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Engineering at Meta:

To comply with a new EU law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which
comes into force on March 7th, we’ve made major changes to
WhatsApp and Messenger to enable interoperability with third-party
messaging services. […]

To interoperate, third-party providers will sign an agreement with
Messenger and/or WhatsApp and we’ll work together to enable
interoperability. Today we’ll publish the WhatsApp Reference Offer
for third-party providers which will outline what will be required
to interoperate with the service. The Reference Offer for
Messenger will follow in due course. […]

In order to maximize user security, we would prefer third-party
providers to use the Signal Protocol. Since this has to work for
everyone however, we will allow third-party providers to use a
compatible protocol if they are able to demonstrate it offers the
same security guarantees as Signal.

Unclear to me whether these third-party providers will, somehow, only function in the EU, or if Meta is opening this up worldwide. Also unclear to me is who benefits from this?

 ★ 

Engineering at Meta:

To comply with a new EU law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which
comes into force on March 7th, we’ve made major changes to
WhatsApp and Messenger to enable interoperability with third-party
messaging services. […]

To interoperate, third-party providers will sign an agreement with
Messenger and/or WhatsApp and we’ll work together to enable
interoperability. Today we’ll publish the WhatsApp Reference Offer
for third-party providers which will outline what will be required
to interoperate with the service. The Reference Offer for
Messenger will follow in due course. […]

In order to maximize user security, we would prefer third-party
providers to use the Signal Protocol. Since this has to work for
everyone however, we will allow third-party providers to use a
compatible protocol if they are able to demonstrate it offers the
same security guarantees as Signal.

Unclear to me whether these third-party providers will, somehow, only function in the EU, or if Meta is opening this up worldwide. Also unclear to me is who benefits from this?

Read More 

Thomas Ricker, writing for The Verge:

It’s DMA day in Europe, and I’ve immediately been prompted to
choose a default browser after updating to iOS 17.4. The list is
populated with “the most downloaded browsers on iOS in that
country in the prior year.”

This screen is ridiculous. I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks this sort of user experience is anything but confusing to a typical user. Someone who’s been using Safari for a decade, and doesn’t even know what a “default browser” is, might have to scroll below the fold to even see Safari as an option, depending on the random order.

From Apple’s developer documentation for this screen:

Up to 11 of the most downloaded browsers on iOS in that country in
the prior year that meet the above criteria will be selected for
the browser choice screen in addition to Safari. Apple will update
the list of browsers eligible to be shown on the choice screen
once per calendar year.

The current list of browsers shown on the browser choice screen
per country are below. The lists below are in alphabetical order,
on a user’s device browsers will be shown in a randomized order
per user. Click on a country below to jump to it.

If this is a good idea for web browsers, why stop there? Why not mandate the same sort of choice screen for every app? Mail, Calendar, Notes, Weather, Camera — why not require all of them to show a choice screen for picking a “default”?

 ★ 

Thomas Ricker, writing for The Verge:

It’s DMA day in Europe, and I’ve immediately been prompted to
choose a default browser after updating to iOS 17.4. The list is
populated with “the most downloaded browsers on iOS in that
country in the prior year.”

This screen is ridiculous. I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks this sort of user experience is anything but confusing to a typical user. Someone who’s been using Safari for a decade, and doesn’t even know what a “default browser” is, might have to scroll below the fold to even see Safari as an option, depending on the random order.

From Apple’s developer documentation for this screen:

Up to 11 of the most downloaded browsers on iOS in that country in
the prior year that meet the above criteria will be selected for
the browser choice screen in addition to Safari. Apple will update
the list of browsers eligible to be shown on the choice screen
once per calendar year.

The current list of browsers shown on the browser choice screen
per country are below. The lists below are in alphabetical order,
on a user’s device browsers will be shown in a randomized order
per user. Click on a country below to jump to it.

If this is a good idea for web browsers, why stop there? Why not mandate the same sort of choice screen for every app? Mail, Calendar, Notes, Weather, Camera — why not require all of them to show a choice screen for picking a “default”?

Read More 

Popcorn-eating-wise, I’m genuinely curious about Apple using a U.S. court decision as grounds for banning Epic’s Swedish subsidiary from holding a developer account.

