Apple announces changes to iOS, Safari, and the App Store in the European Union

[Ferrum Master]

OnePlus/OPPO is xinese.

OP EU HQ is in Helsinki, the way they operate is pretty different from standard China, phones like most things are made in China, sure, but they try to deviate from mother OPPO. But unlike other china makers they employ Europeans, so laws apply, and some degree of trust. So if you open a ticket, you are welcomed with a person you actually understand in proper English. They are still pretty immature in many things, but they are trying and are better than Xiaomi for sure. HW design wise they are behind Huawei still, their team is just more experienced. But they are also priced accordingly. Have look those just for fun.

ASUS Zenphone 10 and 9 are fine actually... but don't even consider ROG series near you...

I would not risk with Lenovo/Motorolla. Those are pretty much gray market untested units here, you will end up having network issues.

Pretty much it leaves you with Samsung and Sony at your hands. Basically I said Sony and Sony at your hands. Considering Ericsson spirit in those things... (it's still there) you know what to do as a patriot .

 

[Easy Rhino]

This is basically legal theft by the EU.

 

[freeagent]

ven here some folks treat Apple like religion. It is hilarious. You think it is safe because internet told you

I like my iPhones, don't judge me

It is a good phone, good hardware.. has its own eco system like erryone else.. what's not to like

 

[TheLostSwede]

OP EU HQ is in Helsinki, the way they operate is pretty different from standard China, phones like most things are made in China, sure, but they try to deviate from mother OPPO. But unlike other china makers they employ Europeans, so laws apply, and some degree of trust. So if you open a ticket, you are welcomed with a person you actually understand in proper English. They are still pretty immature in many things, but they are trying and are better than Xiaomi for sure. HW design wise they are behind Huawei still, their team is just more experienced. But they are also priced accordingly. Have look those just for fun.

Not sure I'd want to support them regardless.

ASUS Zenphone 10 and 9 are fine actually... but don't even consider ROG series near you...

Never even looked at an ROG phone, too bulky and ugly.

I would not risk with Lenovo/Motorolla. Those are pretty much gray market untested units here, you will end up having network issues.

They are fine here, as they're sold by the mobile network providers, but only a few select SKUs.

Pretty much it leaves you with Samsung and Sony at your hands. Basically I said Sony and Sony at your hands. Considering Ericsson spirit in those things... (it's still there) you know what to do as a patriot .

Well, I have a Pixel 6 now, still too big though, but I'm in no rush to upgrade that, as it does what I need it to do and then some. My concern is what to get if it fails or worst case stolen.
Not keen on the current Sony models or pricing.

So yeah, the choice isn't that great if you don't want a huge phone from a xinese brand.

This is basically legal theft by the EU.

How?

 

[Ferrum Master]

I like my iPhones, don't judge me

It is a good phone, good hardware.. has its own eco system like erryone else.. what's not to like

There is an old saying, it is usually used in context about your wife or GF. In US it become a one liner from a teacher told to Ronald Reagan.

Trust, but verify...

The feeling of safety using it is a thing done with ulterior motives... haven't you thought about it? Nothing is safe these days. We can see rockets flying towards targets no matter what phone you use in certain hotspots lol.

Well, I have a Pixel 6 now, still too big though

So it leaves into that minority... basically it is only Zenphone 10 or Xperia 5 mk V. I remember you hate camera cutouts too... so again... embrace the brand of the Rising Sun lol.

 

[Rahnak]

This is basically legal theft by the EU.

No, the EU is trying to give people choices. Theft is the uncapped 30% fee Apple charges.

 

[Easy Rhino]

No, the EU is trying to give people choices. Theft is the uncapped 30% fee Apple charges.

You don't purchase something from a vendor and claim they stole the money from you

How?

Nobody is forced to use an iPhone or use any Apple product. In fact, no consumer is entitled to anything ever. Most consumers sit around and complain when they waste $1000 on a phone. The consumer contributes nothing of value to society and complains the loudest. An entitled generation.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Nobody is forced to use an iPhone or use any Apple product. In fact, no consumer is entitled to anything ever. Most consumers sit around and complain when they waste $1000 on a phone. The consumer contributes nothing of value to society and complains the loudest. An entitled generation.

