LTA 126: February 2024

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This marathon solo show starts with a lot followups, including Apple Vision Pro & DMA developments. Next we have some legal stories, just two HR stories, and a few highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The four main stories are a €1.8Bn fine from the European Commission, the end of Apple’s car project, Apple’s new Sports app, and a big encryption upgrade for iMessage. Finally, the show finishes with a rundown of some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in February including an M3 MacBook Air and updates to Apple’s Windows apps.

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.

• Vision Pro

  • Apple released a detailed description of how visionOS protects users' privacy — appleinsider.com/… (PDF of Apple's Document)

  • Some notably app developments:

    • Looks like YouTube will make an Apple Vision Pro app after all — appleinsider.com/…
    • Webex for Apple Vision Pro officially launches with Persona support — appleinsider.com/…
    • Roblox sees Apple Vision Pro as 'an interesting candidate' for expansion — appleinsider.com/…

  • Vision Pro Teardown Reveals Japan as Leading Parts Supplier — www.macobserver.com/…

• The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is now in effect and we know a little more about Apple's (still cantankerous) compliance, which is now live — appleinsider.com/…

  • Apple’s iMessage is not a “core platform” in EU, so it can stay walled off — arstechnica.com

  • Apple released a document detailing the reasons behind their DMA compliance approach — appleinsider.com/… (PDF of Apple's Document)

  • We now know what the browser selection screen looks like — www.theverge.com/…

  • Apple sneakily got its way on Progressive Web Apps — initially they blocked them because the DMA required Apple to allow any browser engine, and that would make security impossible, everyone lost their minds, so Apple brought them back as Webkit only and everyone but Apple is claiming victory — arstechnica.com/…

  • How iOS Is Determining Eligibility for Alternative App Marketplaces in the European Union — daringfireball.net/…

    • Third-party App Stores will only work for 30 days if you leave the EU — appleinsider.com/…

  • Apple updates rules surrounding EU DMA compliance to address developer concerns — appleinsider.com/…

    • No more €1M credit note
    • A one-time-only escape hatch from the new rules and their core platform fee if your app unexpectedly reaches 1M downloads

  • Apple have released their first compliance report: www.apple.com/…

    • It includes some future plans: Apple Wants to Make It “User-Friendly” to Switch From iPhone to Android — www.macobserver.com/… (by 'fall 2025' )

  • Setapp announces beta of iOS app store for the EU — appleinsider.com/…

  • After initially approving a developer account for Epic's Swedish subsidiary, and after Epic announcing an EU-only 3rd-party App Store, Apple killed the account

    • 'Fortnite' will return to the iPhone, but only in the EU — appleinsider.com/…
    • 'Verifiably untrustworthy' Epic Games iOS app store plans in EU killed by Apple — appleinsider.com/…
    • Apple's explanation — www.apple.com/…
    • EU tells Apple to justify its blocking of Epic Games — appleinsider.com/…
    • EU DMA architect says Apple seems to want to be fined for non-compliance — appleinsider.com/… (German MEP Andreas Schwab)
    • Apple relents, reinstates Epic Games developer account — www.cultofmac.com/…
    • Opinion: John Gruber's takes: Before reversal — daringfireball.net/… & After Reversal — daringfireball.net/…

• Following on from Tim Cook's teasing of big AI annoucements later in the year during last month's earnings call, there have been some more minor AI developments since:

  • Together with researchers in the University of California, Apple have released an AI image editing model (image + prompt → new image) named MGIE for MLLM-Guided Image Editing — appleinsider.com/… & www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Apple has built a new generative AI tool for animating images — appleinsider.com/… ('Keyframer', image + prompt → video)
  • Whipsmart: Apple buys 32 AI startups in 2023 — www.cultofmac.com/… (report by Statista)
  • Apple joins Meta, Google, Facebook on new US government AI safety initiative — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest

• Battery Gate is not quite finished yet: Apple to pay $14.4M to settle Canadian 'Batterygate' lawsuit — appleinsider.com/…
• A win for Apple Watch this month: Apple beats antitrust lawsuit from AliveCor — appleinsider.com/… (ruling by a District Judge, so could be appealed)
• Apple -v- VirnetX is finally over as the US Supreme Court refuses to hear VirnetX's appear of the overturning of their original win against Apple — appleinsider.com/… (TL;DR, Apple won in the end)
• Apple sues US Patent Office over augmented reality trademarks — appleinsider.com/… ('Reality Composer' & 'Reality Converter')

