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Apple Will Cut Off Third-Party App Store Updates If Your iPhone Leaves the EU For a Month (theverge.com) 88

Posted by BeauHD from the inconvenient-for-frequent-travelers dept.
In an updated support page, Apple says it won't let your iPhone update software installed by third-party app stores if you leave the European Union for more than 30 days. The Verge reports: Shortly after the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) went into effect on Wednesday, users noticed an Apple support page stating users would "lose access to some features" when leaving the EU "for short-term travel." But now, Apple has made this policy more specific by carving out a 30-day grace period, which could be inconvenient for frequent travelers. This doesn't change your ability to use alternative app marketplaces, however, as Apple says you can still use third-party stores to manage apps you've already installed. Further reading: Apple is Working To Make It Easier To Switch From iPhone To Android Because of the EU
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Apple Will Cut Off Third-Party App Store Updates If Your iPhone Leaves the EU For a Month More

Apple Will Cut Off Third-Party App Store Updates If Your iPhone Leaves the EU For a Month

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  • Color me surprised (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dgatwood ( 11270 ) on Thursday March 07, 2024 @06:18PM (#64298411) Homepage Journal

    It's unclear whether the EU will let them get away with this or not, but it's pretty obvious why they would want to do this. Without such restrictions, you'd quickly end up with grey-market European iPhones being imported into the U.S. by the boatload.

    More importantly, the size of that market would determine how much attention U.S. lawmakers would pay to this issue. If the number were large enough, they might be pressured to do the same thing here. By making it hard for people in the U.S. to get the European behavior, they make it impossible for people to find out just how much people want to be free from Apple's shackles, and they live to abuse the free market another day.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Without such restrictions, you'd quickly end up with grey-market European iPhones being imported into the U.S. by the boatload.

      That can't be true. I've read plenty of posts on Slashdot explaining how Apple users don't want to be able to use other app stores, in fact that's why they buy Apple in the first place! I'm sure those people wouldn't lie to me.

    • Re:Color me surprised (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot@worf.ERDOSnet minus math_god> on Friday March 08, 2024 @02:45AM (#64299153)

      It's unclear whether the EU will let them get away with this or not, but it's pretty obvious why they would want to do this. Without such restrictions, you'd quickly end up with grey-market European iPhones being imported into the U.S. by the boatload.

      More importantly, the size of that market would determine how much attention U.S. lawmakers would pay to this issue. If the number were large enough, they might be pressured to do the same thing here. By making it hard for people in the U.S. to get the European behavior, they make it impossible for people to find out just how much people want to be free from Apple's shackles, and they live to abuse the free market another day.

      Except the firmware is the same. Apple decides EU-ness by the carrier you attach to. So if you travel to the EU, hey, you can do all the EU things as well on your US iPhone. Well, you also have to set your store location to EU as well.

      And that's how it works. Technically speaking, an EU traveler in the US is no longer under EU law, so the DMA no longer applies while they are outside the EU. To claim otherwise would mean China would do the same under the same powers that let EU laws apply in the US. I don't know how it works with embassies, but I suppose Apple can get a list of GPS coordinates of every EU country's embassy around the world.

      It's all working the same firmware. I suppose there may be some jailbreak that activates it for other countries, but that would require a 17.4 jailbreak, and if you did that, well, it doesn't really matter now does it?

      I suppose the interesting thing is that Apple may have allowed 3rd party app stores, but they also have prevented a 3rd party app store from committing mass piracy of apps

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        Except the firmware is the same. Apple decides EU-ness by the carrier you attach to. So if you travel to the EU, hey, you can do all the EU things as well on your US iPhone. Well, you also have to set your store location to EU as well.

        Which also ostensibly means that if you put the phone into permanent airplane mode and connect only via WiFi, you could keep those capabilities in the U.S., maybe?

        Either way, yes, that's true, and that's why they might be able to get away with it. On the other hand, the EU may argue that the point where their law kicks in is at the time of sale — that Apple isn't allowed to sell devices to people in the EU that have restrictions on what they can do with it, in which case those restrictions kicking in

    • It's unclear whether the EU will let them get away with this or not

      I suspect they will. If you look at other related EU cross border policies, the EU has effectively limited its influence to the inside of the EU. E.g. Netflix / HBO / Disney geofencing laws apply within EU countries only, providing home country library access regardless of which EU country you are in, but as soon as you step into a non-EU country they are allowed to geofence you into the new country's content.

