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The Deceiving-Apple Edition Saturday, August 22, 2020

Apple Claims Epic Asked For A ‘Special Deal’ For Fortnite Payments, by Adi Robertson, The Verge

Apple executive Phil Schiller wrote that Epic CEO Tim Sweeney asked for a “special deal with only Epic” that would “fundamentally change the way in which Epic offers apps on Apple’s iOS platform.” When Apple declined, Epic changed its policies to cut Apple out of in-app purchases. Now, the company argues that Epic’s ban is its own responsibility. “In the wake of its own voluntary actions, Epic now seeks emergency relief. But the ‘emergency’ is entirely of Epic’s own making,” Apple’s response reads. “Developers who work to deceive Apple, as Epic has done here, are terminated.”

Read The Emails Between Epic And Apple That Led To Fortnite’s App Store Ban, by Nick Statt, The Verge

Beginning in June, the emails show extensive discussions between Sweeney and Apple before Epic took action to incorporate an alternate payment mechanism into the Fortnite app, which resulted in it being ejected from the App Store last week. The emails show Sweeney lobbying Apple for the power to include this option months in advance.

Things You Are Not Allowed To Say In Your Help File

WordPress Founder Claims Apple Cut Off Updates To His Completely Free App Because It Wants 30 Percent, by Sean Hollister, The Verge

While Mullenweg says there technically was a roundabout way for an iOS to find out that WordPress has paid tiers (they could find it buried in support pages, or by navigating to WordPress’s site from a preview of their own webpage), he says that Apple rejected his offer to block iOS users from seeing the offending pages.

Mullenweg tells The Verge he’s not going to fight it anymore, though — he will add brand-new in-app purchases for WordPress.com’s paid tiers, which include domain names, within 30 days. Apple has agreed to allow Automattic to update the app while it waits. (The last update was issued yesterday.)

Worrying Effect, by Brent Simmons, Inessential

Will I be asked to add IAP to NetNewsWire for purchasing Feedbin and Feedly accounts? It doesn’t sound like that much of a stretch right now.

Stuff

How To Get The Most Out Of Your Apple Music Subscription, by William Gallagher, AppleInsider

There's so much more to Apple Music than the new radio stations. Here are the hidden, the downright obscure, and the best features of the service.

Homer Is A Personalized Literacy App That Turns My 5-year-old's Screen Time Into A Captivating Learning Experience, by Alyson Aladro, Insider

Homer excels at keeping kids interested and learning. The apps are flexible for a range of ages and skills, from toddlers through growing readers, as well as a spectrum of learning styles and abilities.

Tested: TextSniper Is A Great Mac Utility For Converting Graphics To Text, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

What TextSniper does is allow you to select any words visible on your screen, no matter what its format, and to turn it into text, you can paste into any document.

Develop

Apple Silicon Macs Will Require Signed Code, by Howard Oakley, Eclectic Light Company

The requirement for signed code isn’t about the level of security afforded by developer signing and notarization, but to ensure that macOS can check that the code hasn’t been tampered with or damaged, by comparing it against its hash.

Notes

Trump Administration Signals U.S. Firms Can Use WeChat In China, by Jennifer Jacobs, Saleha Mohsin, and Jenny Leonard, Bloomberg

The Trump administration is privately seeking to reassure U.S. companies including Apple Inc. that they can still do business with the WeChat messaging app in China, according to several people familiar with the matter, two weeks after President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. ban on the Chinese-owned service.

Bottom of the Page

If we are still in the pre-iOS 7 days, the Music app will probably be outfitted with new radio buttons (real radio buttons) this week, so that we can switch between the three Apple Music radio stations.

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Thanks for reading.