'For too long, Apple has operated a walled garden around its products': The EU forces Apple to open its closed system to third parties
'For too long, Apple has operated a walled garden around its products': The EU forces Apple to open its closed system to third parties
'For too long, Apple has operated a walled garden around its products': The EU forces Apple to open its closed system to third parties
Hopefully this actually leads to something lasting, but I don't have high hopes considering how Europe is getting dragged atm
I mean the EU made them allow app stores but Apple made a complete mockery of them by requiring their rubber stamp and charging "only" 27% fee and the EU is just letting them get away with that so yeah, I have little faith.
Maybe Nintendo, Sony and MS will be next?
I want a 3rd party store on all my consoles, why can’t I?
Finally. We all about to see better prices and more features. If this ends in lower app store fees, its a massive win for every app company in the world!
Most every major company tries to build a walled garden. Apple does so via apps and services, services like netflix do by making sure you can’t watch shows on any other service (arr!), or even something as simple as cordless tools that have proprietary batteries and chargers where it gets really expensive to have to buy different batteries.
Most every major company isn't entrenched in people's lives as deeply as apple is though. If I want to leave Netflix it's as easy as switching subscriptions. If I want to leave Apple I need months of migration and multiple product replacements.
Or at least that's what it looks like to someone who has avoided Apple their whole life, it was apparent to me as a teen that the walled garden was a trap. The iPhone and iPhone 3g where the only and last peices of apple hardware I've ever owned.
You’re right on all counts. It is not cheap and easy to migrate away from apple, and some apps may not have an equivalent.
I’ve been anti-apple most of my life for multiple reasons, and I still am, however my work uses apple products for the employees so it just made sense to have my own as well. I deeply recognize the walled garden Apple has created, and the only products of theirs we use are those associated with the mobile devices. We buy nothing else apple; no laptops, no desktops, no backup, TV, etc.
And also getting using to an entirely new UI and OS
Destroys their entire business model 😂
Their entire business model has been to focus on systems that lock people in and exclude people who are out. None of this is done for security or as a means for the best possible customer experience. It's done for the sole purpose of forcing income they couldn't achieve with innovation alone. I've heard so many tech reviewers and even my own personal friends who say they would love to switch if only to try something else. They say they'd switch today if their friends, family and coworkers wouldn't get mad at them. Apples only real innovation over the past ten years has been built in social pressure.
This is why the only Apple product I've owned was a free iPad. It feels claustrophobic to be trapped in their ecosystem.
Trying to get my family to use signal and its like pulling teeth. "Dont you want to be on the same messaging app as everyone", "sure but you're the one with a problem"
Mate, I only have a problem because of you!
And the air pods was often referenced to look like condoms, on reddit
Well, they did get them to switch to USB-C, so I'm not holding my breath, but I do hope that this will lead to more interoperability. I'm tired of Apple making Android/non-Apple users feel like second-class citizens.
I have to agree. Switching to USB-C is a big step, but I doubt Apple will become more interoperable unless they are forced to.
I still don’t think that one was actually the EU’s doing. Macs got USB C before most PCs, iPads had it for a long time before iPhones, and iPhones switched over 10 years after Apple announced lightning saying it would be their connector “for the next decade”
Apple got an special exemption the last time the EU standardised the port to Micro-USB.
The writing would have been on the wall for them. Especially as thunderbolt 3+ uses the USB-C connector, there was no guarantee the EU would give them exception again, and lightning is almost certainly not designed to handle the wattage needed to charge a Mac.
But otherwise, if not compelled, I doubt that Apple would have carried it over to the mobile devices. The timing is fortuitous, but likely because Apple has a little leeway before the EU forbade their devices/fined them for not following the law.
I was so hyped when the EU pressured Apple into allowing external software on Apple devices.
Apple killed that hype making the change EU only, problem is I’m encapsulated in the walled garden with an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Air Tags, HomePods.
Thinking of getting a second phone Android based to partially-escape the garden but if I ditch my iPhone all hell will break loose network wise.
I was you up until 3 months ago. I went nuclear and focused on the more open source side of android and have been so much happier for it. Sold everything to afford the changes.
It's also cheaper consider the availability of different Android phones, I left pixel for OnePlus recently, because it decided then screen died after a small drop for pixel 5a, a phone with well known defects
ditch the homepod and don't replace it with any other spyware, and replace the rest as needed.
What is homepod? Like Amazon Alexa?
ditch the homepod and don't replace it with any other spyware
Family has gotten use to the HomePod being around, makes simple things like settings timers for cooking or other related task a bit easier.
And yeah, I’m aware it’s spyware. I wanted a “smart-home” and essentially landed on Apple products.
With android you can change the os if your into it, developer at least.
Yeah I was looking into Linux based mobile OS’s and I’ve come to the consensus that hardware selection is very limited.
I was very interested in GrapheneOS but unfortunately it’s for Pixel phones only.
Some phones only. Or at least that is how it used to be when I had one not too long ago. The boot loader had the be unlocked and some apps like banks or Google pay refused to work at the time (or maybe it was if you had root enabled).
I thought that “walled-garden” was for security and privacy in the case of Apple? I always relied on them for that.
Nope, it was so they could take the 30% cut of every penny that is spent on one of their platforms, and also so that it would be extremely inconvenient to leave their ecosystem since doing so would mean leaving behind most of your data.