      I suspect this will be the same. The EU hasn't attempted to enforce any geofenced policy outside th

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Sometimes I go on holiday for more than a month. Last one was 5 weeks.

      Apple is whining about security problems from 3rd party app stores, but also proposing to cut off updates to apps installed from them when people go on holiday or are abroad for work for six months.

      • I live in Thailand.
        If they cut me off like that: I'm the first one to sue them. Unless someone else beats me and is quicker.

        • You cut yourself off from being in the EU to begin with. Go suck a lemon, and not one of those sweet ones.

          • What has my physical location to do with my device?
            Obviously nothing.

            Sucking lemons is a kind of stupid advice anyway. I like lemons. Surprised?

            • Are you stupid? If you don't live in the EU, EU law is not applicable. And no I am not surprised you shove lemons up your ass.

              • I have a device bought in the EU, running the German OS, I'm an EU citizen.
                Most certainly EU consumer laws are covering my rights. As: they stick to the product I bought, not to my location.

                You should perhaps get a bit of a clue about basics of laws.

                • This isn't about the device. This is about you. You don't live in the EU, go shove something up your ass. Or go whining to the EU Commission, and let them tell you to shove something up your ass.

                  • Obviously it is about the device. As the contract was made when the device was bought. At the place the device was bought.

                    Or does your warranty for your car terminate when you leave the country?

                    Mo idea what your stupid comments about shove something up your ass. are about. Are you an 11 year old who wonders why some adults like anal sex?

                    I can explain it to you:
                    MALE: the prostata is at the end of your penis inside of your body. And for some odd reasons the gods made it so that there is very sensitive tissue

      • And you believe that in the 5th week of your vacation it will turn out that the apps you downloaded from an alternative app store contains a soul crushing bug? Hint: that bug was there when you downloaded that app. So your argument is actually that 3rd party app stores are unsafe to begin with. Gee, even I wouldn't have gone that far, but since you claimed it...
    • It's not unusual for US corporations to behave & treat others around the world as they do back in the US. All they're achieving in the EU is to antagonise their regulators & annoy their customers. Of course, they'll cry foul when the regulators follow through on their clearly, concisely, laid out & well communicated plans of action. I guess like US tourists, US corporations are unreasonable & have tantrums while abroad as well.

    • Without such restrictions, you'd quickly end up with grey-market European iPhones being imported into the U.S. by the boatload.

      That seems to be a tacit admission that many people outside the EU want this functionality and Apple actively engages in behavior that prevents people from using their own devices the way they want. Of course we've always known this - this is just a concrete example of it.

  • Never again (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Wolfling1 ( 1808594 ) on Thursday March 07, 2024 @06:23PM (#64298415) Journal
    My current phone is an iPhone. I thought I'd best try one so that my criticism of Apple products could be reasonably based on first hand experience. I can now confirm that I will NEVER buy an Apple product again. The phone is adequate. It makes calls. It runs apps. But its certainly not worth the price. More importantly, Apple's malicious compliance with the EU has confirmed my long held beliefs about its moral compass. I'll carry on using this one until it fails - which I expect to occur as a result of a malicious iOS update. After that, the market is open.

    • I'll carry on using this one until it fails - which I expect to occur as a result of a malicious iOS update.

      That's what did in my 5th gen iPad mini. It has become painfully slow ever since iOS 16. I really can't justify the purchase of a new iPad since I pretty much only use the one I have now for responding to texts and checking my doorbell camera. I'm expecting the same fate to befall my iPhone 13 mini soon enough, and since Apple no longer sells a "compact" phone, I'm seriously considering going back to Android.

      • You should google a bit around. There are awesome Android phones with eInk (sometimes colour even) displays. They last up to a week. Unless you want to watch videos - they seem perfect.
        Disclaimer: I have none yet. But my next phone will be one of that.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by berj ( 754323 )

      And your response is *exactly* why such regulations (and changes to iOS) are unneeded.. there's absolutely nothing stopping you from getting a phone from a manufacturer that gives you what you want (and who behaves in the way you want, since this seems more of your issue).

      Someone please explain to me again about Apple's monopoly?

