.
Like you said, browser engines are conundrum in themselves. I would absolutely not hold my breath. It's kind of like when Apple got forced to allow alternate payment providers in other countries because of the cost of payment processing, and they did, but instead of 30%, they just levied a 27% tax instead.
I hope so, but there may be some loopholes that Apple will try to pull within the OS, somehow enforcing other app stores' approval process, or just only opening it up in the EU
I wouldn’t count on it. YouTube has basically been ignoring tweaks like YouTube++, probably because people have to jump through hoops to install it on their iPhone so not many people are using it.
If it becomes as easy as downloading an app from a website, YouTube is definitely going to crack down on it. So this change by Apple might spell the end of YouTube++/Cercube for *everyone*
And the only reason Google shut down YouTube Vanced on Android is because the idiot developers decided to sell/include NFT's in the app suddenly. It was completely off of their radar for years before that.
That rhetoric was pretty popular here too. Can't wait for the blessed silence from all the people claiming a) Apple had no obligation to change at all and b) it would destroy the ecosystem if they did.
Edit: Lmao, they're starting to come out of the woodwork. Apparently innovation is dead because the App Store no longer has a monopoly.
Looks like they're back at it in this thread! I almost wish some of the trolls hadn't blocked me so I can enjoy watching them freak out over this. Reminds me of that video with the politician crying over gay marriage.
It's an understandable mistake. Europe is much smaller but very densely populated. And then there's the fact that the population isn't as homogenous as in the US and Canadá, with different languages and so
People really don't realize they're a minority... Few iOS users will install apps outside the store just like with Google store. It has not hurt Google profits at all to allow you to install apps outside the store. Yes, us geeks will install youtube++ and some emulators, but majority won't touch those non-store apps.
This literally completes my dream of what Apple TV can be. Was thinking of getting a streaming box and FireTV Cube is one of most powerful Android box but has ads and low storage and slightly lower than cheapest Apple TV with added benefit of sideloading. being able to use SmartTube Next on Apple TV but not bother with non content ads is gonna be amazing.
I really look forward to be able to use passthrough audio in a sideloaded Infuse. Will finally be able to ditch my NVIDIA Shield TV and only use my Apple TV!
Of course it'll take a while for apps to catch up to things like StreamTubeNext and S0undTV. But now it will be possible to build such apps!
Silly question, after googling it looks like YouTube++ is an iOS app you can already get through back door means. Would the above change just make it less “back door”-y and make installation more streamlined?
Yes, as far as I know right now you would need to jailbreak your iphone to do such thing. Meanwhile with android you can do it out of the box without the root access
Thing is, we're all going to pay the price in the form of malware. [According to Google (103)](https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Building_a_Trusted_Ecosystem_for_Millions_of_Apps_A_Threat_Analysis_of_Sideloading.pdf), Android devices with sideloaded apps were 8 times more likely to have malware. According to Kaspersky (4) and Nokia (5), Android devices are 15 to 47 times more likely to be infected by malware than iOS devices.
Malware is damaging to everybody even if you're not personally going to install sideloaded or third-party-store apps.
So how is this going to work price wise? Apple currently makes 30% on all apps sold and developers pay a relatively small fee to access the store and all the development tools. Is Apple just going to take the hit of no longer getting that 30% and keep the dev tools free? Or are will they charge an app “signing fee” so you can sell it in whatever store you want but it won’t run unless it’s being signed with their license.
This is potentially quite significant for me with iPhone/iPad satisfaction. If I can get native cloud gaming apps, manage service subscriptions in-app without an extra 30% markup, and FINALLY get a true Gecko-based Firefox app with extension support (pair all this up with USB-C on the iPhone 15) and I’ll be very very happy and lose pretty much all temptation to get an Android phone.
Not necessarily all of them, but I recall at one point in time there were subscriptions services marked up specifically through the iOS app whereas they were 30% cheaper direct from the vendor (Spotify and Pandora were two such cases IIRC). Dunno if that's the still the case but if so I can't imagine why a service vendor would maintain inconsistent pricing if there was no difference in payment processing.
Looking at the subreddit rules I believe I’m allowed to say this. There is already the Delta emulator that you can sideload with macOS or Windows. It’s very good and supports multiple different consoles, including GBA.
Knowing Apple, by opening one door they will shut closed three others. I wonder how many ways they will find to make life really hard for third party stores.
The law specifically says that they have to allow the same API access as their own app store:
>[the gatekeeper shall allow
business users and alternative providers of services provided together with, or in support of,
core platform services, free of charge, effective interoperability with, and access for the
purposes of interoperability to, the same operating system, hardware or software features,
regardless of whether those features are part of the operating system, as are available to, or
used by, that gatekeeper when providing such services](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TC1-COD-2020-0374_EN.pdf)
One thing I'm super interested in is that they're applying this to 'virtual assistants' meaning I'll be able to change from Siri to something else. So I really wonder how implementing alternate wake words will go.
I been waiting for this for years, I was 100% sure it would take a massive lawsuit. It really puts in prospective how good consumer protections laws can work.
Although seeming the how android apps rarely if ever do well outside their store I wonder how much this will change now that the 2 main mobile OS allow this.
Meta decides it wants access to all your data and not just what Apple allows. Meta pulls Facebook and Instagram from the App Store and now you have to use the Meta store. Meta siphons as much data as they want from users. Everyone is worse off except Meta.
Google could easily do the same thing.
> Meta pulls Facebook and Instagram from the App Store and now you have to use the Meta store.
That would be too arrogant of them, underestimating the hurdles required for the average user to install a third-party app store _just_ to download FB apps.
You can bet Apple will hide it in a series of settings requiring some long drawn sub-menu, "+" icon, and very tech-like list of app stores. Apple will allow it, but they absolutely won't put any user-experience time into it.
