[judge2020]

Per Macrumors:

> Apple is giving app developers in the EU access to NFC and allowing for alternative browser engines, so WebKit will not be required for third-party browser apps. Apps will be able to offer NFC payments without using Apple Pay or the Wallet app through Host Card Emulation. Apps can also access field detect, and a default app can be set to activate when an iPhone is placed near a terminal.

Although this only changes things for us developers. Regular users really don’t care what browser is running the web pages they’re looking at, everyone who downloads chrome does so to get their synced bookmarks and history.

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/01/25/ios-17-4-alternative-ap...

[addicted]

> Regular users really don’t care what browser is running the web pages they’re looking at, everyone who downloads chrome does so to get their synced bookmarks and history.

This is ahistorical. Regular users switched to Firefox and Chrome in droves from IE. And it wasn’t to sync their bookmarks. It was because they provided a much better experience.

If Blink or Gecko are able to provide a better experience than WebKit on iOS that would certainly prompt many users to switch to browsers using those engines.

[jahewson]

Seems unlikely given that out in the free world we’ve seen a consolidation around Chromium. The web is mature enough at this point that the choice of browser engine mostly isn’t a differentiating factor.

[pzo]

different browser engine can implement API that safari mobile don'w want to implement or are slacking to implement

- fullscreen on iPhone

- WebBluetooth

- WebUSB

- WebMIDI

- WebSensor

- Web Push notifications - that are less limited than in current safari

- WASM simd

- WASM multithreading

- WebGPU

This will make PWA apps less crippled.

[kmlx]

i can't wait to see what kind of tracking will be possible with these new technologies :) /s

i know these guys https://fingerprint.com use so many of these when fingerprinting.

[noqc]

Um, no. Regular users care about being able to run ublock origin.

[jerbear4328]

Yes, give me my uBlock and Tampermonkey! And many other miscellaneous privacy and convenience extensions that make the web just that much better.

[chinathrow]

Sweet sweet Android.

[mvdtnz]

That's like claiming only mechanics are interested in what engine a car is running - regular users only care about the seat and steering wheel.

Regular users care about the experience of the browser. A superior rendering engine can potentially improve this experience.

[asow92]

> That's like claiming only mechanics are interested in what engine a car is running - regular users only care about the seat and steering wheel.

That's probably true for quite a lot of people in those categories.

[mvdtnz]

Let me help you out here. It isn't true as a generalisation. Ever.

[twism]

ha. that claim is true ... most folks don't care if the car is an i4 or v6?

[mvdtnz]

You're missing the point. People can feel that a twin turbo inline 6 drives much smoother and more powerfully than a 1.3L 4 banger even if they don't know the first thing about what's under the bonnet. The engine changes the entire experience.

[halostatue]

And most people don't care at all what's under the bonnet.

They want something that reliably gets them from A to B and back, with occasional side trips to C, D and E. They want something that does that in a way that matches their personal style. They want something that isn't going to cost them an arm and a leg to run.

Forty, fifty, and sixty years ago people cared a lot more. Starting really in the mid-90s, that changed. Nowadays, there are probably as many gearheads as there were decades ago, but as a population they represent a smaller percentage. And there's a tiny percentage of people who care only so that they can mod their engines to run less efficiently so they can pwn the libz.

Inasmuch as people do care about the 1.3 4 banger — they choose it because it generally runs more reliably over time with fewer litres burned per 100km.

[xwolfi]

I think you're wrong: people who buy a shitty second-hand car to go to work and have little money to spare on it: indeed, really 0 interest in the car as long as it runs long enough to generate profit to break even.

But if you are going to spend 10k$+ on a car, then you start caring, A LOT. I've seen the change from when I was a student willing to take any crap on wheel, vs when I had some money to burn on a car and I spent weeks looking at everything to end up buying a 10k$ 20yo Porsche 911 :D See, I didn't even look at the fuel cost: only the engine perf per dollars. And it cost me an arm and a leg to run, in Hong Kong where the fuel cost is the highest in the world !