Welp, so much for my theory that Apple was making nice with Epic Games — letting bygones be bygones and allowing Epic to open an iOS games marketplace in the EU. Epic, on their company blog:

We recently announced that Apple approved our Epic Games Sweden
AB developer account. We intended to use that account to bring the
Epic Games Store and Fortnite to iOS devices in Europe thanks to
the Digital Markets Act (DMA). To our surprise, Apple has
terminated that account and now we cannot develop the Epic Games
Store for iOS. This is a serious violation of the DMA and shows
Apple has no intention of allowing true competition on iOS
devices. […]

In terminating Epic’s developer account, Apple is taking out one
of the largest potential competitors to the Apple App Store. They
are undermining our ability to be a viable competitor and they are
showing other developers what happens when you try to compete with
Apple or are critical of their unfair practices.

If Apple maintains its power to kick a third party marketplace off
iOS at its sole discretion, no reasonable developer would be
willing to utilize a third party app store, because they could be
permanently separated from their audience at any time.

Epic seems to be arguing that Apple is forbidden from any sort of oversight over who runs an app marketplace under the DMA. If Epic can’t run its own game store marketplace, Apple isn’t complying with the DMA — that seems to be their stance. Common sense suggests that can’t be right. There’s got to be some sort of line a developer can cross that would justify Apple revoking their developer account. One can argue that what Epic did with Fortnite and in-app payments in 2020 doesn’t cross that line. But that’s not what Epic is arguing — they’re arguing there should be no line, and that Apple should not have the discretion to decide who can run — and keep running — an app marketplace.

I guess Epic is implying that the EU government, not Apple, should have that discretion? They don’t say so, but who else but Apple could have that discretion? But the European Commission isn’t set up for that sort of police work. That’s not how the EC works. The DMA doesn’t say that the EC now runs app marketplaces.

Epic quotes from an email from Phil Schiller to Tim Sweeney, back on February 23

Your colorful criticism of our DMA compliance plan, coupled with
Epic’s past practice of intentionally violating contractual
provisions with which it disagrees, strongly suggest that Epic
Sweden does not intend to follow the rules. Another intentional
breach could threaten the integrity of the iOS platform, as well
as the security and privacy of users.

You have stated that allowing enrollment of Epic Games Sweden in
the Developer Program is “a good faith move by Apple.” We invite
you to provide us with written assurance that you are also acting
in good faith, and that Epic Games Sweden will, despite your
public actions and rhetoric, honor all of its commitments. In
plain, unqualified terms, please tell us why we should trust Epic
this time.

Sweeney’s response:

Hi Phil, Thanks for reaching out. Epic and its subsidiaries are
acting in good faith and will comply with all terms of current and
future agreements with Apple, and we’ll be glad to provide Apple
with any specific further assurances on the topic that you’d like.

Best Regards,

-Tim

The termination of Epic Games Sweden AB’s Apple developer account was communicated in a letter from Mark Perry, a lawyer representing Apple, to Epic’s lawyers:

Mr. Sweeney’s response to that request was wholly insufficient and
not credible. It boiled down to an unsupported “trust us.” History
shows, however, that Epic is verifiably untrustworthy, hence the
request for meaningful commitments. And the minimal assurances in
Mr. Sweeney’s curt response were swiftly undercut by a litany of
public attacks on Apple’s policies, compliance plan, and business
model. As just one example:
https://x.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/1762243725533532587?s=20.

That Tim Sweeney tweet cited as an example doesn’t seem out of line to me. It’s strident, to be sure, but we know Sweeney endorses a regulatory structure that would legally require Apple to treat the iPhone as a platform more or less as open as the Mac. We know Apple disagrees, vehemently, with that — but I don’t see how stating that viewpoint ought to disqualify Epic from obtaining a developer account. Apple ought to stick to Epic’s flagrant breaking of the App Store rules with Fortnite back in 2020. It’s not even in dispute that they flagrantly broke the rules then. If Apple wants to make that a “lifetime” ban, they should just say so.

Citing recent tweets, like Sweeney’s, that are simply critical — even scathingly critical (or to borrow Schiller’s term, “colorful”) — just makes it look like Apple’s policy is that if a developer criticizes the App Store’s rules, Apple will punish them for speaking out. I don’t think that’s Apple’s policy at all, but some people think it is, and this situation with Epic just reinforces that.

