Apple’s nifty new feature that lets AirPods translate speech in real time will reportedly become available to EU residents while they’re in Europe next month.
That will put an end to an odd situation: Currently, non-Europeans can use the AirPods Live Translation feature while in Europe, and EU residents can use it when traveling outside the European Union but not within the EU.
The European Union pushed back Thursday after Apple said the Digital Markets Act — antitrust legislation aimed at broadening competition among tech companies — is backfiring on consumers and forcing Apple to delay key features for European users.
In a detailed statement submitted during the EU’s review process, Apple claimed the DMA is achieving the opposite of its stated goals. Apple’s statement, issued Wednesday, was the company’s strongest criticism of the law to date, and EU leaders did not care for it. But European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said the lawmakers were “not surprised” by Apple’s stance.
“Apple has simply contested every little bit of the DMA since its entry into application,” said Regnier in a Politico article, adding that Apple has snubbed EU efforts to have positive talks on the matter. “This undermines the company’s narrative of wanting to be fully cooperative with the Commission.”
In addition to the European Commission, some users took issue with Apple’s statement slamming the DMA.
Apple’s new feature that lets AirPods act as language translators isn’t available for EU residents while they’re in Europe. What makes the restriction odd is that the feature can be used by EU residents outside of the European Union.
And Live Translation with AirPods can be used by those traveling to the European Union from the United States, the United Kingdom, etc.
Apple appears set to dodge potentially devastating daily fines from European Union regulators, according to a new report Tuesday. Sources indicate the company’s revised App Store policies will likely receive approval in the coming weeks.
To avoid further penalties under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, Apple has announced sweeping changes to its App Store guidelines for the EU.
However, it’s not happy with the EU’s additional demands and plans to appeal against this.
Apple officially filed an appeal against the European Union’s Digital Markets Act interoperability requirements Friday. That’s no big surprise, and neither is the reason why. Apple argues the regulations pose significant privacy and security risks to iPhone users, while also stifling innovation.
Apple submitted its challenge to the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg, targeting the commission’s March decision that requires Apple to make iOS more compatible with rival products, including smartwatches, headphones and VR headsets.
By E.U. law, Apple must let iPhone applications include payment systems other than Apple’s own. But in a move that seems calculated to convince customers and developers to avoid these alternatives, there’s now a “scare screen” on applications that do not offer Apple’s payment system in the European Union version of the App Store.
The system Apple set up to enable EU residents to load apps onto their iPhones outside the App Store violates the Digital Markets Act, according to a decision handed down Wednesday by the European Commission. It cites “overly strict eligibility requirements” and Apple’s new Core Technology Fee as reasons.
It’s a preliminary decision, but if Apple doesn’t make the app sideloading process easier, the DMA gives the European Commission the right to hit the iPhone maker with hefty fines.
The European Union socked Apple with a fine of 500 million euros ($570 million) Wednesday for breaking antisteering rules in the Digital Markets Act. It also fined Meta 200 million euros for DMA violations.
The two companies face further fines if they don’t make the changes the EU demands.
The European Commission issued “guidance” Tuesday on changes it says Apple must make to comply with the interoperability requirements of the EU’s Digital Markets Act. The new mandates would open up the iPhone to work more closely with third-party smartwatches, headphones and TVs.
Apple says the new rules will undercut user privacy and slow innovation, and vows to make its case to the EU. It remains to be seen whether the changes will take effect only in Europe or globally.
The European Commission will reportedly slap Apple and Meta with “modest fines” for breaching the DMA (Digital Markets Act).
The act became a law in EU countries in May 2023, forcing Apple to open its devices to third-party app stores and be more open to competition. This ongoing regulatory pressure raises questions about Apple’s global operations, including where are iPhones made.
It’s no longer possible to buy an iPhone 14 or iPhone SE 3 from Apple in the EU. And many of Apple’s older accessories also disappeared from the company’s shelves in the European Union, too.
