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by Gigachad 70 days ago
That’s the source of the issue. Apple sells products that are safe for someone’s stupid grandfather. WebUSB is not safe for people who don’t understand the implications. Which is most people.

The rest can choose a different browser.

2 comments

> WebUSB is not safe for people who don’t understand the implications. Which is most people.

Why? What is the worst that could happen? The user needs to choose which device(s) to allow access to and browsers do not allow access to all of them.

>Apple sells products that are safe for someone’s stupid grandfather.

Then then they should be selling it in "grandfather mode". The rest of the non-stupid people that have iPhones (there are non-stupid people with iPhones, aren't there?) should be able to do what they want with their devices. But they can't because Apple puts profit over progress.

>The rest can choose a different browser.

Except on iOS you can't choose a different browser. Apple has blocked all other browsers on their mobile platform, so if you try to install Chrome, you're really just getting a Safari webview with a wrapper around it. It's just another example of abusive business tactics that the DOJ is suing Apple for.

On iOS you can’t use usb anyway. Even an actual app can’t use usb outside of the wrapper APIs for file access and stuff. So it doesn’t really matter what safari supports here. And on macOS you can use any browser you want.
I don't care about WebUSB on iOS, but I do care about Apple blocking WebBluetooth on iOS, as well as blocking every other browser engine.