Intro
Welcome to issue #79 after a short break! From Apple Card, through the FTC investigation, Apple Music, iOS 13 improvements to privacy, iPhone batteries, new features of some apps in iOS 13, all the way to Apple Music - there’s is plenty of reading in this issue! But before we get to main content, let’s take a look at quick bites from the previous week!
- Everyone is/was listening: Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft.
- Samsung first mocks the iPhone. Then does the same thing and removes the evidence.
- Yelp does some sneaky thing with the restaurants.
- Samsung puts irremovable (sic!) ads on a $2,500 Samsung Smart TV.
- Apple reminds developers that since iOS 13, it won’t be possible to get WiFi ID, thus improving users privacy.
- Apple Watch is still on top of the sales list.
- Apple releases four ASMR videos.
Now, here’s the rest of issue #79! Enjoy!
General
Apple Card Preview
On Tuesday, selected users got a preview of Apple Card, which resulted in plenty of articles describing Apple’s new product. For now, Apple Card is limited to the US; it is, however, interesting to observe the opinions of users after a few days of using it. Looking at the history of Apple Pay, how initially it was available only in the US and now - after almost five years - it runs in 52 countries, it is safe to assume that Card will follow the same path.
For me, the credit card isn’t something super attractive, as I prefer debit cards and spending what I actually have. However, automatic transaction categorization, something that my bank currently doesn’t offer, is interesting as it gives more control over your finances. For now, it is limited however - it is not possible to neither define your categories nor assign a transaction to a different category. It is also worth to mention that you can’t export Apple Card transactions for now.
Take a look at Juli Clover’s extensive review for more details about Apple Card features.
Finally, there’s one more thing to discuss. Will Apple Card become a product that enriches your experience as a user? Does Apple really need to enter the credit card market? Callum Booth makes a few interesting points about that:
Look at it this way. Apple has traditionally made things for people to use — life-enriching products, if you will. Whether it’s old school hardware like computers, or new-fangled streaming services, Apple made things that let its consumers experience. Its products put people at the centre, so they can control of their own world. Hell, even Apple Pay was built with this approach, as it allowed users access to their pre-existing bank accounts in a way they wanted.
Apple releasing its own credit card is not in that spirit one bit. It’s not a supportive mentality, it’s an exploitative one. If Apple had entered the market with a challenger approach, if it wanted to shake things up, I’d be intrigued. But it hasn’t done anything like that.
And here’s an interesting bit from Matthew Panzarino’s article:
The payments interface is also unique in that Apple is pushing very hard to help you not pay interest. It makes recommendations on how to pay chunks of your balance over time before you incur interest. It places 1-3 markers on the circle-shaped interface that show you how much you need to pay off minimum, minimum with no interest and in full. These markers are personalized a bit and can vary depending on balance, due date and payment history.
Bug Bounty Program Updated
In February’s issue 52, I discussed the lack of a bug bounty program for the Mac and how it impacts the security of the platform. Well, this year’s Black Hat conference brought some great news! Apple greatly improved its program with higher payouts, covering all operating systems, not only for iOS like it was before, and iCloud. Not only that, but Apple will provide security researches with a special version of iPhones to make it easier for them to test system security.
FTC Investigates Apple-Amazon Deal
In issue 71, I linked to The Verge article that describes how Apple’s agreement with Amazon affects small business and unauthorized resellers operating on Amazon. It affects a lot since it basically forbids to sell any Apple devices and the requirements to become authorized resellers are rigorous:
Companies that want to sell Apple products through Amazon now have to meet one of two requirements. The first is to purchase at least $2.5 million worth of refurbished inventory every 90 days from Apple itself or through a retailer with more than $5 billion in annual sales, like a wireless carrier or big-box retailers like Target or Walmart. The second is to reach out directly to Apple to become an authorized reseller. Apple has yet to make its reseller requirements known to the public, but to become an Apple-authorized provider of repairs requires a physical retail space for customers to enter.
Obviously „unauthorized” doesn’t mean „rogue”, that piece from May tells the story of John Bumstead who was selling old, refurbished MacBooks. Now, as Nick Statt reports, FTC will take a closer look at this practice.
Specifically, Hubbard believes the Amazon-Apple deal could be a violation of antitrust laws that deal with anti-competitive conduct like price-fixing and illegal market allocation. “You’re not allowed to agree with another firm to set a floor on your pricing,” she says. “When you have these brands and a dominant retailer like Amazon, and Amazon says, ‘We’re going to make sure anyone who sells below your prices can’t be authorized to sell on your platform anymore,’ it’s basically a price-fixing agreement between a dominant retailer and a brand. And that’s illegal under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.”
This is bad for the customers. One more interesting tidbit from Statt’s story(bolds mine):
Now, Bumstead says a significant amount of low-cost Apple products have disappeared from Amazon. “When they deleted those listings, they deleted consumer access to the majority of old MacBooks,” Bumstead says. “[Amazon] only created those renewed listings for newer machines.” In other words, the lowest price of a used or refurbished Apple computer on Amazon suddenly jumped by hundreds of dollars.
The investigation comes amid unprecedented antitrust scrutiny of Amazon for prioritizing its own products and by using proprietary sales data to target competitors. European regulators opened an investigation into those issues earlier this month. In Germany, the company has already changed its terms of service for sellers like Bumstead, possibly as a concession to local regulators.
