Japan forces Apple and Google to open their mobile platforms
www.theregister.com
DMA-like law passes in pursuit of a more innovative and open smartphone market
  • Gamers_Mate@kbin.run
    65·
    18 天前

    Good job japan, corporations should not be allowed to lock you out of using competition on a device you own.

  • nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip
    39·
    18 天前

    Japan has so many unique store that operated in their country with region-locked apps/games.

    As far as I remember, even DMM and DLsite already has their own game store on Android.

    This is truly a win for Japanese customer and company.

  • eveninghere@beehaw.org
    25·
    18 天前

    The funny thing is that this is probably lobbying from NTT Docomo, who lost their own app store monopoly for feature phones the moment smartphones arrived.

  • T (they/she)@beehaw.org
    12·
    17 天前

    If this means that I might be able to use NFC payments because alternatives to Google Pay will exist, I am very happy. Hopefully this will also make possible to F-droid to provide auto updates.

    • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
      4·
      17 天前

      Until earlier this year, I could make NFC payments with the app of my credit card company. AFAIK contactless payments on Android were never locked to Google Pay/Wallet. But I have no idea why there’s no competition in this space. I’d expect e.g. PayPal to have something, but if they do I never heard of it - and I did look once, briefly.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
      2·
      17 天前

      I’m confused why would you need a phone to pay via NFC. All you need is your card.

      • T (they/she)@beehaw.org
        5·
        17 天前

        I’m confused why you would assume that there isn’t any context where someone might need to store their cards on their phone instead of carrying a wallet. Have you considering asking why instead of assuming everyone is like you? Is amazing when you get to know other perspectives.

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
          2·
          17 天前

          Last I checked making a statement stating that you’re confused about something counts, semantically, as a question. No question mark needed.

          But, fine, if you don’t want to tell me you don’t have to. I’m able to contain my curiosity. Certainly can’t put my ID, driver’s license, cash, and a hair tie into my phone. Nor, for that matter, put my phone into an ATM.

          • KillerWhale@orcas.enjoying.yachts
            3·
            17 天前

            I can store my government issued ID, a driver’s licence, store limited cash behind my phone cover. And do cardless withdrawal from ATM if I need more. I have not needed a hair tie but if I did I’d wrap it on my wrist. Have not carried a wallet in years.

            Everyone’s circumstances are different.

          • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            1·
            17 天前

            As of last month, I can now, in fact, store my driver’s license on my phone. Can’t wait to use it for nights out with friends, no risk of losing my purse and the app even hides your address unless you specifically allow it, so no skeevy bartenders can read my address when they “card” me :)

      • AnonStoleMyPants@sopuli.xyz
        1·
        16 天前

        Some countries have limits to nfc payments with a card. Finland has 50e but with a phone no limits (unless the bank limits).

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
      11·
      18 天前

      i can assure you japan isn’t that much saner than the rest of us, like really the one big thing they have going for them is pretty good urban planning and public transport.

      Where most nations have people working their asses off because they need money to buy food, japan made the innovation of having people work themselves to death mostly out of social obligation instead! Much more exciting.

    • eveninghere@beehaw.org
      6·
      18 天前

      No, Japan just listened to the previous app market monopoly that was NTT Docomo and other providers who wanted their money pot back.

  • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
    10·
    18 天前

    Google allows that though or do they mean access of Google Play via 3rd party apps?

    Not that I am saying it might not be necessary to include Google from the start, sets a good precedence and prevents a future where they might go the Apple route.

    Just hope both Google and Apple won’t restrict opening up to Japanese market only. But who am I kidding, they will.

    • petrescatraian@libranet.de
      14·
      18 天前

      I think this means allowing the listing of third party app stores inside the Google Play Store - so you could search for F-Droid in Google Play for example instead of downloading and installing the .apk manually.

      • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
        5·
        18 天前

        Downloading F-Droid from Google Play kind of defeats the purpose of F-Droid.

          • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            18 天前

            You’re still putting a measure of trust into Google with that, rather than just trusting F-Droid.

            • barsoap@lemm.ee
              1·
              17 天前

              You’re still putting complete trust into Google by using any android that isn’t thoroughly de-googled, built from scratch, and installed on a jailbroken phone. They’re integrated on the OS level they can do whatever they want.

      • NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth
        1·
        18 天前

        I don’t like that, if I am going through the play store, I only want things that have gone through googles vetting process, flawed though it may be.

        • maynarkh@feddit.nl
          5·
          18 天前

          F-Droid could go through it, the thing that is prohibited is for Google to bar them just because they are a competitor.

  • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
    9·
    18 天前

    Doesn’t Google already let you do this?? My Android phone doesn’t even have Google Play Services, I just only use 3rd party stores. If I want an app from Google Play I get it through Aurora.

    • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
      27·
      18 天前

      Ah wait, I should’ve read the article lol:

      The law allows local authorities to name “designated providers” of a certain scale – currently only achieved by Apple and Google – and require those providers to do three things:

      • Allow third-party app stores on their devices;
      • Allow application developers to use third-party billing services;
      • Enable users to change default settings with simple procedures, and offer choice screens for tools like browsers;

      And it forbids them doing three more:

      • Engage in any form of preferential treatment of their services over those of competitors in the display of search results without justifiable reason;
      • Use acquired data about competing applications for their own applications;
      • Prevent application developers from using features controlled by the OS with the same level of performance as the one used by Designated Providers.

      So Google already allows 3rd party app stores and lots of settings (although these are always hit and miss, even in the custom ROM scene - I can’t get pocket detection right now and my phone keeps doing things in my pocket), but the 3rd party billing and choice screens applies to them.

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
        2·
        18 天前

        unrelated to the OP but a suggestion for your problem:

        Waveup has a setting to lock the screen after X seconds with the proximity sensor covered, it’s not very sophisticated and thus it can be a bit over-eager, but if the phone being interacted with by your leg while in the pocket is driving you up the wall then this should fix that.

        • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          17 天前

          Ty, but I think I’m just gonna switch from my dodgy Chinese Xiaomi phone to the refurbished Pixel 7 Pro I have. I mean, I’ve had it for like e months now, one of these days I will. Although, I really will miss my IR blaster, even though I hardly ever use it it’s nice to be able to change the TV in the pub lol

          Edit: lmfao I just changed the TV 10m away, had Tour de France on, but now it’s basketball.

    • esaru@beehaw.org
      1·
      17 天前

      How do you acces your bank account without an app that requieres Google Play Services running? All bank accounts in Europe require a smart phone app for 2FA even when you log-in on a browser. I can install bank apps via Aurora, but almost all of them won’t run without Google’s Software.

      • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        17 天前

        Run Magisk in Zygisk mode with the deny list hiding itself from banking apps.

        However I would advise not using the banking app if you can help it, they’re not clean. Hell, even accessing online banking via a website seems to require connections to google.com and gstatic.com to perform hidden captcha (you don’t have to do the picture thing but it still does the server side tracking).

        • esaru@beehaw.org
          2·
          16 天前

          There’s no way anyone in Europe can use a bank account without a banking app. As I said, even if you log-in on a browser on a laptop, authentication still requires you grab your phone and use the banking app to authorize the log-in from that laptop once in a while, or any transaction.

          Unfortunately, the solution you propose is technically too advanced for most people, including me. Is using GrapheneOS with its sandbox feature good enough of a protection?

          • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
            0·
            16 天前

            I’m in Europe, and I don’t use banking apps. For the most part anyway, one of my credit cards pissed me off by switching to app only, then eventually I relented with one bank because I wanted a 2nd account that required the app.

            Banks either verify by SMS (lol) or provide a passkey fob.

            GrapheneOS should provide some measure of protection. You can also perhaps disable some tracking features using something like Warden (requires root) - although this hasn’t been updated in years and probably misses stuff now.

  • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
    5·
    18 天前

    Not directly related to mobile devices, but I found it really weird that lots of Japanese games on steam have a Japanese only version, that can’t be sold outside of Japan. I’m really not sure if the benefit of that partitioning, but it probably comes from some of the issues they’re facing in the mobile market

    • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
      3·
      18 天前

      part of the reason for that iirc is japan has different laws and management when it comes to it.

      in context of steam, its usually because japanese managment to launch games on steam is a different person for global organizations, and is usually incompetent. sometimes, the reason is a tually laws about voice/music licensing rights specific to japan

  • xep@fedia.io
    5·
    18 天前

    The picture says “No Smartphones Allowed.” Doesn’t seem entirely right…

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    3·
    18 天前

    🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

    Click here to see the summary

    Japan’s parliament has passed a law that will require Apple and Google to allow access to third-party app stores and payment providers on devices running their mobile operating systems.

    The Act on Promotion of Competition for Specified Smartphone Software passed Japan’s upper house yesterday and will be enforced once Cabinet rubber-stamps it at some point in the next eighteen months.

    The last item on the list is a shot across Apple’s bows, as the iGiant has been reticent to allow third-party developers to use the NFC chip in iPhones for payments.

    Requiring the same level of access is a big deal – especially as non-compliance could result in fines that represent “20 percent of relevant turnover.”

    As it implements the law, the JFTC will seek comment from relevant ministries and agencies on matters including security, privacy, and protecting kids.

    Apple has sometimes argued that security is a major concern if third party app stores are allowed to access iThings – but has complied with requirements to open its devices to competition under the DMA.

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