For those who came in late, Apple was incandescent with rage after the EU Digital Markets Act forced it to bring in sideloading and alternate app stores to the iPhone / iPhone users. EU users can download apps from third-party app stores.

After fighting the move under a bogus claim that the status quo was improved user security, Apple decided that it was better to deface its iPhone Home Screen and blame the EU instead.

Last week, iPhone users in the European Union noticed that they could no longer install and run web apps on their iPhone's Home Screen in iOS 17.4.

Apple explains that the changes would have required it to build an "entirely new integration architecture that does not currently exist in iOS" to address the "complex security and privacy concerns associated with web apps using alternative browser engines."

This work "was not practical to undertake given the other demands of the DMA and the very low user adoption of Home Screen web apps," Apple explains.

 "To comply with the DMA's requirements, we had to remove the Home Screen web apps feature in the EU." "EU users will be able to continue accessing websites directly from their Home Screen through a bookmark with minimal impact to their functionality," Apple said.

iOS 17.4 is available to developers and public beta testers and is slated to release in early March.

Apple appears to think that by defacing its home page, Apple iPhone users will revolt against their EU overlords in a bloody revolution. Such fantasies are probably easier than using your piles of money to invest in some software developers to fix your broken software.  It is not as if the company didn’t have time to make the software changes.