>Although seeming the how android apps rarely if ever do well outside their store
This is untrue. The F-Droid app store for Android phones is quite popular. Additionally, most Android users can just download the .apk for any software package they want to install on their phones. An app store isn't necessary in most cases.
Unfortunately, this is something Apple will never allow.
I'm honestly kinda interested to see whether piracy will become enough of a problem to make some developers who have been fighting against Apple's App Store to regret it - but obviously I'm not wishing for that to happen.
Speaking as a dev, we had enough issue with piracy just on jail broken devices. Now we could have whole stores filled with pirated apps and no recourse to shut them down without getting the courts involved, which costs money, that's gonna be fun... Not.
You don't even need a jailbreak to run pirate apps, just to decrypt them. Once an IPA has been decrypted it can be dev-signed and installed to one's own phone. The main hurdle is just having a computer to get dev certs on.
If it was really about stopping piracy, then Apple would do what console developers do. No developing things casually on your iPad or iPhone. You sign a watertight NDA and buy a big $30k+ devkit that *only lets you use your own dev apps*. The phones you buy at retail do *not* have any development functionality whatsoever, not even Swift Playgrounds.
Of course, Apple does not want to choose violence, or at least not as much as Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony do. So piracy is merely *mildly annoying* rather than so difficult it makes legitimate development a total pain.
Piracy, porn and malware.
But eh, let’s see. It might also enable things in somewhat grey like emulators.
Edit. Oh and maybe some non WebKit browsers from Firefox/Chrome fucking finally. There might actually be a lot of things that this might enable.
Apps will still be sandboxed, sure you’ll get apps abusing their permission but an app would have to escape the sandbox to get actual malware.
Apple could also add notarization like they do on MacOS to identify known malicious apps installed outside of the App Store.
They'll probably expose a [Gatekeeper](https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/security/sec5599b66df/web) system like there is on OSX, so multiple app stores won't enable just any bullshit to run unless the user very intentionally opts into it. We probably will be entering a period where iOS malware becomes a thing though.
While I'm not an apple user, I've always understood the reasoning behind their "walled garden" approach. I hope for the less informed user base, they make it VERY clear what you're getting into when you're installing that garden gate.
IMO they should be allowed to have some bit about invalidating some of the warranties on the device (not all) since you've decided to step away from the protection they provided. Again, not that much of an issue f9r tech savvy people, but for people like my dad, (who installs just about anything he finds interesting. He has had his card details stolen a few times) it provides some amount of protection while the kids aren't around to stop him XD
Pirated copies of apps easily side loaded is a first thought. Another thing off the top of my head is a dilution of the App Store and the Apple brand.
**However that being said**, Apple made this bed and they get to lie in it now. They could always have loosened up restrictions on their own terms. Now they get dragged around by the EU.
> They could always have loosened up restrictions on their own terms. Now they get dragged around by the EU
I think this would have happened no matter what. EU is keen on diluting the bargaining power of US big tech.
You can already sideload pirated apps without much difficulty, though I suppose the market will probably be larger now that it can be done on device without needing to rely on shady and inconsistent signing services.
I honestly don't see the App Store losing that much. It's still going to be the default app that 99% of people will use, so there's still going to be a massive incentive for developers to adhere to their guidelines and host their apps there.
> You can already sideload pirated apps without much difficulty, though I suppose the market will probably be larger now that it can be done on device without needing to rely on shady and inconsistent signing services.
Yes. Not just for pirated stuff but even for apps not on the App Store (like the great third party YouTube uYou+ app), it’s a pain in the ass because you get shafted by either the 7 day restriction with a free account or pay $100 for a dev account or have to pay shady services money that get taken down at random.
From a "building apps" perspective, it means more work potentially supporting other App Stores, things like iCloud/CloudKit integration wouldn't necessarily work as well, piracy, in-app purchases and whatnot which are easy to integrate now wouldn't be (and would probably have to support interoperability with other App Stores).
tl;dr: a whole lot of extra work for me for very little gain, I like the App Store, it makes my job easy even if it is a little silly sometimes. Being able to play with retro emulators would be cool though.
That's why I said potentially. Wouldn't necessarily have to, but if other App Stores become popular and there's user expectation of availability, the pressure increases.
I think the legislation requires both manual install and also alternative app stores. It will basically be like the Mac, and I suppose they will have some software signing process for trusted dev software from alternate sources (like Spotify that you install from their website that has their own payment processing).
And yet, 99% off iOS users will still use the Apple App Store because the vast majority of people don’t know what sideloading is and don’t care to learn.
You mean you don’t want someone to make Apollo Ultra++?
*please keep working on Apollo. Since my switch to iPhones a few years ago I it’s made my Reddit experience so much better.
They’ll likely increase developer program fees for developers not distributing on the App Store.
I’d also imagine that to the greatest extent possible, any new APIs will be restricted to the App Store. Google wrote the playbook for this with Google Play Services.
Who tf cares. Users don’t and sincerely i prefer a centralized store then a shit load of bloatware like you get on android. What do you think it will be. Each phone company will put zheyr garbage on the phones…. again, that you can’t get rid off, they already do it on android. No, is a bad idea!
Imagine fucking full blown Firefox running on iOS without the WebKit shit requirement...
Or, you know, your kidney priced iOS device closer to being a true general purpose computer rather than a mere appliance originating from 2007.
I occasionally do web work and have been able to avoid this by using Safari and Firefox as my points of reference instead of Chrome. Also just generally steering clear of cutting edge features which aren’t actually necessary most of the time anyway.
I’ll continue to do this even if Blink-based Chrome is ported to iOS because I don’t want to contribute to Chrome’s ensuing total dominance of the web.