Spotify, for example, is just as vociferous a corporate critic of the App Store as Epic is, and Apple hasn’t threatened them with revocation of Spotify’s developer program membership. The difference between Spotify and Epic isn’t in their rhetoric; it’s in their past behavior.

After Epic’s blog post was published today, Apple issued a statement to The Verge and 9to5Mac (and perhaps other outlets):

“Epic’s egregious breach of its contractual obligations to Apple
led courts to determine that Apple has the right to terminate ‘any
or all of Epic Games’ wholly owned subsidiaries, affiliates,
and/or other entities under Epic Games’ control at any time and at
Apple’s sole discretion.’ In light of Epic’s past and ongoing
behavior, Apple chose to exercise that right.”

That’s a stronger thicker-skinned argument. Stick to the fact that Epic deliberately broke the rules with the Fortnite payments stunt. Ignore the tweets arguing that Apple is abusing a monopoly.

Popcorn-eating-wise, I’m genuinely curious about Apple citing a U.S. court decision as grounds for banning Epic’s Swedish subsidiary from holding a developer account. What happens if the European Commission doesn’t see that ruling as applicable? Epic never lost a lawsuit to Apple in the E.U. So how is this going to pan out?

Read More 

Apple, in a support document on charging Vision Pro:

The light next to the battery’s USB-C port can give you a quick look at the battery’s current charge state when you’re not wearing Apple Vision Pro. The light turns on briefly when you connect the battery to the USB-C Charge Cable, when you disconnect it, and when you move or gently tap it.

Here’s what the light means when you first connect the battery to power, or if you move or tap the battery while it’s charging:

Green for several seconds: the battery is charged to capacity.
Amber for several seconds: the battery’s charge level is less than 100%, but has enough charge for you to use Apple Vision Pro.
Amber pulsing slowly: the battery’s charge level is too low to power your Apple Vision Pro. Keep charging the battery for 10 minutes, or until the light shows amber steadily (not pulsing) when you tap the battery.

Here’s what the light means when you disconnect the battery from power, or if you move or tap the battery while it’s not connected to power:

Green for several seconds: the battery is charged to 50% or higher.
Amber for several seconds: the battery’s charge level is between 5% and 49%.
Amber pulsing slowly: the battery’s charge level is too low to power your Apple Vision Pro. Charge the battery for 10 minutes, or until the light shows amber steadily (not pulsing) when you tap the battery.

This seems like it could and should have been so much simpler. Why not have 4 lights instead of one, representing 25/50/75/100 percent charge levels? It seems like madness that green means “charged to capacity” when plugged in, but “50% or higher” when not. That’s a big difference!

 ★ 

Apple, in a support document on charging Vision Pro:

The light next to the battery’s USB-C port can give you a quick look at the battery’s current charge state when you’re not wearing Apple Vision Pro. The light turns on briefly when you connect the battery to the USB-C Charge Cable, when you disconnect it, and when you move or gently tap it.

Here’s what the light means when you first connect the battery to power, or if you move or tap the battery while it’s charging:

Green for several seconds: the battery is charged to capacity.
Amber for several seconds: the battery’s charge level is less than 100%, but has enough charge for you to use Apple Vision Pro.
Amber pulsing slowly: the battery’s charge level is too low to power your Apple Vision Pro. Keep charging the battery for 10 minutes, or until the light shows amber steadily (not pulsing) when you tap the battery.

Here’s what the light means when you disconnect the battery from power, or if you move or tap the battery while it’s not connected to power:

Green for several seconds: the battery is charged to 50% or higher.
Amber for several seconds: the battery’s charge level is between 5% and 49%.
Amber pulsing slowly: the battery’s charge level is too low to power your Apple Vision Pro. Charge the battery for 10 minutes, or until the light shows amber steadily (not pulsing) when you tap the battery.

This seems like it could and should have been so much simpler. Why not have 4 lights instead of one, representing 25/50/75/100 percent charge levels? It seems like madness that green means “charged to capacity” when plugged in, but “50% or higher” when not. That’s a big difference!

Read More 

Speaking of new apps from recent guests on my podcast, Adam Lisagor has created a new app for Vision Pro that he introduces thus, with a clever one-minute video:

Welcome to the future of television. I call it … Television.

