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The Endorsement-of-Protocols Edition Saturday, January 12, 2019

No, Apple's Licensing Of iTunes & AirPlay 2 Isn't A 'Strategy Reversal' In Any Way, by Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider

While the Wall Street Journal is portraying Apple's new iTunes and AirPlay 2 partnerships as a white flag of defeat for Apple's own hardware, the reality is that it is actually an endorsement of Apple's protocols being important enough for major television makers to support, because far more affluent TV buyers own iPhones than Samsung Galaxy devices, and because both Samsung and the larger industry's various efforts to copy AirPlay have failed to work out.

And while Mims crowed about Apple sacrificing its hardware sales to promote the ability to sell iTunes, its quite obvious that widespread adoption of AirPlay 2 will not only boost Apple Music and iTunes, but can also only help sales of Macs and iOS devices, and will also make Apple TV, HomePod, Siri and HomeKit more attractive as well.

The End Of iTunes, by M.G. Siegler, 500ish Words

But again, I suspect the iTunes brand shifts towards the legacy stuff. I think Apple will use this opportunity to finally start obsoleting the iTunes product. Which will be music to all of our ears.

Paying for Patents

Why The FTC Thinks You Pay Too Much For Smartphones, by Klint Finley, Wired

The Federal Trade Commission thinks you're paying too much for smartphones. But it doesn’t blame handset makers like Apple and Samsung or wireless carriers. Instead, the agency blames Qualcomm, which owns key wireless-technology patents and makes chips that can be can be found in most high-end Android phones and many iPhones.

Apple Considered Samsung, MediaTek To Supply 5G Modems For 2019, by Stephen Nellis, Reuters

On the stand at a federal courthouse in San Jose, California, Blevins testified that Apple has long sought multiple suppliers for modem chips but signed an agreement with Qualcomm to exclusively supply the chips because the chip supplier offered deep rebates on patent license costs in exchange for exclusivity.

We Collectively Own

Re-decentralizing The Web, For Good This Time, by Ruben Verborgh

The concept of centralization does not pose a problem in and of itself: there are good reasons for bringing people and things together. The situation becomes problematic when we are robbed of our choice, deceived into thinking there is only one access gate to a space that, in reality, we collectively own. Some time ago, it seemed unimaginable that a fundamentally open platform like the Web would become the foundation for closed spaces, where we pay with our personal data for a fraction of the freedoms that are actually already ours. Yet a majority of Web users today find themselves confined to the boundaries of a handful of influential social networks for their daily interactions. Such networks gather opinions from all over the world, only to condense that richness into one space, where they simultaneously act as the director and judge of the resulting stream they present to us.

Because this change happened so suddenly, perhaps we need a reminder that the Web landscape looked quite different not even that long ago. In 2008, Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan was sentenced to 20 years of jail, primarily because of blog posts he had written. He and many others were able to state their critical opinions because they had the Web as an open platform, so they did not depend on anyone’s permission to publish their words. Crucially, the Web’s hyperlinking mechanism lets blogs point to each other, again without requiring any form of permission. This allows for a decentralized value network between equals, where readers remain in active and conscious control of their next move. When Derakhshan was eventually released in 2014, he came back to an entirely different Web: critical readers had transformed into passive viewers, as if watching television. While Web technology had of course evolved, its core foundations had not—it was the way people were using the Web that had become unrecognizable in a mere 6 years.

Stuff

The Most Important Thing To Do If Your Mac Has A Fusion Drive: Back Up Your Data, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

Drive manufacturers that offer hybrid drives embed the SSD storage into the same package as the HDD. Apple, in contrast, puts an SSD on the computer motherboard separately from the HDD, and relies on macOS to integrate the two. Files aren’t stored separately on the two drives, but rather macOS interleaves data so that it’s effectively like one big drive.

That’s great for performance and cost, but it’s highly problematic if your HDD fails or if your Mac bites the dust.

Cheap Accessories That Make iPad Pro A Productivity Powerhouse, by Killian Bell, Cult of Mac

In this roundup, we’ve listed affordable accessories that turn iPad Pro into a productivity powerhouse.

Notes

How We Apologize Now, by Lindsey Weber, New York Times

To be famous in 2019 one must possess (in addition to talent, or at least popularity) a patina of authenticity and a willingness to admit wrongdoing. Also: an iPhone.

Bottom of the Page

I have a problem. I haven't been able to finish the last few e-books that I borrowed from my local library.

Half-way through the loan period, I will discover that I have finish less than half of the e-book, and I will be discouraged, and I will think that this is because I'm not enjoying the e-book I've borrowed, and I will then return and move on to the next e-book.

~

Thanks for reading.