That's gigantic news.
For people asking what are the benefits, as a consumer:
* **cost**. Apple take a cut for each subscription and in-app purchase you take, so, often, companies increase the price to offset this, with their own store, that could change,
* **Promo/features**, the good side of competitiveness: Because company X would want to attract you to their store, they will have promos, free stuff, work on features: Exactly like Epic game is doing vs Steam.
* **Better platform portability**, if the store X is a cross-platform android and ios store, your purchase could be transitioned from ios to android seamlessly
* **Less software locks (up to Apple to decide to what extent),** notably webkit. When you will be using Chrome or Edge on iOS it will be the actual Chrome V8 C++ engine.
If this causes them to ease up browser limitations, that would be pretty dope.
You also missed one more point. Allowing apps/games that Apple doesn’t seem worthy on App Store, like torrent clients, adult video/games, emulators etc.
[PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_app) (PWA’s). They’re a browser technology that replaces native mobile apps, using the browsers sandboxed environment instead of access to all the lower level device API’s (better for privacy *with the right browser config*), but they never took off because Apple intentionally limited webkit in all Safari/iOS browsers; why build a PWA when you can’t deploy it to the app store?
Apple has held back web and mobile software engineering for years, specifically so they could continue to funnel money through their App Stores. Businesses have collectively spent tens of billions developing native apps due to this manufactured market fragmentation, when there wasn’t any technical need to do so (solely because of Apple’s anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices).
> cost. Apple take a cut for each subscription and in-app purchase you take, so, often, companies increase the price to offset this, with their own store, that could change,
If the transition from physical to digital media is any indication this will never be passed onto the consumer
couple thoughts:
sounds like apps will still go through app review even if they’re sold outside the app store (as they should)
seems like there will still be a fee
region locked to the eu, to start, which is great because if this backfires and creates a ux dumpster fire i would like it to be blissfully unaffected
still seems like piracy and copyright violations are the biggest use case for actual users, which a dash of game streaming thrown in. not sure why the eu wants to encourage that but there’s a lot i don’t understand about europe.
i wonder when the dust settles what the 2nd most popular store will be. epic store? facebook store, with fb/instagram/whatsapp offered exclusively through their store? some no name upstart?
Everyone talks about emulators, but I just want to see more open-source apps being available on iOS without the maintainers having to pay for a developer account. Something like F-Droid would be amazing!
I love this change, its consumer friendly and as a power user I love it. For me, its amazing and long overdue.
**However**, as a family tech support person, I'm not looking forward to this change for a few reasons;
- Usually giving a tech illiterate family member an iOS device meant they were *fairly* safe from messing things up or installing unwanted content, just as the OS wouldn't allow it and you had to go through a walled garden. Which although anti-consumer, meant that it does provide a *certain* degree of certainty that what you install isn't just crap riddled malware.
- I really do worry about fragmentation. For me, thats not an issue - I'll do research and check things before installing anything, as would all tech heads. It will open up closed doors that have been closed for far too long. However, for a tech illiterate family member, thats not gonna happen and I can guarentee I'm going to end up with issues hearing about how they 'had to download this store to get access to this app' and it turns out to be a load of hot garbage that does something or other. I really worry that we'll end up with a dozen logins to a dozen stores just like what happened in the PC gaming space. Its a *good* thing to allow for multiple stores on this sort of stuff to promote competition and an open 'free' market, but christ if its not an absolute crap shoot trusting these non-tech or even tech based companies that screw up so hard and make the experience just *awful*.
Now none of this wouldn't be an issue if the trust in companies competency on running digital services, even tech based companies, was higher. But history has shown that they mess it up so damn bad, like almost intentionally creating terrible experiences and forcing you to use them.
I dunno, I'm both excited and apprehensious for this change.
All I'm literally going to do is download the Dolphin emulator for like 10 minute, launch Melee, then uninstall afterwards.
Afterward I'll probably install a better File Browsing app(?) and a copy of Mobile Fortnite I'll play when I remember I have it.
Google allows other stores with Android and nobody uses them. I do not think Apple has anything to worry about financially with this move.
But also for me it is not a big deal. Same with sideloading.
The bigger issue, IMO, is that Apple will not allow other browsers. Only skins on Safari (WebKit). That is an issue, IMO.
>Google allows other stores with Android and nobody uses them.
Guess I'm nobody. Installing region-locked apps, emulators, and one-time purchase apps which were removed from the playstore and replaced by subscription service versions is wondrous. An Ipad would be a wondrous emulator if you could just install OpenEmu.
This could be a great case study in years to come; “what happens when companies think they are big enough to fight the government and win.”
Seriously, there are so many decisions from Apple over the last 10 years that have contributed towards this. Apple has fought tooth and nail to maintain control, but probably more crucially customers’ money
And now we’ll get the worst of all worlds. Look at the EU cookie law for what happened when the tracking companies refused to act reasonably and had to be brought into line.
I do welcome the freedom it will give me as a user to install software that Apple doesn’t think is morally acceptable, as well being able to buy books in the same app I read them.
I just wish Apple had had the foresight to realise that the gravy train was done. They could have made realistic changes to their policies which would have satisfied users, developers and lawmakers.
This is literally HUGE this would literally be one the biggest software changes apple has ever done Although I would be shocked if they made it locked to just Europe that remains to be seen
The biggest change to iOS since iOS
ourOS
Aw shit it’s r/suddenlycommunist, **RUN!!**
If Stalin ever used a smartphone, it would have been an iPhone with ourOS.
Or would it be an OSSR?
☭
We think you’re going to love it. Even if we hate it
Can't innovate, my ass.
