By John Moltz
May 31, 2024 2:00 PM PT
This Week in Apple: Refrigerator+
TV+ is going where few Apple apps have before. But if that news is unexpected, don’t worry. There’s plenty of familiar App Store litigation and AI news to cover.
TV+ everywhere
I want to say just two words to you, Benjamin. Just two words. “Services revenue.”
“Apple Signals That It’s Working on TV+ App for Android Phones”
Yes, soon even Android users will not have to use the “sweet solution” of watching TV+ shows via Apple’s website. Not only will this help sate the god of services revenue that Tim Cook serves, who must be offered blood sacrifice (or cash, cash will do, too), it might also slightly help in defusing arguments that Apple forces customers to be locked in to its ecosystem.
“No, no. Look, you can watch TV+ plus on simply the worst types of phone, too. Absolute garbage. Just terrible.”
I was going to make a joke about being able to run TV+ on a smart refrigerator, but as the person in our house who does most of the cooking, that actually doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
The App Store litigation fad
Yet another country has its eyes set on Apple’s App Store. Two more and Apple gets a free antitrust action! Wow!
“Next Apple antitrust battle set to be in India; Apple lobbying against it”
The Indian government says that the law is needed because a few tech giants have “immense control” over the market.
Well, not wrong about that.
India seems to find the EU’s ideas intriguing and has possibly subscribed to its newsletter.
As with the DMA, the Digital Competition Bill would allow Apple to be fined up to 10% of its global turnover for any breach of the law.
If India is running the EU’s playbook, at least Apple will have a response queued up and ready to go.
If Apple is looking to fill its punch card (it’s not), it’ll have to look somewhere other than China, though.
“China court rules in favour of Apple in case involving controversial app store fees”
The argument here might not have been the strongest one, however.
A court in Shanghai rejected a Chinese consumer’s claim that Apple was abusing its market dominance with high iOS App Store fees…
Didn’t we just have a whole news cycle about how terribly Apple’s doing in China? Make up your mind, Apple news! It can’t be both!
AI for days
I know we haven’t talked about it before but let’s—you know, for a change of pace—talk about this… [squints, reading paper]… ey… aye.
Oh, “AI”. It says “AI”. Not sure what that is. First time I’m hearing of it. Let’s take a look.
“OpenAI is helping Apple fix Siri, and that has Microsoft worried”
There are a lot of problems with the current state of AI, such as the lack of licensing for source material and the fact that it burns a ton of energy only to tell you to put glue on your pizza.
But if it can fix Siri… well.
Imagine a Siri that can do all the functions of any app for you. I wonder if you can.
“Apple Plans AI-Based Siri Overhaul to Control Individual App Functions”
It’s possible we’re setting the bar for Siri announcements at WWDC a little high by expecting a Siri that can walk, talk, chew gum, and tie its shoes at the same time. We might be better off considering ourselves lucky to get just two of those.
While improving Siri might be the most tantalizing result, AI can be used for other things. The Journal app was largely met with a collective “meh” when it was released, but what if the Journal app journaled for you? Hey, journaling is great, other than all that tedious journaling. With AI, the Journal app could use data already on your iPhone to make entries about what you did that day and you wouldn’t have to type a thing.
“You spent six hours in the bathroom watching YouTube videos of capybaras lounging around in Japanese hot springs.”
HEY. It was five hours at most. Plus, those capybaras really know how to live.
[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.]