Apple is finally allowing Firefox to use its own engine on the iPhone (but only in the EU)
Apple is finally allowing full versions of Chrome and Firefox to run on the iPhone
"This change is a result of the DMA’s requirements, and means that EU users will be confronted with a list of default browsers before they have the opportunity to understand the options available to them,” the company says. “The screen also interrupts EU users’ experience the first time they open Safari intending to navigate to a webpage.”
lol Apple is throwing a tantrum
That's just Apple's default state.
That was always a bullshit move by Apple and crippled the Firefox product in an unacceptable and cartel law questionable dimension. MS had a Monopoly on IE, by giving advantages binding it to the OS? Apple did the exact same thing on iOS with Safari.
The problem is that the US doesn't necessarily regulate anticompetitive behavior if the company has not achieved a monopoly. Microsoft pretty much had one at the time so they were exposed. Our regulatory regime is not designed to protect us from the tech oligopoly
USB C, 3rd party app installing, free browser engine and easly removable batteries in 3 years. Iphone suddenly becomes an amazing option
In eu. Its amazing what happens when legislation works.
We slowly fix problems below and above the OS. But there is very much left to do in the OS itself, like no access to drivers or any low-level interfaces.
Ok, as an American web developer how do I test sites in Firefox on iOS?
Pray it just works? Get consumer-friendly legislation to pass in the US somehow? Maybe a genie wish or an infinity gauntlet could be used for this purpose.
Apple has never been great at enabling developer testing. I certainly don't see why they'd care if shit works on third party browsers. The more broken apps are just means the more users who will give up and use Safari.
Apple's Infinity Gauntlet will be $4999 and have a surprise battery backpack.
Hmm, I wonder if we could get an EU law that requires enabling testing of third party apps globally, as anything else is suppressing competition.
put a big banner for iOS users telling them that apple doesn't let you test it, and that any complaints should be forwarded to apple
Didn't even think about that haha.
I guess the best you could realistically do would be to adhere to web standards (not Chrome standards) and use desktop Firefox or Firefox on Android for testing as they should be the same internally as the hypothetical iOS port.
You don't and that's a feature for Apple.
It'll fall on deaf ears but complain as an ios dev to apple
Same way you test on Safari if you don't have a Mac, I guess. (i.e. not at all, or with the same rendering engine on a different device and hoping it is similar enough, or via a service like Browserstack.)
I would subscribe to this question if I could.
Interesting question. If a binary is available you can sideload already, you'd have to put the phone in Developer Mode and use either XCode or one of the 3rd party tools for macos or Windows to install it. Main question is how easy it'd be to find a trustable official Mozilla binary.
Fuck Apple.
Article talks about how Chrome will be happening almost immediately and I'm like… why? Why would you switch to Chrome when you know it's going to reduce your ability to keep things private. Firefox will be a different story hopefully, but even then it will be interesting to see if it can pass the fingerprint test finally on an iPhone. (Currently nothing can.)
People use chrome because they’re used to chrome (and because it has the best website compatibility thanks to its near monopoly). And most people sadly don’t care about their privacy.
I personally try to use as little Google products as I can and am happy using a mixture of Safari and Firefox (depending on the platform)
Awesome really hope this spreads to other regions.
This is very bittersweet living in the UK. But still obligatory fuck Apple.
I always figured that brexit is going to be a big kick in the balls on the long run
Why not come back? :D
zero reason ever for any piece of technology to know where i live and make my experience worse because of it
Are you fucking kidding me?
As soon as I get that visa, I'm running to the EU. I don't feel like dealing with more freedom that only the EU can get, I don't feel like being jealous at them anymore, I might as well join them.
not with the current "shift to the right" we're doing. these parties will do and say anything to get into power and foreigners out of their country.
but me and many other average citizens would very much like to welcome you with open arms.
Yeah, some politicians are straight up weird.
In their defense, though, some immigrants are straight up weird (keyword: SOME).
Honestly, I'm the kind of future immigrant who hates his country with an absolute passion and refuses to be patriotic or nationalistic. I literally cannot integrate into my own society. Also, criminalization of LGBT rights. I just gotta mention that.
The EU really does feel like a great place to be in.
Come to the dark side! We have GDPR and we'll get browser choice in iOS soon (because as much as I hate having my software freedom being taken away, iOS is the superior experience if you don't have time to tweak everything. This is coming from someone who's had a custom ROM on every single one of their Android phones).
You also can't be fired without cause in I believe most EU countries, definitely not in mine (Estonia).
I have literally never used GDPR in my life because whenever my phone claims to use it (last time that happened was with my old iPhone 4), it basically means that there's no internet at all. I'm pretty sure that's just a weird thing with my country. We don't even have 5G yet.
Also, wait, you can actually get fired without cause outside of the EU? Why would anyone have the balls to do that??
I have literally never used GDPR in my life because whenever my phone claims to use it (last time that happened was with my old iPhone 4), it basically means that there's no internet at all. I'm pretty sure that's just a weird thing with my country. We don't even have 5G yet.