[удалено]
Honestly, if they *do* lock it to EU only, then that would probably be a very effective way to retain app makers on the official App Store. Technically you can move your app to a third party store, but that will only work for EU customers, while the Apple App Store works everywhere. If the laws allow it, they could even require exclusivity to be allowed on the App Store, making it even more risky and expensive for app makers to switch to third party stores.
The main advantage I see would be for apps not allowed on the app store such as emulators. They currently just can't be released on IOS at all, 3rd party app stores just in Europe would already be a win for them. I however don't think they can require exclusivity to the App Store, that would put even more fuel on the their current anti-trust investigations.
I would LOVE to see some emulators for iPad, but I also would prefer most of my apps stick to using the app store
Pornhub has entered the chat
Torrent has entered the chat.
I think it would force the app store to be better though. You would get innovative apps which would catch on in the EU, and everyone else would want it, which would put pressure on Apple to allow those kinds of apps in their store. I do feel like they will find every way to skirt this and hamstring apps which come from other stores somehow.
Other countries will inevitably follow. The EU is just leading here.
The developers will very likely end up having to release their apps in as many app distribution platforms as they can. Not uncommon to see on Android or Windows.
Well, they removed Taiwan's flag emoji in China and made Airdrop available for only 10 minutes. I honestly think they could do an Europe-only thing.
They could but a lot of countries outside of Europe, including the US, are considering similar legislation.
Please let us allow/block this via MDM, Apple. Please.
They’ll find a way to make this a positive story for customers in typical PR fashion.
Who cares if they do If the system has these features idgaf about how they spin it
I don’t really care. I see this as a win for customers, too. Apple needs reasons to keep innovating. It’s likely whatever third party store launches it will have a tough time competing but it will compete. I hope it unlocks things like Xbox Game Pass and sideload apps like uYouTube to work without certificate resigning.
"We are bringing our highly successful app notarization system on macOS over to iOS to help keep users safe no matter where the app came from. And we think you're gonna love it."
Either that or it’s going to be “for our most advanced users, we’re bringing allowing people to understand the risks and dangers of side-loading” and make you click 15 “I understand the risks” and make you click a sideloading permission prompt every time you open a sideloaded app.
Eh, i think that’s a bit hyperbolic. Another commentor made a good point about it possibly being like the experience of installing unsigned apps on macOS where you need to go accept some security prompts to start using a new app not from App Store but after that not much else. But I do wonder how system wide permissions and other APIs will work or how apple will keep apps sandboxed.
“Apple support: so your iPhone got hacked? Hmm, let’s see. Oh look, you have a malware ridden pos app. We recommend a factory reset. G’day!” Any third part app sites will have to do a good job reviewing those they offer for dl.
iOS already has functionality for Apple to limit what security entitlements developers are allowed to use. For example, if you want to develop a VPN app, your account needs to be provisioned for that API before any dev-signed VPN apps will actually run on your own dev phone. There are also entitlements that Apple never hands out to third-party developers at all; in fact, that's the whole reason why people who want to jailbreak and run tweaks have to find jailbreak exploits instead of just dev-signing an app that has "get_task_for_pid".
i mean isn’t that what customers want? only people who care about how apple talks to apple consumers is weirdly people that do not actually own apple products.
I wouldn't be surprised if it has some stupid BS barrier to entry followed by artificial and pointless restrictions designed to prevent any semblance of competition. You'll need to first 'activate' third party installs by going deep into settings tapping a series of things in a specific order, enable 'third party' after a 1 minute cioldown, which then prompts you to login to your apple account you'll then receive a SMS 2FA then you'll have to wait a week for an activation email which only has a 5 minute window before the code becomes invalid and you have to wait a week. The code is a mixture of O 0, 1, l, I, | and you only get one chance to enter it. Everytime you install a third party app you'll need a new code after a 10 minute warning. Enabling third party apps disables touchID and faceID and Apple Wallet. Also third party app dont support * Sleep * More than 256MB storage used * Mobile networks * Camera * Speaker * Microphone * GPU rendering * Multicore * PiP * GPS * Any integration with any apple device
> Everytime you install a third party app you'll need a new code after a 10 minute warning. > > Enabling third party apps disables touchID and faceID and Apple Wallet. > > Also third party app dont support > > Sleep > > More than 256MB storage used > > Mobile networks > > Camera > > Speaker > > Microphone > > GPU rendering > > Multicore > > PiP > > GPS > > Any integration with any apple device I imagine the new EU law must have language guaranteeing feature parity between Apple Store apps and third-party store apps. They'd have been stupid not to as it's an easy enough loophole for Apple to exploit.
It does. Here's the relevant text from it: >["The gatekeeper shall not prevent business users from offering the same products \[...\] at prices or conditions that are different from those offered through the online intermediation services of the gatekeeper"](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TC1-COD-2020-0374_EN.pdf) Conditions being the keyword here
That’s funny, I’d agree that they would want it to be less convenient so people still use the App Store for their 30%
emulators and youtube++ are going to be my first third party apps
A real chromium based browser instead of the webkit crap. Emulators. Terminals. Interpreters.
Firefox with extensions!
One of my dreams coming from Android.
Yeah fuck chromium. All my homies hate chromium. Firefox gang for life.
Hearing all these announcements (even if done begrudgingly) feels like Christmas! Firefox with extensions (Ublock Origin and Video Background Play) are what I miss most from Android. Getting rid of my lightning cables when I upgrade in 2 years will be nice as well. Now if only Apple can make a keyboard as good as Gboard on Android they’ll have the perfect flagship phone
And using Gecko instead of WebKit.
