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Apple is considering letting users change default email, browser, music apps in iOS:
Apple is seriously considering the possibility of allowing users to change the default apps for Web browsing, mail, or music on their iPhones. The company might also allow users to listen to Spotify or other music streaming services besides Apple Music via Siri on the iPhone or on the HomePod smart speaker.
These revelations were outlined in a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman this morning, who cited multiple people familiar with Apple's internal plans.
[...] Currently, iOS users can download third-party applications for mail or Web browsing like Outlook or Firefox, but they cannot set them to be the default apps that the system opens when a link or email address is tapped in another application, for example. Apple does allow users to do these things in some cases with its macOS software for desktops and laptops, even though it's not possible on the company's mobile platforms.
[...] And as Bloomberg notes, more elegant support for streaming services besides Apple Music would almost certainly be a boon for sales of Apple's HomePod smart speaker, as that lack of flexibility is a major limitation for that product compared to its competitors. Yes, HomePod users can stream Spotify to the HomePod using Apple's AirPlay technology, but many users may feel that is not a complete solution.
[...] Bloomberg's sources were careful to clarify that no final decisions have been made yet, but given Apple's longstanding commitment to a different philosophy, the fact this change is being seriously considered at all is on its own a major development.
When it released iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 in 2019, Apple already began lifting some smaller limitations on how users could customize the mobile operating system. So if these changes for default apps do go forward, they could herald a dramatic shift in Apple's software strategy—whether they're made to make things better for users, to appease regulators, or both.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @10:38PM
The PinePhone shill posts the same thin all the time - "You should have bought a PinePhone " - on any topic even remotely connected. Considering how low-volume the product is, any sales by any means is welcome to them, but I see it as forum spam.
Now I will bring up being trans when it's relevant, such as in discussions of pay discrimination between the sexes. We've all heard the arguments about how it's not possible to make a 1-to-1 comparison to pay better the two sexes for various reasons (the last time I pointed out that even if you hold all variables constant, women are still paid less, TMB said I was full of shit. But consider this - we have people who have the same work experience before and after transition, the same qualifications, the exact same capabilities - and yet in the case of trans women, we either end up being paid less via an imposed job change or fired, whereas trans men generally either continue to receive the same or more pay.
Same with bathroom bills. There has never been a politician or religious leader who has demanded that trans men use the bathroom of their birth sex. These are not trans issues - they are examples of how women in general are more easily discriminated against.
BTW, if number here are anything like the rest of the industry, there's 10 more here who stay in the closet, usually posting as males. They won't feel safe coming out, even if only behind a bum. I know one from the green site that, 14 years later, is still totally in the closet at work and online, and after bringing up the topic with his wife, had to choose between contact withthe kids and staying in the home or transition. They're still in the home. Gotta hate blackmail.
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