It’s all a result of a EU law that, as of Saturday, banned the sale of handsets with proprietary charging ports. Apple was a primary focus of the legislation.
The European Commission intends to require iPhone and iPad to be more open to working with third-party smartwatches, headphones, virtual reality headsets, and other accessories. On Thursday, the EC began proceedings to “specify how Apple will provide effective interoperability with functionalities such as notifications, device pairing, and connectivity.”
Apple devices already work with a broad variety of accessories, but the company also says it has to balance connectivity with protecting user privacy. For the latest updates on Apple’s compliance and upcoming changes, check out the latest iPhone news.
The Epic Games Store launched Friday, allowing iPhone users to install the popular Fortnite for the first time since Apple kicked Epic out of the official App Store in 2020.
But there’s an important caveat: the new iOS app marketplace is available only in the European Union.
Apple is making changes to its App Store policies in the European Union to comply with the Digital Markets Act. It’s essentially easing linking rules for developers, so they can send customers elsewhere than the App Store for purchases. And it’s attaching new fees for sales that result from the links.
AltStore PAL, the first third-party app marketplace for iOS, now lets users install apps created by independent developers. The change, which arrived Wednesday in AltStore PAL version 2.1, makes previously restricted apps available to iPhone owners in the European Union.
“This means apps that have been rejected by the App Store — such as torrenting apps and virtual machines — have another path forward for the first time ever,” Riley Testut, developer of AltStore, told Cult of Mac.
The update is launching with a few third-party apps available now — iTorrent, qBitControl and PeopleDrop — “apps that are only possible with AltStore PAL,” according to Testut.
Apple and the European Commission came to an agreement on opening up iPhone to rival digital wallets and tap-and-go systems. The days of the iPhone’s NFC capabilities being limited to just Apple Pay are at an end. In Europe, anyway.
But in the rest of the world, it’s Apple Pay or nothing.
The European Commission is reportedly getting ready to charge Apple for not following rules laid down by Digital Markets Act that require the iPhone maker to allow third-party software developers to “steer” consumers to offers outside the App Store, free of charge.
If found guilty, Apple faces potentially heavy fines.
The first third-party app marketplace, AltStore PAL, launched in the European Union on Wednesday. The App Store alternative comes from Riley Testut, the developer who got his Delta retro-game emulator into the iPhone App Store on the same day.
The European Commission opened a noncompliance investigation Monday into whether Apple is fully following the rules that went into effect with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. If not, Apple faces potentially heavy fines.
The Mac-maker isn’t being singled out. The EC also opened similar investigations into Alphabet/Google and Meta/Facebook.
EU developers can forgo the App Store entirely and distribute their apps directly to iPhone users from their own websites, Apple said Tuesday. This is a significant reversal from Apple’s original rules, which required devs that wanted to skip the official App Store to place iPhone software in third-party software marketplaces.
In another major change, Apple also will allow EU developers to create app marketplaces that sell only their own software.
Apple is building a way out of the iOS “walled garden.” It promised on Thursday to make it easier to switch the data from an iPhone to an Android or other handset.
That said, the migration tool is part of Apple complying with the European Union’s Digital Market Act so the solution might not be available outside of the EU.
Epic Games will not be able to bring Fortnite back to the European Union. Apple canceled the company’s developer account (again) and called Epic “verifiably untrustworthy.”
Shutting down the developer account also means that the game-maker won’t be able to open its promised rival to the App Store.
The European Commission fined Apple more than 1.8 billion euros Monday for “abusing its dominant position on the market for the distribution of music streaming apps.”
The ruling follows complaints by music streaming service Spotify. In a lengthy response to the fine, Apple said Spotify pays absolutely nothing for the array of services Cupertino provides. Apple also said it will appeal the EC’s decision.
Apple changed course and is not disabling iPhone web apps in the European Union. The method for turning websites into applications will not disappear with the release is iOS 17.4 after all.
The flip-flop is just a small aspect of big changes coming to iOS because of EU legislation.