Changing voice assistants is explicitly required in the DMA. There’s a lot in there in addition to sideloading. That’s why I’m surprised they’re leaving it to the last minute. It’s a huge change.

I’m not expecting much of a change to pricing, and I’m fine with that. It’s all the apps Apple has been blocking for all these years that I’m interested in. Particularly Firefox with its own engine, Google Assistant as the default voice assistant on iOS, and Steam as an actual distribution and installation method where we can buy iOS apps on Steam and play them on our phones.

It’s cute you think it’s only the Republicans who are beholden to business lobbying.

Those IAPs look gacha as fuck.

I’m counting down the days. Apple has until March. I can’t believe they’re leaving it to this late. They’ve had years to roll this out and they’re waiting until the last minute. They better have a BULLET PROOF rollout or the EU can and probably will fine them $33B for non-compliance. “Whoopsie we have bugs” won’t cut it after this many years of notice. They’re playing with fire.

FRAND doesn’t apply here. Even if it did, FRAND would require Apple grant access to iOS. The opposite of what you’re claiming. I think the EU knows a little bit more about their laws than you do.

People don’t realize this. This is probably the end of any quality indie developer apps.

Maybe you haven’t been on the App Store lately, but it’s a wasteland of ad-supported shit and subscription garbage. It has been many years since we’ve been able to mock Android for their poor quality apps.

Further, people can already easily pirate iOS apps on their iPhone. I don’t see this change moving the needle much.

No, competing stores will be a full native app, just as the Digital Markets Act requires.

It is yet to be seen what competitors will charge, however one thing is a universal constant: competition usually brings prices down. Apple makes enormous profits on that 30%. This leaves from for competitors to charge much less and still earn enormous profits.

As for Apple charging a yearly fee to developers, the DMA explicitly prevents that.

iGPU just bypasses the dGPU. That shouldn’t be necessary.

Are you forgetting that Australia isn’t Somalia? They have laws and regulations around competition. If Apple wants to do business in Australia they have to follow the law. “But I don’t want to!” isn’t a good argument.

I really think Apple screwed the pooch on this one. They had a decade to open up iOS in a more controlled way. They did the opposite, locking out apps on competitive grounds, opening themselves up for obvious antitrust action. Now the decision is going to be out of their hands around the world, and the legislation is far more onerous.

As an EU citizen I cannot WAIT for the DMA to come into effect. I’m genuinely excited to see all the interesting new apps and the creativity which will be allowed to flourish again on the platform.

Good lord I hesitate to think of the average iPhone user who hears about this, tries it, and winds up with literal vermin and spiders cascading out of it like the masks in Halloween 3.

How the fuck would one literally have vermin and spiders “cascading” out of their iPhone if they installed an application outside the App Store? Like how would that even work? Some dude drives out to your house and objects spider eggs into the phone? The physics alone don’t make any sense.

Apple’s new legal case takes issue with specific decisions taken by the European Commission under the DMA, but the exact details of the challenge have not yet been publicized. The case is expected to include an argument against the ‌App Store‌ being included on the EU’s list of gatekeeper platforms, which requires app sideloading to be an option to allow users to avoid the ‌App Store‌ if they wish.

This is not correct. Apple has so far not disputed iOS being classed as a core platform service. This means they are not disputing the requirement to open up iOS for competing app stores. However they have disputes the App Store becoming a core platform service. This would place additional requirements on the App Store around which applications they accept and decline, prominence of their own applications relative to competitors, and a host of others like marketing transparency.

This is Apple throwing as much as they can at the wall to see what sticks.

Yeah the first time someone dies because they haven’t paid their Apple subscription will look very bad.

Ah, that makes sense.

iOS will still be sandboxed and governed by all the same restrictions. Apps won’t be able to ruin the device.

Gurman said Apple will introduce a “highly controlled system” that lets EU users install apps hosted elsewhere.

https://media.tenor.com/images/87732ea95ee70a9fc4a48054d3db7339/tenor.gif

I’m sure the EU will be completely fine with Apple “highly controlling” the relationship between the user and developer after the DMA anti-trust regulation is in effect. This must be the marketing they’d like to convey to maintain an image of security.

That’s a good point, and will disrupt supply in the short term. However Nvidia has a LOT of manufacturers all over the world. Tooling up for more GPU production takes months, not years. The hard part is the processor. Nvidia has had a lot of time to prepare for this. I would be surprised if they weren’t already able to plug any supply gaps.

They don’t cost pennies in Europe. The 3080 still costs $816 in Denmark, for example. Cheaper secondhand, but only by about 20%.

It really feels like a terrible time to buy a GPU. Between my Switch and Steam Deck and Game Pass, I feel like I’m covered for now. I’m going to wait this out.