Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) - @bbusschots
• Lynda Gousha from the Silicon Valley MUG - @llg4cdg

The show starts with a few followups from previous shows, a few quick regulation stories, a few short legal stories, just one Apple HR story, and some highlights from Apple's services and original content divisions. The four main stories are Apple's new savings account, the noticeable rise in malware targeting the Mac, Apple & Google's new anti-stalking standard for trackers, and Apple's Q2 2023 earnings call. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other Apple-related stories that made the news in April.

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!

[audio mp3=”https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta116.mp3”]

Updates & Followup

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

• Apple opened its first 2 stores in India in April:
  • Apple’s new India BKC store opening was met by massive crowds — appleinsider.com/…
  • Tim Cook opens first Apple Store in India — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple Store in New Delhi: India’s Second Apple Store Opens in Saket — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Enormous crowds turn out for Apple’s second India store — appleinsider.com/…
  • Related: Tim Cook meets with India’s Prime Minister, as tour continues — appleinsider.com/… & India minister says Apple will at least double local investment in the next three years — appleinsider.com/…
  • Related: Apple expands in India with new 10-year office lease in Bengaluru, India — appleinsider.com/…
• Support for accepting Tap-to-Pay payments on iPhones continues to roll out: GoDaddy rolls out support for Tap to Pay on iPhone for U.S. businesses — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown

• German regulators have ruled that Apple qualify for extra scrutiny under the country’s strengthened anti-competition laws — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple officially named as one of the 19 major tech companies that will be regulated under the DSA (Digital Service Act) — arstechnica.com/…
  • Related: After years of silence, Apple finally reveals how many App Store users it has in Europe — appleinsider.com/…
• EU warns Apple not to limit iPhone features to MFi-certified USB-C cables — www.cultofmac.com/…

Legal Latest

• Apple -v- Epic Games: the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Apple’s victory over Epic Games, but more appeals are expected — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple -v- Masimo: Latest chapter of $2 billion Apple Watch patent battle ends in mistrial — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• Apple have dropped their suit against Gerrard Williams III, a former Apple engineer who left to co-founder chip design startup Nuvia — appleinsider.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

• Apple TV+:
  • UK’s Bafta honors ‘Bad Sisters’ and ‘The Essex Serpent’ — appleinsider.com/…
  • ‘Ted Lasso’ star Hannah Waddingham lands Christmas special — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple continues to role out it’s improved Maps experience with six central European countries getting the upgrade this time: Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple adds 20 new games to its Apple Arcade catalog — appleinsider.com/…
• ‘Baby Shark’ studio Pinkfong now has exclusive shows on Apple Podcasts — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple Music Live returns for a brand-new season of exclusive live concerts with a special performance by Ed Sheeran — www.apple.com/…

Main Stories

1. Apple launched their previously announced high-yield savings account in the US (4.15% Annual Percentage Yield, no minimum balance, no fees, provided by Goldman Sachs) — arstechnica.com/…
   • Apple Savings saw nearly $1 billion of deposits in first four days — appleinsider.com/…
   • How To Open and Manage an Apple Card Savings Account — www.macobserver.com/…
   • How Apple Savings compares vs other high-yield savings accounts — appleinsider.com/…
2. Cyber Criminals are increasing their focus on the Mac:
   • Apple’s Macs have long escaped ransomware, but that may be changing — arstechnica.com
   • Security researchers found malware-as-a-service data stealer for Mac for sale on a cybercrime telegram group (Atomic macOS Stealer or AMOS) — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/… & www.intego.com/…
   • Security researchers have found a new data stealer trojan targeting the Mac which they’ve dubbed RustBucket that appears to be the work of the Advanced Persistent Thread (APT) group dubbed BlueNoroff which is believed to be tied to the infamous Lazarus Group who are believed to be the North Korean government — www.intego.com/…
   • Related: Apple issues first Rapid Security Response for macOS, iOS - The Mac Security Blog — www.intego.com/…
   • Related: the threat from iOS state-level spyware has not gone away either:
     • The NSO group is continuing to enhance & sell Pegasus, with three new zero-click exploits found to have been used in 2022 — appleinsider.com/…
     • The NSO group are also not alone: Another Pegasus-like spyware tool called ‘Reign’ was used to spy on iPhones — appleinsider.com/…
   • Related: Joanna Stern & Nicole Nguyen have expanded on their recent research to find that using just an iPhone and the passcode it’s possible for attackers to permanently lock users out of their iCloud account by setting up a recovery key — appleinsider.com/…
3. Apple and Google introduce standard to combat AirTag and Tile tracker misuse — arstechnica.com
   • Related: New York City handing out AirTags in car theft crackdown — appleinsider.com/…
4. Apple’s Q2 2023 Earnings Call — www.apple.com/…
   • This is Tim: Apple’s Q2 2023 analyst call, transcribed — sixcolors.com/…
   • Apple Q2 2023 results: $94.8B revenue, better than expected (with charts!) – Six Colors — sixcolors.com/…
   • Apple extends share buybacks by another $90 billion — appleinsider.com/…
   • Apple brings in robust iPhone revenue but Mac and iPad are down — www.cultofmac.com/…
   • Supply chain issue fixes, plus India expansion led to Apple’s excellent quarter, says Tim Cook — appleinsider.com/…
   • Tim Cook: Mass layoffs a ‘last resort’ and off the table for the moment — appleinsider.com/…
   • Apple still didn’t give specific financial guidance, but hinted at what to expect for Q3 — appleinsider.com/…
   • Related Numbers:
     • Counterpoint Research has found that AppleWatches have the highest customer satisfaction (>70% ‘very satisfied’), and of those who own both an iPhone and a smart watch, 80% have an Apple Watch (stat for Android is 71%) — appleinsider.com/…
     • Despite global smartphone market contraction, Apple is thriving with 21% market share — appleinsider.com/… (Canalys)
     • Counterpoint Research numbers show Apple growing Chinese smartphone sales by 6% in Q2 (YoY), while the market as a whole contracted by 5%, that was enough to give them the highest market share in the country — appleinsider.com/…
   • Related Opinion Pieces:
     • Apple Q2 2023 results, charts — sixcolors.com/…
     • Opinion: 5 reasons to ignore Apple’s rare revenue dip — www.cultofmac.com/…

Quick Stories

• As usual, Apple marked Earth Day with a series of announcements around the day, culminating in a long press release and the publication of their latest annual environmental report — www.apple.com/…
  • Apple expands it’s Restore Fund for nature-based carbon removal — www.apple.com/…
  • Apple commits to 100% recycled cobalt in batteries by 2025 — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple highlights strides toward limiting environmental impact in annual Environmental Progress Report — appleinsider.com/…
• The Steve Jobs Archive have released a free ebook titled ‘Make Something Wonderful’ featuring various writings by Steve — www.macobserver.com/…
• Jony Ive’s lifetime of design work honored with Edison Achievement Award — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple turns on HomePod’s smoke alarm recognition — appleinsider.com/…
  • How to detect smoke alarms on HomePod & HomePod mini — appleinsider.com/…
• Ford will stick with CarPlay as GM exits for Google tech — appleinsider.com/…
• iMessage comes to Windows via Microsoft Phone Link for iOS — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Hands on: iMessage on Windows 11 with Phone Link — 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.