Comment by Wowfunhappy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Wowfunhappy | Hacker News Reader

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This article links to https://9to5mac.com/2023/04/25/ios-16-restrict-features-base... which I find almost more interesting:

> Currently, Apple uses hard-coding techniques to restrict iOS features in specific locations. This means that most restrictions are simply tied to the region of a device, either by software settings or where that hardware comes from. But the company has been working on a new, smarter way to precisely determine the user’s location.

> Based on our findings, the new system internally called “countryd” was silently added with iOS 16.2, but is not being actively used for anything so far. It combines multiple data such as current GPS location, country code from the Wi-Fi router, and information obtained from the SIM card to determine the country the user is in.

> But why exactly is Apple developing this system? Well, we now have a clue. [...] With the new “countryd” system, Apple will be able to easily determine if the device is being used in an EU country to allow sideloading.

...so here's what I want to know. I live in the US, but I absolutely must have sideloading if there is any chance it's possible. What unholy things will I have to do to convince my iPhone I'm in Europe?

> I live in the US, but I absolutely must have sideloading if there is any chance it's possible. What unholy things will I have to do to convince my iPhone I'm in Europe?

You can do this now but you will have to get apple developer license for $99 and add your iPhone/iPad to the account and generate signing certificate that you can use for side-loading apps. A lot of effort and cost though but it is possible. And I don't know if Apple will go after people if this becomes popular.

Go after the people going out of their way to put an extra hundred bucks in Apple's pockets? I guess anything's possible...

free if you want to re-sign every 7 days for 3 apps maximum.

Which is effectively useless for anything beyond basic testing during development.

Worst case scenario: GPS spoofing at hardware level (SDR), Setup a custom SoftAP, and setup a LTE basestation (can be done with an SDR but technically illegal in most countries). Also might need to do it in a faraday cage to avoid outside stations overriding your spoofing.

I've been saying for years that I believe it inevitable there will be country specific forks/branches of iOS and Android, as countries get more and more interested in legislation concerning instant messaging, online transactions, app stores etc.

I'd go as far as to argue it's a small miracle we made it this far with a single global OS release (although I guess there are even already the minor changes for things like removing the Taiwan flag emoji in the China iOS releases...).

But a country specific fork would make things easy! I'd just purchase an iPhone from Europe.

Instead, it looks like Apple is going to dynamically enable/disable sideloading based on location.

Easy at least until you have to install an OS update, and the exact same location feature switches the fork...

There's no way it works like that. Imagine:

1. Bob legitimately lives in Europe, and buys an iPhone in Europe.

2. Bob travels to a business conference in the United States.

3. Apple releases an iOS update while Bob is at his business conference. Bob installs the update.

4. Bob retains the US version of iOS even after he returns home, until the next iOS update is released, which could take months.

If it's a result of individual country legislation, who the heck knows how it might one day work - there is potential for the case that no one universal technical solution can meet the legal requirements of all States.

Wow I recognize your name, thanks for the macOS 10.9 fixes page and your Chromium-Legacy downloader!

If sideloading becomes popular, the real goal is to just be able to run those apps that aren’t in the store, right? As a sibling comment says, just registering/paying $99/year to use those apps but signed as yourself seems like the easiest route… unless you don’t want to pay Apple ~$8/month for this feature out of principal or monetary reasons.

In the scenario where we could travel to Europe, purchase an iPhone in Europe and setup it up with a Euro iCloud account and Euro SIM, how long before returning to the US or elsewhere will Apple / iCloud consider the iPhone to be a Euro device?

As an Aussie, I already find myself region blocked from the occasional new App launch :-/

You can absolutely have an iCloud account in another country. Just create a new one in a different region. Nothing is stopping you from doing that.

Except if the law covers EU citizens this daemon doesn't make sense. I'm a EU citizen outside of the EU, and GDPR still covers me. I may not have recourse against a company that solely operates in the country I'm at. But Apple surely operates here and in the EU.

Move to Europe!

If you absolutely must have sideloading why don't you buy an Android phone?

Neither Android nor iOS permit sideloading of iOS apps. Android doesn't help much if that's what you want to do.

Uh what? Every Android phone lets you install apps via .apk files.

How do you turn an iOS app into an apk file?

Fair, guess I missed the part where you said "of iOS apps". Then again, very few apps are iOS/Android exclusive, so most of the time you can just sideload the Android version of the app.

How do you get them onto the iPhone tho?

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