10 mo. ago • 100%

iPhone sideloading seems a certainty for European users - here's the latest development

bgr.com iPhone sideloading seems a certainty for European users - here's the latest development

iPhone sideloading should be available come early March in Europe, according to Margrethe Vestager's recent comments - what you need to know.

41 comments

It's not just "sideloading", it's Apple being forced to break its vertical integration with the App Store. The point is that the App Store cannot even be a "preferred" source for apps, much less the only one, and that includes having a perfectly workable iPhone with the App Store not even installed ever, because you did not choose it from some list at first start, and you're rolling with some third party store exclusively.

In theory, it should look like Windows and its browsers, or even more free, because what Windows does now with Edge is also illegal over the DMA and Europeans will soon be able to uninstall or not even have Edge installed on their Windows devices.

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- I’m hoping this ultimately makes Apple open their operating system and leads to Apple letting users dock their phones and let it launch traditional macOS
  
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  I think it's a step towards a world where that makes sense. Not this time, but maybe next time.
  
  This law very carefully includes only select software, they are carefully trying not to disrupt the market too much. For example, this is the law that mandates Facebook Messenger must support third party clients, where I should be able to send messages to it from a third party app and receive responses through an open API. So does WhatsApp and a few other messaging apps.
  
  It doesn't include iMessage though, because nobody cares about iMessage in the EU market. I am interested where this goes in the next decade. Hope they keep unshittifying tech.
  
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  I have to say I thought that was kinda a pipe dream, but Samsung DeX is surprisingly useful and I use it a lot when I don't have my personal laptop around but I do have a docking station (which happens a LOT in today's hotdesking environment).
  
  Just plug it in and access to all my personal computing stuff is there <3
  
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Fuck yeah, Europe. Imagine F-droid on iphone. IINM Apple has a thing against opensource on their locked down devices. This will change that, finally.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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  They should use that name. No problem with it 😄
  
  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
  
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  Fap-ple?
  
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Fantastic, now the next step is opening up iOS development outside of MacOS

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Nice! I hope this will create a similarly great FOSS privacy-first ecosystem as F-Droid has done for Android. Some of the apps on there are really high quality. And amazingly small and efficient. It's really cool how much you can do if you don't waste 90% of your time spying on the user. Which goes for Android and iOS store apps almost equally.

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Do we know if this is going to be implemented per device or it's done via geolocation or something? I skimmed the article, didn't seem to say besides "don't get excited if you're outside of Europe" or something to that effect. Basically wondering if this benefit can be gained in the future by importing a phone.

My dislike of Apple is... decades old. But Google sucks too. I need to dig into how Apple treats privacy (someone mentioned that it might not be great on another of these posts) and see how the software ecosystem outside of the Apple store shakes out. I'm hopefully several years out from needing a phone replacement, so I can wait and see how it goes.

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- Well Google sucks but at least they opened the door to sideloading and open-sourced Android so things like Graphene and LineageOS exist. You don't have to put up with the spying. Apple spies less, but whatever is there is unavoidable right now. Same with controlling what you're allowed to put on your phone.
  
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Once this is implemented, what sort of apps are people hoping to see available?

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  Yes, or paying the $100 fee for a free FOSS app, or publishing an app that is too 'spicy' like an app for fetlife, or 'possibly embarassing' like emulators that can be used to play pirated content. There's only positives here IMO.
  
  Edit: Oh yes or full-featured browsers like Firefox of course, like @Inxtx mentions. Good point. I always use Firefox on Android because it blocks many trackers by default and has uBlock Origin and Dark Reader.
  
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- Browsers with engines other than the WebKit, e.g. native Firefox with the Gecko.
  
  The FOSS community will gain momentum.
  
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  They should allow gecko browsers in the apple store too, otherwise Mozilla won't bother making it for only a few users.
  
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- I've definitely noticed a demand for emulators. Apple does not permit those on their app store.
  
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  Crazy that they're still not allowed, I remember using a great gameboy emulator on a jailbroken iPod touch in like 2010
  
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- We’ll probably see shitloads of spyware and other questionable apps.
  
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  I doubt it. Apple will make the process scary enough that users won't get tricked into this.
  
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This is like someone drinking for the first time only long after reaching adulthood. Dumb mistakes will be made. Oh, well...

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- Sure, Apple has a point about protecting the users. But it's their choice to make and I'm sure they will make it a really unattractive option with many warnings. Considering some of my friends who work in IT are now afraid to do things as simple as making changes in the registry now, I don't think an unknowing user will be tricked into this.
  
  And really let's be honest Apple's strong objections have absolutely nothing to do with user protection and absolutely everything with that 30% take they're making.
  
  And the thing is, for all Android's lack of privacy, I can open the box of an Android phone and install whatever I want without having to even create an account with Google or Samsung or whoever. You can use an iPhone without an Apple ID but you can do absolutely nothing apart from the built-in apps.
  
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  I agree, my point was that this should have happened years ago. Android had this option from the start, and evolved with it in mind; iOS will probably have a rougher time dealing with this.
  
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I'm still kind of sceptical about this. You could always install custom apps onto your iPhone as long as you had a Mac and you had the source. I'm imagining that you now still need everything, except that you can install packaged apps. I'd love if it was different/like on android, but the past has shown us that big companies often know their ways around.

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- You could but you also had to reload them every 2 weeks which is a real PITA, or pony up the $100. And keep Xcode up to date which uses a ton of space.
  
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  Hmm, that's true. The two weeks probably also wouldn't be okay.
  
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Defeat the fuckingcapitalists

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