LTA 105: May 2022 2

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
• Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet

The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by two short Apple-related legal stories, two Apple departures, and some highlights from Apple’s services. The four main stories are continued COVID chaos, continued crankiness in Apple’s work force, some nice new accessibility features, and a fond fare-well to the iPod. The show ends with a quick rundown of some other Apple-related stories that made the news in May.

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 releases Studio Display Firmware 15.5 with improved webcam performance — www.imore.com/…
• Starting Today Apple Stores Begin Accepting iPhone-to-iPhone Contactless Payment — www.macobserver.com/… & Square announces a Tap to Pay on iPhone early access program launching today — www.imore.com/…
• 🇬🇧 🇨🇦 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 Apple rolls out the non-controversial child protection measures for iMessage to the UK, Canada, Australia & New Zealand — www.macobserver.com/…
• Regulatory pressure continues to mount on Apple:
  • 🇦🇺 Apple Responds to Proposed Antitrust Regulations by Australian Authorities — www.macobserver.com/…
  • 🇮🇳 The Alliance of Digital India Foundation report on app stores slams Apple & Google and calls for urgent regulation — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇪🇺 EU Looking to Force Apple to Give Developers Access to All Software and Hardware Features — www.macobserver.com/…
  • 🇺🇸 US Senate Bill Would Ban App Stores From Hosting Apps That Accept China’s Digital Yuan — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: Apple Developers Will Soon Be Able to Offer Auto-Renewable Subscription Price Increase — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: Apple Highlights the Success of Smaller Businesses and Entrepreneurs on the App Store — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: Apple highlight that $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions were stopped by their App Store in 2021 — www.imore.com/…
  • Related: Apple’s Fraud Prevention Analysis Notes 1.6M Risky Apps Prevented from Defrauding Users — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Apple Spent Millions Attempting to House Homeless in San Jose, Yet Issues Linger — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇮🇳 Apple Stops Accepting Card Payments in India Due to New Banking Regulations — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple responds to Final Cut Pro open letter, here’s what it said — www.imore.com/…

Legal Latest

• 🇺🇸 Optis -v- Apple: A district court in Texas has rejected Apple’s request for a third trial over whether or not they breached Optis’ 4G patents. Apple lost the original case and was fined $500M, but the jury were not told the patents were FRAND, so a re-trial for damages only was granted, and the judgement was reduced to $300M, which Apple now has to pay unless gets an appeal heard by a higher court — www.imore.com/…
• 🇺🇸 A CA judge has thrown out a class action suit that alleged Apple’s iCloud storage pricing is deceptive — www.imore.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• JP Richards, Head of Apple TV+ film marketing resigns, no successor announced, and not clear where Richards is off to next — www.imore.com/…
• CJ Moore, the director of Apple’s car project has left after just 6 months to join LIDAR company Luminar — www.imore.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

• Health:
  • Apple introduces ‘Audio Hints’ for Apple Fitness+ — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇲🇽 watchOS 8.6 is bringing the ECG app to Apple Watch users in Mexico — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Fitness+ launches ‘Meditations to Strengthen Relationships’ program — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Podcasts Brings New Features Including Download Control, Annual Subscriptions and Distribution System — www.macobserver.com/…
• Music:
  • Audi to add Apple Music to ‘nearly all’ of its new vehicles with update — www.imore.com/…
  • Waze Adds Apple Music to its Built-In Audio Player — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple Music 1 Features K-Pop Sensation BTS on Limited Series Prior to New Album Launch — www.macobserver.com/… & BTS radio smashes Apple Music record for biggest show — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Maps:
  • 🇯🇵 Apple Maps AR directions arrive in Tokyo — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇯🇵 Apple Maps Japan receives cycling directions, Look Around expansions — www.imore.com/…
• Apple TV+:
  • Apple are really promoting their new dinosaur series Prehistoric Planet, e.g.: T.Rex footprints on Welsh beach tease Apple’s latest release — www.imore.com/…
  • Related: Google TV App Arrives for iOS to the Apple App Store — www.macobserver.com/…

