Let’s Talk Apple — Ep. 94 (June 2021)

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
• Steve Harris from Reinvented Software – @steveharris

The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by some Apple HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s subscription services. The three main stories are scrutiny from regulators and law makers on both sides of the Atlantic, WWDC, and Windows 11. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller Apple-related stories that made the news in June.

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:
  • All 511 international Apple Stores are now open after 17 months of closures — www.imore.com/…
    • Related: Apple banks on physical stores as economies reopen, retail chief says — www.reuters.com/…
  • Apple extends its COVID–19 (RED) partnership through the end of 2021 — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Podcasts subscriptions are now live for creators and listeners — www.imore.com/…
• Apple continue to push spacial audio:
  • Spatial Audio is coming to Apple Music on Android — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple will add Spatial Audio support to Logic Pro ‘later this year’ — www.imore.com/…
  • Related: Deezer takes on Apple Music’s Spatial Audio with ‘360 Sessions’ — www.imore.com/…
• Gaming Subscription Services on iOS (via Safari) go live:
  • Google Stadia on iPhone and iPad has ‘left the experimental stage,’ says Google — www.imore.com/…
  • Microsoft’s xCloud XBox gaming subscription comes out of beta on all platforms — www.imore.com/…
  • Related: Xbox expands ‘Designed for Xbox’ mobile gaming accessories to iOS — www.imore.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• Ulrich Hanz, a former BMW executive, hired by Apple, Bloomberg reports. — www.imore.com/…

Apple Services Update

• A lot of new games are coming to Apple Arcade at the moment:
  • Angry Birds, Doodle God, and Alto’s Odyssey are coming to Apple Arcade — www.imore.com/…
  • Classics Leo’s Fortune and INKS are now available in Apple Arcade — www.imore.com/…
  • Solitaire Stories makes solitaire cool and it’s on Apple Arcade today — www.imore.com/…
  • Destroy the competition in Detonation Racing on Apple Arcade ‘soon’ — www.imore.com/…
• Apple TV+ grows up – 1 year trials (with many extensions) replaced by a 3 month trial, and those of us on the ever extending extensions will finally be billed — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: Apple TV+ has 112 wins, 389 award nominations and it’s just getting started — www.imore.com/… — and awards Season is not quite done yet!
    • Oprah and ‘1971’ Score Wins For Apple TV+ at Critics Choice Real TV Awards — www.macobserver.com/…
    • Apple TV+ Animated Series ‘Stillwater’ Earns Peabody Award — www.macobserver.com/…
    • Apple TV+ grabs a whopping 25 Daytime Emmy Awards nominations — www.imore.com/…
  • Related: Apple preview their summer lineup — www.macrumors.com/…

