LTA 112: December 2022

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
• Adam Christianson from The Mac Cast – @maccast
• Nick Riley from the Essential Apple Podcast – @spligosh
• Simon Parnell from the Essential Apple Podcast – @serenak

The show starts with some followups from previous shows, some regulatory and legal news, and some news from Apple’s various services before moving on to the four main stories — Apple’s continuing efforts to diversify its supply chain, three iCloud security enhancements, some new OS features (Sing, Freeform & Stage Manager on external displays on iPadOS), and Apple’s overhaul of App Store pricing. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other Apple-related stories that made the news in December.

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.

• Apple Pay South Korea launch delayed by regulators — appleinsider.com/…
• China’s on-going COVID outbreak
  • Foxconn could resume full iPhone production by early January — appleinsider.com/…
  • China Abandons Key Parts of Zero-COVID Strategy After Protests — daringfireball.net/…
  • iPhone Maker Foxconn Urges China Government To Ease Zero-COVID Policy — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Foxconn lifts Covid restrictions at the main iPhone factory — appleinsider.com/…
  • Foxconn forcing sick workers to stay on iPhone production lines — appleinsider.com/…
  • Foxconn hopes to retain workers by offering cash bonuses — appleinsider.com/…
  • iPhone 14 Pro lead times have returned to after-launch levels — appleinsider.com/…
  • Related Opinion: Apple’s business under growing threat from China’s Covid wave — arstechnica.com
• Apple’s Employee Relations Strugles Continue
  • US Labor Prosecutors Find Apple Violated Federal Law By Coercing and Interrogating Atlanta Workers — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple employees in the St. Louis Galleria store have released a press statement contradicting the Union’s statement that the vote was pulled due to intimidation, the Union is standing by their statement — www.macobserver.com/…
  • The newly unionised Apple Store workers in Towson (Maryland) will start formal negotiations (collective bargaining) with Apple in early 2023 — appleinsider.com/…
  • London Apple Store at White City unionizing with UTAW — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple accused of creating illegal pseudo-union at Ohio store — appleinsider.com/… (Workers organisation run by managers!)
  • Australia Apple Store workers go on strike over conditions and pay — appleinsider.com/…
  • Former patent attorney sues Apple over harassment & discrimination — appleinsider.com/… (Can’t verify the details, but if accurate, it makes Apple look bad IMO)
  • Apple’s internal report says that it doesn’t stifle employee speech — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple Will Remove NDA Clauses Related to Discrimination and Abuse — www.macobserver.com/…
• New Apple Car rumor suggests 2026 debut at less than $100,000 — appleinsider.com/… & Apple Car Plans Scaled Back Considerably to Ensure Launch by 2026 — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple have rolled out Emergency SOS via Satellite to France, Germany, Ireland & the UK — www.apple.com/…
  • Related: a couple were able to call for help via satellite when their car fell into a 300ft canyon in CA — www.nytimes.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
• Crash Detection is continuing to have some teething problems, but it is also working as intended:
  • Crash Detection causing problems for Canada’s helicopter rescue teams — appleinsider.com/…
  • iPhone 14 crash detection still sending deluge of false alarms from skiers — appleinsider.com/…
  • iPhone 14 Crash Detection gets man to wife’s accident before ambulance — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown

• Paris Commercial Court fines Apple over ‘abusive’ App Store policy — appleinsider.com/… (The ruling doesn’t require Apple to make any changes immediately because the up-coming Digital Markets Act will take care of the problem!)
• Apple should be fined $6.4 million over iOS 14 privacy, says French advisor — appleinsider.com/… (Issue with iOS 14 version of App Tracking Transparency, was resolved in iOS 15)
• New York State has passed a Right to Repair bill that gives users more rights, but isn’t enough to satisfy critics — appleinsider.com/… (It sounds like a good compromise to be, pairing is vital for security!)

Legal Latest

• Apple and Ericsson settle global patent disputes, sign new deal — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple -v- AliveCor (ECG patent dispute)
  • Three heart rate measuring patents used in suit against Apple invalidated — appleinsider.com/…
  • ITC finds Apple guilty of heart rate monitoring patent infringement — appleinsider.com/… (yes, this ruling rests on the three patents invalidated earlier in the month, so if AliveCor’s appeal of that ruling fails, this ruling probably falls too. ATM it us suspended, and its not clear it will ever come into force)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

• Apple Give out more Awards
  • Apple reveals the top podcasts of 2022 — appleinsider.com/…
  • NBA 2K22 and Sneaky Sasquatch make Apple Arcade’s list of year’s best games — www.cultofmac.com/…
• Apple Music rolls out to Tesla cars in holiday software update — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple TV+:
  • More international recognition: ‘Slow Horses’ Earns Television Nomination at UK Writers’ Guild Awards, a First for Apple TV+ — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Next Major League Soccer season starts Feb. 1 on Apple TV+ — appleinsider.com/…
    • Customers without Apple TV+ can pay $14.99 per month, or $99 for the whole season
    • Customers with AppleTV+ can pay $12.99 per month, or £79 for the season
  • Mythic Quest spinoff Mere Mortals coming to Apple TV+ — www.cultofmac.com/…
• The Apple Maps redesign has been rolled out to Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands & Switzerland — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories

