Let’s Talk Apple — Ep. 57 (May 2018)

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Panel:

The show starts with a quick update on the eternal Apple -v- Samsung trial before moving on to the five main stories for the month. First a collection of App Store related stories including government censorship, a developer’s union, a whole kerfuffle around the Steam iOS app, and a challenge to Apple’s pricing model from Microsoft. Second, the on-going controversy over Apple’s so-called Butterfly Keyboards. Third, the release of two long-awaited products, AirPlay 2, and iCloud messages. Fourth, Microsoft’s Hub 2. And finally, Google’s Duplex ‘demo’. The show finishes with a quick rundown of a few other Apple related stories that made the news in May.

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!

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Legal Latest

  • Apple awarded $533.3M (down from ~$1Bn in the original trial) in the re-trial of the never-ending Apple -v- Samsung case (this is probably still not over, Samsung may very well appeal again) — www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…

Main Stories

  1. An eventful month for Apple’s App Stores
    • Probably related to GDPR, Apple has started to crack down on apps that share location data with third parties — arstechnica.com/…
      • Apps that are not asking for clear enough consent before sharing location data with a third party are being pulled from the store, with developers told to remove the sharing or ask for clear consent and then re-submit the apps.

      • Apple has also tightened the rules on what third parties can do with the location data after its shared with them:

        Data collected from apps may not be used or shared with third parties for purposes unrelated to improving the user experience or software/hardware performance connected to the app’s functionality, or to serve advertising in compliance with the Apple Developer Program License Agreement

    • Government Censorship
      • Apple was forced to remove apps that use CallKit (facilitates VOIP calling) from their Chinese app store — www.imore.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
      • Russia forced Apple to remove Telegram from their Russian stores, and there seems to have been some collateral damage, with the Telegram developers reporting that they can’t submit app updates for their apps at all ATM — www.imore.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
      • Starting with the next reporting period (from July 2018), Apple will include government app removal requests in their regular transparency reports — www.macobserver.com/…

    • A small number of indie developers have banded together to form The Developers Union, and ask Apple to bring free trials to the store by WWDC 2019, they plan to move on to campaign for other app store changes that will benefit developers — arstechnica.com/…, www.macobserver.com/… & www.imore.com/…

    • The Steam Link Controversy
      • Apple initially approved a Steam Link app for iOS — the app is basically screen sharing for gaming, allowing an iOS user to remotely play a game served from a steam-connected device on the same local area network — www.imore.com/… & www.imore.com/…
      • After Valve publicly announced that Steam Link had been approved, Apple changed their mind, and yanked the app — arstechnica.com/…
    • Microsoft put pressure on Apple by lowering their cut on their store (for most, but not all, purchases) — blogs.windows.com/…
      • Games remain at a 70/30% split
      • Consumer apps get an 85/15% split when Microsoft actively sends the customer to the developer through some kind of promotion
      • Otherwise, consumers app get a 95/5% split
  2. Controversy continues to swirl around Apple’s divisive new Butterfly keyboard design
    • The class-action lawsuits have begun to fly — theoutline.com/…
    • AppleInsider conducted an investigation and found that while laptops with the new keyboards are more reliable overall, the one component that’s less reliable than before is the keyboard — appleinsider.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
  3. iOS 11.4 & MacOS 13.5 finally deliver on two long-announced and long-awaited features:
  4. Microsoft Previewed their up-coming Surface Hub 2 – a 50" 4K touch screen tablet designed for use within organisations to facilitate team work — blogs.windows.com/…
    • The device also contains a 4K camera.
    • Up to four of the devices can be tiled together to create a single massive work-space.
    • The individual units can be used like very smart flip-charts, and when connected into larger grids they become more like smart whiteboards.
    • Microsoft will be trialling the devices with some select customers this year, and general availability is expected in 2019 (no mention of price, but don’t expect it to be cheap🙂).
  5. Google Previewed a Duplex, an AI agent that can make voice calls on behalf of humans and is designed to interact with humans over the phone like a human would. The preview was in the form of a pre-created video, not a live demo, and there was no live demos given to the media afterwards.

Quick Stories

  • The have FBI admitted that they repeatedly over-stated the number of encrypted cellphones they’re trying to break into by a factor of about six, misleading the US Congress and the public — www.imore.com/… & nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…
  • Apple continues to expand its Everyone Can Code program by partnering with schools for the blind and deaf across America — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple’s many year on-going commitment to the environment was well illustrated with news that it helped drive and fund Elysis, a partnership between Aluminium giants Alcoa and Rio Tinto to develop a revolutionary new Carbon-free Aluminium smelting process (regular Aluminium smelting releases a lot of CO2), but this new process releases Oxygen instead — www.macobserver.com/… & www.imore.com/…
  • In related news, Environmental Law Institute (ELI) has awarded Lisa Jackson (Apple’s VP in charge of their environmental initiatives) their 2018 Environmental Achievement Award — www.eli.org/…
  • There have been two developments in Apple’s unexpected shutdown iPhone battery replacement program:
  • The sale of Toshiba’s memory division has been finalised for $18Bn. The new owner isK.K. Pange a consortium which includes Apple and is lead by Bain Capital — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple have created a new Music Publishing Division within the company, but it’s not clear what they’re going to use it for yet, so stay tuned! — tidbits.com/…
  • Apple have increased their autonomous vehicle fleet in California to 55 vehicles with 83 registered drivers (second largest fleet in the state after GM Cruise with 104 vehicles and head of Waymo and Tesla with 51 and 39 vehicles respectively) — macreports.com/…
  • Apple has confirmed that they’ll be experimenting with drones in North Carolina in an attempt to improve Apple maps. The experiments are part of a program being run in the state to test drone use beyond what’s currently permitted by the standard FAA rules, and Apple stressed that the drones will be used in accordance with its strong pro-privacy stance — 9to5mac.com/…
  • Google announced and demoed Cloud Anchor, a new cross-platform API for sharing an augmented reality (AR) experience that works between devices running Android and iOS, and the first app using the framework is already out (Just a Line, an app that lets users draw lines in a shared AR environment) — www.imore.com/… & www.imore.com/…
Reminder — Apple’s 2018 WWDC Keynote will be Live-streamed on the 4th of June

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