Main Stories

1. More COVID Chaos
   • Direct Impact
     • Apple delays plans to force employees into the office 3 days per week amid COVID concerns — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple employees in some U.S. stores must now wear masks, but not customers — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple intensifies COVID–19 protocols for WWDC 2022 attendees — www.imore.com/…
   • Supply Chain Effects
     • 🇨🇳 Major iPhone supplier cuts production because of COVID lockdowns — www.imore.com/…
     • 🇨🇳 MacBook Pro Manufacturer, Quanta Faces Revolt From Workers Who Are Getting Tired of Lockdowns — www.macobserver.com/…
     • Apple dealing with HUGE Mac delays across its lineup — www.imore.com/…
     • Thanks to Supply Chain Control, Apple To Be Least Impacted As Global Smartphone Shipments To Decline by 3.5% — www.macobserver.com/… (IDC forecast)
     • Apple is looking to expand manufacturing outside of China — www.imore.com/…
     • 🇻🇳 Apple to move iPad production out of China for the first time ever — www.imore.com/… (to Vietnam)
       • Related: 🇻🇳 Vietnam PM meets Tim Cook at Apple Park — www.imore.com/…
2. More HR Troubles
   • Apple’s Director of Machine Learning, Ian Goodfellow, Leaving Over In-Person Work Policy — www.macobserver.com/…
     • Apple executive who left over remote work policy joins Google — www.imore.com/…
   • 🇺🇸 Unionisation Update:
     • Anti-Union Talking Points in a Leaked Apple Memo Say Employees Can Lose Benefits and Career Opportunities — www.macobserver.com/…
     • Former Apple Employees Help Unionization Efforts As Deirdre O’Brien Visits Stores to ‘Listen’ — www.macobserver.com/…
     • Apple interrogated staff, restricted flier posting, and held mandatory anti-union speeches, body claims — www.imore.com/…
     • Kentucky Apple store workers announce union effort led by 20-year-old specialist — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple’s VP of people talks down benefits of unions in a leaked internal video — www.imore.com/…
     • Labor group pulls Atlanta store union vote, says Apple is interfering — www.imore.com/…
     • Related: Apple store workers get surprise pay rise as union pressure grows — www.imore.com/…
3. Apple previews new accessibility features — www.imore.com/…, www.macobserver.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
4. Fare Well iPod — arstechnica.com/…
   • iPod touch already starting to sell out less than 24hrs after being discontinued [Update] — www.imore.com/…

Quick Stories

• Some stylish new products:
  • Apple unveils new Pride Edition bands and watch faces — www.imore.com/…
  • Beats drops new Powerbeats Pro collaboration with paria /FARZANEH — www.imore.com/…
  • Special edition Beats Studio Buds with Daily Paper collab go on sale May 26 — www.imore.com/…
• Some Open Source goodies for Apple users:
  • KDE Connect Brings iPhone Connectivity to Linux — tidbits.com/…
  • 🎧 An excellent interview with the creator of Asahi Linux where he explains how well the Linux distro for M1 Macs is coming on — overcast.fm/…
• Apple expands its training offerings:
  • Apple expands its Today at Apple Creative Studios to new cities worldwide — www.imore.com/… (🇺🇸 Nashville & Miami, 🇩🇪 Berlin, 🇮🇹 Milan, 🇹🇼 Taipei, 🇯🇵 Tokyo, and 🇦🇺 Sydney)
  • 🇺🇸 Apple Introduces Professional Training to Help Growing IT Workforce — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇮🇪 Apple to expand Cork campus with new building for 1,300 employees — www.imore.com/… (Editorial by Bart: just to hammer home my point that Apple actually does business and employs people here in Ireland, it’s not a P.O. Box in the Cayman Islands!)
• Reminder: Apple announces WWDC22 program in full ahead of June 6 — www.imore.com/…
  • Relate: Lucky Swift Student Challenge winners begin receiving their Apple swag — www.imore.com/…
  • Plug: Allison will be hosting a live chat with her listeners (including Bart) on her Discord server — instructions at podfeet.com/live

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.