Apple Digital Masters
Chris Eggertsen writes for Billboard:
On Wednesday (August 7) Apple Music announced the launch of Apple Digital Masters, a new initiative by the streaming giant that combines all of its “Mastered for iTunes” offerings into one global catalog. (…) Launched in 2012, Mastered for iTunes created a set of guidelines and software tools (distributed for free) that allowed engineers to optimize their music for the digital download service format by encoding from high-resolution masters. The goal of the program was to create studio-quality sound files virtually identical to the original master recordings (aka „lossless” audio), which were then placed in a special “Mastered for iTunes” section on the app.
iPhone & iPad
iOS 13 Limits Background Activity For VoIP Apps
Aaron Tilley reports for The Information:
The change will restrict a feature that apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp used to make voice calls over the internet. Right now, the calling feature in these apps runs in the background even when it’s not in use, ensuring the apps can connect calls faster but also making it possible for them to perform other, unrelated tasks such as collecting data. Now, Apple is restricting that background access so that it can only be used for internet calls. (…)
Apple is making the change in the September rollout of its new mobile operating system, iOS 13. App developers have until April 2020 to comply with the new specifications.
It’s great that Apple is fixing this. However, the real question is: did they know about this when releasing PushKit back in 2014, thus putting user privacy in jeopardy for five years, or was that discovered only recently and planned to be fixed with next major iOS release? This reminds me of a Michael Kwet’s NYT article from June 2019 about iBeacons:
It should not be lost on the public that Apple created the first Bluetooth system of commercial surveillance. Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, recently wagged his finger at the “data-industrial complex.” Unlike other tech giants that monetize surveillance, Apple relies upon hardware sales, he said. But Mr. Cook knew what Apple was creating with iBeacon in 2013. Apple’s own website explains to developers how they can use iBeacon to micro-target consumers in stores.
Kwet’s article is well worth a read, however the author forgets about the bright side of the beacon technology, like navigating the blind in London Underground.
Fortunately, iOS 13 also improves the way it notifies users about app’s usage of Bluetooth.
Back to Tilley’s story. I would like to also point to a Facebook statement provided to The Information in regards of this news (bolds mine):
“The changes to the upcoming iOS releases are not insignificant, but we are in conversations with Apple on how best to address,” the spokesperson said.“ To be clear—we are using the PushKit VoIP API to deliver a world-class, private messaging experience, not for the purpose of collecting data.”
Yeah, right. So why did they try to keep PushKit in the main Facebook app back in 2014? As Tilley writes:
Debate about how app makers use the internet calling feature, which relies on a technology called Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, has been simmering for years. After Facebook split off messaging into a standalone Messenger app in 2014, the social media giant tried to keep the technology in its main app. But Apple figured out what Facebook was doing and made it stop, said Phillip Shoemaker, who until 2016 was the head of Apple’s app review team.
How „Silence Unknown Callers” works
In this ~2 minutes long video, Dan Barbera shows us how this very welcomed feature of iOS 13 works. Oh, I’ll definitely turn this on! No more shitty spam calls!
iFixit And Locking iPhone Batteries
Craig Lloyd on iFixit blog:
If you replace the battery in the newest iPhones, a message indicating you need to service your battery appears in Settings > Battery, next to Battery Health. The “Service” message is normally an indication that the battery is degraded and needs to be replaced. The message still shows up when you put in a brand new battery, however. Here’s the bigger problem: our lab tests confirmed that even when you swap in a genuine Apple battery, the phone will still display the “Service” message.
It’s not a bug; it’s a feature Apple wants. Unless an Apple Genius or an Apple Authorized Service Provider authenticates a battery to the phone, that phone will never show its battery health and always report a vague, ominous problem.
The entire narrative of this blog post is that Apple does this on purpose to earn money from replacing the batteries. There is, however, another side of this coin worth considering: safety. Batteries in smartphones can be dangerous - we heard stories about iPhones blowing up, not to mention Samsung Galaxy Note 7 being banned by the airlines. If Apple can guarantee more safety by visiting an authorized service provider and thus I can avoid my iPhone blowing up in my pocket - so be it, I’ll pay more.
iPhone X battery replacement guide on iFixit has a 2 out 3 difficulty points marking this operation as moderate. Out of 43 steps, there are 17 important warnings in red; some of them inform about possible fire and/or explode of the battery. I’m not so sure if replacing the battery on your smartphone is that easy. My favorite one?
Heat the iPhone until the rear case is slightly too hot to comfortably touch. Don’t overheat the iPhone, or you may accidentally ignite the battery.
Good luck with this!
Health/Maps/Safari/Reminders: What’s New in iOS 13
I came across four interesting articles, covering changes in these apps in iOS 13:
- Health app by Scholle McFarland,
- Maps by Ryan Christoffel,
- Safari & Reminders, both by Juli Clover.
Happy discovering new features with these guides!
Outro
AppleMusic.info
The definitive list of songs used by Apple Inc. in commercials, keynote addresses, presentations, and other marketing materials.
There are 1 569 songs listed there, from 1984 all the way to 2019. I love the Internet!
via loopinsight.com