iOS 18.1 region limitation loophole

[fw85]

Unfortunately that’s not an error. You all need to take this up with the European Commission.

This is such a braindead take that merely reading it made my brain reboot.

The EU commission has nothing to do with Apple artificially withholding a feature from its users, very much like a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum.
Mind you - a feature that several competing companies have already rolled out to their users in the EU no problem.

 

[originalmagneto]

This is such a braindead take that merely reading it made my brain reboot.

The EU commission has nothing to do with Apple artificially withholding a feature from its users, very much like a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum.
Mind you - a feature that several competing companies have already rolled out to their users in the EU no problem.

I tend to agree here. Apple is just catching up quickly on the AI craze and they don't have the infrastructure. So they need to slowly test with a very limited amount of users and this 18.1 beta cycle is a sign of this. It's not about the EU, it's about their inability to scale up this quickly. Remember, Apple customers tend to update en masse and use their features that are introduced a lot. A global rollout is a logistical nightmare for them, especially now, where they dont have the server capacity. They are using google tensor cloud services for gods sake, that is hillarious

 

[winterny]

This is such a braindead take that merely reading it made my brain reboot.

The EU commission has nothing to do with Apple artificially withholding a feature from its users, very much like a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum.
Mind you - a feature that several competing companies have already rolled out to their users in the EU no problem.

I disagree... The legal climate in the EU makes the nature of how AI/LLM businesses work with information gathering for training very legally questionable. There's a reason why nearly all AI infrastructure is based out of the USA, USA datacenters are 99% full, and European datacenters have significantly more unoccupied space.

Just because companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are shrugging at the legal situation in Europe does not mean that this is a legally sound strategy.

Apple is also clearly not in friendly territory in Europe, so just because the EU looks the other way when OpenAI and Anthropic ignore the laws does not mean that Apple will get the same treatment.

 

[livetofail]

Apple is also clearly not in friendly territory in Europe, so just because the EU looks the other way when OpenAI and Anthropic ignore the laws does not mean that Apple will get the same treatment.

Lol sure, hundreds of millions possible customers which they are blocking right now in order to hope for a pass instead of just being more user friendly.

Well I never had anything else then an iPhone in the past 14 years. Now Im gonna switch to google pixel and gemini.

Apple’s tactic is working.

 

[iToph]

It is a SHAME that we EU citizens can't opt out all this EU Law rubbish. Im a fully grown adult, I can buy alcohol, marijuana, cars and houses or get 10 hookers at once - but when it comes to my -MY- own data, there is no possibility to choose what I think is best for me?

This development is most concerning.

 

[Bane-Thunder]

In the UK all you need to do is change your region and language to US English and it will work.

In the EU, you will not get it even if you change your language. It just will not work.

Will this affect my banking apps on my device though?

 

[huanbrother]

Where did you get that iPad? Not from China huh?

 

[d123]

Will this affect my banking apps on my device though?

No.

I have had my settings set to US since Live Voicemail launched, hasn’t affected any apps

 

[fw85]

I disagree... The legal climate in the EU makes the nature of how AI/LLM businesses work with information gathering for training very legally questionable. There's a reason why nearly all AI infrastructure is based out of the USA, USA datacenters are 99% full, and European datacenters have significantly more unoccupied space.

Just because companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are shrugging at the legal situation in Europe does not mean that this is a legally sound strategy.

Apple is also clearly not in friendly territory in Europe, so just because the EU looks the other way when OpenAI and Anthropic ignore the laws does not mean that Apple will get the same treatment.

Yeah, no.

The US hosts the largest amount of servers and data centers in general, in the world. The largest AI companies are also US-based.

These two facts have nothing to do with legal situation in the EU whatsoever. Though these two facts explain perfectly why the most AI-related infrastructure would be US-based as well.

The EU is actively working together with the US on a common legislation framework for AI in general, and furthermore - the EU has not prosecuted cases against anyone until any clear rules are in place for both regions.
So please stop spreading baseless FUD about the EU and its laws, it's unbecoming.

 

[bbfc]

Will this affect my banking apps on my device though?

Nope.

 

[gwhizkids]

Instead of ensuring that big tech complies with regulations, you propose we modify regulations to align with big tech’s demands, disregarding the privacy and security of the end user. After all, big tech seems to prioritize convenience over user well-being, right?

If that’s what the EU were doing, you might be correct. But that’s not what it’s doing. And even if it were, Apple is within its rights in response not to provide services that might cause retaliation.

 

[MLVC]

If that’s what the EU were doing, you might be correct. But that’s not what it’s doing. And even if it were, Apple is within its rights in response not to provide services that might cause retaliation.