Right... Ok then, I don't even know how to respond to that.

 

[R0H1T]

In fact, no consumer is entitled to anything ever.

Neither is Apple entitled to these "walled garden" protections! Didn't they park their money in Ireland for what 15 odd years & paid barely cents on the dollar when Trump gave a blanket tax break for the trillionaire corps? If a certain jurisdiction decides they ought to pay more, or charge less, then that's how they should operate there, end of debate

Now how does EU make it work, for them, is the $3 trillion question because other governments might follow suit!

 

[Cergy]

I still use a feature phone, bought it 80€ nearly 18 years ago. My cell phone bill is 2€ per month. I think I saved thousands of euros by not having a smartphone.

 

[R-T-B]

If you want a second rate OS, sure

Anything is better than a walled-garden IMO.

The consumer contributes nothing of value to society and complains the loudest. An entitled generation.

...You do know people do work with their phones too, right? And that without consumers, the economy would basically halt and die?

There's a lot wrong with your overall philosophy and I don't got time to cover it all so just gonna stop there.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Apple's smart phones are undeniably, very good phones. However, I would never ever purchase again a product from them, because by default, I have an acute allergy over the fanboyism and Cults, -either religious, Electronic (like Sony also used to be back in the day) ,car related (Tesla another good example), fashion brands, etc.
Those cultist always have a superiority complex over the others, which for me personally I found hilariously disgusting and overly pathetic.
Also never understand the iPhones iTunes garbage software, which for me was one of the reasons to dump the iPhones over the other phones, where you can simply transfer music and photos with one click, without any additional software and drivers. The iTunes is by far the most retarded, junk software ever. By far.

 

[freeagent]

I don't like iTunes either..

Android phones are clunky to navigate, and junky when you hold one, or drop it lol..

I guess we are all fanboys, like it or not.

 

[Ruru]

The EU regulatory body does a lot of good for it's constituents, but this isn't one imo. Forcing a manufacturer to open up the best software ecosystem in the world to third parties who won't be regulated by the commission establishing the regulations is a pretty big can of worms for both the manufacturer and the end user.

Agree on this one. Personally I could care less about tinkering my phone beyond "normal" customization and that's why I love iOS. You set it up once and that's fine as long you use the phone.

 

[R0H1T]

You set it up once and that's fine as long you use the phone.

You know you can do that with Android as well right? Or did you need need to tap once/twice more & you just got fed up of that

Android's default/out of the box experience is no more worse or less safe than iOS. This is like that Windows vs Mac argument where "some" Apple fans think Macs are inherently more secure than Windows because > reasons

 

[freeagent]

For me my first phone was an iPhone, only got it because my first son was born lol.. but yeah.. nearly 12 years later I have not felt the urge to move. And with my wife converting, that just told me what I needed to know

So it may seem like I am a flag waving fanboy lol.. but really its just all I know. I played with some Android phones, compared picture quality.. and was like meh. So.. I just keep on keepin on

Edit:

14 Pro 1TB user

 

[Dr. Dro]

Why do they want you to have an Apple phone? I mean if they're paying for it, I can understand.

They surely can't dictate what personal phone you use?

BYOD security policy. Due to their relative opennness, Android phones aren't considered to be secure in general, which is why secure enclaves for Android exist (such as Samsung Knox or Lenovo/Motorola's ThinkShield). My singular only gripe with the way Apple runs the App Store is their content review policy: I do not need or want a corporation telling me what I can or can not enjoy on a device that I own, I just want RetroArch and my game emulators on iOS, is that much to ask, Tim Apple? This decision to blanket ban such content from the App Store is the ONLY reason I even care about sideloading on iOS - and something tells me they won't update my old iPhone's iOS 15 to support it anyway. Maybe I should just jailbreak my 6s Plus at this point... provided it survives the emergency "surgeries" it's going through lately.

Apple's smart phones are undeniably, very good phones. However, I would never ever purchase again a product from them, because by default, I have an acute allergy over the fanboyism and Cults, -either religious, Electronic (like Sony also used to be back in the day) ,car related (Tesla another good example), fashion brands, etc.
Those cultist always have a superiority complex over the others, which for me personally I found hilariously disgusting and overly pathetic.

