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Why the bad iPhone web app experience keeps coming up in Epic vs. Apple

44 points by cglong 5y ago

musicale 5y ago
I'm generally in favor of Safari being careful with features that are likely to affect privacy, security, or battery life. I was also fine with Safari never offering support for Flash or Java applets. That being said, if Luna actually works then that is an existence proof that game streaming (at least) is possible on iOS Safari.
- robgibbons 5y ago
  If Apple has legitimate concerns about the security of, or the battery efficiency of these web APIs, then they need to voice them during the standards proposal process. Better yet, maybe they can throw some of the billions in their war chest at improving the standards for everyone else. Refusing to implement finalized web standards unilaterally holds the entire web back and it's a real dick move. Especially when you consider a quote from their HTML5 showcase back in 2010: "Standards aren't add-ons to the web. They are the web." If Apple doesn't want to ship a browser that supports web standards, then they shouldn't be shipping a browser at all. It's a massive conflict of interest for them to prevent you from installing competing browser engines while simultaneously shipping a subpar browser. It seems fairly obvious to me that their expressed concerns are merely a convenient cover story for the real truth -- they don't want anything that even smells like competition to their App Store on iOS.
- spacemanmatt 5y ago
  Ok, but they won't allow Google to publish a working browser for iOS, in case someone needs features Apple doesn't like that day. It happens a lot.
- Dma54rhs 5y ago
  I can't even test things on Safari. Even the horrible Microsoft offered these huge ass VM images you can run from any operating system to test their IE versions. In order to show solidarity with the rest of the world besides wealthy US, we tell users to download Firefox and Chrome instead. There are more browsers on that list to show the vast diversity of browsers out there.
  - bouke 5y ago
    Well I for one won’t download or run a separate browser, even if that means I’ll miss out on your app or website. I find Safari convenient and fast and it is easy on my battery, while doing a great job at protecting my privacy.

44 points by cglong 5y ago

I'm generally in favor of Safari being careful with features that are likely to affect privacy, security, or battery life. I was also fine with Safari never offering support for Flash or Java applets. That being said, if Luna actually works then that is an existence proof that game streaming (at least) is possible on iOS Safari.

robgibbons 5y ago
If Apple has legitimate concerns about the security of, or the battery efficiency of these web APIs, then they need to voice them during the standards proposal process. Better yet, maybe they can throw some of the billions in their war chest at improving the standards for everyone else. Refusing to implement finalized web standards unilaterally holds the entire web back and it's a real dick move. Especially when you consider a quote from their HTML5 showcase back in 2010: "Standards aren't add-ons to the web. They are the web." If Apple doesn't want to ship a browser that supports web standards, then they shouldn't be shipping a browser at all. It's a massive conflict of interest for them to prevent you from installing competing browser engines while simultaneously shipping a subpar browser. It seems fairly obvious to me that their expressed concerns are merely a convenient cover story for the real truth -- they don't want anything that even smells like competition to their App Store on iOS.
spacemanmatt 5y ago
Ok, but they won't allow Google to publish a working browser for iOS, in case someone needs features Apple doesn't like that day. It happens a lot.
Dma54rhs 5y ago
I can't even test things on Safari. Even the horrible Microsoft offered these huge ass VM images you can run from any operating system to test their IE versions. In order to show solidarity with the rest of the world besides wealthy US, we tell users to download Firefox and Chrome instead. There are more browsers on that list to show the vast diversity of browsers out there.
- bouke 5y ago
  Well I for one won’t download or run a separate browser, even if that means I’ll miss out on your app or website. I find Safari convenient and fast and it is easy on my battery, while doing a great job at protecting my privacy.