Hey, let's not jump to conclusions here. Truth is, we don't really know the full story behind the EU's actions or Apple's decisions. It's complex stuff. Seems like you're leaning pretty hard into the Apple camp without considering all sides. Maybe it's worth taking a step back and looking at this more objectively?

 

[winterny]

Hey, let's not jump to conclusions here. Truth is, we don't really know the full story behind the EU's actions or Apple's decisions. It's complex stuff. Seems like you're leaning pretty hard into the Apple camp without considering all sides. Maybe it's worth taking a step back and looking at this more objectively?

I don’t personally know for sure why Apple is behaving the way they are, but I can make an assumption based on what I know other companies I know the CEOs of are doing. No, they aren’t giant multi-trillion dollar companies, but they are all relatively large companies with revenues in the millions or hundreds of millions.

Datacenter locations are picked for many reasons, primarily:
1) latency to large numbers of users
2) bandwidth capacity availability
3) power availability
4) real estate costs
5) legal issues

With Datacenters at 98% full and prices skyrocketing in the USA, and the latency penalty for serving European users from the USA, there must be a hell of a good reason they are doing it.

I worked in the Datacenter industry for many years, and I can tell you that I have experience with my employer owning two data centers a few miles apart, one was super modern, with tons of power and bandwidth capacity, and excellent redundancy… and another which was much older and lower quality.

The newer one was in a county known to have a patent troll in it and a judge friendly to that patent troll. The facility older facility had a long waiting list for empty space, and the newer one sat half empty the entire time I worked there.

I’m fairly sure the EU is more scary than some patent troll.

 

[drak22]

I don't understand why there is such a rush to test Apple's AI, when it only understands and works with content in English. In my day to day, I don't use English for practically anything, so it will be completely useless for me to have Apple's AI in Spain, when I neither write nor read anything in English.
Also, by allowing the activation of AI on the Mac in the EU, Apple shows that it has little legal uncertainty, because the applicable laws are the same on both devices. If it has so much legal uncertainty, it doesn't make sense to launch it on the Mac either.
It is increasingly noticeable that they are acting like an angry child because their favorite toy has been taken away, which in this case was the Lightning port, even above the third-party app stores. It is also curious how you enjoy and appreciate this change by the evil EU haha

 

[hans1972]

Instead of ensuring that big tech complies with regulations, you propose we modify regulations to align with big tech’s demands, disregarding the privacy and security of the end user. After all, big tech seems to prioritize convenience over user well-being, right?

The DMA's focus isn't privacy or security, it's competition and openness. The DMA is really anti-closed systems which make it very anti-Apple and anti-iOS.

Apple wants their systems to be closed and they don't want any other entity to provide on-device AI which interacts with the users data on the iPhone.

 

[hans1972]

This doesn't make any sense.

Regardless of the reasoning behind the availability of Apple Intelligence (based on ressources, EU regulations, language limitations, etc), it should at least be available for developers around the world. Otherwise, only developers in the US get to propose new features based on AI.

Even if those features and apps will only be available to the US marked at launch, developers from other regions should be able to publish apps that can be sold in the US.

The problem is that even if only developers gain access in the EU, Apple is still bound by the DMA for iOS and iPadOS. The DMA is really anti-closed system and Apple doesn't want to open up for other on-device AI to have the same access as Apple Intelligence.

 

[hans1972]

This is such a braindead take that merely reading it made my brain reboot.

The EU commission has nothing to do with Apple artificially withholding a feature from its users, very much like a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum.
Mind you - a feature that several competing companies have already rolled out to their users in the EU no problem.

The DMA's provisions for equal access is what's problematic for Apple. The regulation was championed by the EU Commission and they are the ones enforcing it. Without the EU commission there wouldn't have been a DMA.

 

[gwhizkids]

I don't understand why there is such a rush to test Apple's AI, when it only understands and works with content in English. In my day to day, I don't use English for practically anything, so it will be completely useless for me to have Apple's AI in Spain, when I neither write nor read anything in English.
Also, by allowing the activation of AI on the Mac in the EU, Apple shows that it has little legal uncertainty, because the applicable laws are the same on both devices. If it has so much legal uncertainty, it doesn't make sense to launch it on the Mac either.
It is increasingly noticeable that they are acting like an angry child because their favorite toy has been taken away, which in this case was the Lightning port, even above the third-party app stores. It is also curious how you enjoy and appreciate this change by the evil EU haha

Well most of us here speak and write in English, so there’s that.

 

[NicoTRZ]

Well most of us here speak and write in English, so there’s that.

Knowing how to speak and write and English and having a device configured to work in English on day-to-day life are 2 different things.

I can speak and write in English too, but my device is still configured in French because this is my main language and the language I speak with my family and friends.

I agree with drak22: in Europe, most of the people (except for some who are here for work) don't speak English in day to day life, so outside the "wow it works" factor and playing with it one hour, there is no rush actually.

