Hacker News Reader

Comment by foepys | Hacker News Reader

As an Android user iOS is kind of bizarre to me.

There are so many weird limitations compared to Android. E.g. I cannot choose a different default navigation app. When I attach a location to a calendar event in the Apple calendar app, I can only open it in Apple Maps. Android asks me which app I want to use.

Same with browser engines, NFC payment providers, etc. Everything is unchangeably linked to the Apple ecosystem. Every user has to jump through hoops to get their favorite apps/user cases connected with each other.

View on HN

You’re not wrong, but… while you can’t choose a default navigation app, it will always ask you which one you want to use unless you delete Apple Maps (which you can do). browser engines also are changeable. NFC is linked (no but’s or butts).

Nonetheless your point isn’t less valid, as this is all coming from a European Apple user and even so most of these features have not existed for us very long.

I also (coming from Android) really miss APKs, though not used by the majority, by far one of the best features. Now I have to sign my Apps every 7 days via my Mac or pay for a dev license so I can sign my apps for (I’m not sure but) 30 days?

I thought they were still no other browser engines available then WebKit (Safari)? You can only install other browsers, but they have to use Webkit under the hood. I think alternatives are now legally possible in the EU, but not a single browser developer has made theirs available that way because of the impossible restrictions around it.

I find the same problem with gmail on my iPhone. Every time I clock a link it asks me to use Chrome or the default browser. I set a default browser for a reason dammit, just use that one.

> I cannot choose a different default navigation app.

This is apparently changing for iOS 18, but so far only for EU users.

https://9to5mac.com/2024/03/07/apple-planning-default-naviga...

I use Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and I just love how everything works so well together right out of the box. You have to remember 99% users don’t care much about concerns like yours, they just want a smooth, hustle free, near zero learning curve experience.

And that's illegal under federal law in the United States, hence the antitrust suit.

And this is the improved situation! The original iPhone did not permit installing an alternate browser.

It also did not allow Flash in 2010, and this was during the height of its popularity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughts_on_Flash

Same thing with other plugins or interpreters that would sidestep the app store: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12972802/appstore-ios-ap...

These are not technical limitations, they are business, building a walled garden to enshrine the app economy.

> The original iPhone did not permit installing an alternate browser.

It didn't permit installing anything at all.

And even when it did allow app installs, I get why they wouldn't want people installing browsers: it's a great opportunity for third parties to absolutely wreck the device UX with garbage third party software. Banishing Flash from the platform was a genius move, because bad flash apps absolutely dragged the web to a crawl in the early/mid 2000s. Banning the worst offenders from the platform gave them a huge leg up in performance.

The thing with the iPhone is that a subset of boffins really want it to be a Mac or a Windows computer, when from day 1 it was always a Nintendo Switch. Consumers voted with their wallets and it won in a landslide. Now it's become so advanced that people confuse it with a general purpose computer, but that was never the deal, never the business model. Europe is basically trying to take Apple's platform and force them to give it to third parties gratis. They're mad because Apple is complying with the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law which is for Apple to depart the EU market entirely.

> It also did not allow Flash in 2010, and this was during the height of its popularity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughts_on_Flash

They deserve every penny they get just for this.

I thought it’s widely accepted that it’s a good thing the original iPhone didn’t use Flash? Because this decision helped the web move away from Flash which many felt was a deeply flawed in terms of security and battery utilization.

Are there people around today who criticize Apple’s non-adoption of Flash? I would be interested to hear their perspectives.

In any case back in 2010 I deliberately purchased an Android phone that had Flash installed on it so I could have Flash on my phone. But I remember even just a handful of years later almost no Android phones offered Flash anymore…

While I think Flash deserved to be put in its place and NOT have the Internet built on it, should that really have been up to one platform vendor?

My post was really about the early mindset from Apple in removing so many of a user's options. Everyone on the platform now has a Stockholm Syndrome vibe, justifying why they are not entitled to choices, or control of their device.

What you're describing probably just doesn't matter to 99.99% of users I'd imagine. I'm in tech, sometimes care about these things, and even I don't care about it when using iOS.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com