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The Worth-It Edition Sunday, April 14, 2019

I Don’t Care. I Love My Phone., by Samantha Irby, New York Times

Yes, your phone is potentially hazardous to whatever semblance of security you might have. Yes, there are many medical professionals who would attest to the deleterious effect modern technology has on the brains and interpersonal skills of adults. But hear me out: Maybe it’s worth it?

Apple Spends Hundreds Of Millions On Arcade Video Game Service, by Tim Bradshaw, Financial Times

Several people involved in the project’s development say Apple is spending several million dollars each on most of the more than 100 games that have been selected to launch on Arcade, with its total budget likely to exceed $500m. The games service is expected to launch later this year.

[...]

Apple is offering developers an extra incentive if they agree for their game to only be available on Arcade, withholding their release on Google’s Play app store for Android smartphones or other subscription gaming bundles such as Microsoft’s Xbox game pass. But after a few months of exclusivity, developers will be free to release their games on PCs or other games consoles such as Nintendo’s Switch or Sony’s PlayStation.

Eye-Popping Stakes

Apple And Qualcomm’s Global Fight Heads To Court In San Diego, by Don Clark, New York Times

Their formidable legal teams are at war on three continents, in a struggle that could affect the division of billions of dollars of smartphone profits and, perhaps, even how much consumers pay for their phones.

Now, the action moves to a federal courtroom in San Diego, where jury selection is set to begin on Monday for a trial on an Apple lawsuit and Qualcomm’s counterclaims. The chief executives of both companies are likely to take the stand.

The stakes are reflected in the eye-popping damage claims.

WSJ Report Details Apple And Qualcomm Relationship, Hostile Meeting Between CEOs, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Part of the issue in the relationship between Cook and Mollenkopf, the report says, is that they have “so little personal connection.” Because of this, Apple’s top executives reportedly “don’t think it’s possible” that there’s any chance of Qualcomm and Apple being able to reach a deal. “It’s personal. I don’t see anybody who can bridge this gap,” an anonymous executive told The WSJ.

Stuff

Want To Lose Weight? These Are The Best Apps And Devices To Try, by CNET

Losing weight is not an easy endeavor for most. It often requires significant lifestyle changes, including exercising or altering your diet in order to do it.

Those changes might seem daunting, but they can be easier to handle with the help of apps on your phone, wearables and other smart devices.

Ikea Adds HomeKit Compatibility To $9.99 Trådfri Smart Plug, by Tom Sykes, The Apple Post

The new firmware update allows for the Trådfri outlets to be added to the Home app on iOS and macOS, letting them be controlled alongside any other HomeKit compatible devices.

Notes

Breaking The Internet: New Regulations Imperil Global Network, by AFP

The U.K. proposal “is a very bad look for a rights-respecting democracy,” said R. David Edelman, a former White House technology adviser who now heads the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s project on technology, the economy and national security. “It would place the U.K. toward the far end of the internet censorship spectrum.”

Elsewhere, critics pounced on a bill in Singapore to ban “fake news,” calling it a thinly veiled attempt at censorship.

“It is not up to the government to arbitrarily determine what is and is not true,” said Daniel Bastard of the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders. “In its current form, this Orwellian law establishes nothing less than a ‘ministry of truth’ that would be free to silence independent voices and impose the ruling party’s line.”

The Only Answer Is Less Internet, by Ross Douthat, New York Times

This is the hard truth suggested by our online experience so far: That a movement to restore privacy must be, at some level, a movement against the internet. Not a pure Luddism, but a movement for limits, for internet-free spaces, for zones of enforced pre-virtual reality (childhood and education above all), for social conventions that discourage career-destroying tweets and crotch shots by encouraging us to put away our iPhones.

Absent such a movement we may not join China in dystopia. But the dystopian elements in our own order will be here to say.

Bottom of the Page

I wonder if there is a spike in subscription numbers for HBO on iOS today, just in time for Game of Thrones.

I wonder if there are some regrets in the Apple TV Channels team of not able to launch today.

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Thanks for reading.