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• Another member of Jony Ive's core design team departs Apple after 32 years — appleinsider.com/… (Bart Andre)
• Industrial unrest continues: Hundreds strike at Apple supplier Flex's plant in India — appleinsider.com/… (pay, conditions, and union recognition)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

• Apple TV+

  • Content:

    • Apple TV+ snags critically acclaimed Sundance film starring Lily Gladstone — appleinsider.com/… ('Fancy Dance')
    • Watch 51 classic movies for free on Apple TV+ — appleinsider.com/…
    • “Friday Night Baseball” returns to Apple TV+ on March 29 — www.apple.com/…

  • Awards:

    • Apple TV+ 'Lessons in Chemistry' wins at DGA Awards — appleinsider.com/… (Directors Guild of America)
    • 'Killers of the Flower Moon' snags one SAG Award for Apple TV+ — appleinsider.com/… (Screen Actors Guild awarded Best Actress to Lily Gladstone)

  • Related: Netflix ends subscriptions for legacy in-app payment users — appleinsider.com/…

• Apple Music

  • Apple Music Replay Updated with Monthly Listening Statistics — www.macstories.net/…
  • Apple Music Debuts Heavy Rotation, A New Daily Made For You Playlist — www.macstories.net/…

• ApplePay & Apple Card

  • Apple Cash can now be used as a credit card — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Apple Pay Later loans now appear on your credit report — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Apple Card, Savings data now available in more third-party budget apps — appleinsider.com/…
  • Related: PayPal brings Tap to Pay on iPhone support for its business users — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories

1. The European Commission Fines Apple Over €1.8 Billion — www.macstories.net/…

   • The root cause is Apple's anti-steering rules which prevented music services like Spotify from letting users know they could subscribe cheaper on their website than via in-app-purchase
   • Apple blames Spotify for $1.95 billion fine over "abusive" App store rules — www.bleepingcomputer.com/… (Apple's full response)

2. After a decade of stops and starts, Apple kills its electric car project — arstechnica.com/…

   • Opinion: How indecision and hubris killed the Apple car — www.cultofmac.com/…

3. Apple Launches Free Sports App in the US, UK, and Canada — www.macstories.net/…

   • Apple Sports: A free iPhone app to get you the score, fast — sixcolors.com/…
   • Apple brings live scores to new Apple Sports app — appleinsider.com/…
   • Hands on: Apple Sports brings a limited experience to tracking your favorite teams — appleinsider.com/…
   • Opinion & Analysis: John Gruber's thoughts on Apple Sporst — daringfireball.net/…

4. Apple have released PQ3, a major update to iMessage encryption to make it 'Quantum Safe' — security.apple.com/…

   • Apple is hardening iMessage encryption now to protect it from a threat that doesn't exist yet — appleinsider.com/…

Quick Stories

• Apple's Self Service Repair expanding to M3 Macs — appleinsider.com/… & Apple expands Self Service Repair for Mac, adds Diagnostics, and updates System Configuration — www.apple.com/…

• Apple says the iPhone 15 battery is more durable than it originally thought — appleinsider.com/…

• Apple update all their OSes:

  • visionOS 1.1 tries to make Personas less unsettling, plus other Apple OS updates — arstechnica.com
  • iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 Add Podcast Transcripts, Fix Zero-Day Vulnerabilities — tidbits.com/… (Apple's Press Release about Podcast Transcripts)
  • macOS Sonoma 14.4 now available with podcast captions and new emoji — appleinsider.com/…
  • Migration Assistant gets updated for macOS Sonoma — appleinsider.com/…

• The MacBook Air gets updated: M3 Processor, Wifi 6E & support for two external displays — appleinsider.com/… & arstechnica.com/… (Apple's Press Release)

  • Early benchmarks show M3 chip gives MacBook Air hefty performance boost — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Opinion: 2024 MacBook Air review roundup: Serious performance boost — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Related: Research from CIRP finds that 90% of Macs sold are now laptops — appleinsider.com/…

• Select iPhones, Apple Watches Have Slightly Higher Trade-in Values at Apple Now — www.macobserver.com/…

• The death of iTunes continues with a big update for Apple's Windows apps — www.macstories.net/…

  • Updated version of iCloud for Windows
  • Stand-alone Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Devices apps get their first production releases (they had been marked as 'preview')

• Apple Releases New Spring Colors for iPhone Cases and Watch Bands — www.macstories.net/…

• No real news out of this year's annual shareholders meeting: Everything went Apple's way at the annual shareholders meeting — 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.