The gimmick is that Television offers an assortment of realistic-looking television, old and new, and you can just place them in the world around you. You can watch videos from your Photos library, and, starting with the 1.1 update, from YouTube and other web streaming platforms.

I don’t know if this is a useful way to watch video but I’m certain that it’s fun. And I think being fun is exactly what we need from developers in the early days of a new platform. In a weird way, that stupid beer-drinking iPhone app mattered. I think Television matters the same way. It’s just fun to plop a realistic old-time CRT TV on your desk. I get why Apple didn’t go this way — with skeuomorphic VR objects — with the system design of VisionOS, but that just means the opportunity is there for the taking for third-party developers.

It’s just fun.

 ★ 

Speaking of new apps from recent guests on my podcast, Adam Lisagor has created a new app for Vision Pro that he introduces thus, with a clever one-minute video:

Welcome to the future of television. I call it … Television.

The gimmick is that Television offers an assortment of realistic-looking television, old and new, and you can just place them in the world around you. You can watch videos from your Photos library, and, starting with the 1.1 update, from YouTube and other web streaming platforms.

I don’t know if this is a useful way to watch video but I’m certain that it’s fun. And I think being fun is exactly what we need from developers in the early days of a new platform. In a weird way, that stupid beer-drinking iPhone app mattered. I think Television matters the same way. It’s just fun to plop a realistic old-time CRT TV on your desk. I get why Apple didn’t go this way — with skeuomorphic VR objects — with the system design of VisionOS, but that just means the opportunity is there for the taking for third-party developers.

It’s just fun.

Read More 

The Iconfactory:

What if you had one app that gave an overview of nearly everything that was happening across all the different services you follow? A single chronological timeline of your most important social media services, RSS feeds, and other sources. All of the updates together in one place, in the order they’re posted, with no algorithm deciding what you should see or when you should see it.

That’s what we’d like to build.

Already funded, but the stretch goals are sooo… good.

 ★ 

The Iconfactory:

What if you had one app that gave an overview of nearly everything that was happening across all the different services you follow? A single chronological timeline of your most important social media services, RSS feeds, and other sources. All of the updates together in one place, in the order they’re posted, with no algorithm deciding what you should see or when you should see it.

That’s what we’d like to build.

Already funded, but the stretch goals are sooo… good.

Read More 

Apple’s Newsroom post announcing the speed-bumped M3 MacBook Airs has an entire section about “AI”:

World’s Best Consumer Laptop for AI

With the transition to Apple silicon, every Mac is a great
platform for AI. M3 includes a faster and more efficient 16-core
Neural Engine, along with accelerators in the CPU and GPU to boost
on-device machine learning, making MacBook Air the world’s best
consumer laptop for AI. Leveraging this incredible AI performance,
macOS delivers intelligent features that enhance productivity and
creativity, so users can enable powerful camera features,
real-time speech to text, translation, text predictions, visual
understanding, accessibility features, and much more.

With a broad ecosystem of apps that deliver advanced AI features,
users can do everything from checking their homework with AI Math
Assistance in Goodnotes 6, to automatically enhancing photos in
Pixelmator Pro, to removing background noise from a video using
CapCut. Combined with the unified memory architecture of Apple
silicon, MacBook Air can also run optimized AI models, including
large language models (LLMs) and diffusion models for image
generation locally with great performance. In addition to
on-device performance, MacBook Air supports cloud-based solutions,
enabling users to run powerful productivity and creative apps that
tap into the power of AI, such as Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft
365, Canva, and Adobe Firefly.

 ★ 

Apple’s Newsroom post announcing the speed-bumped M3 MacBook Airs has an entire section about “AI”:

World’s Best Consumer Laptop for AI

With the transition to Apple silicon, every Mac is a great
platform for AI. M3 includes a faster and more efficient 16-core
Neural Engine, along with accelerators in the CPU and GPU to boost
on-device machine learning, making MacBook Air the world’s best
consumer laptop for AI. Leveraging this incredible AI performance,
macOS delivers intelligent features that enhance productivity and
creativity, so users can enable powerful camera features,
real-time speech to text, translation, text predictions, visual
understanding, accessibility features, and much more.

