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428 points coronadisaster | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.329s | source
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thayne ◴[] No.23680835[source]
There may be some legitimate fingerprinting concenrs. But given the list of API's it's hard not to see this as Apple crippling PWAs to prevent them from replacing native iOS apps (and hurting Apple's revenue from the Apple tax).

And maybe I'm missing something, but wouldn't the fingerprinting concern be mitigated by the fact the app has to ask for permission before using the API? If an app that doesn't have to do with MIDI asks for permission to use my MIDI device, I'm going to be instantly suspicious.

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danudey ◴[] No.23683760[source]
Do you honestly think that Apple would lose enough money by implementing Web MIDI for Safari on iOS that this would be even the most remote consideration? Like, the Safari team was in a meeting about Web MIDI and some manager said "but think of the impact on our stock options!" and they all went "oooooh" and scrapped it?

Or is it that Tim Cook was looking at Apple's balance sheet and decided that they couldn't afford to lose the 30% cut of all the MIDI-capable iOS/iPadOS apps that could be completely replaced by a web app?

The reality is that the real cost of this feature to them would be developer time; it would be a colossal waste of their limited WebKit/Safari developer resources to implement Web MIDI rather than something that would actually be used by more than a scant sliver of a percentage of Safari users.

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1. jdmg94 ◴[] No.23685024[source]
I wished they implemented the Fullscreen API for iPhones...