LTA 122: October 2023

Panel:

Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This is another solo show with just Bart. The show starts with a few followups, some regulatory and legal news, a little HR news, and the highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The four main stories are gaming on Apple’s platforms, Apple’s Q4 2023 earnings call, the USB-C Apple Pencil, and the M3-based hardware from Apple’s ‘scary fast’ event. Finally, the show finishes with some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in October.

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.

Disagreements over Apple's Carbon Neutral claim continued in October:
- Tim Cook brought a Danish reporter into one of their data centres for an interview: Tim Cook defends Apple against greenwashing accusation — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple's climate change efforts far exceed rivals, says environmental report — appleinsider.com/…
  - The report: Pathways to Decarbonisation (by Stand.Earth, in PDF format)
- Apple's 'carbon neutral' claims are misleading, say [European] groups — appleinsider.com/…
Some of the coming later features of this year's Apple OSes arrive
- Apple Watch double tap gesture now available with watchOS 10.1 — www.apple.com/…
- iOS 17.1 and watchOS 10.1 are here with useful new features — www.cultofmac.com/… (Biggest change is AirDrop over the internet)
Apple continue to support developers to get VisionOS apps ready for the Vision Pro's launch: Apple Vision Pro labs coming to New York City and Sydney in November — appleinsider.com/…
Apple announces nationwide support for ‘right to repair’ bill — www.cultofmac.com/… (They support a national law like the recent CA one, and will comply with the CA one nation-wide)
Apple Pay Later now available to all in the US — www.cultofmac.com/…
Things remain complicated for Apple in China & India:

Regulatory Rundown

India's antitrust regulator investigating Apple's & Google's business practices — appleinsider.com/…
Apple objects to Australia plan to regulate Apple Pay — appleinsider.com/… (Regulators want to treat ApplePay as if it were a credit card, which makes no sense)
Apple defends IAP against Japanese government App Store report — appleinsider.com/…
The European Commission has ruled that the Digital Markets Act will cover Safari as a Gatekeeper, rejecting Apple's argument that it has three different browsers, not one, so it doesn't meet the threshold — appleinsider.com/… (This argument was patently ridiculous, and the ruling quotes Apple's own marketing: "Same Safari. Different device." — oops!)

Legal Latest

Caltech -v- Apple & Broadcom: this case has ended with an undisclosed settlement — appleinsider.com/…
Masimo -v- Apple: the US ITC (International Trade Commission) has found that Apple breaches Masimo's patents, and if nothing happens in the mean time, they would be banned from import into the US on December 26th — appleinsider.com/… & arstechnica.com/… (Presidents can theoretically overrule ITC rulings, but it rarely happens)
BatteryGate rises again: UK tribunal gives $2B iPhone battery lawsuit the go-ahead — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

Apple's corporate reshuffle includes many VP promotions — appleinsider.com/…
- Tracey Hannelly → VP of retail engagement and marketing, Karen Rasmussen → VP of online retail, and Vanessa Trigub → VP of retail operations (all reporting to head of retail Deirdre O'Brien)
- Jeremy Sandmel → VP of graphics software technologies, and David Biderman → VP of audio and media software technologies (both reporting to SVP Craig Federighi)
- Harry Guo → VP of video engineering (reports to Myra Haggerty who reports to Johny Srouji)
- Rob Hardy -> VP of product operations, and Vashist Vasanthakumar → VP manufacturing design
- Donny Nordhues → VP of hardware engineering (replacing Yannick Bertolus who's retiring)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

Main Stories

Games seem to be a big focus for Apple ATM:
- Valve kills CS:GO on macOS, won't launch Mac Counter-Strike 2 either — appleinsider.com/…
- 'Star Trek: Infinite' grand galactic strategy game lands on Mac — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Arcade adds hit 'Dreamlight Valley', and more in November — appleinsider.com/… (Apple's Press Release)
  - Knotwords+ (Zach Gage): November 3
  - Football Manager 2024 Touch (SEGA & Sports Interactive): November 6
  - Downwell+ (Devolver Digital): November 17
  - Delicious – Miracle of Life+ (GameHouse): November 24
  - Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition (Gameloft): December 5
  - Sonic Dream Team (SEGA): December 5
  - Puzzle & Dragons Story (GungHo Online Entertainment): December 5
  - Turmoil+ (Gamious): December 5
- Full version of Resident Evil Village launches for iPhone 15 Pro and iPad — www.cultofmac.com/…
Apple's Q4 2023 Earnings Call — www.apple.com/…
Apple announces new Apple Pencil with magnetic storage and USB-C port — sixcolors.com/… (Apple's Press Release)
- Ultimate showdown: New Apple Pencil USB-C vs old Apple Pencils — appleinsider.com/… (Both existing pencils remain in the line, so things get confusing)
Apple's 'Scary Fast' Halloween-eve Media Event
- Apple's October 2023 Scary Fast Event: Replay Today's Keynote — www.macstories.net/…
  - If even the short event is too long: Watch Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ event in just 90 seconds — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple's October 2023 Scary Fast Event: By the Numbers — www.macstories.net/…
- Apple's October 2023 Scary Fast Event: All The Small Things — www.macstories.net/…
- 3 new CPUs; M3, M3 Pro & M3 Max — www.apple.com/…
  - Apple M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max boost Mac performance up to 50% — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - First M3 benchmarks show big speed improvements over M2 — appleinsider.com/…
- Updated 24" iMacs — www.apple.com/…
  - Apple’s M3 iMac still starts at $1,299, still doesn’t replace the 27-inch model — arstechnica.com
- Updated MacBook Pros — www.apple.com/…
- Apple released a 'Behind the Scenes' video showing how the entire event was shot on iPhone — www.apple.com/…

Quick Stories

BMW’s wireless charging will screw up your iPhone 15 — www.cultofmac.com/… (Also affects some Toyota models, software patch on the way)
[Shazam Introduces Dedicated In-App Concerts Section](https://www.macstories.net/news/shazam-introduces-dedicated-in-app-concerts-section/)
Apple extends return policy through early January for holiday shoppers — appleinsider.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.

Let's Talk Apple & Let's Talk Photography