Panel:
- Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
- Dermot Daly from Tapadoo – @dermdaly
- Gazmaz from the My Mac Podcast – @gazmaz
- Adam Christianson from The Mac Cast – @maccast
The show starts with some quick followup before moving on to look at a few staffing changes at Apple that made the news in August. The five main stories for the month were Apple’s continued political engagement, Apple’s continuing push into Education, some privacy-related stories, some AR developments, and FitBit’s release of their Ionic smart watch. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some shorter Apple-related stories that made the news in August.
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!
Followups
- The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has agreed to investigate Qualcomm’s claims that Apple is breaching its patents – www.macobserver.com/…
- A California judge has dismissed the lawsuit brought against Apple by the family of a 20 year old who was tragically killed in a road accident that seems to have been caused by a driver using their iPhone while driving – arstechnica.com/…
Apple Staffing Changes
- Matt Cherniss, former president of US TV network WGN America joins Apple as head of US programming for Apple Music – www.macobserver.com/…
- A group of 17 auto engineers have left Apple to join a startup named Zoox – www.loopinsight.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- Craig Federighi has taken over responsibility for Siri from Eddy Cue – www.macobserver.com/…
Main Stories
- Tim Cook’s Apple continues to obviously and actively engaged in public life
- In a letter to all Apple employees Tim Cook spoke out strongly against hate groups in the aftermath of the terrorist attack and violence Charlottesville, and clearly criticises President Trump’s response to the attack and the violence – Apple also donates to anti-hate group the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) and the Anti-Defamation League and starts accepting donation to the SPLC through iTunes – www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple also moved to removed ApplePay support from websites that sell hate-related paraphernalia including anything with Nazi symbols on it – www.buzzfeed.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- In an interview with the New York Times Tim Cook explains his political philosophy, and explains that he believes business have a moral duty to contribute to society as well as to make money – www.loopinsight.com/…
- Tim Cook responds to hurricane Harvey with a letter to all staff explaining how the company is helping victims on Texas, and starts accepting donations for relief to the Red Cross through iTunes – www.buzzfeed.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple urged the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish stronger net neutrality protections – www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple continues it’s push into education – specifically into teaching programming
- Apple makes a deal with more than 30 US college systems to teach Swift to over 74,000 students – www.loopinsight.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple add support for Sphero’s new R2-D2 robot to Swift Playgrounds – www.macobserver.com/…
- The fight over privacy rights continues
- A US judge orders that you can be forced to put your finger on a fingerprint reader, but not to enter your password – mashable.com/…
- Recent betas reveal a new feature in iOS – quintuple-tap the sleep-wake button to temporarily disable TouchID – www.macrumors.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
- The push towards Augmented Reality continues
- Apple release developer best practices for AR – www.macobserver.com/…
- Google adopts Apple’s strategy, releasing ARCore, an ARKit-like suite of APIs for Android – www.imore.com/… & www.loopinsight.com/…
- Fitbit join the Smartwatch market with their Fitbit Ionic – www.imore.com/…
Quick Stories
- Apple strikes another big corporate deal, this time with Accenture. The companies are partnering to deliver iOS-based business solutions to Accenture’s large client base (no mention of the Mac) – www.imore.com/…
- Apple continues it’s push for more openness from its machine learning team, publishing three news academic papers by the Siri team to its ML portal – www.loopinsight.com/…
- Apple announces it will build a new data centre in Waukee, Iowa (USA). The deal nets Apple $200M worth of tax breaks, but the company will create a $100M public investment fund for the city – www.macobserver.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
- Apple now accepting WeChat Pay in the App Store in China – www.imore.com/…
- Apple announces a special event in the Steve Jobs Theatre on September 12 – “Let’s meet at our place” – www.loopinsight.com/…