MyAppleMenu

The Primarily-for-Staff Edition Sunday, May 2, 2021

How Apple Does M&A: Small And Quiet, With No Bankers, by Kif Leswing, CNBC

While big tech rivals routinely strike multi-billion dollar deals, Apple has followed a different strategy. It's refined the "acquihire," or strategic purchase of a small company primarily for its staff.

People who have joined Apple through an acquisition and participated in the acquisition process told CNBC that Apple's acquisition strategy focuses on getting talented technical staff from smaller companies, often valuing those companies in terms of the number of engineers working there, and quickly and quietly integrating them into teams at Apple.

Apple And Epic Head To Court Over Their Slices Of The App Pie, by Jack Nicas and Erin Griffith, New York Times

The case might come down to one narrow technical question: What is the market these two are fighting over? Epic argues that the case is about iPhones and that Apple has a clear monopoly on them. Apple lawyers insist that the market in question includes all gaming platforms — from smartphones to video-game consoles to desktop computers — and that Apple hardly has a monopoly there.

Stuff

PSA: Repairing The 5th-generation iPad Pro Can Cost Up To $699, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

The fifth-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro repair is $699 if it’s out-of-warranty, which is $50 more than the others 12.9-inch iPad Pro. This could be because Apple introduced a new mini-LED display in this model, while it also increased the starting price.

iFixit Shares AirTags Teardown Revealing 'Impressively Compact' Design Compared To Tile Mate And Galaxy SmartTag, by Sami Fathi, MacRumors

Replacing the battery is the furthest an average customer will be able to get into their AirTag without proper tooling. Even in that case, iFixit says Apple showed "surprising restraint in sealing the AirTag," noting that completely opening the tracker only requires a vise and some plastic sticks.

Review: Upright Go 2 Tells You To Sit Up Straight For Better Posture, by Amber Neely, AppleInsider

The Upright Go 2 helps by gently reminding you when you lean too far forward and hunch over your keyboard or while you're watching TV. The little buzz tells you, "Hey, it's time to sit up straight."

On top of that, using the tracking feature allows you to see how many times a day you slip up at times it isn't actively reminding you to sit up straight. For instance, I learned that I tend to slouch more toward the end of the day, or any time I feel stressed or rushed.

Notes

Substack: How The Game-changer Turned Poacher, by James Ball, The Guardian

Is it a platform for hosting newsletters and helping people discover them? Or is it a new type of publication, one that relies on stoking the culture wars to help divisive writers build devoted followings?

Bottom of the Page

I continue to have no idea to fix some of the SwiftUI abnormalities I am seeing in a little app that I am builidng for my own.

~

Thanks for reading.