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Well, there are those who believe that the state should have inspectors who check to make sure the amount of shit in packaged chicken stays below a certain level, and there are those who believe the customer should be free to choose among chicken with less shit and more shit.

        The EU is banning Apple's chickenshit.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) *

        > And your response is *exactly* why such regulations (and changes to iOS) are unneeded.

        He just said he would have stayed with Apple but for these regulations.

      • Re:Never again (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Thursday March 07, 2024 @08:06PM (#64298679) Homepage

        there's absolutely nothing stopping you from getting a phone from a manufacturer that gives you what you want

        Yes there is; I'm not particularly fond of Google, either. In an ideal market, there'd be additional choices besides the phone with the locked down walled garden, and the phone with an OS that attempts to monetize every interaction you make with it (because you're the product).

        • If only there was a DDG phone

        • There are other options. Huawei, for one.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by necro81 ( 917438 )

            There are other options. Huawei, for one.

            Ah, great, another option for the list:
            * the phone with the locked down walled garden
            * the phone with an OS that attempts to monetize every interaction you make with it
            * the phone that rats you out to the Xi Jinping

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by necro81 ( 917438 )

          In an ideal market, there'd be additional choices...

          Have you considered a Fairphone?

        • In an ideal market:
          every phone
          would run every OS

          And probably two or three OSes.

          We have a super computer in the pocket that dwarves super computers from the 1990s by 2 or three orders of magnitude, runs AI models, has GPS and what ever: and you can not run an iOS app in an Android phone or vice versa or an emulator or a literally "third party OS" ...

          The only win win win is: both iOS and Android are "Unix" ... who would have dreamt about that in the 1990s?

        • Why did you list apple twice?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by swilver ( 617741 )

          So you bought the phone that has both? A walled garden, and monetizes your every interaction? Let's not be naive here.

  • Best of luck to them (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Thursday March 07, 2024 @06:23PM (#64298417) Homepage

    I guess fighting tooth and nail against 3rd party app stores is the hill Apple really wants to die on, at least in the EU. It's just funny how much of a non-issue this has been on literally every other computing platform in common use. Only Apple could be such a control freak that they perceive the mere concept of user choice as being tantamount to heresy.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by JDShewey ( 1060926 )
      Get ready for the Fanbois to tell you it is a security issue... Ask me how I know [slashdot.org] - despite all evidence to the contrary.

    • Don't give Google too much of a free pass. Android is already being designed with a "security model" that depends on the user not having root access at all. That means a user having root access would technically be considered a breach of OS security (the OS that's supposed to be serving the same user? DRM anyone?). Combine this with an OS that lets non-root users do less and less with every update, and soon enough it will start to look an awful lot like a walled garden. They're already preventing their RCS

      • Basically every Android device can be put into "developer mode". It is so funny, that they kind made it complicated: you have to click the same button about 15 times, and it counts down to 0 and tells you how many more.

        My Android based eBook reader comes with root enabled. Obviously the Apps run in user mode.

        So, no idea what your point is.

    • Apple is all about the $$$ and having 3rd party app stores means someone else is getting that chunk of the $$$ pie.

    • It's just funny how much of a non-issue this has been on literally every other computing platform in common use.

      Hopefully it spreads to the consoles.

    • It's just funny how much of a non-issue this has been on literally every other computing platform in common use.

      Non-issue? It's very much an issue. A big one. A $2.61trillion issue, which is precisely why Microsoft was trying to get in on it with Windows (Locked down Windows S and Windows RT releases), which is precisely why Google was trying to lock you in (it would be an instant anti-trust violation for google to lock their device down because Android runs on 3rd party devices).

      It is *the* issue of the 21st century. It is a king-maker in terms of corporate value. The only difference is only Apple has done it succes

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dstwins ( 167742 )
      Actually its not.. because outside of the google play store, almost all other platforms don't really have a cohesive app store.. PC's have never had one and MS's abysmal attempts at making one are terrible.

      The very nature of computers (not smart phones) means a closed app store makes no sense, since no one wants to buy a PC that can only run CERTAIN applications. vs. Cellular phones have ALWAYS been restricted devices.. (either by the carrier or the provider) but its never been "do anything you want".. Hel
    • Being stupid is the hill you want to die on? Hint, you've been dead all along. Well, stupid at least.

