Most active commenters

    ←back to thread

    Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store

    (www.theverge.com)
    1704 points ardit33 | 11 comments | 13 Aug 20 19:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.543s | source | bottom
    Show context
    Findeton ◴[13 Aug 20 20:11 UTC] No.24148096[source]▶
    I don't think this should be regulated at all. Apple should be able to impose their rules in their systems. Let's be clear about this, if people are choosing to buy these black-box closed handheld computing devices, there are consequences that come with that choice.
    replies(11): >>24148148 #>>24148211 #>>24148254 #>>24148467 #>>24148471 #>>24148841 #>>24149255 #>>24149693 #>>24149743 #>>24149892 #>>24150025 #
    swiley ◴[13 Aug 20 20:29 UTC] No.24148471[source]▶
    Apple is more than welcome to put whatever rules they want on their systems. My phone is not their system though, it’s mine! If I want to run tmux/fetchmail/ocamlc on it then it’s my problem not theirs!
    replies(3): >>24148658 #>>24148764 #>>24148851 #
    1. rokobobo ◴[13 Aug 20 20:48 UTC] No.24148851[source]▶
    I am not defending closed platforms, but technically, you are free to jailbreak your phone, they're just not obligated to provide any support after that, right?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_jailbreaking#Legality

    replies(3): >>24149183 #>>24149214 #>>24150459 #
    2. rndmze ◴[13 Aug 20 21:07 UTC] No.24149183[source]▶
    heh, jailbreak is a bad solution to a problem that should not exist.

    You should not have to rely on security issues in order to install whatever you want on your phone.

    Jailbreak should only be needed when you want to replace OS blocks, not just install something.

    3. webstrand ◴[13 Aug 20 21:09 UTC] No.24149214[source]▶
    If Apple provided a way to jailbreak their devices, I'd be more inclined to support this argument. But they try to prevent jailbreaking at every opportunity so, regardless of the legality of it, Apple does not consider the phone your system, they consider it theirs.
    replies(3): >>24149539 #>>24149603 #>>24152098 #
    4. judge2020 ◴[13 Aug 20 21:28 UTC] No.24149539[source]▶
    No. There's no check for Cydia or other Debian Package frontends that are there to void your warranty or stop you from downloading cracked apps (they very well could do this). They only patch the security vulnerabilities that are actually used to break out of the app sandbox and run arbitrary code, something that, as we can see with Epic's Fortnite app, could be RCE'd into an app without Apple knowing. These vulnerabilities can and have been used by actual malware in the past[0], so Apple fixing them in iOS is a legitimate security measure.

    0: https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2019/10/checkrain-click-f...

    replies(1): >>24149957 #
    5. adt2bt ◴[13 Aug 20 21:32 UTC] No.24149603[source]▶
    They mostly prevent jail breaking because the same processes that jailbreak a phone can often be used to hack peoples phones because they’re security loopholes.
    replies(3): >>24149666 #>>24150210 #>>24156657 #
    6. BoorishBears ◴[13 Aug 20 21:36 UTC] No.24149666{3}[source]▶
    They prevent jailbreaking by not providing a way to do it.

    They additionally prevent jailbreaking by patching vulnerabilities.

    Only one of these things is being called out.

    You can get into all sorts of theoretical discussions about how if there was a way to do it, they'd be increasing their attack surface since now they have to make sure this path is locked properly when the user doesn't want it, but people act like the only way for jailbreaking to work is for Apple to stop patching 0 days, which is not the case.

    7. ReverseCold ◴[13 Aug 20 21:58 UTC] No.24149957{3}[source]▶
    Right, but there’s no non-security-vulnerability way to jailbreak. If jailbreaking was as easy as `adb oem unlock`, no one would need to use any security issues to jailbreak.
    8. pmontra ◴[13 Aug 20 22:15 UTC] No.24150210{3}[source]▶
    My Samsung A40 has a toggle called "OEM unlocking - Allow the bootloader to be unlocked". That's in the developer options. My previous phone from Sony had the same option. If Apple wanted they could do the same.

    Security loopholes are a different thing.

    9. phreack ◴[13 Aug 20 22:38 UTC] No.24150459[source]▶
    Say you go and buy the latest iPhone, on the latest OS, and wanted to play Fortnite on it. How'd you do it? I don't think it's even possible to jailbreak it at this point.
    10. NorwegianDude ◴[14 Aug 20 01:22 UTC] No.24152098[source]▶
    And that's also why Apple insists on calling your personal computer(PC) a Mac instead. Clearly they don't think it's your computer.

    tHiS IS nOt a Pc BUt a mAc, you know? ;p

    11. swiley ◴[14 Aug 20 11:48 UTC] No.24156657{3}[source]▶
    Meh. If the file system weren’t encrypted I’d agree with you. Now that it is we should be allowed to replace the OS.