Let’s Talk Apple — Ep. 97 (September 2021)

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
• Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet
• Adam Christianson from The Mac Cast – @maccast

The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by some some Apple-related legal news, some Apple HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s original content and subscription services. The four main stories are Apple’s on-going Antitrust woes, The EU’s proposed USB-C mandate, Apple’s ‘California Streaming’ event, and reflections on the decade since Steve Jobs’s death. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller Apple-related stories that made the news in September.

You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

Updates & Followup

Quick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

• Apple Delays CSAM Detection Launch — tidbits.com/…
  • Privacy Advocates Deliver 59,000 Petition Signatures to Apple Over CSAM Detection — www.macobserver.com/…
  • 🇬🇧 Priti Patel (UK Home Secretary) says Apple should see through CSAM photo scanning measures — www.imore.com/…
• Apple have announced more details of their up-coming digital IDs — www.apple.com/…
  • 🇺🇸 Arizona & Georgia will be the first states to support the IDs, followed by Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma & Utah, and the TSA (Transport Safety Authority) will deploy readers are some airports.
  • Apple released a lot of technical detail, and seem to have thought of all the most likely attacks/risks, and countered them
  • The technology is based on a new ISO standard Apple helped develop that has now been published — www.macobserver.com/…
• The employee discontent story rumbles on:
  • AppleToo Workers File First Two Labor Law Complaints — www.macobserver.com/…
  • #AppleToo calls for change in open letter to Tim Cook — www.imore.com/…
  • People chief Deirdre O’Brien tells Apple employees to talk to their managers about pay and other concerns — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple shareholders seek huge upheaval over employee NDA agreements — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple fires employee who complained about harassment over leak — www.imore.com/…
  • Tim Cook addresses pay, diversity, privacy, and more at internal Apple meeting — www.imore.com/…
  • Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong at Apple, according to leaked memo — www.theverge.com/…
    • Related: Former Apple employee faces criminal charges over trade secrets leak — www.imore.com/…
  • According to Business Insider, things are not good in Apple’s health division: Apple dreamed of making healthcare easy. Then it silenced its medical experts. — www.businessinsider.com/… & Apple refutes report that claims its health team is in turmoil — www.imore.com/…
• Some more Pegasus/NSO Group Developments:
  • Apple patches “FORCEDENTRY” zero-day exploited by Pegasus spyware — arstechnica.com
  • 🇩🇪 Germany Secretly Purchased NSO Group Spyware ‘Pegasus’ — www.macobserver.com/…
  • 🇫🇷 Pegasus spyware found on 5 French cabinet members’ phones – The Mac Security Blog — www.intego.com/…
• 🇮🇪 Ireland commits to global minimum corporation tax of 15% — www.imore.com/…
• More Authoritarian Troubles:
  • 🇷🇺 Russia accuses Apple of election interference over Navalny app — www.imore.com/… & Apple removes Navalny app from App Store hours before Russia election — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇷🇺 Apple appears to have disabled iCloud Private Relay in Russia for reasons unknown — www.imore.com/…
• Work to get Linux onto M1 Macs is progressing faster than many expected: Linux is now ‘usable’ on Apple’s M1 Macs — www.imore.com/…
• Most of Apple’s new OSes for the year are out (but not macOS): iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15 Now Available — tidbits.com/…
  • Apple Releases iOS 15 With Live Text, Shared With You, Focus, and More — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple Releases iPadOS 15 With Widgets, Quick Note, App Library, and More — www.macobserver.com/…
  • watchOS 8 review: Letting you accomplish more from your wrist — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple releases Safari 15 with its controversial tab redesign — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇮🇹 Siri will speak Italian on Apple TV and HomePod once tvOS 15 is released — www.imore.com/…

Legal Latest

• 🇺🇸 A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit against Apple over privacy violations caused by human review of unintentional activations to proceed, though he did dismiss the other claim in the suit related to CA’s unfair competition law — www.macobserver.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• The apparently struggling Apple Car project gets another change of leadership:
  • Head of Apple Car project Doug Field leaves the company for Ford — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple Watch Software Chief Kevin Lynch Takes Over Apple Car Group — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: Apple taps Mercedes engineers for ‘special project’, likely Apple Car — www.imore.com/…
• Long-Time Indie Developer Wil Shipley Joins Apple — www.macobserver.com/…
• One retirement and some promotions — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple’s Corporate Treasurer Gary Wipfler is retiring, and is being replaced from within by Michael Shapiro
  • Alan Gilchrist becomes vice president of engineering for custom silicon and battery technology
  • Eden Sears has been promoted from senior director of brand marketing for the iPhone and iPad to * vice president of brand*
  • Two members of Craig Federighi’s team have been promoted to VP, Stacey Lysik & Ron Huang
• TIME names Tim Cook one of the world’s most influential people — www.imore.com/… & Deirdre O’Brien and Lisa Jackson among Fortune’s ‘Most Powerful Women’ — www.imore.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

