The long struggle between Apple and the new laws imposed by the European Union has come to an end, with the introduction of the new operating system update, iOS 17.4. O The new Digital Markets Regulation (DMA) recently came into force and has already put Brussels on alert to understand whether Apple is trying to circumvent the rules. At issue is the technology giant’s decision to cut access to some applications that avoid going through its App Store.
Still, the new version thus brings the operating system in line with the rules, but introduced significant improvements to some of its own applications such as Apple Podcasts, Apple Music and more features for your Siri operating system.
A The main new feature, from the users’ point of view, is the possibility of now being able to define which internet access browser they wish to use by default. Until now, iPhone users had Safari fixed by default. The same for the App Store, now users can buy or download applications and games from other stores, without going through Apple’s.
The payment system is no longer focused exclusively on Apple Pay, and other banking systems can be used to purchase apps and services.
Although these changes were introduced to comply with European laws and are therefore only applicable in the European Union, there is a global change when it comes to gaming applications. Platforms such as Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia’s Geforce Now can be used. These changes also opened the door to the return of Fortnite, as Epic Games announced for iOS smartphones.
O iOS 17.4 has new emojis available on the virtual keyboard, including 18 people and bodies with the option to choose which direction they are facing. In the Apple Podcasts application, it is now possible to make transcriptions of the contents of an episode that are shown synchronously with the audio. For now it supports English, Spanish, French and German. Users can use these transcriptions as text and search for words and start and play the audio from that position.
In other general operating system fixes, Siri has new options for announcing incoming messages in any supported language. The security of the equipment’s theft protection system has been increased. A The Battery Health option in settings shows the battery cycle counter, date of manufacture and first use (valid for iPhone 15 models). Caller ID shows more company details, such as the logo and department name if this information is available.
Although the changes respect European laws, they were made against Apple’s wishes. As mentioned in the statement presentation of the features, the technology highlights that the new options for processing payments and downloading apps on iOS open new loopholes for malware, fraud and scams, as well as illegal and malicious content and other privacy and security hazards. Apple says that to mitigate these problems it has included new protections.