Apple announces changes to iOS, Safari, and the App Store in the European Union – Apple

From The Apple Newsroom:

Apple today announced changes to iOS, Safari, and the App Store impacting developers’ apps in the European Union (EU) to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The changes include more than 600 new APIs, expanded app analytics, functionality for alternative browser engines, and options for processing app payments and distributing iOS apps. Across every change, Apple is introducing new safeguards that reduce — but don’t eliminate — new risks the DMA poses to EU users. With these steps, Apple will continue to deliver the best, most secure experience possible for EU users.

I love how Apple frames these changes as introducing risks to users. A few other items of note:

Shared Journals for Day One

From Day One:

Shared Journals are a private space for your closest friends and family to shared life updates and memories. Shared Journals introduce a new dimension to journaling, offering a unique way to share your personal stories and experiences with up to 30 selected individuals, while keeping your individual entries private and secure.

I’ve tried to track most of the milestones in the lives of my kids in Day One, and knowing I can now share that with my partner is pretty awesome. I’ve been using tags to group these posts but now I can break them into their own journal that I can share and collaborate on. Day One is one of the best apps out there due to their constant iteration on an already outstanding product. I’m really glad to see they continue to thrive as part of Automattic, as I was a bit concerned when that acquisition went down a few years back.

Corporations Are Not To Be Loved

From Brent Simmons:

Apple doesn’t care about you personally in the least tiny bit, and if you were in their way somehow, they would do whatever their might — effectively infinite compared to your own — enables them to deal with you.

Companies like Apple love to fashion themselves as a lifestyle or an identity brand, because they know that if people watch their specific actions too closely they’ll be reminded they’re simply a business that needs to keep growing to keep their shareholders happy. I think it’s great to admire a company and certainly to have strong preferences about where you spend your money, but go into it with your eyes open.

I think Apple’s struggles with bringing 3rd party developers on board to build apps for the Vision Pro have a lot of causes but it certainly appears that the App Store chickens have come home to roost a bit. Gruber covered this a bit as well, but it just feels like we’ve hit an inflection point where Apple’s behavior is getting almost no support because there’s really no logical defense aside from the fact that Apple wants to make as much money as possible. Good for them.

Tesla reduces range estimations for Model Y, S, and X by up to 37 miles

From Jess Weatherbed at The Verge:

Several popular models are now showing lower range estimates in the US. The move comes after the DOJ opened a probe into inflated claims, but Tesla doesn’t give a reason.

I own the Tesla Model 3 Long Range and I can confirm that while the range on my car is great, it rarely lives up to the estimated range even if I am driving fairly conservatively. Glad to see the estimates being advertised is a bit closer to reality now.

2024 Social Media Vibe Check

About a year ago, I wrote about the state of things at Twitter. It’s gone worse than I could have imagined, although I won’t cover that here. There are a zillion think pieces on that Musk has done to that company and what it means for Twitter, social media, and our overall discourse. I’ll leave […]

Continue reading →

WWDC 2023 Wish Lists

Michael Tsai has posted his annual roundup of WWDC 2023 Wish Lists. As always, it’s a good mix of consumer facing and developer-centric asks.

The one common theme seems to be around quality and stability. iOS and iPadOS are nearly 2 decades old, MacOS is closing in on 25 years, and even WatchOS and tvOS are nearly a decade old. These are mature platforms that can stand to have a year of spit and polish applied while Apple (likely) rolls out a new OS. Let’s hope that’s the case.