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Apple limits third-party browser engine work to EU devices (www.theregister.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The Register has learned from those involved in the browser trade that Apple has limited the development and testing of third-party browser engines to devices physically located in the EU. That requirement adds an additional barrier to anyone planning to develop and support a browser with an alternative engine in the EU.

It effectively geofences the development team. Browser-makers whose dev teams are located in the US will only be able to work on simulators. While some testing can be done in a simulator, there's no substitute for testing on device – which means developers will have to work within Apple's prescribed geographical boundary.

... as Mozilla put it – to make it "as painful as possible for others to provide competitive alternatives to Safari."

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[–] AtariDump 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

On what phone?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

What phone I have? Pixel 8 Pro (I bought it specifically for GrapheneOS, otherwise I wouldn't have bought a Pixel, als the original Pixel ROM is laggy as fuck)

Supported Devices are all Pixels since the Pixel 5a. https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

My Pixel 4a is slower with GrapheneOS than stock. Disabling GrapheneOS' Secure App Spawning helps noticeably.

With newer hardware it's likely not noticeable. (The 4a is old and even only receives security updates by GrapheneOS (no firmware updates by Google), so I really should replace it at some point.)

[–] AtariDump 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So a 4 year old phone isn’t supported by Google anymore?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, only starting with the Pixel 8 they promised 7 years of support

[–] PostaL 1 points 7 months ago

Let's see how that will go in 4 years...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Yup it's not noticable on the Pixel 8