The European Union’s Digital Markets Act keeps delivering for EU citizens.
Apple is working on a new feature that will support cross-device copy and paste between iOS devices and Windows PCs.
Microsoft asked for the feature using Apple’s EU interoperability request system for developers, which Apple implemented to comply with the Digital Markets Act. Apple began evaluating the request in March, and on June 26, proposed a project plan.
↫ Juli Clover at MacRumors
According to Apple, this minor feature is going to cost Apple “significant engineering effort”; I’d estimate it’ll cost them about one to two golden statues.
I’m with apple on this one, microsoft is not doing the same for android or sailfish or symbian or palmos, why should they get preferential treatment? If microsoft does it for SteamOS and SailfishOS as well as perhaps Haiku and ArcaOS it might be a more fair argument.
Microsoft is a gatekeeper too when it comes to Windows. People can make similar demands.
Thom Holwerda,
The API is already flexible enough to allow 3rd parties to build clipboard managers on windows.
https://www.thevbahelp.com/post/put-text-into-the-clipboard-get-text-from-the-clipboard
At least to my knowledge I don’t think that microsoft has ever tried to block them.
Not that I place blind trust in microsoft, but apple has been the worst when it comes to modern corporations gatekeeping technology. I think all the tech giants need to know that anti-competitive technology is unacceptable. It’s not about being anti-apple, it’s just that a market controlled by a few dominant corporations is really bad for consumers. I hope the EU don’t let google get away with their upcoming restrictions on competing android app stores.
From the article…
Of course this is the problem when the EU acts alone. The US really needs to clamp down on monopolistic behavior too. Corruption is practically official US policy now. Those that gift bribes and stoke the president’s ego are given favorable treatment. It’s why Tim Cook hand delivered a 24-karat gold plaque to Trump. Meanwhile the DOJ has made it their mission to target the president’s foes even though that’s not supposed to be their job. This is what Bernie Sanders is talking about when he says the US have become an oligarchy. The more corrupt governments are, the safer tech giants can feel about anti-competitive initiatives 🙁
Even if you are on Apple side you will still likely find the feature useful. And besides it’s not like Apple, when it will suit them, they won’t do the same thing, that is to use EU regulation the get their way, against some other monopoly that would otherwise refuse to do so, be interoperable. The only downside being on why wasn’t this done much sooner, around 20 to 30 years back already. Wasted decades.
Unless you own Apple stock, that is not the the rational stance to take. The rational stance is not to be on Apple’s side, nor to be on Microsoft’s side, it is to be on your own side as the consumer. and demand what is best for you as the consumer. Neither Apple, nor Microsoft, or any other corporation will ever reward you in any way for being on their side.
In this case, more interoperability is something that benefits you and every other consumer.
Doing what, exactly? Someone has to document the API and figure out a secure way to make it reachable from a non-Apple OS. Done really.
It should not be a big deal unless the whole thing was very poorly engineered.
Microsoft *is* doing the same for Android, and has been doing so for over 7 years since the May 2019 update for Windows 10:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/phonelink/seamlessly-transfer-content-between-your-devices
Android is the largest mobile OS on earth, microsoft mobile solutions is a smaller number than the rounding error at ~0%, so of course microsoft supports android, since iOS is totally our of reach.
LOL.. KDE volunteers has implemented for both iOS and Android.. So you can just use that 😛
> microsoft is not doing the same for android
> of course microsoft supports android
Well which is it then?
Or you’ve been able to use Microsoft’s Swiftkey keyboard for the same since Oct 2018:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/swiftkey-keyboard/how-to-use-microsoft-swiftkey-keyboard-to-copy-and-paste-text-between-swiftkey-and-windows
I’ve tried many times to get clipboard sharing between Win 11 and Android working, but never did manage to do so without installing weird companion apps on both the computer and the phone, and even with these apps it was flaky.
The Swiftkey path didn’t work at all.
Well, Apple can always outsource it to KDE Connect engineers, if it proves to be too much of a task for their own engineers.
I imagine that, the first iPhone had no “copy and paste” at all, too complicated for Apple that had it on original 68k Macintosh though.
I wonder what “Liquid glass” required them as “significant engineering effort”, something that only stirred UX controversies.
If I recall correctly Windows Phone was the first of the smartphone/mobile generation to implement universal copy/paste. Android didn’t have it for Years. Im fairly sure Apple didn’t either
Android had it in Android 1.5 Cupcake (April 27, 2009), perfected in Android 2.3 Gingerbread (December 6, 2010), while the iPhone had it in iOS 3 (June 17, 2009).
Someone must have copied/pasted it from the other.
its certainly extra steps, but i achieve this now using Signal (with ios and windows clients) as it has a “notes to
self” chat so it can also act as a clipboard history as well.
I do the same. =)
I do this as well, with Fastmail’s Notes and Files, depending on what I need to transfer.