
Apple Weighs Letting Users Switch Default iPhone Apps to Rivals - tosh
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-20/apple-weighs-loosening-restrictions-on-rival-iphone-music-apps
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mensetmanusman
Please! I can’t believe that if I click an address, the only thing my iPad
says is ‘do you want to open the app store and download Maps?’

Wow

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save_ferris
Seriously. I run into this problem constantly.

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eklavya
Doesn’t mean shit (to me) unless they allow alternate browser engines. I want
Firefox.

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coldtea
Because having a default mail app, music app, etc is not big enough itself?

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saagarjha
Being able to change the default applications is a tiny “feature” that every
other platform has done for years.

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needle0
While I consider this to be a good thing in general, I do fear it may cement
Chrome's browser monoculture dominance further (even if on iOS it does still
use WebKit instead of Blink).

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wlesieutre
It'd make Firefox Sync between my Mac, iPhone, and iPad useful. Sure, it
technically exists already, but Firefox on iOS is an annoying proposition
since links can't open it.

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scarface74
Not completely related but I use the iCloud extensions for Windows for both
Firefox and Chrome.

My bookmarks stay synced between all three browsers on my computer and phone.

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needle0
I too almost found iCloud sync to be the be-all end-all solution of browser
syncing, then I discovered that the same iCloud sync on Mac does NOT support
Firefox/Chrome - only Safari.

I'm relying on Xbrowsersync for now but it's still not the optimal "everything
everywhere" solution, as it does not support syncing to Safari (and from
reading their website, its developer appears to be ideologically opposed to
implementing it).

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saagarjha
About time, to be honest. Potential antitrust crackdowns probably scared them
into it.

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makecheck
This is better than nothing but they really need to step up their handling of
files in a general way.

Even on the Mac it is ridiculous that for decades the Unix “file” command
(installed on the Mac!!) knows more about files than the graphical OSes do
when opening them. Why is it so hard to recognize text as something openable
and previewable without a specific file extension, for instance?

So yes, please improve options for handling links but let’s not pretend they
aren’t still years behind where they should be.

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wyxuan
I'm more excited about the discussion to allow apple music to be streamed on
other platforms, and other platforms to be streamed on homepod.

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scarface74
As far as Apple Music

Android:

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.andr...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.android.music&hl=en_US)

Alexa:

[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209250](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT209250)

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jasonhansel
Remember when Microsoft had to pay $794m for bundling a web browser with their
OS?

I'm kind of surprised Apple has gotten away with this for so long.

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threeseed
I also remember Windows having at one point a market share of 95%.

And the issue wasn't just the bundling but that they used that market share to
strong arm OEMs into making IE the default browser and preventing Netscape
deals. Monopolies can be legal and tolerated provided you aren't going out of
your way to extinguish what's left of the competition.

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wayneftw
You can’t have a successful mobile app business without being on the iPhone.
So, I say Apple has just as effective control over the market as a straight
monopoly.

As a matter of fact in the US you do not strictly need greater than a 50%
market share to even be considered a monopoly. You just need to have market
control.However Apple’s iPhone is hovering just around 50% in the United
States.

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rognjen
I don't understand why Google was effectively forced to do allow choice for
search but Apple isn't for a whole host of things.

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threeseed
Pretty simple.

Google Search has a market share of 92%. iPhone has a market share of 11%.

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monadic2
Honestly this is my biggest gripe with ios.

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coder1001
While this is a good move for users, it can also be a bad one.

Imagine all the chat/calling apps that will try to replace your default
Phone/messaging/etc. apps and the amount of spam/inconsistent behaviour this
will bring.

Hopefully Apple will make sure only top notch apps can replace the default
apps.

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gnicholas
Are they considering letting you change the default calling app? That would
seem very odd. Mail and browser, and perhaps messaging (only for the purpose
of “Siri, send a message to Joe saying blah”).

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judge2020
I doubt this since they already have CallKit which is used for global call
answering similar to the Phone app. Maybe the extent is being able to set a
default for what app is used to call phone numbers when you click them.

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partiallypro
This would make me reconsider iPhone, this would also be a boon for Microsoft,
Amazon and Google.

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neonate
[https://archive.md/Idtvs](https://archive.md/Idtvs)

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joezydeco
Safari on iOS 13 is broken and getting worse. Bring it on.

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dmlittle
How is it broken? (Legitimate question, I haven’t had any issues with it)

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joezydeco
iPhone 11 Pro, iOS 13.3.1.

Pages will render blank, scrolling shows content but then gets wiped blank.
Once the app loses its mind it needs to be force quit before it works again.
I’ll try a screen recording sometime. I can’t be the only one seeing this.

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hiharryhere
Happens daily for me too iOS 13 on iPhone 8. Force quitting is the only fix

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rolltiide
Cost of Antitrust settlement 12 years after doing what you wanted?

Cost of software patch for inconsequential issue?

HMMMMMMM

