Apple is locking down the iPhone App Store to comply with a new law in China
Apple is locking down the iPhone App Store to comply with a new law in China
The iPhone App Store in China is about to be more locked down.
China forced Apple to remove any app where the developer isn't registered in China. Meaning they asked Apple to remove 95% of the apps and games available in the App Store.
Poor iPhone users, basically they will get a "wechat handheld" and that's it...
Apple is to blame too. They created a device that gives them so much power to make such lockdowns possible in the first place. The only proper response from Apple should be "we would really like to do it, but we can't be sure users won't install those apps outside of our store".
Something like that should not be possible with universal computing devices. This is why freedom to install any OS you want on mobile devices is more important than ever.
96This is why I never had anything more than an original ipod classic. Android let's you do whatever the fuck you want with your own device. Don't like having Google all over your phone? You can install roms with no Google services and use other app stores.
17Web is the universal open platform, and China just blocks it with a firewall 🤷♂️.
14If you have universal devices Web cannot be blocked at all, you can install different browser or share websites via physical media, you can fit whole Wikipedia on SD Card. Same with overall computer networks, you can run a cable to your neighbor, unless you want to do it on a mass scale.
But I think you mean the Internet (please, don't confuse Web and Internet), which is in fact very limited on ISPs side.
This is the difference. While with computers you can only censor what is done by them on public network (cables on the street, radio, etc.), with jail like iPhone you can also censor what is happening on the device itself. Those devices are dangerous and Apple made a big mistreatment for the world by creating iPhone like that.
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What's stopping China from saying - "if you want to sell iPhones in China, disable sideloading"?
11Nothing. The point is first, they shouldn't be able to do it for devices already sold.
Second, Apple is the one developing technologies to make phones jails even without goverment looking. If Apple hadn't done it for past years and China would force them now, then still next couple of generations of devices would be trivial to jailbrake, beacuse those locks won't be as mature.
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It's like Dell selling a PC that only allows Dell approved OS systems to be installed. No Linux or Windows, only DellOS so they can get all the advertising revenue from showing ads on your pc
5That behaviour is great for elderly customers I find. But I agree they shouldn't be allowed to control the phones like that.
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If Apple follows EU guidelines and opens their ecosystem to third-party app stores, like f Droid. Then this really won't be an issue
79I'm quite sure they will only allow this in EU (and maybe USA). If they do allow this in China, Regime will most probably ban every alternative app Store... if this is not already banned.
Thought and prayers to the people of china. I feel like they lost everything in 1989. Still hope they find the strength to get rid of this depressing system.
50Not sure if this would work in China, but... I have a de-Googled bootloader-locked Huawei tablet (don't ask, it was cheap)... in the EU, but had to jump through some hoops to make it usable... and kind of did it, thanks to F-Droid, APKPure, and Gspace.
iPhones might be more tightly locked, but maybe people will find similar workarounds.
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Third party app stores have zero bearing on this matter. China wants every developer to be registered. If new app stores were allowed, then those stores would have to comply and have all their developers registered.
This has nothing to do with App Store monopolies. Not even sure how the two got mixed together.
12Apple makes the situation worse, by having an exclusive app store, and not allowing people to load apps directly. Without a developer key, having to renew every week, etc it's effectively not allowing.
F Droid is currently accessible from China, I believe. Even if it isn't, you can share Android apps via Bluetooth, nearby. It's a far more partitionable and repairable situation with f Droid then with the Apple store.
So if iOS allows other app stores access, then that will give people more options inside of China
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Unless of course the app makes API requests to its backend, which is blocked in China.
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Corporate monopoly over a device (walled garden) means that a government authority has only one entity they need to "convince" to have full control over it.
44We are in an Information War and I don't see enough peer to peer friendships being made between The People of China and everyday people in USA, South America, Africa, North America, Europe, Australia, etc.
I don't see China people on GitHub and YouTube like I did 5 years ago. Maybe the real war is power over technology and all of humanity isn't winning. Isn't that another way to interpret Climate Change, an education mistake on a global scale? Advertising and marketing defeating science teachers? The love for the singe-passenger automobile 9 to 5 commute job - exceeding the reality of global climate physics?
Like they say in The Orville - Dolly Parton was a hero! she basically turned out to be a great teacher, like Mr. Rogers on the true problems of childhood. 9 to 5 was kind of like showing children what your divorced single mother was having to go through. Not to say that fit the relationships in the film itself, but the office environment of white collar world. The technology of the Office Workplace and the era of typewriters as business machines. EDIT: It's a real War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Do6VWUxyg
19This seems big. IPhones seem like they are kinda the main western luxury and status symbol in China. Now they're not really any better than Android phones in terms of apps and being able to bypass the firewall.
19Now they're not really any better than Android phones in terms of apps and being able to bypass the firewall
What does this mean? You have been able to sideload apps on Android for a decade. How were the iPhones better in terms of apps and being able to bypass the firewall before?
15I haven't used a Chinese phone, but from what I understand, Chinese Android phones don't come with play store and have Chinese app stores only.
Sideloading is an option, but apk sites can just be firewalled, so the ability to have the full apple apps store accessible through the firewall was pretty big.
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Now they’re not really any better than Android phones in terms of apps and being able to bypass the firewall.
I don't know about the Android capabilities in China but this move makes it seem to me that IPhone has now almost become a paperweight with in-built clock, messaging/phoning and heavily restricted browser.
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So seems like even though privacy is talked up so much for Apple it might only be true for western countries. Best phone for overseas might be one with an unlockable bootloader that allows you to change the OS from the stock one.
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Apple’s iPhone App Store in China is getting a whole lot more locked down.
China recently updated an existing online software regulation to lay out strict criteria for app stores and apps in the country, and after looking for ways around it, Apple has started to comply.
Now, as Apple honors the regulation, it closes a loophole that had let iPhone users in China download and, with a VPN, use apps that the government there has blocked for most or all of the country, like WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube.
Reuters writes that, in order for an app to qualify for an ICP license, they are “effectively” required to host their back end in China.
Apple was pushing back on the requirement, but app stores from Tencent, Huawei, and others had apparently already complied with the rule.
We asked Apple for a comment and whether the rule has affected any apps yet but did not receive a response by press time.
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7VPN?
4Sadly doesn't seem like it'll help
Last month, China announced it would require an ICP license in order for apps to be listed in all mobile app stores. Now, as Apple honors the regulation, it closes a loophole that had let iPhone users in China download and, with a VPN, use apps that the government there has blocked for most or all of the country, like WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube.
9You need to somehow download a VPN first and then somehow punchhole ISP's restrict firewalls.
6Normal VPN doesn't work because China firewall uses deep packet inspection that looks for signs that traffic is being tunneled and then blocks the IPs involved. On the other hand, VPN use can land users in jail as well
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I look forward to a day where third party app stores are allowed to exist on iOS, should it ever come.
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