Panel:
- Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
- Charles Edge from the Mac Admins Podcast – @cedge318
The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by some some Apple-related legal news, quite a bit of Apple HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s original content and subscription services. The four main stories are Apple’s new self service repair program, Apple’s renewed focus on business and enterprise customers, Apple’s suit against the NSO Group (makers of the Pegasus spyware), and the faux-scandal around Apple buying ads for apps they sell in their App Store. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller Apple-related stories that made the news in November.
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.
- ATT/Privacy: Apple Adds Private Click Measurement to In-App Advertising in iOS 15.2 — www.macobserver.com/…
- Digital IDs: Apple delays iOS 15’s driver’s license support until ‘early 2022’ — www.imore.com/…
- 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 🇦🇹 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇪 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 🇬🇧 The colourful new HomePods are now available in Australia, New Zealand, India, Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain & the UK — www.macobserver.com/…
- Continuing Scrutiny from Regulators:
- 🇰🇷 South Korea lawmakers ‘not satisfied’ with Apple’s IAP compliance — www.imore.com/…
- 🇪🇺 The DMA comes closer to being a reality: EU countries agree on common stance on new rules for U.S. tech giants — www.reuters.com/…
- 🇮🇹 Apple fined $150M over Italy sales agreement with Amazon — www.imore.com/…
- 🇮🇹 Italy’s antitrust regulator fines Google, Apple over data use — www.reuters.com/…
- 🇬🇧 Apple questioned over app age ratings in the UK — www.imore.com/… (Google questioned too)
- Continuing Friction with Authoritarian Regimes:
- 🇷🇺 Russia demands Apple must set itself up in the country by the end of 2021 — www.imore.com/…
- 🇨🇳 Popular flight tracker Flightradar24 removed from app stores in China — www.imore.com/…
- Related: 🇺🇸 🇨🇳 Apple seeks exemptions from tariffs on Apple Watch, Mac Pro parts — www.imore.com/…
- Related: Apple’s worldwide national security report shows drop in data requests during 2020 US election — www.cnet.com/… (The reporting period ends just before the January 6th insurrection in the US, so the numbers are not all that interesting)
Legal Latest
- Apple -v- Epic:
- 🇺🇸 The US Case:
- U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers rejected Apple’s request for a delay on the December 9th deadline for the App Store changes she ordered in her recent ruling —arstechnica.com & www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple have appealed that rejection to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — www.imore.com/…
- 🇦🇺 Apple vs Epic to proceed in Australia after bid to delay rejected — www.imore.com/…
- Related: Netflix have rolled out their subscription gaming service on iOS. Each game is listed on the App Store separately — www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- 🇺🇸 The US Case:
- 🇺🇸 Apple to pay retail workers $30 million over security bag checks — www.imore.com/…
- 🇺🇸 Apple one step closer to settling $100M App Store lawsuit with developers — www.imore.com/…
- After 10 people were killed in a crowd surge at the Travis Scott Astroworld Festival on November 5th, 125 survivors are suing Apple Music, Epic Records, Travis Scott, Drake & Live Nation for $750M for ‘the loss of mental and physical health, and human life’ (Apple Music streamed the ill-fated concert live) — www.imore.com/…
Apple HR & Acquisition News
- Apple have updated their Return to Work plan – the current target is to return to the Office on the first of February, though the company have made some concessions to workers, testing a hybrid working model, and allowing workers to work from home for more full weeks each year — www.imore.com/…
- Cher Scarlett, one of the driving forces behind the #AppleToo movement has resigned from Apple after agreeing a settlement with the company — www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky has joined Apple’s board as a director — www.imore.com/…
- Sam Jadallah, Apple’s head of Home Services is leaving Apple after just 2 years, and we don’t know where he’s going, if anywhere — www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- AppleCare Senior Director Randy Teele Joins GameStop — www.macobserver.com/…