Also, wait, you can actually get fired without cause outside of the EU? Why would anyone have the balls to do that??
they're already in the process for almost a year now. they anticipated the ruling and didn't wait for apple's statement.
This is why I I'm not a iperson
Exactly. I hate being told how to use my devices
You're holding it wrong ™️
So, this could be a dumb question, but will IPAs have this region-locking?
Like, can I use something like AltStore to use the EU version of Firefox?
Pretty sure it's the OS that would be different, and likely hardware-locked or some other kind of region verification.
If you have the ipa you can sideload it via AltStore or similar unless Mozilla does something stupid
Jailbreaking finally has utility again.
Do you think someone will figure out a jail break to unlock EU only features?
Honestly, it’s possible. A lack of incentive is half of the issue, the other half is the lack of talent working on a jailbreak because the community is full of the most maddeningly annoying children to have ever been birthed. It’s much more profitable to sell the increasingly complex bugs than to use them. If the jailbreak community manages to avoid doxxing, threatening, or disparaging a major dev for a few months, something might eventually come out.
Apple's censorship and control have been intolerable since the iPhone launched.
It's your phone. Not theirs. That's what the money was for.
People use windows don't they... That's microsofts computer. :)
We ignore the fact on computer you can choose the OS and on this Microsoft OS you can choose the source of programs? Windows is very limiting, but even with all the crapware you can still say you own it. At least until Windows on ARM kick in and we see if what I said would still hold true.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
With iOS 17.4, Apple is making a number of huge changes to the way its mobile operating system works in order to comply with new regulations in the EU.
One of them is an important product shift: for the first time, Apple is going to allow alternative browser engines to run on iOS — but only for users in the EU.
Apple is clearly only doing this because it is required to by the EU’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA), which stipulates, among other things, that users should be allowed to uninstall preinstalled apps — including web browsers — that “steer them to the products and services of the gatekeeper.” In this case, iOS is the gatekeeper, and WebKit and Safari are Apple’s products and services.
Even in its release announcing the new features, Apple makes clear that it’s mad about them: “This change is a result of the DMA’s requirements, and means that EU users will be confronted with a list of default browsers before they have the opportunity to understand the options available to them,” the company says.
Apple argues (without any particular merit or evidence) that these other engines are a security and performance risk and that only WebKit is truly optimized and safe for iPhone users.
But in the EU, we’re likely to see these revamped browsers in the App Store as soon as iOS 17.4 drops in March: Google, for one, has been working on a non-WebKit version of Chrome for at least a year.
The original article contains 596 words, the summary contains 248 words. Saved 58%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
so does this mean i can finally install extensions on my company issued ipad?
of course mozilla still has to develop a whole new browser, but will this mean they get to?
Likely the UK eventually as well, when the Digital Markets Bill comes through.
PLEASE MOZILLA 🙏
Apple must allow under EU regulation, full versions of Chrome and Firefox to run on the iPhone.
@dantheclamman@lemmy.world @firefox@lemmy.ml It also means more chrome based browsers. Apple was the last stand before google hegemony. That's not a good news.
If only the US had the balls to keep these trillion dollar companies in line instead of the other way around.
If only the US lacked the corruption...
I'm not sure what you mean by ; keeping in line..
I mean they're collaborating with them to spy on the American nation and the entire world, with their creatively named secret projects..
Always remember what comes first in any national emergency. Whats the first thing our leaders always make clear when the chips are down?
"We will do everything necessary to protect our beloved
nationsocietystruggling citizensECONOMY."People don't matter here, only capital. If you are attached to meaningful capital, you will want for nothing and live in embarrassing decadence that would make pharoahs blush, if you aren't attached to meaningful capital, you are livestock for those that are. You are less than human in the eyes of the capital hoarders in charge.
Those are our American Values in practice.
As an American (optimistic hostage) I couldn’t agree more.
Unregulated and unhindered capitalism is the American way. If the government interferes by saying that companies aren’t allowed to do whatever they want, that’s just socialism, communism or whatever it is that those Europeans are up to these days.
/s just in case.
The US absolutely has the balls. They're currently bound and being used by the corporations to lead us around.
Yeah, we should probably say something about how they treat us, but God damn if our politicians don't have the biggest fucking orgasm every time a billionaire compliments them.
"The US has the balls."
Ah yes, that's why the government is on it's knees in front of these corporations ... because it has balls... yep, the government sure has balls ... on it's chin.
Definitely need to do more, but, consumers could choose android over apple. Apples walled garden bullshit is why the only apple devices I've ever had were a couple of old school ipods and various Macintoshs going back to the IIe.
It sucks moving platforms. I did it going from blackberry to android but with android I can buy any phone I want and it's mine to do with as I please and plenty of phones have community support to keep an android version updated and secure.
As someone who's only owned Androids, it's just a different walled garden. It's a duopoly instead of a monopoly.
You can't really own your phone whatever you do. Even if you root it all your important apps like banking ones will stop working so there really isn't a choice.
-sent from my smartphone made by an equally shitty company.
Look up fairphone.
Hardly