Apple has resolved an investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission by agreeing to allow ‘reader’ apps to link to websites to set up and manage an account with the app’s provider beginning in early 2022. The agreement reflects a loosening of existing App Store Guidelines and will be applied worldwide, but it’s also narrow.
Led in collaboration with community partners, local nonprofits, and Apple, young creatives in Washington and Chicago will have access to mentorship, hands-on experience, and the industry know-how to dive deep into photography, illustration, and writing.
So instead of a straightforward “good vs. cheap” tradeoff, we get a kind of non-linear tradeoff where the teams trying to coordinate the most feature work across the most number of platforms feel an incredible gravity towards cross-platform tools – even if a high priority on UX would predispose them to building native clients. On mobile platforms, where teams are often more disciplined about features and more focused on UX polish, the tradeoff is a bit different and teams more often go native than they do on desktop.
Apple shared the specifics in a Newsroom post this morning with the first states working with them being Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah. Notably, the TSA will be among the first places to accept the Apple Wallet IDs at “select airport security checkpoints.”
Of course no one wants to hand over their phone to anyone. More importantly, no one should ever hand their phone to a police officer, and that goes a hundredfold if it’s unlocked. [...] This ID feature for Wallet is exactly like that: it doesn’t work without your biometric authentication, and your phone does not unlock when you use it.
There are a million ways cops can coerce a person to unlock their phones and hand them over. The problem with storing your ID on them, as mentioned before, is that it gives them a reason that may sound very legitimate when a jury hears it, but ultimately should fail the same Fifth Amendment tests that previous attempts to force US citizens and the Apple corporation into unlocking iPhones did.
To varying degrees based on which of the Moment iPhone lenses we’re talking about, I’m quite impressed by just how much they live up to the premium pricing. In fact, I’d even say I’m blown away by the macro lens.
The iPhone maker has asked the employees to report their status “voluntarily” by mid-September, regardless of whether they are working remotely or from an office. The company said it’s using the data to inform its Covid-19 response efforts and protocols.
There will be arguments on what is and what isn't a 'reader' app.
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Thanks for reading.