• The nominations and awards keeping coming for Apple TV+:
  • Apple TV+ Shows ‘Trying’ And ‘Ted Lasso’ Earn Edinburgh TV Awards Nominations — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple TV+ earns seven Creative Emmy Awards for ‘Ted Lasso,’ ‘Calls,’ more — www.imore.com/…
  • ‘Ted Lasso’ wins big at the Television Critics Association Awards — www.imore.com/… (‘Outstanding New Program’, ‘Outstanding Achievement in Comedy’ & ‘Program of the Year’)
  • ‘Ted Lasso’ Scores Historic Win at 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards — www.macobserver.com/… (‘Outstanding Comedy Series’, Jason Sudeiki for ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series’, Brett Goldstein for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series’ & Hannah Waddingham for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series’)
• More Apple TV+ Device Support: 2016/17 LG TV owners can now use a new Apple TV+ app for their ‘Ted Lasso’ fix — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Arcade keeps expanding: Hit game Crossy Road+ is now available for download in Apple Arcade — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Music now supports dynamic head tracking with Spatial Audio — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Maps keeps improving:
  • Apple details iOS 15 Maps improvements, plans for 3D view expansion — www.imore.com/…
    • London, LA, NYC & the San Francisco Bay Area get 3D maps now
    • Philadelphia, San Diego & Washington, D.C will get 3D maps later this year
    • More cities including Montreal, Toronto & Vancouver will get 3D maps next year
  • 🇮🇹 Apple rolls out huge Maps upgrade in Italy and Andorra — www.imore.com/…