People don't work as rational machines balancing perfectly cost and profit in a constant manner over time. It's more a constraint compromise game with a repressed desire for luxury that seem to drive us: you'll buy what you can afford and within those boundaries you will choose comfort and design over economic optimization. Like when people buy an iphone, evidently they didn't look at all about cost for performance and choose something economically suboptimal but luxurious.

Accept it and you'll start liking them more I think.

[halostatue]

I said: “They want something that reliably gets them from A to B and back, with occasional side trips to C, D and E. They want something that does that in a way that matches their personal style. They want something that isn't going to cost them an arm and a leg to run.”

I did indicate that personal style comes into it, and I don't think that it's not an emotional decision. But there's a reason that Camry, Corolla, and Accord show up in bestselling car lists every year (and similar models elsewhere in the world), and it has nothing to do with "caring about what's under the bonnet".

There is a subset of people who do care about the engine, but they don't do so because they actually know a damned thing about how the engine runs, but because a big engine makes them feel powerful in their oversized pickemup trucks that never carry a load in the bed.

Your assertion that people who buy an iPhone aren't looking at cost for performance is partially correct, but only insofar as most (I mean > 99% of people including people in tech—including myself) wouldn't be able to objectively measure phone performance worth a damn. Anecdotally, I know a number of people who have switched from android devices to iPhones because they see their friends holding onto the same iPhones for years without complaints, yet they can't see the benefit of holding onto their android phones and realize that they may be spending a bit more up front, but are getting more possible useful years of phone updates than had been available in Android until promises made (and several years to see if they are kept) just few months ago.

Yes, I also know people who are enamoured of their Android devices and have their own smugness about what they think that they've gotten over the "sheeple" who buy Apple devices, but most people really don't give a shit about the phone operating system any more than they do about whether the engine in their car is 3, 4 or 6 cylinders (people who by v8s are intentionally buying a v8) or whether it happens to just be a family of hamsters running around underneath—as long as it runs.

[mvdtnz]

> most people don't care at all what's under the bonnet

> They want something that isn't going to cost them an arm and a leg to run.

Pick a lane.

[halostatue]

If you do not see those statements as complementary, that is on you, not on me.

Most people who buy cars don't actually give a shit how many cylinders, spark plug configuration, or hamsters are involved in the engine. They want to know that it will work and not cost them too much in fuel, maintenance, insurance, and repairs. They want it to "look good" for their sense of style, and they want it to be a "safe" car.

In order, it's usually price, style, then fuel efficiency (not engine, but whole car fuel efficiency), insurance cost, and everything else. For some people, it ends up being style, price, then everything else.

[twism]

i still think the claim regular car users don't really care about the engine specs holds true ... you'd be hard pressed if you can tell the difference between an inline 4 and v6 these days tho (apart from how many more times you are hitting the gas station; some inline 4s even perform better than v6s)

[mvdtnz]

You're still missing the point. I don't think this conversation is going to be productive.

[e_y_]

That's exactly what I predicted for NFC when Apple announced Apple Pay. Apple kept developers from using any of the NFC APIs until they were ready to roll out Apple Pay, and then only allowed non-payment NFC after that. It gave them 10 years to establish Apple Pay.

Being the system default was obviously very convenient for customers and there would be a very high bar for any other payment app to compete, but Apple wanted to make absolutely sure there was no possible competition.

[wiseowise]

> Regular users really don’t care what browser is running the web pages they’re looking at, everyone who downloads chrome does so to get their synced bookmarks and history.

As a regular user - I do.

[EthicalSimilar]

You’re on HackerNews. Doesn’t quite scream “regular user”.

[wiseowise]

I don’t develop for a browser or use any advanced features.

[twism]

that's the case now but in the future you can now offer regular users features that currently only android chrome can do