There's also a new browser choice screen. Today Apple has announced a new set of changes it's going to implement into its mobile operating systems to...

I don’t expect most iPhone users to ever change their default settings, but it’s nice that it will be possible in a year.

Who knows, maybe one day you can run actual Firefox on them too? :p

  • tudor@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    An European iPhone, aka an iPhone which will get these features, is identified by a background process named countryd, introduced in iOS 16. Its only purpose is to compute and predict the most likely location of the user (as in country/region) and lock down features accordingly.

    These are only some of the factors taken into the equation:

    • GPS location
    • Wi-Fi location
    • Wi-Fi hotspot country codes
    • Cellular/GSM country codes
    • IP address
    • Home and roaming operator regions
    • Apple Account region
    • Device region
    • Satellite reachability

    countryd takes in all of these and more as input to provide the most likely country of the user. If that country is in the EU, then 💥 Sideloading, Default Apps, etc etc etc goodies

    • Adanisi@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      This is disgusting.

      It would have been easier to just remove these restrictions for everyone.

      • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        It’s funny, because I’ve worked on and off in regulation for some of these companies. Leadership always wants a “scalable regulatory solution” and the answer is always “let’s be more open” and leadership is always like “no”

        It’s actually not hard to be compliant with the laws of 220+ regions. It’s just being on the edge of each and every restriction is more profitable.

    • DJDarren@thelemmy.clubEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      I was in Corfu last week when the news of the Epic store came about, so tried to install it on my UK registered iPhone. All I got was a notification telling me that my phone isn’t eligible.

      So yeah, no Fortnite in my phone for me. Not that I really care about that, I just like fiddling with shit.

    • ____@infosec.pubEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      IOW, not something that one stuck in Ameristan can realistically override. Damn.

      A handful of those factors are fairly trivial, but addressing all of them concurrently sounds like a tall order - especially since presumably one can’t talk to countryd directly and feed it the desired data.

      Appreciate the clarity - iOS just isn’t a platform I have a need or the tools to code in.