Today Apple has officially released iOS 17.4 for compatible devices. This brand-new update marks the debut of Apple’s compliance with the DMA (Digital Markets Act) in the European Union, bringing support for third-party App Stores, Browsers, and payment methods.

Of course, these changes are restricted only to devices that are physically in the E.U. According to Apple, eligibility is determined on-device through various means such as reading the GPS location data, checking the region of your Apple ID, and possibly even other identification data such as the serial number of the device.

According to Apple, the device doesn’t send your location or other such data to Apple’s servers. All checks are done on-device and the Apple server only gets if the device is eligible or not (e.g. TRUE/FALSE), with no personally identifiable info associated with the check.

So will third-party App Stores come to the United States too?

Likely not. Apple is only doing this in Europe because of the major legal scrutiny they’ve received there lately. Apple is facing serious legal consequences in the EU due to alleged anti-competitive behavior,

Several lawsuits and investigations into Apple’s anti-competitive practices have led the company to implement support for third-party App Stores, Browsers, and payment methods, but it’s not what you think it is.

If you were expecting AppValley or FlekSt0re-like third-party App Stores, you’re in for a bad surprise.

The new third-party stores are essentially still vetted by Apple, apps still need to be notarized (like on macOS), these stores would still have to be approved by Apple, and the company behind the store must provide Apple proof that they have $1 MILLION in available funds to even qualify.

So yes, no emulators, no tweaked apps and games, no Watusi, jailbreaks, or anything of this sort. You will very likely find in these app stores only apps rejected by the App Store, or apps that wanted to dodge Apple’s fees.

It gets worse…

As if the vetting, high cost of entry, and constant Apple scrutiny weren’t enough, developers publishing their apps to these third-party App Stores will have to pay Apple a new Core Technology Fee that is 0.50 euros per install per account, but Apple will not charge a fee for software installed through third-party app stores or for alternative payment methods.

The value of the platform as a whole as well as products like Xcode and Developer tools is reflected in this annual cost. All developers will not be charged for the first one million installs; but, after that point, the new core price will apply.

So the new third-party App Store support will allow you to install apps from outside the App Store, yes, but not anything you want and definitely not sideloading.

What else is new in iOS 17.4?

This new update also includes new Emojis, transcripts in Apple Podcasts, bug fixes, and some security updates.

It is not a very impressive update if you live outside the European Union, and even if you live in the E.U., you will quickly realize the hype around the third-party App Store support wasn’t warranted.

Aside from these changes, both the E.U. and the global iOS 17.4 builds patch some interesting vulnerabilities, including a new kernel exploit that seems to have been used in the wild.

The CVE-2024-23225 vulnerability is listed in the Security Content of iOS 17.4 with the following description:

Impact: An attacker with arbitrary kernel read and write capability may be able to bypass kernel memory protections. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited.

Part of the Apple Security Content of iOS 17.4

This could potentially be a very interesting jailbreak kernel bug, so if you’re interested in jailbreaking you should avoid iOS 17.4. The bug should be available on iOS 17.3.1 and lower.

Judging by the description, this could be a PPL / PaC bypass, but we don’t know for now.

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