[HN Gopher] iOS 17.2 hints at Apple moving towards letting users...
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iOS 17.2 hints at Apple moving towards letting users sideload apps
Author : tech234a
Score : 45 points
Date : 2023-11-10 21:26 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (9to5mac.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (9to5mac.com)
| tech234a wrote:
| Documentation for the ManagedAppDistribution API:
| https://developer.apple.com/documentation/managedappdistribu...
| rcdemski wrote:
| That's where my gut is landing on this one. They discussed
| managed app distribution at WWDC and that's what feels like is
| coming with 17.2.
|
| In my enterprise land I'm excited for these cleaner
| integrations for MDM app distribution.
| hkchad wrote:
| As long as I can disable that in the MDM
| Hamuko wrote:
| Can you do it for Mac apps? Because if you can, I can't imagine
| it not being possible.
| cweagans wrote:
| Yes, you can. You can configure that through SoftwareUpdate
| in an MDM profile for macOS.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| This article links to
| https://9to5mac.com/2023/04/25/ios-16-restrict-features-base...
| which I find almost more interesting:
|
| > Currently, Apple uses hard-coding techniques to restrict iOS
| features in specific locations. This means that most restrictions
| are simply tied to the region of a device, either by software
| settings or where that hardware comes from. But the company has
| been working on a new, smarter way to precisely determine the
| user's location.
|
| > Based on our findings, the new system internally called
| "countryd" was silently added with iOS 16.2, but is not being
| actively used for anything so far. It 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.
|
| > But why exactly is Apple developing this system? Well, we now
| have a clue. [...] With the new "countryd" system, Apple will be
| able to easily determine if the device is being used in an EU
| country to allow sideloading.
|
| ...so here's what I want to know. I live in the US, but I
| absolutely must have sideloading if there is any chance it's
| possible. What unholy things will I have to do to convince my
| iPhone I'm in Europe?
| vasdae wrote:
| If you absolutely must have sideloading why don't you buy an
| Android phone?
| toast0 wrote:
| Neither Android nor iOS permit sideloading of iOS apps.
| Android doesn't help much if that's what you want to do.
| cherryteastain wrote:
| Uh what? Every Android phone lets you install apps via .apk
| files.
| bluish29 wrote:
| > I live in the US, but I absolutely must have sideloading if
| there is any chance it's possible. What unholy things will I
| have to do to convince my iPhone I'm in Europe?
|
| You can do this now but you will have to get apple developer
| license for $99 and add your iPhone/iPad to the account and
| generate signing certificate that you can use for side-loading
| apps. A lot of effort and cost though but it is possible. And I
| don't know if Apple will go after people if this becomes
| popular.
| samtheprogram wrote:
| Wow I recognize your name, thanks for the macOS 10.9 fixes page
| and your Chromium-Legacy downloader!
|
| If sideloading becomes popular, the real goal is to just be
| able to run those apps that aren't in the store, right? As a
| sibling comment says, just registering/paying $99/year to use
| those apps but signed as yourself seems like the easiest
| route... unless you don't want to pay Apple ~$8/month for this
| feature out of principal or monetary reasons.
| akmarinov wrote:
| Move to Europe!
| bottlepalm wrote:
| Could be a huge opportunity for Valve to work their compatibility
| layer magic on iOS, and allow us to finally play sooo many
| quality games that the iPhone is perfectly capable of running -
| new and old.
| smoldesu wrote:
| Proton relies on DXVK, which needs relatively recent Vulkan
| coverage to work.
|
| You might be able to get Game Porting Toolkit to run on iOS
| eventually, but that's probably a matter of hardware
| compatibility (and of course, Apple blessing it).
| ThatPlayer wrote:
| MoltenVK might work though that only does up to Vulkan 1.2,
| while DXVK requires 1.3. There is a legacy version of DXVK
| that only requires 1.1. Or maybe MoltenVK can be improved.
| guidedlight wrote:
| Microsoft is also known to be working on an iOS gaming store,
| as part of its Activision Blizzard acquisition.
| graphe wrote:
| Does anyone else read articles backwards? It seems to be the best
| way for me to read articles since most of the are padded. The
| last part was that it needs to be done by March 2024, if the was
| the relevant info you care about.
| frfl wrote:
| Recipe blogs the are worst in this regard. Most have an essay
| that you have to scroll past. I'm guessing in both cases, it's
| about SEO.
| ziddoap wrote:
| I've only heard this anecdotally, and specifically for
| recipes, but I've heard it's for copyright (and yeah,
| probably SEO too). You can copyright your long-winded
| explanation of your recipe, but not the recipe itself.
|
| A quick search seems to support the idea:
|
| > _Tips for Protecting Your Recipes_
|
| > _1. Include Content Beyond the Ingredient List_
|
| https://www.copyrightlaws.com/copyright-protection-recipes/
| frfl wrote:
| I didn't mention it, but yes, I've read the same thing. So
| two things, SEO and copyrighting :)
| Semaphor wrote:
| Just in case you didn't know: almost all have a jump to
| recipe button at the top
| mrtksn wrote:
| Although I'm generally happy with Apple's walled garden model,
| IMHO sideloading is getting much more important than ever for a
| few reasons:
|
| 1) Apple engaging in rent seeking may stifle progress and create
| another Nokia catastrophe. When a device is locked down, Apple
| can make you purchase inferior services and if they can do it for
| long enough they can end up irrelevant. Big things are happening
| in China, not good idea to milk customers instead of head on
| competition just because there's a political pressure on China
| and locked down devices in users hands.
|
| 2) Political instabilities all over the world. Apple services
| might not be available all the time and they might be limited due
| to political reasons.
|
| 3) Huge appetite by the governments to control user's devices and
| make vendors act as the police. Maybe you support this if you
| feel like the power is on your side but don't forget that your
| enemies can take over at any time. Locked devices are extremely
| risky for any kind of resistance.
|
| It's also very interesting if Apple can manage to make this EU
| exclusive. If Europeans manage to come up with actually popular
| use cases, can Apple deny this to US users? For how long? AFAIK
| in China WeChat can do a lot of stuff that it's not allowed in
| the West, can Apple pull this in EU-USA context? IMHO it would be
| much harder.
| yladiz wrote:
| > It's also very interesting if Apple can manage to make this
| EU exclusive.
|
| I imagine it will be configurable, since I would guess there
| will be region specific rules (for example China might only
| want to allow App Store apps, which they can completely control
| the distribution of).
| apple4ever wrote:
| I certainly hope so! Apple's App Store has repeatedly had
| ridiculous rejections which stifles innovation, and their policy
| of not allowing apps to purchase outside the App Store (such as
| for Kindle and Netflix) is entirely customer unfriendly.
|
| Nothing changes for people who want the full security, but for
| others it allows a massively better device with the tradeoff of
| lower security.
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