Apple planning default navigation app setting in iOS 18 for EU users
9to5mac.com
9to5mac.com
I have no idea how this is somehow different from the Microsoft IE antitrust case of the 90’s, but I truly hate decisions made by apple (and Microsoft, for that matter) in the name of ‘doing business’.
you can ask for an European citizenship.
Or you can ask your government to protect its citizen from monopolies
And ‘just asking’ for citizenship is a little bit of a stretch, as is relocating to Europe.
They have some excellent engineering, as does Microsoft, but the unscrupulous business side leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/118110#:~:text=Availability%...
>[countryd] 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.
https://9to5mac.com/2023/04/25/ios-16-restrict-features-base...
Since I imagine you have a European Wi-Fi router, SIM card and GPS location, there's a good chance you'll get the EU features.
Wifi router isn't set to an EU jurisdiction to get higher power and get through some walls.
There's so many edge cases, there's no way they'll get it perfectly the first time. It's like asking for getting sued.
1. All my content would stay in the old region. If I ever go back, I will still have all that content.
2. In my new region, content will be matched. If there is matching content, I will have a license for it. Otherwise, I will lose access to the content until I change my region back.
I accepted and that’s what happened. Some of my old playlists are full of content I can’t play here (for the better playlists, I just got the EU version of the song and deleted the US version). I still see most of my apps and movies/shows in library. Some apps that are US only stopped updating until they eventually stopped working.
The DMA Chapter 1 Article 1 section 2 makes it clear that the requirement applies to services offered to users “established or located” in the EU.
You can be located in the EU without a residence permit or citizenship perfectly legally (and it’s not even clear whether being LEGALLY located or established in the EU is a requirement).
that’s one take. i got a different one:
the ship has already sailed almost two decades ago. that’s when these kinds of solutions should have been implemented.
today euro politicians decided to micromanage US tech companies because they don’t have any themselves. they’ll use the fine money to promote truly innovative companies such as France Telecom.
meanwhile in the real world i just got an email from one of my european clients to not use anything other than safari and to not install any 3rd party app stores or apps due to security concerns.
> The key nuance that triggered the government lawsuit was anti-competitive actions such as using obscure/undocumented Windows API functions to cripple Netscape and forcing computer manufacturers to avoid other software when licensing DOS/Windows. All of that is in the long document: https://www.justice.gov/atr/us-v-microsoft-courts-findings-f...
Apple's private APIs may or may not be the same issue as demonstrated by Microsoft, but you can't tell either way from the kind of description that would fit in a comment field.
Browsers are using public APIs which do not support some of the features Safari does. You can't build something as seamless as iCloud because of the private APIs being used there. You can't build an exact copy of the Airpods because the public APIs aren't as good as what they gave to themselves. Watches aren't treated the same if it's an Apple one or one from another vendor. I could continue this list for a long time.
The same logic extends to everything in iOS, their software is fundamentally treated differently than the software coming from other vendors and has extra private capabilities.
> Apple will also add the ability to delete Safari from the iPhone in an update to iOS before the end of the year.
Man, sincerely wish Apple would make these changes available elsewhere. My whole family complains about how they cannot make Google Maps the default on iOS.
If they limit the market they disincentivize google and mozilla from investing in native iOS versions of their browsers
But they will have to, sooner or later. It's not like the EU is going to give up with its initiatives that aim precisely to reduce this kind of post-device-sale control by device manufacturers. Why not just bite the bullet? This kind of arrogant behavior can't be good for Apple's own reputation either. You want people to use your services? Provide better services than your competition then!
Then Uber happened, in particular greyballing.
Then FTX happened.
Then ...
It's not just about pressing a bad product on people, it's about the greed leading the campaign in the first place.
Apple Maps was the correct one.
This is not an experience I’d have expected in 2024 for a large city in a Western country. With Googles apparent embrace of enshitification as a goal instead of a warning, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised anymore.
Not too long ago, I was looking for a shop which, it turned out, was at the next junction of a very short street. Like, I could've seen it but for a signpost and restaurant outdoor furniture blocking my view.
Google Maps recommended I walked to that junction, turned left, walked halfway to the next junction, got on the underground, took the underground to the next stop, got off the underground, and then walked back.
As for navigations it's either Apple Maps or Waze, depending on the country.
Especially for walking and in less common places.
In Ghent, Belgium, Apple Maps wanted to let me walk a ~20min detour and follow car streets whereas GMaps correctly allowed me to walk on pedestrian-only roads.
But for walking outside cities, both are really terrible. Mapy.cz (previously maps.me) is an order of magnitude better
And for driving, Waze is usually the best. Police controls will be shown, and in some countries, especially outside EU + US, Waze is better at finding a car road, while GMaps may sugges a shortcut through a river.