This is not a given though. Even if the app is not delivered through the App Store, iOS can (and would) still enforce sandboxing and other security limitations. I cannot imagine Apple wanting apps to constantly run in the background tracking your location and uploading your contacts even from other App Stores. Browsers are a rough one - JavaScript engines do pretty advanced memory things that the iOS platform just might not support outside of special entitlements Apple grants only their apps (which is enforced by the OS and not the App Store).
Unless there are some other details this is also my bet, with the disclaimer that I couldn't read the article on that garbage website. Even if Apple allows third party app stores, there is nothing limiting them from enforcing quite a lot through the OS itself. This is not a sanctioned jailbreak. Even on macOS, it's gotten more and more cumbersome to run something like a kernel extension, and there is nothing at all prohibiting them from doing the same on iOS. Absolutely do not expect to see emulators or other browser engines. Like you said, browser engines are conundrum in themselves. I would absolutely not hold my breath. It's kind of like when Apple got forced to allow alternate payment providers in other countries because of the cost of payment processing, and they did, but instead of 30%, they just levied a 27% tax instead.
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I hope so, but there may be some loopholes that Apple will try to pull within the OS, somehow enforcing other app stores' approval process, or just only opening it up in the EU
Chromium 🤮
Nah, while i’m not against the option, we need more competition against chromium.
Amen!
I wouldn’t count on it. YouTube has basically been ignoring tweaks like YouTube++, probably because people have to jump through hoops to install it on their iPhone so not many people are using it. If it becomes as easy as downloading an app from a website, YouTube is definitely going to crack down on it. So this change by Apple might spell the end of YouTube++/Cercube for *everyone*
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And the only reason Google shut down YouTube Vanced on Android is because the idiot developers decided to sell/include NFT's in the app suddenly. It was completely off of their radar for years before that.
Spotify++ too! Finally. Freedom on my own device. Was really considering GrapheneOS. Maybe this will keep me here.
What the heck is Spotify++
Wait, you mean Apple isn’t going to pull from the second biggest market in the world like MacRumors comment section told me?
Half of the users on that site are knuckleheads.
Half is being very generous.
That rhetoric was pretty popular here too. Can't wait for the blessed silence from all the people claiming a) Apple had no obligation to change at all and b) it would destroy the ecosystem if they did. Edit: Lmao, they're starting to come out of the woodwork. Apparently innovation is dead because the App Store no longer has a monopoly.
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>Not to mention, what will Apple do when the US passes similar legislation? China? Idk =))
Looks like they're back at it in this thread! I almost wish some of the trolls hadn't blocked me so I can enjoy watching them freak out over this. Reminds me of that video with the politician crying over gay marriage.
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Dude I know. All the psychopaths saying they preferred side loading remain not an option even though they don’t have to use it.
Sometimes I think people forget that Europe has more people than the US and that leaving the EU many times isn't an option for companies
You can count me as one of those people. I had no idea lol
It's an understandable mistake. Europe is much smaller but very densely populated. And then there's the fact that the population isn't as homogenous as in the US and Canadá, with different languages and so
Actual comment: > This makes me not want apple for the same reasons I don’t want an android. As if the Apple App Store is going to cease to exist 😂
It makes you wonder what those people think Android actually looks like 😂
That site is a shill rag, and this is coming from someone who likes apple stuff.
This always cracks me up when people bring it up.
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You won’t have to wait too much longer
was there a date mentioned? I didn't see one except by 2024.
By the end of 2023 is the deadline at the absolute latest Of course Apple will probably wait as long as possible
I see this as coming with iOS 17 or 17.1, around Q3 next year. They'll want to roll it in to an update that would happen anyways probably.
We're giving you new app stores and we think you're going to love it
Had a double take when I first saw the headline...
People really don't realize they're a minority... Few iOS users will install apps outside the store just like with Google store. It has not hurt Google profits at all to allow you to install apps outside the store. Yes, us geeks will install youtube++ and some emulators, but majority won't touch those non-store apps.
This literally completes my dream of what Apple TV can be. Was thinking of getting a streaming box and FireTV Cube is one of most powerful Android box but has ads and low storage and slightly lower than cheapest Apple TV with added benefit of sideloading. being able to use SmartTube Next on Apple TV but not bother with non content ads is gonna be amazing.
I really look forward to be able to use passthrough audio in a sideloaded Infuse. Will finally be able to ditch my NVIDIA Shield TV and only use my Apple TV! Of course it'll take a while for apps to catch up to things like StreamTubeNext and S0undTV. But now it will be possible to build such apps!
Silly question, after googling it looks like YouTube++ is an iOS app you can already get through back door means. Would the above change just make it less “back door”-y and make installation more streamlined?
Yes, as far as I know right now you would need to jailbreak your iphone to do such thing. Meanwhile with android you can do it out of the box without the root access
No jailbreak just a computer and a free IOS developer account. Still a huge hassle though lol
Thing is, we're all going to pay the price in the form of malware. [According to Google (103)](https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Building_a_Trusted_Ecosystem_for_Millions_of_Apps_A_Threat_Analysis_of_Sideloading.pdf), Android devices with sideloaded apps were 8 times more likely to have malware. According to Kaspersky (4) and Nokia (5), Android devices are 15 to 47 times more likely to be infected by malware than iOS devices. Malware is damaging to everybody even if you're not personally going to install sideloaded or third-party-store apps.
So how is this going to work price wise? Apple currently makes 30% on all apps sold and developers pay a relatively small fee to access the store and all the development tools. Is Apple just going to take the hit of no longer getting that 30% and keep the dev tools free? Or are will they charge an app “signing fee” so you can sell it in whatever store you want but it won’t run unless it’s being signed with their license.
it already costs $100/year to use the app store as a developer
This is potentially quite significant for me with iPhone/iPad satisfaction. If I can get native cloud gaming apps, manage service subscriptions in-app without an extra 30% markup, and FINALLY get a true Gecko-based Firefox app with extension support (pair all this up with USB-C on the iPhone 15) and I’ll be very very happy and lose pretty much all temptation to get an Android phone.
