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The Old-Doctrines Edition Sunday, October 11, 2020

Finally US Politicians Are Taking The Fight To The Tech Giants, by John Naughton, The Guardian

Bork’s arguments were music to the ears of tech entrepreneurs riding the power of network effects in winner-take-all markets and yet, by Bork’s criterion, doing nothing but good for consumers while becoming monopolies in the process. Applying old antitrust doctrines to such giant firms was, according to the new mindset, tantamount to punishing excellence.

Bork’s legacy – legislative and judicial tolerance of the growth of digital monopolies – goes a long way to explaining why tech companies have enjoyed such a free ride over several decades. The House subcommittee’s investigation was the most tangible sign to date that those good times may be coming to an end. The intellectual and legislative climate has changed.

Developer Relationships

Apple Says It Never Asked Telegram To Delete Belarusian Channels For Doxing Cops (It Just Wants Specific Posts Removed), by Meduza

The U.S. tech giant Apple says it never demanded that the messaging app Telegram delete entire channels created to dox police officers and polling station workers in Belarus. Company spokespeople confirmed to the website TJournal that they did reach out to Telegram, but they say Apple is only asking the network’s administrators to remove specific posts that violate the AppStore’s terms of service by disclosing individual’s private data without their consent.

Telegram CEO Accuses Apple Of Trying To Conceal Their Involvement In Censoring Content On The App, by Surur, MSPoweruser

Durov objected to the demands given that the channels were specifically designed to expose government oppressors, but the company had little choice given that otherwise, Apple would ban their app from iOS.

What irked Durov even more however was that Apple demanded that Telegram users not be informed that this action was taken on Apple’s behalf, saying this information was “irrelevant.”

Stuff

Country Music’s LGBTQ Arrow Lands At Apple Music, As The Genre Gets Its First Gay-Themed Show With ‘Proud Radio’, by Chris Willman, Variety

Country music has never been the first genre that most people would think of when they consider formats that would be openly proud of Pride, as it were. But the music has always had a significant gay fan base, on top of the many LGBTQ execs filling the offices of Music Row and the… well, far lesser percentages of openly gay artists in the field. The jump from C&W to C&Q no longer seems such a big one, with mainstream acceptance of country’s gay audience, artists and culture coming to bloom in a historic way in the first radio program of note devoted to that intersection: Apple Music Country’s new show “Proud Radio With Hunter Kelly.”

How To Block Bad Websites—or Just Get Things Done, by David Nield, Wired

Maybe you're spending too much time doomscrolling on Twitter, or maybe you're doing a bit more online shopping than your bank account can handle. Maybe you're spending too much time on that one game everyone's playing. There are plenty more examples. These might be sites that you know you should avoid entirely, or just at certain times of the day.

Whatever your particular need for supplementary discipline, there are tools that can help. None are 100 percent effective—since you're the one setting them up, you can also disable them just as easily—but they might just help give your willpower an extra nudge.

Bottom of the Page

I may not be buying a new iPhone this year, but I also don't want to wait until the day when my iPhone X died before buying a new phone. So: maybe sometime next year?

What I wish for: small, light, blue. I believe my wish has a good probability of being fulfilled this year.

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Now that (it seems) Apple is retiring the iPhone X design, will there be a new iPhone-X-like SE on the horizon? Apple is not tying itself to a 4-year update cycle, is it?

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Thanks for reading.