Let’s Talk Apple — Ep. 88 (December 2020)

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
• Ken Ray from Mac OS Ken – @macosken

The show starts with a the usual followups and updates on long-running stories, including a deeper than normal dive into the regulation question. That’s followed by a few quick updates on some Apple-related legal cases, some Apple HR news, and an overview of developments in Apple’s various service offerings. The four main stories are Facebook’s anti-anti-tracking crusade, Apple’s new AirPods Max, the launch of Fitness+, and the arrival of ProRAW. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller 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!

Followup

• COVID Update
  • 🇺🇸 California Launching COVID–19 Exposure Notification App in Partnership With Apple and Google — www.macobserver.com/…
  • 🇺🇸 LA Vaccine Recipients Can Add a Digital Record to Apple Wallet — www.macobserver.com/… & Los Angeles residents can prove COVID–19 vaccination with their iPhone — www.imore.com/…
  • Most Apple Employees to Work From Home Until June 2021 — www.macobserver.com/…
  • COVID–19 outbreak shuts down season two of ‘Mythic Quest’ — www.imore.com/… & Shooting of Mythic Quest for Apple TV+ Disrupted by COVID–19 Outbreak. Crew Angry at Response. — www.macobserver.com/…
  • ‘The Morning Show’ filming has been halted after a crew member caught COVID–19 — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇺🇸 Apple temporarily closing its stores in Los Angeles due to COVID surge — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇺🇸 Apple closes all 53 retail stores in California due to coronavirus surge — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇯🇵 🇦🇺 🇸🇬 Today at Apple is coming back to stores in Australia, Japan, and Singapore — www.imore.com/…
  • Surprise iiOS 12.5 and watchOS 6.3 Updates Bring Exposure Notificaton and a Security Fix — tidbits.com/…
  • Apple pulls app that promoted parties during pandemic from the App Store — www.imore.com/…
• 🇮🇳 Apple’s plans in India go off the rails a little as manufacturer Wistron fails to support workers during a massive expansion leading to riots:
  • Apple manufacturer downplays damage estimates following India factory riot — www.imore.com/…
  • Industry body says India iPhone factory riot ‘unacceptable’, promises justice — www.imore.com/…
  • Prime Minister ‘very much worried’ over Indian iPhone factory riot — www.imore.com/…
  • Massive hiring spree may have caused unrest that sparked Indian factory riot — www.imore.com/…
  • Trade union blasts Wistron violations following factory riot — www.imore.com/…
  • Scathing report reveals ‘serious violations’ of labor law in Wistron iPhone factory — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple confirms workers not paid correctly at India iPhone plant, supplier on probation — www.imore.com/…
  • Related: iPhone supply ‘tight’ with two Apple manufacturers on probation — www.imore.com/…
• 🇨🇳 China continues to cause Apple problems:
  • China pulls Tripadvisor and 104 other apps from app stores in the country — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple removed nearly 100,000 games from App Store in China in 2020 — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple Supplier ‘Lens Technology’ Used Forced Uighur Labor — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇪🇺 Regulators remain focused on Big Tech, including Apple — the EU Commission has published proposed legislation (the Digital Markets Act, or DMA) to regulate companies that act as Gate Keepers (like Apple does on its App Stores), and impose files of up to 10% of global revenue. The European Parliament has to approve the proposals — www.forbes.com/… & www.reuters.com/…
• Apple welcomes first developers to App Store Small Business Program — www.imore.com/…
• Apple’s new Privacy Labels have gone live — www.intego.com/…
  • WhatsApp wants Apple’s privacy labels to apply to iMessage as well — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple will put privacy labels on its website but it won’t satiate WhatsApp — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple’s Craig Federighi says it wants others to copy its App Store privacy labels — www.imore.com/…
  • 🎦 Related: Craig Federighi Shares Apple’s Four Privacy Principles in Conference Keynote — www.macrumors.com/…
  • Related: Apple Hearing Study unintentionally collected historical data from users — www.imore.com/…
  • Related: Ecosia now a default search engine option on iOS, iPadOS, macOS — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest

• Epic -v- Apple
  • 🇦🇺 Apple seeks dismissal of Australia Epic Games suit over jurisdiction — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇺🇸 Epic Games wants to depose Craig Federighi and Eddy Cue in Fortnite lawsuit — www.imore.com/…
    • The court later ruled that Epic will get to depose Federighi — www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: US Publishers Join Coalition for App Fairness Against Apple — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: Epic is sending Apple-themed ‘Free Fortnite’ press packages to influencers — www.imore.com/…
  • Related: Google Stadia arrives on iPhone and iPad in new beta — www.imore.com/…
• 🇺🇸 VirnetX -v- Apple: VirnetX have requested additional interest and royalty payments in the case they recently won against Apple. If the judge grants their request Apple’s bill would increase to over $1Bn — www.imore.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Apple -v- Corellium: Apple have lost one of their two arguments against the security company which provides researchers with virtual iOS instances for security research. The security research is fair use under US Copyright law. Apple’s DMCA claims can continue though — arstechnica.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Cydia has filed a federal anti-trust case against Apple in CA, alleging that the iOS App Store is an illegal monopoly — arstechnica.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• As Bob Mansfield (SVP Hardware Engineering) fully retires, John Gianndrea (SVP Machine Learning and AI Strategy) is taking over his role as the head of Project Titan, Apple’s car project — www.imore.com/…

Apple Services Updates

• Apple Arcade
  • Alba: A Wildlife Adventure by ustwo games is now on the Apple Arcade — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Maps
  • 🇨🇦 Apple rolls out massive Maps update for Canada — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇺🇸 Apple Maps expands Look Around to three new cities in the United States — www.imore.com/… (Denver, Detroit & Miami)
  • 🇳🇿 🇸🇬 Apple expanding Look Around to Israel, New Zealand, and Singapore — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Music
  • Apple Music is Now Available on Google Nest Speakers — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple Pay
  • 🇺🇸 Amtrak App And Website Now Supports Apple Pay — www.macobserver.com/…
  • 🇺🇸 New York City Subways Complete Apple Pay Support — www.macobserver.com/…
  • 🇯🇵 Apple Pay support comes to LINE Pay in Japan — www.imore.com/…
• Apple TV
  • Apple TV App Coming to Chromecast with Google TV — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple TV+
  • In Development
    • Apple TV+ renews ’ For All Mankind’ for season 3, season 2 landing February 19 — www.imore.com/…
    • Michaela Conlin joins ‘For All Mankind’ Season 2 on Apple TV+ — www.imore.com/…
    • Apple TV+ ‘Slow Horses’ Adds Olivia Cooke, Jonathan Pryce — www.macobserver.com/…
    • Apple working on ‘Dark Matter’ series for TV+ based on novel — www.imore.com/…
    • Apple TV+ dramedy series ‘Physical’ adds six new cast members — www.imore.com/… (Paul Sparks, Rory Scovel, Loy Taylor Pucci, Della Saba, Dierdre Friel & Ashley Liao join lead Sheila Byrne)
    • ‘Extrapolations,’ a new series on climate change, is coming to Apple TV+ — www.imore.com/…
    • Julia Roberts to star in ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ on Apple TV+ — www.imore.com/…
    • Apple TV+ renews ‘Servant’ for third season ahead of season two debut — www.imore.com/…
    • Apple TV+: Samuel L. Jackson Stars in ‘The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey’ — www.macobserver.com/…
    • Ted Lasso may end after season three according to creator Bill Lawrence — www.imore.com/…
  • New releases
    • ‘Wolfwalkers’ arrives on Apple TV+ — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇪🇺 🇮🇪 Ireland becomes one of the first EU countries to draft legislation implementing an EU directive from last year which mandated that streaming services offered in Europe should have at least 30% of their catalogue be European (originate in the EU, one of the EU’s special friends, AKA third countries, the UK, or, be created in partnership with companies in one of these countries) — www.gov.ie/…
    • Depending on how loosely defined co-produced is, this might be a problem for Apple TV+ (and Disney+) — www.imore.com/…
• Other:
  • LG adds AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support to its 2018 smart TVs — www.imore.com/…
  • You can now receive cardio fitness notifications on your Apple Watch — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇨🇦 Family Setup for the Apple Watch is finally coming to Canada — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇵🇹 Cellular Apple Watches come to Portugal via NOS — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇹🇼 ECG coming to Apple Watch in Taiwan December 15 — www.imore.com/…

