Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) - @bbusschots
• Nick Riley - @spligosh
• Gazmaz from the My Mac Podcast - @gazmaz
• Dr. Robert Carter from the Tech Doctor Podcast - @robert_carter

The show starts with a quick look at some interesting numbers and a quick review of the month's legal news before getting stuck into the six main stories of the month: Apple's Deal with Cisco, Google's transformation into Alphabet, some developments in mobile payments, some developments in smart watches, Tim Cook's somewhat controversial email to Jim Cramer, and the Galaxy Note 5's flawed stylus. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other shorter stories that made the news in August, including the demise of the Amazon Fire Phone.

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=”http://www.mymac.com/podcast/lta/LetsTalkApple-EP24-August2015.mp3”]

Links:

Notable Numbers

• iMore survey shows very high levels of usage by Apple Watch owners (93% wear it 5 days a week or more, and 95% for 8 hours a day or more) - www.imore.com/...

Legal Latest

• The European Commission says Apple's streaming music deals did not violate EU antitrust laws - www.macobserver.com/...
• US Federal Court of Appeals reject's Samsung's latest appeal - Supreme Court or bust now! - www.mercurynews.com/...
• Judge Koh slashes the attorney fees in the Apple 7 co. Anti-poaching settlement - www.macobserver.com/...
• Apple loses to Samsung in Germany's highest court - www.macobserver.com/...

Main stories

1. Apple does a deal with Cisco - www.computerworld.com/...
2. Google becomes Alphabet - googleblog.blogspot.com/...
   • The legal ins-and-outs get tricky though! - daringfireball.net/...
   • Google also move to a new logo - daringfireball.net/...
3. Mobile Payments Developments:
   • PayAnywhere comes onboard with Apple Pay - www.macobserver.com/...
   • CurrentC backer Rite Aid stops blocking Apple Pay, and gets on board with it - http://9to5mac.com/2015/08/11/rite-aid-apple-pay-currentc-blockade-over/
   • CurrentC's launch plans may be slipping - could be delayed till next year - recode.net/...
   • RELATED(ish) - Apple joins the NFC forum and takes a seat on the board - 9to5mac.com/...
4. Smartwatch developments:
   • Swatch Pick a fight with Apple
     • CEO calls Apple Watch a 'toy' - www.macobserver.com/...
     • Register a trademark for "one more thing" and 'tick different' - www.patentlyapple.com/...
     • Swatch say 'one more thing' was a reference to Columbo, not Steve Jobs (and tick different then?) - www.macobserver.com/...
   • Android Wear comes to iOS - sort of - arstechnica.com/...
   • Samsung release their Tizen-based Gear S2 smartwatch
     • A nice side-by-side video review against Apple Watch - www.loopinsight.com/...
     • Gruber's take on it - daringfireball.net/...
5. Tim Cook emails Jim Cramer in an attempt to calm the markets, but, some say he may have broken US SEC rules in so-doing - www.reuters.com/... & www.marketwatch.com/...
6. Samsung's Galaxy Note 5 comes under serious fire as a fundamental design flaw comes to the fore - if you insert the S-Pen (stylus) the wrong way around, you will feel no resistance or any other hint you should not do this, and then the device will clamp onto the pen in such a way that you have to damage your phone to get it out again. Samsung's response - RTFM! - arstechnica.com/...
   • Leo Laporte demonstrates just how bad this flaw is live on air as he accidentally does it to his own phone - www.loopinsight.com/...
   • some compare this to Antenna Gate, holding your phone wrong didn't do permanent damage to your device! - daringfireball.net/...

Quick Stories

• Some Staff Changes at Apple
  • Ian Rogers, who was in charge of Apple Music, leaves Apple - www.macobserver.com/...
  • We now know he left for LVMH - www.macobserver.com/...
  • Apple hires Nick Thompson, a former MS lead audio engineer on HoloLens - www.macobserver.com/...
  • Apple hires Jamie Carlson, a senior engineer, away from Tesla - www.macobserver.com/...
• Apple quickly smacks down rumours that it is setting up an MVNO - www.theverge.com/...
• Amazon extinguishes their Fire phone - www.macobserver.com/...
• Apple have announced a media event for 9 September - www.apple.com/...
  • All the usual devices will be able to stream the event, but so will Windows 10 users this time - www.macobserver.com/...