With a broad ecosystem of apps that deliver advanced AI features,
users can do everything from checking their homework with AI Math
Assistance in Goodnotes 6, to automatically enhancing photos in
Pixelmator Pro, to removing background noise from a video using
CapCut. Combined with the unified memory architecture of Apple
silicon, MacBook Air can also run optimized AI models, including
large language models (LLMs) and diffusion models for image
generation locally with great performance. In addition to
on-device performance, MacBook Air supports cloud-based solutions,
enabling users to run powerful productivity and creative apps that
tap into the power of AI, such as Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft
365, Canva, and Adobe Firefly.

Read More 

MacPaw:

MacPaw’s Setapp is the first subscription-based platform offering
a curated collection of Mac and iOS apps to users. The platform
empowers developers by aligning rewards with apps’ usage and
market value, thus fostering a thriving ecosystem of innovation.
Now, Setapp will be available directly on iOS devices, allowing
for a more integrated and convenient user experience. This
expansion promises a diverse selection of premium applications for
users and a supportive environment for developers.

 ★ 

MacPaw:

MacPaw’s Setapp is the first subscription-based platform offering
a curated collection of Mac and iOS apps to users. The platform
empowers developers by aligning rewards with apps’ usage and
market value, thus fostering a thriving ecosystem of innovation.
Now, Setapp will be available directly on iOS devices, allowing
for a more integrated and convenient user experience. This
expansion promises a diverse selection of premium applications for
users and a supportive environment for developers.

Read More 

So many fond remembrances of Richard Lewis are coming out — he really was “the menschiest of mensches” — but this highlight reel from his appearances on Letterman’s show, especially the early ones from the 1980s, hits home for me. He was a great comedian and an absolutely perfect talk show guest. He was seemingly always on Late Night back then, and every time he was, as a viewer, it was like, “Richard Lewis again? Can’t wait!”

Also:

Lewis’s first appearance on Late Night in 1982. Hard to overstate how forward-thinking this entire segment was.
Lewis killing on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show in 1990.
Keith Olbermann’s remembrance.
Lewis making Bob Costas laugh so hard NBC almost shelved the episode. Here’s the whole first appearance on Costas’s (vastly underrated) late late night show in 1989.

 ★ 

So many fond remembrances of Richard Lewis are coming out — he really was “the menschiest of mensches” — but this highlight reel from his appearances on Letterman’s show, especially the early ones from the 1980s, hits home for me. He was a great comedian and an absolutely perfect talk show guest. He was seemingly always on Late Night back then, and every time he was, as a viewer, it was like, “Richard Lewis again? Can’t wait!”

Also:

Lewis’s first appearance on Late Night in 1982. Hard to overstate how forward-thinking this entire segment was.
Lewis killing on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show in 1990.
Keith Olbermann’s remembrance.
Lewis making Bob Costas laugh so hard NBC almost shelved the episode. Here’s the whole first appearance on Costas’s (vastly underrated) late late night show in 1989.

Read More 

One more link from the latest episode of The Talk Show: Weather Up 3.0. If you’re a longtime reader you know I’m a nut for iPhone weather apps. There are so many great ones for iOS, starting with Apple’s own. I just love how much creativity and originality there is in presentation, emphasis, and information design.

Weather Up 3 stakes out two unique positions. The app itself presents a map-first design. No other weather app (that I’m aware of) goes map-first presentation-wise (which, as David Barnard explained on my podcast, is expensive).

But even more interesting is that Weather Up 3 is really widget-first — the app interface is secondary to the widget interface, which, for weather, I think is the right priority — and the widget design is:

Information-dense
Attractive
Original

Just a phenomenally good weather app, that you should definitely try.

 ★ 

One more link from the latest episode of The Talk Show: Weather Up 3.0. If you’re a longtime reader you know I’m a nut for iPhone weather apps. There are so many great ones for iOS, starting with Apple’s own. I just love how much creativity and originality there is in presentation, emphasis, and information design.

Weather Up 3 stakes out two unique positions. The app itself presents a map-first design. No other weather app (that I’m aware of) goes map-first presentation-wise (which, as David Barnard explained on my podcast, is expensive).

But even more interesting is that Weather Up 3 is really widget-first — the app interface is secondary to the widget interface, which, for weather, I think is the right priority — and the widget design is:

Information-dense
Attractive
Original

Just a phenomenally good weather app, that you should definitely try.

Read More