For a moment I thought you were referring to AMD

 

[R-T-B]

I guess we are all fanboys, like it or not.

I mean, as much as I want to contest it, you aren't wrong. Pick your flag/poison lol.

 

[Vayra86]

Well mobiles are in much better state than for example our GPU/CPU market competition wise. We have plenty of choice... ie pick our poison.

Not at all. Apple's IOS and its store is not a phone. It is a mobile OS. And then you suddenly have two viable choices.

And then, even when it comes to phones... can't say I'm ever happy about buying a new phone. Can't say I feel its a nice market to shop around in. The vast majority of phones have multiple things you either don't want, don't need, are form over function, or just plain stupidly lack things you do need, like a 3.5mm jack, or the ability to change a battery without breaking the whole device apart.

Mobiles are in a sorry state, I'm afraid. Decades of innovation and we could have probably skipped 75% of it. Most of them designed to be E waste in 3-5 years time, even in 2024. There are a lot of them though, I do agree there...

 

[Easy Rhino]

Anything is better than a walled-garden IMO.


...You do know people do work with their phones too, right? And that without consumers, the economy would basically halt and die?

There's a lot wrong with your overall philosophy and I don't got time to cover it all so just gonna stop there.

All I am reading is a bunch of whining from people who have never bothered to code in their lives or create anything of significance. Also, for all of the complaining about the "walled garden" none of you would ever switch to using Linux on your desktop or something like the Pine phone. So basically the whiners want Apple to do things their way and use the force of government to get their way. Then they call it freedom! Sad!

 

[Vayra86]

Why do they want you to have an Apple phone? I mean if they're paying for it, I can understand.

They surely can't dictate what personal phone you use?

Security reasons mostly. And yeah, they're paying for it. Including private use.

You can indeed choose to separate that and have two phones, I already hate having one, so...

You don't purchase something from a vendor and claim they stole the money from you


Nobody is forced to use an iPhone or use any Apple product. In fact, no consumer is entitled to anything ever. Most consumers sit around and complain when they waste $1000 on a phone. The consumer contributes nothing of value to society and complains the loudest. An entitled generation.

If you're not forced to use an Iphone or any Apple product, you're forced to use Android.

So we're effectively in a duopoly, and that means both major shareholders are treated like de facto monopolists. They serve part of our critical infrastructure these days. This whole move is long overdue, and probably needs further refinement - and not to give Apple more leeway, but rather in the other direction.

With great power comes great responsibility.

 

[TheLostSwede]

BYOD security policy. Due to their relative opennness, Android phones aren't considered to be secure in general, which is why secure enclaves for Android exist (such as Samsung Knox or Lenovo/Motorola's ThinkShield).

So they force you to provide the work phone and then stipulate what brands are allowed? Right...

 

[Shihab]

Framing this as only benefiting the consumer is misleading at the very least. Smartphones are markets. Regulations are made for both the consumer's AND the seller's benefit. Most of the noise about opening up iOS is made by developers, not consumers.

If it was only Apple who develops applications for iOS, then sure, they have every right to publish said applications however they wish. But they don't.

 

[Dr. Dro]

So they force you to provide the work phone and then stipulate what brands are allowed? Right...

Yeah. Most companies with BYOD policies that I know require either an iPhone with the latest version of iOS or a Samsung Knox-compatible Galaxy. As you know, attempting to root or flash unauthorized firmware will trip the eFuse and cause the device to be considered permanently untrustworthy, even if it's reflashed back to a "Samsung official" binary state.

 

[Rahnak]

You don't purchase something from a vendor and claim they stole the money from you

It's not consumers they're stealing from. It's other companies/app developers. Take Epic's case, for example. Hundreds of millions of dollars in IAPs and Apple takes a 30% cut on all of them. How is that fair? Also forcing every payment to go through their system.

Were you this upset when the EU went after Microsoft? Are you in favor of monopolies?

Also, I am a software developer, and if anything, that only makes me side against Apple on this one.