By John Moltz
August 11, 2023 2:00 PM PT
This Week in Apple: An onmouseover Event
Apple scores a victory against Epic. Does it want to celebrate by going to Disneyland? And buying it? Also, keep this under your hat, but Apple is rumored to be shipping new phones next month. Huge, if true.
The App Store doth protest too much
It’s hard to believe that Apple’s conflict with Epic has now been going on for 35 years, but here we are.
I’m sorry, I’m being informed that it just feels like 35 years. I regret the error.
This week Apple won a battle, but not the war.
“Apple Doesn’t Have to Change App Store Rules Yet, Rules Supreme Court in Ongoing Epic Dispute”
This pertains to Apple’s anti-steering rules, which prevent app developers from mentioning that websites exist in the year 2023. While the App Store has many objectionable rules, habits, inconsistencies, vagaries, and mysterious, unwritten spells bound to the ancient powers of mercurial spirit demons, the anti-steering rules are among the worst—even if it’s sometimes hard to pick a least favorite.
Apple loves to claim that the App Store is where customers and developers come together, and that people love the easy payment mechanism, but it’s kind of hard to tell when no one actually has a choice. If the company really believes in-app purchasing is beloved by all, you’d think it could put its money where its mouth is and allow developers to link to their sites for alternate means of paying for apps.
Epic is not a great standard bearer for developers, as it would love nothing more than to set itself up as the store owner taking a cut, but it’s not wrong about Apple’s anti-steering rules.
Buy n Large
Long-time Apple observers may well remember the mid-nineties, when speculation was rampant that the company was going to be acquired by Sun or Dell or Gateway or a guy standing in the back of CompUSA who found a $20 outside… or even Disney.
Well, now the white glove is on the other… paw? What do anthropomorphic mice have?
Jason concurs with The Hollywood Reporter that, while such a scenario is still not likely, it’s not far-fetched, either. While Apple probably wouldn’t acquire the whole company, if it could get access to the firehose that is Disney’s IP, it could hook it up to, say, a Vision Pro and spray it right into your eyeballs.
Virtually speaking.
The company, however, generally does not like making moves this big. To date its biggest acquisition was Beats for $3 billion. The multiplier on this deal would put a fairly big dent in Apple’s $62 billion pocketbook. While it’s fun to think about, it’s probably still more likely the company would rather develop the Ted Lasso Cinematic Universe than the Marvel one.
Particularly after Secret Invasion. Eesh.
USB I C what you did there
iPhone rumors are like blackberries.
No, not those BlackBerries. Just stay with me for a sec.
See, they flourish in late summer and… they’re a thorny problem. And, uh, there’s a lot of buzz around them?
OK, I gave it a shot.
Still, both are currently in season and who’s ready to switch ports again?! Whoo!
Yes, this week brought us supposed photos of the iPhone 15’s USB-C port. Somewhere the IT director at a hotel chain that finally just got rid of its last 30-pin dock connector alarm clocks angrily threw a Lightning charging stand against the wall. As Dan points out, this doesn’t resolve Apple’s dependence on the Lightning port completely, but it will help it continue to sell iPhones in certain jurisdictions.
Other rumors indicate the Pro models will feature an Action button like the Apple Watch Ultra, and storage on them will get to a whopping 2TB. The event is now widely expected to be on September 12th, with phones shipping on the 22nd.
Whatever will we talk about after these devices are announced? Probably what a letdown they are.
[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]