In Washington, D.C.’s historic Dupont Circle neighborhood, the office of children’s literature nonprofit Shout Mouse Press is abuzz with the voices of passionate young people sitting before countless stacks of books on tall white shelves. Last year, Apple awarded Shout Mouse a grant through its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI) in recognition of the nonprofit’s commitment to amplifying diverse youth voices.
With the launch of the 2024 Black Unity Collection, Apple is awarding grants to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Studio Museum in Harlem, Battersea Arts Centre, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Ghetto Film School, and the National Museum of African American Music. Apple’s support for these organizations is a continuation of REJI grants that resource organizations committed to providing economic, educational, and creative opportunities in communities of color around the world.
Apple today unveiled its new 2024 Black Unity collection for Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad. That includes a new watch band to buy, as well as a new watch face and iOS Lock Screen wallpaper.
Earlier today, a US appeals court rejected Apple’s request to pause the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 ban as the company appeals an ITC ruling that the Apple Watch blood oxygen sensor infringes on two patents held by medical device company Masimo.
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The company tells 9to5Mac that it will begin selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the United States without the blood oxygen feature tomorrow.
The way to find out if the Apple Watch you are buying has blood oxygen feature disabled or not is by checking the part number. Apple says that new watches with blood oxygen disabled have part numbers that end with the string ‘LW/A’.
Apple said in its filing that it is fully compliant with court orders as of Jan. 16 and defended the 27 percent rate as fair recompense for helping iPhone users discover apps and creating a “safe environment” by reviewing the software. “All App Store developers … benefit from (among other things) Apple’s platform integrity, proprietary tools and technologies protected by intellectual property,” Apple’s filing said. Apple declined to comment beyond its statement to the court.
Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a Vanderbilt Law School professor who’s followed Epic’s case, says it would be fair to call Apple’s new linking rule “bad faith” because it “basically recreates the system the courts found anticompetitive.” But though the judge wouldn’t want a remedy that undermines her ruling, it’s difficult to predict how she would rule on a challenge from Epic.
A new set of appeals all the way to the US Supreme Court is possible. But the case turned on California’s unfair competition law, and the Supreme Court generally tries to stay out of state issues. Its taking up Epic’s appeal had been a long shot, says Herbert Hovenkamp, a University of Pennsylvania law professor with antitrust expertise.
Apple should have been looking for ways to lessen regulatory and legislative pressure over the past few years, and in today’s climate that’s more true than ever. But instead, their stance has seemingly been “Bring it on.” Confrontational, not conciliatory, conceding not an inch. Rather than take a sure win with most of what they could want, Apple is seemingly hell-bent on trying to keep everything. To win in chess all you need is to capture your opponent’s king. Apple seemingly wants to capture every last piece on the board — even while playing in a tournament where the referees (regulators) are known to look askance at blatant poor sportsmanship (greed).
In celebration of the upcoming Lunar New Year on February 10, Apple has released limited-edition second-generation AirPods Pro with a Year of the Dragon engraving on its online store in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, and Macao. They are also available in South Korea, where it is the Year of the Blue Dragon.
Three new products from Mophie and OtterBox let you add some Lunar New Year flair to your Apple gear.
Now, as I write this, I’m realizing that maybe I could do with fewer Focus Modes since all of my modes are trying to do the same thing and have most of the same settings: let messages from my immediate family through, but nothing else. Maybe simplifying my Focus Modes will be a future project. But for now, I’ve got what I want: I don’t see interrupting messages until I’m done doing what I’m doing. It’s better this way. I recommend it!
Notion users have been asking for an integrated calendar system for years. Now, Notion is delivering: it’s launching Notion Calendar, a standalone app that integrates with all of your databases and notes in Notion. It’s yet another way Notion is attempting to be the only app your company needs to do pretty much everything.
Apple today previewed Apple Hongdae, the seventh retail store in South Korea and the 100th Apple Store location in the Asia-Pacific region. Located in the center of a bustling university neighborhood in Seoul, Apple Hongdae will offer an exciting space for students, their families, and the local community to discover and shop Apple’s incredible lineup of products and services, receive exceptional support from highly knowledgeable team members, and participate in free Today at Apple sessions to learn how to get the most out of their products.
Rather than designing a Vision Pro app — or even just supporting its existing iPad app on the platform — Netflix is essentially taking a pass. The company, which competes with Apple in streaming, said in a statement that users interested in watching its content on the device can do so from the web.
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The fact that Netflix isn’t even willing to support the iPad approach suggests that it’s taking a wait-and-see stance with the headset. It’s also a bit of a reversal for the company, which said in July that it would support its iPad app on the Vision Pro.
A resolution to address concerns regarding inadequate streaming royalties for artists and biased recommendation algorithms was adopted by members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Wednesday, highlighting that no existing EU rules currently apply to music streaming services, despite being the most popular way to consume audio.
Did the EU regulators predict the 27% commission that Apple is now charging for linking-out, and is okay with that percentage for alternate app stores and sideloaded apps, or are there late-night sessions on how to build a case to limit prices that Apple can charge?
After all, it will not be an easy task to justify that a company cannot charge a 'fair' amount for using its APIs, I think?
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Thanks for reading.