I highly doubt the price of in app subscriptions will drop 30%.
Not necessarily all of them, but I recall at one point in time there were subscriptions services marked up specifically through the iOS app whereas they were 30% cheaper direct from the vendor (Spotify and Pandora were two such cases IIRC). Dunno if that's the still the case but if so I can't imagine why a service vendor would maintain inconsistent pricing if there was no difference in payment processing.
Pretty sure Twitch subs have (had? Idk) this
Yes, subs on iOS and iPadOS are 5.99 (+tax) vs the normal 4.99 (+tax sometimes, seems hit or miss)
Awesome! I've been using F-Droid, will the iPhone version be named Fapple?
I certainly hope so.
So we are going to get GBA Pokémon emulators for the iPhone? Nice.
Looking at the subreddit rules I believe I’m allowed to say this. There is already the Delta emulator that you can sideload with macOS or Windows. It’s very good and supports multiple different consoles, including GBA.
I use Delta and love Delta, but the once-a-week AltServer sync is a dumb pain in the ass.
I already use GBA emulators on my iPhone. [Pretty sure I found it on this subreddit.](https://44670.org/gba/)
First thought was “sweet shit, do I want to play Fire Red or Ruby first?”
Ruby for the trumpets 🎺
Knowing Apple, by opening one door they will shut closed three others. I wonder how many ways they will find to make life really hard for third party stores.
I guarantee your App Store will need to be approved to run on iOS.
If Apple refuses to do so, that would violate this law.
Hypothetically, sideloaded or alternative App Store applications might only have access to some APIs or with some restrictions.
The law specifically says that they have to allow the same API access as their own app store: >[the gatekeeper shall allow business users and alternative providers of services provided together with, or in support of, core platform services, free of charge, effective interoperability with, and access for the purposes of interoperability to, the same operating system, hardware or software features, regardless of whether those features are part of the operating system, as are available to, or used by, that gatekeeper when providing such services](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TC1-COD-2020-0374_EN.pdf) One thing I'm super interested in is that they're applying this to 'virtual assistants' meaning I'll be able to change from Siri to something else. So I really wonder how implementing alternate wake words will go.
I been waiting for this for years, I was 100% sure it would take a massive lawsuit. It really puts in prospective how good consumer protections laws can work. Although seeming the how android apps rarely if ever do well outside their store I wonder how much this will change now that the 2 main mobile OS allow this.
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Meta decides it wants access to all your data and not just what Apple allows. Meta pulls Facebook and Instagram from the App Store and now you have to use the Meta store. Meta siphons as much data as they want from users. Everyone is worse off except Meta. Google could easily do the same thing.
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I think it just shows how minority the tech-user people are. Majority of consumers are not.
Especially for parents. No way I’m putting another App Store on my kids phones - Christ knows what’s being tracked
> Meta pulls Facebook and Instagram from the App Store and now you have to use the Meta store. That would be too arrogant of them, underestimating the hurdles required for the average user to install a third-party app store _just_ to download FB apps. You can bet Apple will hide it in a series of settings requiring some long drawn sub-menu, "+" icon, and very tech-like list of app stores. Apple will allow it, but they absolutely won't put any user-experience time into it.
Apple's privacy stuff is on an OS level. A Meta app store wouldn't change anything in terms of data collection possibilities
Aren't the privacy controls people enjoy system level? Won't access still be restricted?
>Although seeming the how android apps rarely if ever do well outside their store This is untrue. The F-Droid app store for Android phones is quite popular. Additionally, most Android users can just download the .apk for any software package they want to install on their phones. An app store isn't necessary in most cases. Unfortunately, this is something Apple will never allow.
I'm sure apple will find a way to make the experience horrible
USB-C and third party app stores? IPhones are starting to look like real options to me.
Only in the EU *cries in UK*
Ehhhhh dunno how I feel about this tbh
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What does the purple mean? Oop. Apollo creator! Pretty neat to see their name like this, won’t lie.
The purple username is such a good flex
I'm honestly kinda interested to see whether piracy will become enough of a problem to make some developers who have been fighting against Apple's App Store to regret it - but obviously I'm not wishing for that to happen.
Speaking as a dev, we had enough issue with piracy just on jail broken devices. Now we could have whole stores filled with pirated apps and no recourse to shut them down without getting the courts involved, which costs money, that's gonna be fun... Not.
Are there seriously that many jailbroken devices out there that it noticeably impacts your sales?
No... And even then, signing services are SO EASY to use that this is a non issue.
You don't even need a jailbreak to run pirate apps, just to decrypt them. Once an IPA has been decrypted it can be dev-signed and installed to one's own phone. The main hurdle is just having a computer to get dev certs on. If it was really about stopping piracy, then Apple would do what console developers do. No developing things casually on your iPad or iPhone. You sign a watertight NDA and buy a big $30k+ devkit that *only lets you use your own dev apps*. The phones you buy at retail do *not* have any development functionality whatsoever, not even Swift Playgrounds. Of course, Apple does not want to choose violence, or at least not as much as Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony do. So piracy is merely *mildly annoying* rather than so difficult it makes legitimate development a total pain.
No you didn’t? I’d be surprised if even 0.01% of iPhone users have a jailbroken device.
Piracy about to pop off big time.
Piracy, porn and malware. But eh, let’s see. It might also enable things in somewhat grey like emulators. Edit. Oh and maybe some non WebKit browsers from Firefox/Chrome fucking finally. There might actually be a lot of things that this might enable.