You can certainly argue that more control makes iPhones safer, since its harder to get malicious software on the phone. But Apple is also abusing their control for their own gain.
You could also argue that locking you in a room would be safer than letting you walk freely out in the world. But I don't we want that either.
The security approach was what first drew me to Apple back in like 2005. The whole focus on proprietary software that resulted in practically zero malware was definitely worth me having to do file-type conversions on documents and all that crap to keep up with people on Windows. And I loved it. And I kept adding every device and loving how seamless they all interact with each other.
But then there’s that shadow side you refer to. The gradual dumbing down of software, the constant hand-holding. The walled garden began to feel like a lock-in.
My last new Mac purchase was in 2011. I still use that machine. But I was not getting security updates and other things I use were leaving me behind so I decided to give Linux a try. Chose Ubuntu and the hardware was suddenly like new again. Apple makes beautiful machines but waste them on some increasingly basic software. My Linux-run Macs have made me fall in love with computers all over again.
If this somehow results in me being able to run like Graphene on my iPhone in a few years, or even connect my Apple Watch to a non-Apple phone, I will be pretty excited.
I dunno, are meals provided in the locked room? The world is a pretty fucking awful place right now.
If people want a phone that acts like an android, just buy an android.
Why are people trying to make iPhones into androids?
Well, but it is just as hard to find exploits for white heads, and this leads to open exploits that last for ages, even if actively used by black heads.
There is no security by obfuscation
Its primary utility is shoring up their image as the brand where 'everything just works' and op/interop is a thoughtless zero friction process. Compromise that and you lose normie, bigtime. So everyone gets locked in...and you get the walled prison basketball court
Honestly, fuck security. I want every app on my phone to phone home to other malicious app stores with all my personal data. I want them to install backdoor VPNs that tunnel all my data to a man in the middle. I want them to allow me to jailbreak my phone so I can install permanent rootkits, that way adversaries can reload their botnets even after I factory reset my phone.
On the real, i appreciate Apple for what they've done so far. If this happens, ill have to move back to GrapheneOS. Which is fine, but its just so much more time that I have to spend on making the phone work versus working on the phone.
We should force the entire EU to mandate GrapheneOS on all phones. Well see how much they enjoy the experience.
As a tinkerer, stuff like Linux and Graphene are right up my alley. But as a dude with a job and family I just don’t have the time anymore. Apple is far from perfect but their security/privacy efforts are the lesser of the evils for almost no extra time/thinking required from me so they’re the ideal option for now. Really hope all these laws don’t muck that up.
I kinda agree with your sentiment. If I'm spending $1000+ on a device, I want to truly own it and do whatever I want with it. Unfortunately people have gotten very used to companies like Apple telling them what they can and can't do, and Apple artificially restricting things (like giving first-party apps special permissions that third-party apps can't get) so they make more money. It's not great that this is so widespread now. At least there's people like Louis Rossman that still care about these things.
If the manufacturer wants to have an "easy mode" where they limit what can be done, like what Apple does today, that's totally fine. Just don't force it onto everyone.
As a new user of GrapheneOS, I have yet to see the difference with regular Android except that it's way more secure.
You’re getting downvoted but how much would you like to bet that once the walled garden is down/third party apps can be installed; we’ll suddenly see “security related apps” installed by some EU law.
If I sound paranoid there’s already an app on Android that scans the content of your photo library (iPhones have this too but it’s only enabled during parental controls, Androids is stealth-enabled 24/7).
It's called something android core, you can uninstall it, but it may comeback each update.
That's the lie they tell you, yeah.
This is very bad. Their walled garden is perfect for the young, elderly, and stupid.
Hopefully some competitor arrives to replace them.
Apple is free to sell phones where walled gardens are allowed. You're also free to stay in the walled garden, Apple lied to you.
Yeah because using Android is so difficult
If but perfect you mean perfectly exploitative, sure. The walled garden issue has nothing to do with ease of use my friend; in fact, the whole point is to do the opposite - make anything outside the wall impossibly hard to access or use.
No one is forcing you do use apps outside of the app store. It's about choice.
If such a competitor emerged they'd not be able to trade in the EU, given the size of the EU economy that ain't happening.
It is not the walled garden that makes it easy, I mean, only because you open up doesn’t mean that your costumer still can buy only apple and it just works..
Yay! Please stick with this, EU! I hope this spreads globally. 🥂
Huge win!
It’s a shame Epic lost this lawsuit in the US because “just switch to Android”
I have no doubt the EU won't have much mercy for American corporations going* forward.
My phone REALLY wants me to type gong. Gong gong gong gong gong.
bro be like
Go ahead, this is a safe space. Get it out of your system.
Gong gong, gonging gong gong!
We don’t need no friends, allies or influence when we can be bullying, a child’s concept of tough, looking up to other dictators like Putin and Erdogan. Im sure all it will take is loud threats of widespread tariffs and a stable Genius who’s “great” at deals.
“Coincidentally” Apple might make sizable
bribesindependent donations to support the free and open re-election of The fuhrerLet me see that gong…gong gagong gong gong
When apple announced messaging would be cross platform nobody else adopted it. Any idea why?
Oh yeah one reason: Apple won’t be forced to open up iMessage by EU (2024)
In the eu literally nobody is using iMessage, so it doesn't fall under dma laws.