Baldur Bjarnason
“Your iPhone won’t get AI features because of the EU” is not the PR triumph Apple thinks it is.
Jun 22, 2024 at 9:53amWeb
Show threadBaldur BjarnasonJun 22, 2024

Also, those of us living in Europe already know that “you would have gotten these features at the same time as the US if it weren’t for the EU” is a fucking lie. The US always gets features first, and we only get them later… if we’re lucky

(Iceland still doesn’t get Apple TV Plus.)

Show threadBaldur BjarnasonJun 22, 2024

Also also, I’d say the odds are 50/50 that they’ll end up shipping at least some of these features unmodified in the EU because Apple’s culture of secrecy means they didn’t bother to actually talk to EU reps about what is or isn’t compliant.

Then they’ll spin that as a PR win: “we made the EU change its mind!”

Show threadCraig GrannellJun 22, 2024
@baldur Would be lovely for the EU PR to then say: “Actually, we didn’t.”
Show threadBaldur BjarnasonJun 22, 2024
@craiggrannell The betas are coming, what, in the autumn? EU reps won’t be able say whether it’s compliant or not because nobody outside of Apple knows any of the details.
Show threadCraig GrannellJun 22, 2024

@baldur Yeah. However, I honestly think it’s telling that Apple claims to be fearful that it won’t meet the requirements of the DMA, when others in this space don’t appear to be having the same trouble.

Just like ‘emulators are OK’ increasingly feels like ‘well, we saw off AltStore’, this has a whiff of ‘two can play at that game’. But in all these cases, it’s users and creators who are getting punished.

Show threadrailmeatJun 22, 2024

@baldur

Apple makes great products I use and enjoy them, but company keeps getting worse.

Show threadwikiyuJun 22, 2024
@baldur google for first time is selling their phones in Poland this year
Show threadjjudeJun 22, 2024

@baldur

The US always gets features first, and we only get them later… if we’re lucky

Bit surprised to read sitting in India. I thought tech giants don’t release in India because of regulation.

Is it only Apple that delays or others too - AWS, Amazon, Google…?

What are the usual reasons?

Show threadBaldur BjarnasonJun 22, 2024
@jjude Google and Amazon do this as well. They’ve been doing this since well before the current EU regulatons took effect. And they even do this to Canada, which regularly gets services and features later despite arguably having the most US-friendly regulations possible outside of the US proper
Show threadBaldur BjarnasonJun 22, 2024
@jjude They usually don’t give any reasons either.
Show threadjaviJun 23, 2024
As someone who worked for a company who used to do this, it's mostly because the US is the target market of these products while they are in development, so they are always ready to launch there. But launching everywhere else needs extra effort: from the legal team looking at the local legal framework (they usually don't have any idea about), to localizing the product, to integrate with popular payment providers (this is usually a big thing with India), to scaling support to cover the local languages and timezones, etc.

Everything that's not US is an afterthought, something to do once the main market launch is over
Show threadHouston BovaJun 22, 2024
@jjude @baldur Combinations of things. With EU it tends to be compliance. In the US they can launch products more or less however they want and don’t need to have any kind of audit trail. (Although apple goes pretty above and beyond when it comes to proving the security of their software compared to most others). Other times it’s money. Americans happily pay $1600 USD for a phone. Making all the apps in all the other languages isn’t always profitable. So why do it?
Show threadjjudeJun 22, 2024

@zethtren @baldur

Americans happily pay $1600 USD for a phone. Making all the apps in all the other languages isn’t always profitable. So why do it?

More than anything the reasons are monetary.

Show threadHouston BovaJun 22, 2024

@jjude @baldur Oh yeah, 100% agree.

But it’s not like they’re GNU. They intentionally keep their products closed source so they can’t really leverage the FOSS community to build them in any meaningful way. So it only makes sense that there has to be a decent ROI for them to bother in the first place.

Show threadAnders Gulden OlstadJun 22, 2024
@baldur I don’t want AI either, so I’m fine with that. Never turned on Siri for that matter
Show threadBen RosengartJun 22, 2024
@baldur strong “you would have gotten these benefits if you weren’t unionized” energy (a common and illegal union busting tactic in the US)
Show threadSebastien 🌍 🇵🇸🇺🇦 Jun 22, 2024
@baldur it’s not PR it's regulation 🙄
Show threadalforaJun 23, 2024

@SebastienK @baldur The Digital Markets Act enforces Gatekeepers to open Core Platform Services to others.

The regulation is fine.

Saying, “But I don’t want to open my services to others, so there!”, is not fine.

Source: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/gatekeepers_en

DMA designated Gatekeepers

European Commission designated for the first time six gatekeepers - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft - under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In total, 22 core platform services provided by those gatekeepers have been designated.

Digital Markets Act (DMA)
Show threadSebastien 🌍 🇵🇸🇺🇦 Jun 23, 2024

@alfora The DMA is a walled garden with huge holes in it. The DMA is one of the worst pieces of regulations. Saying 🤩 “You don't have a say in this” is not fine. Stop the BS propaganda. I’m not buying into this DMA and neither should you.

Just fine is not good enough. It needs to be “amazing” 😉
@baldur

Show threadThiago CarvalhoJun 22, 2024
@baldur It raises the disturbing possibility that von Leyden et al did something right.
Show threadjoëlJun 22, 2024
@baldur if I were an apple customer outside the EU, I'd start asking questions …
Show threadBaldur BjarnasonJun 22, 2024
@jollysea That too.
Show threadDavid Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)Jun 22, 2024
@baldur As if I needed more reasons to want to reverse Brexit.
Show threadKevin Karhan Jun 22, 2024
@baldur - even if it wasn't an obviois lie to begin with!
Kevin Karhan :verified: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] OFC #Apple is just flat-out lying. But what do we expect from a #PRISM Collaborator & #Snitch that is (AFAICT) the only #GAFAM so spineless they rather offered theor customers on a silver platter than doing the right thing and actually follow tueor own claims re: #privacy and cease business in the *"P.R."* #China... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev9_oDHNf-4

Infosec.Space
Show threadmjdxpJun 22, 2024
@baldur i wonder if it's possible to somehow spoof your phone's location to disable the AI features
Show threadalmibeJun 23, 2024
@baldur "Your gasoline will no longer contain lead because of weak men."
Show threadjaviJun 23, 2024
Hell I'm even tempted of getting an EuroIphone after two decades of hating apple with a passion
Show threadMarco Jun 23, 2024
@baldur The joke is that they can't support any language apart from English at the beginning anyway because they simply aren't ready yet. And how many countries in the EU have English as an official language? But the EU is to blame. Of course 🤦‍♂️.
Show threadChristopher Silsby (he/him)Jun 23, 2024
@baldur So... will we be able to buy EU-protected phones outside of the EU? Asking for a friend.... who is me, asking for me.
Show threadIan.BurnetteJun 23, 2024
@baldur I mean, sure it is, I'm an even bigger supporter of the EU now!
Show threadMarcoJun 30, 2024
@baldur I’m happy to live in Europe.
No AI on my phone please!