  • That will never fly (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Thursday March 07, 2024 @06:28PM (#64298425)

    In many EU countries, typical vacation times are 5 or 6 weeks per year.

    • Yes but it's very rare that you take all of it at once. Although you are surely allowed to do so, your employer will have to approve it and you could run into a quarrel with your boss if you stomp your foot down too hard. I have seen cases go both ways. However, the truth is that if you end up taking a month and a half of vacation all at once, you will most probably use it go fly overseas, which will cause your iPhone to switch to the dark side, it seems.

      • Finnish people tend to take all their holiday at once. The country essentially shuts down for a month or so. Except for service industries of course.

        Yeah, Finland probably doesn't count as very many...

        • And why doesn't the service industry in Finland shut down during holidays (vacation for Americans)? Is it because most Fins don't leave Finland for most of their holiday? Let alone the EU?

      • Actually by law in Germany you are supposed to take 4 weeks at once. Or was it maximum even, don't remember.

        But the law is not enforced, I mean: the government/law enforcement does not care. It is only there so that an employee or employer can enforce it (employer, to in case of factory holidays, where the whole factory is shut down)

        The amount of days is actually rather low, I think something around 21 work days. But most employers make contracts in the 30 - 33, even 36 day range.

        you will most probably use

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          Yo are allowed to take more than 4 week so vacation in Germany. There is also the little fact, which some people seem to overlook, that you can add _hollidays_ to that vacation and then it becomes very easy to go over one month.

          • Yo are allowed to take more than 4 week so vacation in Germany.
            That is wrong wording.
            Most work contracts give you more than 4 weeks.
            And there is on law that restricts the maximum.

            So the typical German has 6 weeks of vacation. Plus holidays.

    • And most people in the EU spend all of their vacation in the EU.
  • ...or greedy. Pick your narrative.

  • An aspect I've always found frustrating with phones is when apps can be installed in one region/country but not another. A person might often travel between two countries, and want to have, for example, a supermarket loyalty app set up on their phone for each location. I understand that there are reasons for the rules, but I would have thought that the well travelled leaders of Apple and Google would have been able to sort out a solution.

  • Apple,

    The EU has spoken. Your attempts to misinterpret the rulings just make you look bad.
    You will come out of this a loser, much as you came into it.

    Your authoritarian walled-garden "we're better than everyone else" Steve "Liver Thief" Jobs era is over.

    Stop doubling down on stupid.

    This is why nobody loves you except your fanbois.

  • Guess that's the route Apple wants to take.

  • It’s weird, people are complaining like there are not any options except the iPhone. In in the next breath say they will never buy an iPhone or never buy one again. Which in turn proves there are in fact alternatives and this move by the EU was unnecessary in the first place. People who want a curated walled garden can buy and iPhone and people who want a free for all can buy an android. Or you knowyou don’t really need a smartphone at all. It like if someone bought PlayStation, but then got ma

    • The political pressure is mostly from businesses that want to sell stuff without Apple taking a cut. You'll have a hard time finding an individual who holds the two contrary ideas you just mentioned.

    • Or someone went to Burger King and got mad because they don’t sell Big Macs

      Or bitches they can't find shoes when they're not even in the right area [imgur.com].

    • It like if someone bought PlayStation, but then got mad it won’t play halo. Or someone went to Burger King and got mad because they don’t sell Big Macs.

      It's exactly like buying a computer and only being able to buy software through the OS maker. I still wonder why Apple hasn't done this with its non-cellular computers. No one would care, right?

    • Itâ(TM)s weird, people are complaining like there are not any options except the iPhone.
      If you want a phone running iOS.
      It is the only option, obviously.

      Sorry: why are Apple haters such idiots?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by KlomDark ( 6370 )
        Why are Apple lovers such supreme idiots? Simply adding sour cream and tomatoes doesn't explain it.
      • For someone so smug to try to insult people instead of sticking to the fact, I would argue it is you who doesn't under the situation. iOS is not the product. iOS AND the iPhone are the product. Being able to initiate relatively seamlessly with other devices in Apples ecosystem is the product. They are one and the same. Apple could have chosen to design software to work on thousands of different configuration of hardware. They did not. That is not what they are selling. You are arguing that apple has a monop

  • funny (Score:3)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Thursday March 07, 2024 @07:06PM (#64298509) Homepage Journal

    I'm not sure I like the idea that a corporation is tracking where I travel. I'm lying ... I'm very certain that I don't like it.

