Today, Apple released macOS 14.4.1 Sonoma and macOS 13.6.6 Ventura. Given the bugs and security vulnerabilities they fix, it seems less likely that any other operating systems will receive parallel updates.
Apple doesn’t detail the bug fixes in macOS 13.6.6, but the release notes for macOS 14.4.1 say it resolves some high-profile problems.
Turned out, my kid had managed a neat trick, though they were not alone: they had filled macOS’s startup volume storage so full that the operating system was incapable of deleting files in any fashion.
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I hate to think what people without decades of Mac experience do when confronted with systemic, cascading failures like this when I felt helpless despite what I thought I knew and all the answers I searched for and found on forums.
Basically, with this pricing you need an average ticket of approximately $3 or more to always come out ahead compared to the App Store’s small business pricing, and you can get to that fabled “merchant pay 3%” number at around a $300 average ticket.
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My point here is mostly to explain how the 3% number is well-meaning, but is not a perfect comparison to the 15% and 30% numbers we talk about with the App Store; there's just a bit more nuance.
The EU’s enforcement has been swift and clear. It may not be the resolution Apple would prefer, but the process for getting there is smoother, cheaper and far less in hock to the vagaries of chance that a court system inherently presents. As the US case drags on, maybe even Apple will come round to that?
The EC is edging closer and closer to saying that successful platforms have no right to monetize their IP on those platforms. That’s exactly what a lot of anti-capitalist critics of these companies have been rooting for, but it would be a radical step.
Defining the market that Apple is accused of monopolizing will be the first and one of the biggest battles of this dispute. Experts will be hired, millions of dollars will be spent, and we’ll all debate the finer points of smartphone economics. Trust me, it’ll be as fun and exciting as it sounds.
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Proving intention isn’t easy, and I suspect the reality is somewhere in the middle, where compromises on things like privacy and security have been made by Apple in the name of other priorities in some circumstances. But it can also be true that privacy, security, and consumer preferences are still important values and goals of the company. Separating the sincere from the pretense will be hard absent some some ‘smoking gun’ email or other evidence.
I find the DOJ’s argument surprising. The conventional wisdom is that super apps never took off stateside because, by the time WeChat’s approach boomed in China, Western consumers were already accustomed to single-purpose apps. (There were also unique regulatory and economic conditions in Asia that likely contributed to the WeChat phenomenon.) Cramming too many features inside one app usually proved clumsy for users, one reason Zuckerberg unbundled Facebook and its Messenger chat, kept WhatsApp and Instagram detached, and launched separate offerings for (short-lived) newspaper and video services.
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If mini programs ever truly catch on and a US equivalent of WeChat wraps up all my beloved services in one easily portable app, then maybe it would be faster to switch from an iPhone to an Android phone. I’d certainly enjoy installing one all-encompassing app instead of a series of individual ones. But then again, if a single app were that good and universal, my guess is the DOJ would have concerns about it too.
At least three proposed class actions have been filed since Friday in California and New Jersey federal courts by iPhone owners who claim Apple inflated the cost of its products through anticompetitive conduct.
The lawsuits, seeking to represent millions of consumers, mirror the Justice Department's claims that Apple violated U.S. antitrust law by suppressing technology for messaging apps, digital wallets and other items that would have increased competition in the market for smartphones.
This feature isn’t automatically sharing your name and location information with everyone around you. Instead, it’s simply using the presence of your device to make Journal app suggestions better for the people around you.
Each comparison shows what new features someone with an older iPhone will get when upgrading to the iPhone 15 lineup.
Adobe wants to reap the benefits of generative AI while still “recognizing that these are built on the back of human labor. And we have to figure out how to fairly compensate people for that labor now and in the future,” says Ely Greenfield, Adobe’s chief technology officer for digital media.
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Adobe trained Firefly on content that had an explicit license allowing AI training, which means the bulk of the training data comes from Adobe’s library of stock photos, says Greenfield. The company offers creators extra compensation when material is used to train AI models, he adds.
It may not be functionally anything more than a dock and an elaborate desk tidy, but the 'MacIntosh Studio' is full of neat little touches.
Canva Inc. acquired the Affinity suite of creative software popular with Mac users, securing its biggest acquisition to date in an effort to compete with Adobe Inc.
Just like Apple devices nowadays can optimize batteries by not charging to the full amount, perhaps Apple should start to consider 'optimizing' storage by leaving some space free?
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I believe people who are operating e-commerce sites know that the 3% figure is not entirely accurate, especially for low-cost purchases. Which was why the 99-cents iTunes songs were so interesting when Apple first started selling.
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Thanks for reading.