Main Stories

1. Anti-Trust
   • Europe
     • 🇬🇧 The UK Competition and Markets Authority have launched an investigation into whether Apple & Google’s market power is detrimental to user and other businesses — www.macobserver.com/…
     • 🇩🇪 Apple is going to have to deal a new German antitrust probe into its platforms — www.imore.com/…
     • 🇳🇱 Access to NFC technology like Apple Pay needs new rules, says Dutch market authority — www.imore.com/…
     • 🇪🇺 EU identifies areas of antitrust concern in smart home sector, names Apple — www.imore.com/…
       1. Exclusivity and tying practices
       2. Voice assistants & smart devices OSes are intermediaries between users and devices
       3. Extensive access to data
       4. Lack of interoperability
   • 🇺🇸 US
     • National right to repair legislation introduced in the House — appleinsider.com/…
     • House lawmakers introduce five bipartisan bills to unwind tech monopolies — www.theverge.com/…
       1. Empower DOJ & FTC to break up tech firms by forcing the sale of parts of their businesses that create conflicts of interest (e.g. Amazon Basics)
       2. Ban companies boosting their own services over rivals (e.g. Google services in Google search results)
          • Related: Apple Pre-Installed Apps Would Be Banned Under Antitrust Package — www.bloomberg.com/…
       3. Block acquisitions of nascent rivals (i.e. don’t let another Instagram happen)
       4. Boost merger filing fees for large companies (to fund anti-trust regulators)
       5. Force data interoperability
     • House Committee approves huge antitrust bill, but it was close… — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple’s Response:
       • Apple slams proposed antitrust legislation in scathing letter to committee — www.imore.com/…
       • Apple Justifies iOS App Store’s Tight Control in White Paper — tidbits.com/…
       • Apple’s Tim Cook: Sideloading is “not in the best interests of the user” — arstechnica.com
       • Apple exec: “Sideloading in this case is actually eliminating choice” — arstechnica.com (head of user privacy Erik Neuenschwander)
       • Related: 🇪🇺 EU chief warns Apple not to use privacy and security as antitrust shield — www.imore.com/…
2. WWDC
   • The Keynote (Here’s all of the ways you can rewatch the WWDC 2021 keynote — www.imore.com/…)
     • Apple officially unveils iOS 15 at WWDC 2021 — www.imore.com/…
       • Is my iPhone compatible with iOS 15? — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple announces iPadOS 15 at WWDC 2021 — www.imore.com/…
       • iPadOS 15 Improves Multitasking, Adds iPhone Features — tidbits.com/…
       • Apple debuts massive Swift Playgrounds update with iPadOS 15 — www.imore.com/…
       • Is my iPad compatible with iPadOS 15? — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple announces watchOS 8 at WWDC 2021 — www.imore.com/…
       • watchOS 8 expands Always-On display support to more apps including Timers, Podcasts, Mindfulness, and more — www.imore.com/…
       • Is my Apple Watch compatible with watchOS 8? — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple announces macOS Monterey at WWDC 2021 — www.imore.com/…
       • Is my Mac compatible with macOS Monterey? — www.imore.com/…
       • These macOS Monterey features won’t work on Intel Macs — arstechnica.com
     • tvOS 15: Everything you need to know — www.imore.com/…
       • Is my Apple TV compatible with tvOS 15? — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple announces big new Health upgrades at WWDC 2021 — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple announces huge privacy updates to Siri and iCloud at WWDC — www.imore.com/…
       • 🇨🇳 Apple’s Private Relay feature for iCloud+ not available in China and other countries — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple is taking on Zoom with its latest features for FaceTime — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple announced two enormous changes to Siri at WWDC this year — www.imore.com/…
       • related: Sonos takes a swipe at Apple for making Siri available to other devices — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple announces new tools, features, and more for developers — www.imore.com/…
   • Interesting Little details from the rest of the conference and the betas:
     • Snapchat and more can use iOS 15’s portrait video and audio effects — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple is making it easy for developers to add on-screen controls to games with iOS 15 — www.imore.com/…
     • iOS 15, macOS Monterey will support 15-second gameplay recordings via a game controller button — www.imore.com/…
     • macOS Monterey: Low Power Mode is Coming to The Mac — www.macobserver.com/…
     • One Mac can use another as an external display with macOS Monterey — www.imore.com/…
     • macOS Monterey can ‘erase all contents and settings’ like iPhone and iPad — www.imore.com/…
     • iCloud Keychain Gets Time Based One Time Passwords — www.macobserver.com/…
     • You’ll soon use Face ID to sign in to Apple TV apps with tvOS 15 — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple redesigns Apple TV remote app in iOS 15 — www.imore.com/…
     • Here are a bunch of iOS 15 features that Apple didn’t mention earlier — arstechnica.com
     • Ten “It’s About Time!” Features from WWDC 2021 — tidbits.com/…
     • Safari’s new design gets some harsh criticism: Regarding the Safari 15 Public Betas for Mac and iOS — daringfireball.net/…
   • WWDC21 Apple Design Awards Winners and Finalists Include CARROT Weather, Bird Alone, 1Password, and Little Orpheus — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Apple Opens Public Betas for macOS 12 Monterey, iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15 — tidbits.com/…
   • Related Opinion & Analysis:
     • Three Weeks with iOS and iPadOS 15: Foundational Updates – MacStories — www.macstories.net/…
     • 🎦 Annoyances Apple fixed in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey — www.loopinsight.com/…
3. Windows 11 — blogs.windows.com/…
   • Microsoft just turned the screw on the App Store by allowing third-party commerce in its own store — www.imore.com/…
   • Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11 with Amazon’s Appstore — www.theverge.com/…

Quick Stories

• Apple have released new Beats Studio Pro buds, and they play nice with Android — gizmodo.com/…
• Apple announces new Apple Watch International Collection bands and faces — www.imore.com/…
• Linux 5.1.3 adds official support for Apple’s M1 chip but it’s only the start — www.imore.com/…
• Apple to hold Q3 earnings call on July 27, 2021 — 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.