At Apple, they know well that they offer devices and services globally It is not as simple as it might seem at first glance.. The main reason, of course, is regulations, because every market is different and things that are allowed in certain markets are prohibited in others. The clearest example of this is FaceTime, Apple’s popular video calling service, which is banned in the UAE. So the options are either to find a solution to adapt to the mentioned restrictions, or to give up your presence in the mentioned markets.

The case of FaceTime is peculiar, but we can also find others in which regulations do not go against the free choice of users, but in the company’s own interest. In this case, the closest example is found in third-party stores and sideloading, which Apple has always steadfastly refused to allow in the iPhone ecosystem, but will soon have to accept in Europe due to legal reasons.

As we told you a few days ago, Apple intends that sideloading in iOS 17, which at first seemed to be global, will eventually reach only Europe. Of course, we must bear in mind that this news precedes the court decision on appeal in the case between Apple and Epic Games, a new decision that confirms that those from Cupertino must take decisive steps to open the doors of iOS to other stores and other means of payment. However, Apple has already confirmed its intention to appeal again, so it seems likely that these measures will take some time to reach the United States.

Currently, geo-restrictions are set by tying hardware to a specific region, allowing you to bypass them and get an iPhone in a different region. However, as 9to5Mac found out, that may soon change because Apple is already testing a new geo-blocking system in iOS 16. Yes, you read correctly, it is not something that will be tested in a future version of the operating system, but it is already present in the current version, so we can understand that tests in this regard have already been carried out.

This new system is identified as “earth” in iOS 16.2 and combines multiple data to determine the user’s location, such as current GPS location, he WiFi router country code and information obtained from the SIM card. Thus, it appears that it will be able to determine the area the user is in with a fairly high level of accuracy, even if an attempt is made to introduce erroneous information by any of the stated means.