- Former Tesla engineer Michael Schwekutsch has left Apple to become senior Vice President of Engineering at Archer, a VTOL electric air taxi startup — www.imore.com/…
Apple Services & Original Content Highlights
- Apple Music
- Apple Arcade continues to roll out new games:
- Apple TV+
- Tom Hanks’ ‘Finch’ posts the biggest opening weekend ever for Apple TV+ — www.imore.com/…
- Apple TV+ increased its market share by 1% in the third quarter of 2021 — www.imore.com/…
- Yet more nominations and awards:
- Related: Amazon brings Prime Video to the Mac App Store, including purchases — www.imore.com/…
- Apple Continues to roll out Maps improvements around the world:
Main Stories
- Apple’s new Self Service Repair program – US-only at first, and starting with most common iPhone repairs, but expanding to more countries and more products over the next year — www.apple.com/…
- Apple announces new Self Service repairs for iPhone 12, iPhone 13 — www.imore.com/…
- iFixit hails ‘huge’ Apple repair changes, but wants more — www.imore.com/…
- Analysts Find Not Many iPhone Owners Will Use Apple Self Service Repair — www.macobserver.com/…
- Related: Third-party iPhone 13 screen repairs won’t break Face ID after upcoming software update — www.imore.com/…
- Opinion: Apple’s New Self Service Repair Program — daringfireball.net/…
- Apple’s renewed focus on Business & Enterprise customers:
- 🇺🇸 Apple sues the NSO group, the makers of the Pegasus spyware in the US — www.apple.com/…
- Apple believe they have standing to take the case in the US because NSO Group signed up for hundreds of Apple IDs to spread their spyware, hence entering into a contract with Apple under California law.
- Apple are asking that the NSO Group be forbidden to use any Apple products or services, seeking compensation for the work they had to put in to fighting Pegasus, and punitive damages.
- Apple also announced that they are contributing $10M to organisations like Media Lab that seek out and expose spyware like Pegasus
- Apple Lawsuit Goes After Spyware Firm NSO Group — tidbits.com/…
- Related: Here’s how Apple will warn you if you’re under state-sponsored spyware attack — www.imore.com/…
- Related: 🇺🇸 U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware – sources — www.reuters.com/…
- The Kerfuffle over the ads Apple buys for apps they sell in their app store
- The original article: Apple Quietly Buying Ads Via Google For High-Value Subscription Apps To Capture App Publisher Revenue — www.forbes.com/…
- Editorial by Bart:
- There is nothing secret about these ads – they were clearly labeled as ads for the App Store, and they take users to the app store
- Apple have been doing this for years, and far from being a nefarious plot, it’s a great value-add for developers — one of the value propositions Apple offers developers is publicity for their apps!
- It’s completely normal for a shop to advertise what they sell!
- I see ads for Merrell, Under Armour, Sketchers & New Balance hiking shoes & trainers from Sports Direct all over the place — web ads, email blasts, billboards, store-front posters, and more! Sports Direct know I’m hard on footwear because I do over 20K steps a day, and that I love those brands, so they advertise heavily at me to keep getting me to buy from their store, and it works! Is that a plot to somehow defraud Merrell or Sketchers? Hardly!
Quick Stories
- Apple announced some awards of their own:
- New headphones in time for the holidays:
- Update to Apple Store App Lets You Save Products to Lists — www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple says customers have raised $270 million for AIDS fight with RED — www.imore.com/…
- Apple have also released new Product Red Apple Watch faces — www.imore.com/…
- Apple Releases iCloud for Windows 13 With Support for ProRes, ProRAW, and Strong Password Generation — www.macrumors.com/…
- Targus’ unveils new EcoSmart Backpack with built-in Apple Find My support — www.imore.com/…
- Canonical’s new Multipass 1.8 runs Ubuntu Linux in a VM on M1 Macs — 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.
| Emoji | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🎧 | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. |
| flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. |
| 📊 | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. |
| 💵 | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. |
| 📌 | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that’s likely to develop into something significant in the future. |