  • Your phone, your tablet, your computer, doesn't belong to you. It belongs to Apple, and for a princely sum, they will condescend to let you use it, along with only whatever software they, in their magnificent all-knowing wisdom, decree that you ought to be using.

    If you want to use something else... You're just *wrong*, and probably *evil* as well.

    I won't do business with a company that treats me this way.

  • Can we answer a more interesting question first? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Thursday March 07, 2024 @07:31PM (#64298589)

    Why does Apple know where I am?

    • apple has been spying on its customers for years

    • Re:Can we answer a more interesting question first (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Thursday March 07, 2024 @10:19PM (#64298881)

      Why does Apple know where I am?

      Why wouldn't they know? They designed the phone and the OS that way, the basic capability is baked into the infrastructure. Anybody who doesn't automatically assume that companies do that kind of tracking needs to pick up a clue or six. The real questions are "Why is Apple allowed to do that" and "Why do people put up with it"? Those are simple questions with long, complicated, sometimes-contentious answers.

      Of course, there is one short, straightforward, obvious answer to your question: "Because they can".

      • Yes, of course it was a rhetorical question to make people question that practice... c'mon...

        • Yes, of course it was a rhetorical question to make people question that practice... c'mon...

          My apologies - I guess I missed that "Whoosh!" over my own head...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Lehk228 ( 705449 )
      they don't, it's code on the phone that determines when to stop being in EU mode.

    • Why does Apple know where I am?

      Are you aware how IP addresses work? This is just a general question, we won't get into the fact you literally bought a network connected GPS receiver from the company which required you to log into their account in order for it to function.

    • Because you activated "find my Mac"
      Or "find my phone"

      And the AppStore app, is Apple owned, so it obviously knows where you are.

      And: IP addresses are easy reversed into geo locations, plus/minus a few dozen or hundred km.

      My internet provider is 3BB, that is obviously: Thailand, could be Laos, though ... but it is definitely not EU, Africa, China or America(s), or Australia.

  • No updates, less security for you! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Deal In One ( 6459326 ) on Friday March 08, 2024 @02:38AM (#64299143)

    If you get an app from a 3rd party store, and you move out of EU for work for a few months, and there is a security issue in your app, you are not going to get the updates.

    And if it blows up in the news, Apple will probably try to spin it saying "Thats why you should stick to the official stores - to get a more secure device". And not admit it's their policies which indirectly created the security issue in the first place.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      If you get an app from a 3rd party store, and you move out of EU for work for a few months, and there is a security issue in your app, you are not going to get the updates.

      Yeah, that thought occurred to me as well. It almost feels as though Apple is deliberately trying to make their devices less secure in response to these laws so that it "proves" that they were right all along.

      The way Apple has handled this has made the company look really, really bad in the eyes of everyone with a modicum of common sense. I can't imagine that this isn't badly tarnishing their public image and making people wary of buying their products in the future, both in the EU and elsewhere.

  • I remember when they would luck movies on DVDs to run on specific regions only. Those were fun times

    • That is basically the reason why I only have 2 or 3 DVDs.

      And my Mac luckily always allowed to "reset the region code" to play them. Obviously that was location independent but OS/language dependent.

      That region code thing, and the current streaming bullshit: most stupid thing ever.

      I pirate stuff I want to see. Makes no sense to wait for the release of "The Expanse" number 6 in Thailand, when it was released 10 years ago in France.

      No idea why Netflix and Co are so stupid to market their own stuff with region

  • Apple's user restrictions may conflict with the DMA's goal of fostering fair competition. While Apple suggests DMA protection is only for EU users on EU soil, the DMA aims to enhance competition, especially with gatekeepers. Limiting competitors from updating apps for users traveling outside the EU could be viewed as discriminatory, contradicting the DMA's objective. For this measure to be justified, Apple would need to apply it universally, including to its own products – a scenario that seems unlike

  • Wow (Score:2)

    by KlomDark ( 6370 )
    Apple is really getting desperate. Methinks their time at the top is coming to an end. It'll take quite a while, but I can't wait to see that anti-human-rights company in the garbage heap.

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