Main Stories

1. The Anti-Anti-Tracking Fight Continues
   • Mozilla throws weight behind Apple iOS 14 anti-tracking plans — www.imore.com/…
   • Facebook Launched a coordinated attack against Apple’s up-coming iOS tracking consent feature:
     • Newspaper Ads: Facebook slams Apple’s new privacy measures in full-page newspaper ads — www.imore.com/… (NYT, WSJ & WaPo)
     • A Press Release: Facebook says Apple’s anti-tracking measures about ‘profit, not privacy’ — www.imore.com/…
     • A Letter to Advertisers: Facebook alerts businesses how Apple’s privacy protections will affect ads — www.imore.com/…
     • More Newspaper Ads: Facebook continues assault on Apple with second day of full-page newspaper ads — www.imore.com/… & www.macrumors.com/…
   • Apple responded to Facebook’s attacks by simply showing the consent screen Facebook are so het-up about, and explaining again, that they are not blocking anything, just giving users information and control — www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
   • EFF calls Facebook’s criticism of Apple’s privacy protections ‘laughable’ — www.imore.com/…
   • Facebook’s own employees are pushing back on its attacks against Apple — www.imore.com/…
   • Related: Facebook, Facebook Messenger top iOS 14 tracking charts — www.imore.com/…
   • Related Opinion: Facebook can’t hide its disregard for our privacy behind small businesses — www.imore.com/…
2. Apple released its long-rumoured over-ear high-end headphones — the AirPods Max for $549 — www.apple.com/…
   • Apple confirms importance of AirPods Max Smart Case in new support document — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple’s Support Doc: How to charge your AirPods Max and learn about battery life — support.apple.com/…
   • Cover your new AirPods Max headphones with AppleCare+ for $59 — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple’s AirPods Max will work with Windows 10 … kind of — www.imore.com/…
   • AirPods Max sound ‘really, really good’, says Rolling Stone — www.imore.com/…
   • AirPods Max reviews are in… — www.imore.com/…
3. 🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇮🇪 🇳🇿 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 Apple launched Fitness+ in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the US — www.apple.com/…
   • Apple Fitness+ lands today and here’s what the early reviews say — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple Fitness+ works on iPhone and iPad without your Apple Watch — www.imore.com/…
   • You cannot AirPlay Apple Fitness+ to your Smart TV — www.imore.com/…
   • Get equipment recommendations on the Apple Fitness+ website — www.imore.com/…
   • My Best Buy Members get an additional free month of Apple Fitness+ — www.imore.com/…
   • Life Time will include Apple Fitness+ as part of club membership — www.imore.com/…
4. With the release of updated version of iOS & macOS, the ProRAW format/feature Apple promised at the iPhone 12 launch event has arrived — www.dpreview.com/…
   • An excellent explanation of what ProRAW is from developer of iOS camera app Halide: Understanding ProRAW — blog.halide.cam/…
   • Pixelmator Pro Supports Apple Pro Raw — www.macobserver.com/…

Quick Stories

• Apple Launches First-Generation College Student Mentorship Program — www.macrumors.com/… (Launch@Apple)
• Final Cut Pro updated with YouTube and Facebook sharing support — www.imore.com/…
• Shazam 14.2 gets a new look and improved Apple Music, Spotify syncing — www.imore.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.