Main Stories

1. A Lot of Anti-trust Developments
   • 🇰🇷 Apple and Google Told to Submit Compliance Plans For New South Korea App Store Law Within Days — www.macobserver.com/…
   • 🇯🇵 Apple reached as settlement with Japanese regulators, agreeing to end it’s anti-steering provision for reader apps — daringfireball.net/…, www.imore.com/… & arstechnica.com
     • Related: Spotify says further App Store concessions still not enough — www.imore.com/…
   • 🇺🇸 Judge Gonzalez Rogers issued her ruling in the Epic -v- Apple case: daringfireball.net/… & tidbits.com/…
     • Apple won on 9 out of 10 counts, and are ruled not to be monopolists
     • Apple lose on their anti-steering provision, and there’s an injunction opening up referrals to outside payments to all apps (not just reader apps like in the Japanese case)
     • Many initial media reports cast it as a win for Epic, but that soon shifted as it became clear Epic are very unhappy and are appealing (making Fornight fans cranky) — www.imore.com/… & www.imore.com/…
     • Apple immediately declared victory, stressing the fact that they were not found to be monopolists — www.imore.com/…
     • Epic asked for their app store account back, Apple said no, in keeping with the judge’s ruling that Epic broke their contract with Apple when they snuck their own payment system into the store to trigger the case. Epic were also ordered to pay Apple $6M for commission it lost as a result — www.imore.com/…, www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
     • Apple have appealed the part of the ruling leading to the injunction, and, asked for a stay on the injunction while the work out proposed changes the say will make the injunction unnecessary. The filing also officially explains their decision not to let Epic back into the store ATM — www.imore.com/… & www.imore.com/…
     • Popular software sales platform Paddle have announced an API to facilitate 3rd-party ‘in app’ purchases. Details are sparse, but it seems it would work by adding a link or button in the app that takes the user to Paddle’s website in the user’s default browser — daringfireball.net/…
       • In-app purchase alternative from Paddle will see apps rejected, says expert — www.imore.com/…
     • Related: Microsoft Store For Windows Available to Third Parties – Including Epic Games — www.macobserver.com/…
     • Related Opinion: Marco.org — marco.org/…
   • 🇳🇱 Dutch watchdog finds Apple app store payment rules anti-competitive – sources — www.reuters.com/…
   • 🇮🇳 The non-profit group Together We Fight Society has filed an anti-trust suit against Apple in India over Apple’s cut of App Store revenues — www.macobserver.com/… (another App Store case)
   • 🇮🇹 Italy Calls iCloud Terms and Conditions Illegal — www.macobserver.com/…
2. The European Commission have published a directive to mandate USB-C as a universal charging port for mobile devices (and the un-bundling of chargers from devices) — www.brusselstimes.com/… & www.imore.com/…
   • The commission’s press release — ec.europa.eu/…
   • The directive needs to be approved by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers before it goes into effect.
   • When it goes into effect a 2-year transition period will start, giving tech companies time to transition
   • Related: Brazil Fines Apple For Not Including a Charger in iPhone 13 Boxes — www.macobserver.com/…
3. Apple’s ‘California Streaming’ Event — www.imore.com/…
   • Here’s all the ways you can re-watch Apple’s ‘California Streaming’ event — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple Fitness+ expands to 15 more countries, new workouts added — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple announces Apple Watch Series 7 with larger display and more — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple Watch Series 7 comes in 41mm and 45mm sizes and your old bands will fit fine — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple Watch Series 7 shares the same chip as the current model — don’t expect a performance bump this time around — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple refreshes entry-level $329 iPad with faster chip, 64GB of storage — arstechnica.com
   • Apple announces a refreshed iPad mini with huge new upgrades — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple says the ‘jelly scroll’ issue on the iPad mini is ‘normal behavior’ — www.imore.com/…
     • iFixit dives into the iPad mini’s ‘jelly scroll’ issue in its new teardown — www.imore.com/…
     • The new iPad mini powers through Pixelmator ML upscaling tasks quicker than an iMac Pro — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple announces iPhone 13 in 4 flavors: mini, regular, Pro, and Pro Max — arstechnica.com
     • iPhone 13 Pro Camera Features Include All-New Macro Photography — www.macobserver.com/…
       • Apple promises new iPhone 13 setting to fix macro mode switching — www.imore.com/…
       • New iOS 15.1 beta lets you manually control Macro mode for iPhone 13 Pro — www.imore.com/…
     • ProRes for iPhone 13 Pro coming in “future iOS 15 update” — www.imore.com/…
       • iPhone 13 Pro does not support ProRes 4K video in 128GB storage option — www.imore.com/…
       • One measly minute of 4K ProRes video eats 6GB of an iPhone 13 Pro’s storage — www.imore.com/…
       • Related: iMovie and Clips updated with support for Cinematic mode and ProRes video — www.imore.com/…
     • The iPhone 13 is thicker and heavier than the iPhone 12 — arstechnica.com
     • iPhone 13 is the first iPhone to feature support for Dual eSIM — www.imore.com/…
     • Early iPhone 13 benchmarks confirm all are fast, but the Pro models are monsters — www.imore.com/…
     • Filing reveals iPhone 13 battery increases — www.imore.com/… & iPhone 13 battery life tests show huge improvements over iPhone 12 — www.imore.com/…
     • iPhone 13 ProMotion has 12 different refresh rates, 7 more than iPad Pro — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple finally upgrades the base storage of the iPhone and iPad — www.imore.com/…
4. A decade without Steve Jobs
   • Apple marks 10th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death with touching tribute — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple releases ‘Celebrating Steve’ short film on its YouTube channel — www.imore.com/…
   • Tim Cook remembers Steve Jobs in memo to Apple employees — www.imore.com/…
   • Jony Ive on Steve Jobs — daringfireball.net/…

Quick Stories

• iWork Update Adds Pivot Tables, Mobile Improvements, and Collaborative Presenting — www.macobserver.com/…
• AppleCare+ Now Covers Cracked Back Glass on iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 Models for Reduced $29 Fee — www.macrumors.com/…
• 🇬🇧 🇦🇺 AppleCare+ Theft and Loss comes to UK, Australia — www.imore.com/…
• 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 AppleCare+ renewals come to France, Italy, and Spain — www.imore.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Apple launches Advanced Fraud Protection for Apple Card — www.imore.com/…
• Apple releases redesigned iCloud Mail for the web — www.imore.com/…
• Apple confirms iCloud+ upgrades with iOS 15 rollout — www.imore.com/…
• Apple’s updated MagSafe Leather Wallet has Find My smarts built in — www.imore.com/…
• Some Headphones Developments:
  • Beats launches A-Cold-Wall* limited-edition Studio3 headphones — www.imore.com/…
  • Find My support rolls out to AirPods Pro and AirPods Max — www.imore.com/…
  • Firmware update brings new Conversation Boost feature to AirPods Pro — arstechnica.com
• Two small App Store Improvements:
  • Apple confirms return of ‘Report a Problem’ button in some international App Stores — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple: Apps that create accounts must let people delete them by February 2022 — www.imore.com/…
• 📌 Apple schedules its Q4 2021 earnings call for Thursday, October 28 — www.imore.com/…

Legend

Note: When the textual description of a link is part of the link it is the title of the page being linked to, when the text describing a link is not part of the link it is a description written by Bart.