1. Big trend of 2022 — Apple continue to diversify their supply chain
   • Apple speeds up plans to move iPhone assembly out of China — www.cultofmac.com/… (Apple have reportedly asked Indian & Vietnamese suppliers to increase their capacity)
     • India may account for 5% of iPhone production volume by spring 2023 — appleinsider.com/…
     • Apple plans to make MacBooks in Vietnam from mid–2023 — appleinsider.com/…
   • TSMC triples Arizona chip factory investment to $40 billion — appleinsider.com/… & Tim Cook confirms Apple will use TMSC chips made in Arizona — appleinsider.com/…
   • Apple looks to Luxshare for iPhone 15 Pro Max assembly — appleinsider.com/… (still in China, but diversifying number of suppliers)
2. Apple announce 3 iCloud Security Enhancements: Apple advances user security with powerful new data protections — www.apple.com/…
3. The features:
   1. iMessage Contact Key Verification (ability for users to check there is no key-shenanigans going on, will probably be similar to what Signal does already) — coming “in 2023”
   2. Support for Hardware keys for iCloud 2FA — coming “in early 2023”
   * Physical Security Key Support Arrives in iOS 16.3, macOS Ventura 13.2 Beta — www.macobserver.com/…
   3. Optional End-to-End encryption of all most all iCloud data (basically all but groupware data like mail, contacts & calendars) — already in beta in the US, roll out to the rest of the world “starting in early 2023”
   • How to use Advanced Data Protection & Apple’s other new security features — appleinsider.com/…
   • Apple’s Advanced Data Protection feature is here – what you need to know — appleinsider.com/…
   • Apple’s plan to scan iPhone photos for child abuse material is dead — appleinsider.com/…
   • FBI ‘deeply concerned’ about Apple’s new security protections — appleinsider.com/…
4. New OS Features — www.macobserver.com/…
   1. Karaoke with your favorite songs with new Apple Music Sing — www.cultofmac.com/…
      • Apple’s press release with all the details: Apple introduces Apple Music Sing — www.apple.com/…
      • Hands on with Apple Music Sing on iPhone, iPad, & Apple TV — appleinsider.com/…
   2. Apple launches Freeform: a powerful new app designed for creative brainstorming and collaboration — www.apple.com/…
      • Freeform Leverages the Freedom and Flexibility of a Blank Canvas — www.macstories.net/…
      • Blank Canvas: Hands on with Apple’s new Freeform app — sixcolors.com/…
   3. Get way more done with full external display support in iPadOS 16.2 — www.cultofmac.com/…
      • Related Review: iPadOS 16.2 and Stage Manager for External Displays: Work in Progress, But Worth the Wait — www.macstories.net/…
5. Apple announces sweeping changes to App Store pricing — arstechnica.com
   1. Many more price points become possible (effectively all useful prices)
   2. The minimum reduces to $0.29, and the maximum to $10,000
   3. Developers can set different prices in different regions, choosing for themselves how to respond to exchange rate changes

Quick Stories

• Apple’s rollout of Matter support has hit a snag:
  • Some Apple HomeKit setups are breaking after iOS 16.2 update — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple halts update to HomeKit’s new Home architecture — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple Adds New Home Architecture to Major Issue List — www.macobserver.com/… (Unofficial report about and internal data structure)
• Some minor new hardware releases from Apple:
  • HomePod mini arrives in Finland, Norway, South Africa, Sweden — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple offers limited-edition AirTags for Japan Year of the Rabbit — appleinsider.com/…
  • Year of the Rabbit AirPods Pro on sale in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple Expands its repair program:
  • ( ) Apple expands its self service repair program for iPhones 12 & 13 and Apple Silicon MacBooks to 8 European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden & UK) — www.apple.com/…
  • Apple has added Apple Silicon desktop Macs to its Self Service Repair program in the US — sixcolors.com/…
• Apple prepares to roll out 5G support in India before 2023 — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple have released their annual report on their charitable work — appleinsider.com/…
  • Since it was started in 2011 Apple’s Employee Giving program has raised over $880M to help over 44K organisations around the world
  • Over 76,000 employees have logged over 2.1 million volunteer hours
  • Apple matches the donations and makes payments to match the hours
  • The company also directly supports organisations working towards equality and responding to crises around the world
  • Apple’s press release: Across the globe, Apple and its teams find new ways to give — www.apple.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.