Also, by allowing the activation of AI on the Mac in the EU, Apple shows that it has little legal uncertainty, because the applicable laws are the same on both devices. If it has so much legal uncertainty, it doesn't make sense to launch it on the Mac either.

On that, I don't 100% agree though. I don't think applicable laws are the same on both devices. For a simple reason:

iOS and iPadOS have to respect DMA: what Apple uses a ressources should be accessible by third party services to be able to give the same services. On Mac, the problem does not occurred as there isn't the same locks and a third party provider could already be able to sell a IA service deeply integrated into the system.

 

[fw85]

The DMA's provisions for equal access is what's problematic for Apple. The regulation was championed by the EU Commission and they are the ones enforcing it. Without the EU commission there wouldn't have been a DMA.

The DMA isn't the issue here, it's meant to crack down on anti-competitive practices, not innovation. The EU commission has not been prosecuting any cases against AI development and integration as part of the DMA.
To reiterate - Apple's competition, such as Google or Samsung, have implemented deep AI integration into their mobile operating systems for a few years now with no problem.

I don’t personally know for sure why Apple is behaving the way they are, but I can make an assumption based on what I know other companies I know the CEOs of are doing.

I think it's fairly simple - they knew right away that they couldn't roll out their Apple Intelligence suite globally this year due to insufficient resources - be it development & testing or infrastructure.
So they took the opportunity to turn a perfectly usual gradual rollout (starting with the US region) - into some jab at the EU commission (which is in this case completely, thoroughly uninvolved), in a lame attempt to rile up EU users against it in general.

And judging by the amount of mindless drones taking Apple's extortionist side here without a second thought, I'd say it's at least partially working.
Though in reality, most EU users likely don't read tech news and wouldn't know the specifics of this infantile ruse - they'll just walk up to an Apple Store to take a look at the new series of iPhones, see that they haven't got all that much new to offer, and walk away. Bravo.

 

[chmania]

Im a user in Germany with iPad Pro 11” and M4 Chip. What I have tried:

1, Install 18.1 from 18 Release 4 (all settings and accounts with “german” and local appstore/icloud account)
2, Of course got the Region error
3, switched appstore to US account - nope
4, switched region and language (also Siri) to US - nope
5, Switched also iCloud account to us - nope
6, iPad restart - nope
7, Switched on NordVPN set to Los Angeles- nope

Add the bookmark Copilot to get enough "intelligence" while you are outside the US. 4 questions at a time, then open another tab. It even reply to you in British English and in other languages. There's no guarantee that Apple "intelligence" would catch with the final iOS18 or macOS15.

 

[originalmagneto]

I don't understand why there is such a rush to test Apple's AI, when it only understands and works with content in English. In my day to day, I don't use English for practically anything, so it will be completely useless for me to have Apple's AI in Spain, when I neither write nor read anything in English.
Also, by allowing the activation of AI on the Mac in the EU, Apple shows that it has little legal uncertainty, because the applicable laws are the same on both devices. If it has so much legal uncertainty, it doesn't make sense to launch it on the Mac either.
It is increasingly noticeable that they are acting like an angry child because their favorite toy has been taken away, which in this case was the Lightning port, even above the third-party app stores. It is also curious how you enjoy and appreciate this change by the evil EU haha

Actually, it seems to understand other languages. It just outputs everything in English. I speak Slovak and for example, the email summarization features work for emails written in Slovak language, which is cool and points to a better language support than the “old Siri”. It’s pretty good 👍

 

[livetofail]

Add the bookmark Copilot to get enough "intelligence" while you are outside the US. 4 questions at a time, then open another tab. It even reply to you in British English and in other languages. There's no guarantee that Apple "intelligence" would catch with the final iOS18 or macOS15.

Nah, dont really like Copilot, I just use ChatGPT for now.

 

[chmania]

Nah, dont really like Copilot, I just use ChatGPT for now.

I don't like to have a separate app on the device, better if it is just a bookmark on the web browser. Bing appears to be quite good at finding out info these days. I can always check the info with Opera's Aira, which uses Composer AI, whatever that is. Atm, Apple "intelligence" is just a hype, just trying to catch up with the competitors.

 

[gwhizkids]

Knowing how to speak and write and English and having a device configured to work in English on day-to-day life are 2 different things.

I can speak and write in English too, but my device is still configured in French because this is my main language and the language I speak with my family and friends.

I agree with drak22: in Europe, most of the people (except for some who are here for work) don't speak English in day to day life, so outside the "wow it works" factor and playing with it one hour, there is no rush actually.

You are missing the point. Most people on these forums speak and write in English primarily, as we reside in the US, Canada and the UK. Hence the desire to try out Apple Intelligence. I realize that there are a fair number of bi-lingual users here but not the majority.