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!
Likely the UK eventually as well, when the Digital Markets Bill comes through.
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.
Are you fucking kidding me?
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.)
I wonder how long it will take for Mozilla to make a proper iOS version. I suspect that Apple didn’t give them any notice.
They didn’t have to. The EU regulations have been public for a while now, the only question was how Apple was going to comply.
True, but I don’t think a fund limited organisation like Mozilla is going to spend a lot of money and time on a maybe.
Regulations are not "maybe"s.
they’re already in the process for almost a year now. they anticipated the ruling and didn’t wait for apple’s statement.
Thanks.
Apple must allow under EU regulation, full versions of Chrome and Firefox to run on the iPhone.
This is why I I’m not a iperson
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.
PLEASE MOZILLA 🙏
USB C, 3rd party app installing, free browser engine and easly removable batteries in 3 years. Iphone suddenly becomes an amazing option
not amazing, only closer to what android already was for years
*if you ignore the shitfest it is with mandating play store/play services, bricking phones, google screwing up Pixel updates, a fiasco of some sort with each Pixel iteration, Samsung literally adding shit to macro shots and calling it “AI”.
Android isn’t a silver bullet it’s made out to be.
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.
Fuck Apple.
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?
"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.
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.