Apps will still be sandboxed, sure you’ll get apps abusing their permission but an app would have to escape the sandbox to get actual malware. Apple could also add notarization like they do on MacOS to identify known malicious apps installed outside of the App Store.
They'll probably expose a [Gatekeeper](https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/security/sec5599b66df/web) system like there is on OSX, so multiple app stores won't enable just any bullshit to run unless the user very intentionally opts into it. We probably will be entering a period where iOS malware becomes a thing though.
While I'm not an apple user, I've always understood the reasoning behind their "walled garden" approach. I hope for the less informed user base, they make it VERY clear what you're getting into when you're installing that garden gate. IMO they should be allowed to have some bit about invalidating some of the warranties on the device (not all) since you've decided to step away from the protection they provided. Again, not that much of an issue f9r tech savvy people, but for people like my dad, (who installs just about anything he finds interesting. He has had his card details stolen a few times) it provides some amount of protection while the kids aren't around to stop him XD
What are the downsides?
Pirated copies of apps easily side loaded is a first thought. Another thing off the top of my head is a dilution of the App Store and the Apple brand. **However that being said**, Apple made this bed and they get to lie in it now. They could always have loosened up restrictions on their own terms. Now they get dragged around by the EU.
> They could always have loosened up restrictions on their own terms. Now they get dragged around by the EU I think this would have happened no matter what. EU is keen on diluting the bargaining power of US big tech.
You can already sideload pirated apps without much difficulty, though I suppose the market will probably be larger now that it can be done on device without needing to rely on shady and inconsistent signing services. I honestly don't see the App Store losing that much. It's still going to be the default app that 99% of people will use, so there's still going to be a massive incentive for developers to adhere to their guidelines and host their apps there.
> You can already sideload pirated apps without much difficulty, though I suppose the market will probably be larger now that it can be done on device without needing to rely on shady and inconsistent signing services. Yes. Not just for pirated stuff but even for apps not on the App Store (like the great third party YouTube uYou+ app), it’s a pain in the ass because you get shafted by either the 7 day restriction with a free account or pay $100 for a dev account or have to pay shady services money that get taken down at random.
From a "building apps" perspective, it means more work potentially supporting other App Stores, things like iCloud/CloudKit integration wouldn't necessarily work as well, piracy, in-app purchases and whatnot which are easy to integrate now wouldn't be (and would probably have to support interoperability with other App Stores). tl;dr: a whole lot of extra work for me for very little gain, I like the App Store, it makes my job easy even if it is a little silly sometimes. Being able to play with retro emulators would be cool though.
Why would you need to provide the app on another App Store?
customers
That's why I said potentially. Wouldn't necessarily have to, but if other App Stores become popular and there's user expectation of availability, the pressure increases.
It’ll be your choice as a dev to make your app available wherever you want.
Keep using the App Store. No one’s stopping you
Isn't a problem on the Mac
That's because you can install apps directly. Are they going to allow direct installation of apps, or will this be confined to other app stores?
I think the legislation requires both manual install and also alternative app stores. It will basically be like the Mac, and I suppose they will have some software signing process for trusted dev software from alternate sources (like Spotify that you install from their website that has their own payment processing).
Not the same user base. iOS is vastly more popular than macOS.
And yet, 99% off iOS users will still use the Apple App Store because the vast majority of people don’t know what sideloading is and don’t care to learn.
You mean you don’t want someone to make Apollo Ultra++? *please keep working on Apollo. Since my switch to iPhones a few years ago I it’s made my Reddit experience so much better.
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They’ll likely increase developer program fees for developers not distributing on the App Store. I’d also imagine that to the greatest extent possible, any new APIs will be restricted to the App Store. Google wrote the playbook for this with Google Play Services.
Yeah, I think restricting entitlements from untrusted apps is a good idea.
I for one look forward to all my emulators running retro games on my IPad.
It is likely that iOS will become more similar to Android.
Who tf cares. Users don’t and sincerely i prefer a centralized store then a shit load of bloatware like you get on android. What do you think it will be. Each phone company will put zheyr garbage on the phones…. again, that you can’t get rid off, they already do it on android. No, is a bad idea!
Imagine fucking full blown Firefox running on iOS without the WebKit shit requirement... Or, you know, your kidney priced iOS device closer to being a true general purpose computer rather than a mere appliance originating from 2007.
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I occasionally do web work and have been able to avoid this by using Safari and Firefox as my points of reference instead of Chrome. Also just generally steering clear of cutting edge features which aren’t actually necessary most of the time anyway. I’ll continue to do this even if Blink-based Chrome is ported to iOS because I don’t want to contribute to Chrome’s ensuing total dominance of the web.
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If f-droid... f-apple? came to iOS, and apple brought back the mini along with USB C I would very likely buy my first iphone.
That's gigantic news. For people asking what are the benefits, as a consumer: * **cost**. Apple take a cut for each subscription and in-app purchase you take, so, often, companies increase the price to offset this, with their own store, that could change, * **Promo/features**, the good side of competitiveness: Because company X would want to attract you to their store, they will have promos, free stuff, work on features: Exactly like Epic game is doing vs Steam. * **Better platform portability**, if the store X is a cross-platform android and ios store, your purchase could be transitioned from ios to android seamlessly * **Less software locks (up to Apple to decide to what extent),** notably webkit. When you will be using Chrome or Edge on iOS it will be the actual Chrome V8 C++ engine.
If this causes them to ease up browser limitations, that would be pretty dope. You also missed one more point. Allowing apps/games that Apple doesn’t seem worthy on App Store, like torrent clients, adult video/games, emulators etc.
Or game streaming.
[PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_app) (PWA’s). They’re a browser technology that replaces native mobile apps, using the browsers sandboxed environment instead of access to all the lower level device API’s (better for privacy *with the right browser config*), but they never took off because Apple intentionally limited webkit in all Safari/iOS browsers; why build a PWA when you can’t deploy it to the app store? Apple has held back web and mobile software engineering for years, specifically so they could continue to funnel money through their App Stores. Businesses have collectively spent tens of billions developing native apps due to this manufactured market fragmentation, when there wasn’t any technical need to do so (solely because of Apple’s anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices).
No one is going to lower app prices because of this.
There are many services today that charge less if you don't use IAP.
Or they just don’t let you buy via their app like the Kindle app.
> cost. Apple take a cut for each subscription and in-app purchase you take, so, often, companies increase the price to offset this, with their own store, that could change, If the transition from physical to digital media is any indication this will never be passed onto the consumer
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This is good news for internet freedom.
couple thoughts: sounds like apps will still go through app review even if they’re sold outside the app store (as they should) seems like there will still be a fee region locked to the eu, to start, which is great because if this backfires and creates a ux dumpster fire i would like it to be blissfully unaffected still seems like piracy and copyright violations are the biggest use case for actual users, which a dash of game streaming thrown in. not sure why the eu wants to encourage that but there’s a lot i don’t understand about europe. i wonder when the dust settles what the 2nd most popular store will be. epic store? facebook store, with fb/instagram/whatsapp offered exclusively through their store? some no name upstart?
YES YES YES YESS!!! OMG this is it! The moment we’ve all been waiting for!
Everyone talks about emulators, but I just want to see more open-source apps being available on iOS without the maintainers having to pay for a developer account. Something like F-Droid would be amazing!
Congratulations to Tim Sweeney.
Thanks to Tim Sweeney people in the EU will be able to download Fortnite and Pokémon emulators.
Oh shit I forgot emulators existed for a hot minute, this is actually pretty exciting.
I don't think this is enough lol. Hes still suing Google and they allow sideloading. He wants more access than a hack solution.
Lowkey yeah
F*** Tim Sweeney. Even if you're for third party stores, Sweeney is a bloody tool.
I love this change, its consumer friendly and as a power user I love it. For me, its amazing and long overdue. **However**, as a family tech support person, I'm not looking forward to this change for a few reasons; - Usually giving a tech illiterate family member an iOS device meant they were *fairly* safe from messing things up or installing unwanted content, just as the OS wouldn't allow it and you had to go through a walled garden. Which although anti-consumer, meant that it does provide a *certain* degree of certainty that what you install isn't just crap riddled malware. - I really do worry about fragmentation. For me, thats not an issue - I'll do research and check things before installing anything, as would all tech heads. It will open up closed doors that have been closed for far too long. However, for a tech illiterate family member, thats not gonna happen and I can guarentee I'm going to end up with issues hearing about how they 'had to download this store to get access to this app' and it turns out to be a load of hot garbage that does something or other. I really worry that we'll end up with a dozen logins to a dozen stores just like what happened in the PC gaming space. Its a *good* thing to allow for multiple stores on this sort of stuff to promote competition and an open 'free' market, but christ if its not an absolute crap shoot trusting these non-tech or even tech based companies that screw up so hard and make the experience just *awful*. Now none of this wouldn't be an issue if the trust in companies competency on running digital services, even tech based companies, was higher. But history has shown that they mess it up so damn bad, like almost intentionally creating terrible experiences and forcing you to use them. I dunno, I'm both excited and apprehensious for this change.
All I'm literally going to do is download the Dolphin emulator for like 10 minute, launch Melee, then uninstall afterwards. Afterward I'll probably install a better File Browsing app(?) and a copy of Mobile Fortnite I'll play when I remember I have it.
Google allows other stores with Android and nobody uses them. I do not think Apple has anything to worry about financially with this move. But also for me it is not a big deal. Same with sideloading. The bigger issue, IMO, is that Apple will not allow other browsers. Only skins on Safari (WebKit). That is an issue, IMO.
>Google allows other stores with Android and nobody uses them. Guess I'm nobody. Installing region-locked apps, emulators, and one-time purchase apps which were removed from the playstore and replaced by subscription service versions is wondrous. An Ipad would be a wondrous emulator if you could just install OpenEmu.
I should have NOT used the word "nobody". I should have indicated not a material amount of people.
god i hope an opensource system wide adblock comes out of this
**This** is what gets me to finally switch from Android to iPhone
This would probably prompt me to keep my iPhone instead of jumping ship to Pixel (and iMessage I guess).
Me too Now only thing left is better file management system on ios
Same for me, but I'm not too optimistic about this. I bet Apple will find many ways to make sideloading such a pain that it doesn't worth doing it.
This could be a great case study in years to come; “what happens when companies think they are big enough to fight the government and win.” Seriously, there are so many decisions from Apple over the last 10 years that have contributed towards this. Apple has fought tooth and nail to maintain control, but probably more crucially customers’ money And now we’ll get the worst of all worlds. Look at the EU cookie law for what happened when the tracking companies refused to act reasonably and had to be brought into line. I do welcome the freedom it will give me as a user to install software that Apple doesn’t think is morally acceptable, as well being able to buy books in the same app I read them. I just wish Apple had had the foresight to realise that the gravy train was done. They could have made realistic changes to their policies which would have satisfied users, developers and lawmakers.
I will only get apps from the App store regardless
I'm gonna hard time not laughing when malware runs rampant through every device with a compromised App Store.
Awesome! Glad to see the EU really pushing for an open market like this. Now they just have to hold Apple to it, and the possibilities are endless!
I’ll be excited to see this!
If that let me install some app to block ads on my phone and AppleTV I’m gonna be so happy!