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The Associated-Fees Edition Thursday, August 15, 2024

Apple Will Let Other Digital Wallets Into Apple Pay, And Even Be The Default, by Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica

Starting with iOS 18.1, apps can, through the Secure Element (SE) on iOS devices, offer things like "in-store payments, car keys, closed-loop transit, corporate badges, student IDs, home keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty and rewards cards, and event tickets, with government IDs to be supported in the future." In addition, iPhone users will be able to set a default payment app triggered by double-clicking the side button.

Access to payments and secure transactions through more than a billion iOS devices will not be free, or freely given. Developers will need to "enter into a commercial agreement with Apple, request the NFC and SE entitlement, and pay the associated fees." Apple says this is so developers and apps that "meet certain industry and regulatory requirements, and commit to Apple's ongoing security and privacy standards," have access.

Coming This Fall

macOS Sequoia Will Now Prompt You Monthly (Not Weekly) For Screen Recording Permissions, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Apple has changed its screen recording privacy prompt in the latest beta of macOS Sequoia. As we reported last week, Apple’s initial plan was to prompt users to grant screen recording permissions weekly.

Stuff

Apple Shares New 'Designed For Every Body' Ad Ahead Of 2024 Paralympic Games, by Hartley Charlton, MacRumors

Shared ahead of the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, the ad shows some of the routines, training, and competitions undertaken by disabled athletes across a wide range of sports, assisted by Apple devices. It emphasizes inclusivity and the universality of competitive sport, regardless of one's physical disabilities.

iPhone Camera App Halide Has An 'Anti-intelligent' Mode To Make Shooting With RAW Easier, by Nathan Ingraham, Engadget

The idea here is to let photographers capture RAW images without the computational and algorithmic changes that Apple makes and then easily do something with those photos. So, when you shoot in Process Zero mode, the phone is taking just one image — unlike the Apple camera, which shoots multiple photos and combines them to make a more balanced result. So while that might lead to an image with more noise and with some darker or lighter areas, it can also be significantly sharper and capture more detail than Apple’s process.

‘Boop’ Is A Superpowered Copy-and-Paste App, by Justin Pot, Lifehacker

Working with text is annoying sometimes, especially when you're copying-and-pasting something with wonky formatting. Boop is a free and open source Mac application from developer Ivan Mathy. The idea is to paste text in here, transform it in some way with just a few keystrokes, and then copy it again in whatever app you're using it in.

AltStore PAL Drops Its Annual Subscription Thanks To A Grant From Epic, by Jay Peters, The Verge

AltStore PAL, a third-party iOS app store that’s available in the EU, is dropping its annual €1.50 (plus tax) subscription after receiving a “MegaGrant” from Fortnite developer Epic Games. AltStore originally charged the subscription to help cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee (CTF), which is a fee third-party app marketplaces have to pay for each annual app install.

Notes

Apple Pushes Ahead With Tabletop Home Device In Shift To Robotics, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

The company now has a team of several hundred people working on the device, which uses a thin robotic arm to move around a large screen, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The product, which relies on actuators to tilt the display up and down and make it spin 360 degrees, would offer a twist on home products like Amazon.com Inc’s Echo Show 10 and Meta Platforms Inc’s discontinued Portal.

The device is envisioned as a smart home command center, videoconferencing machine and remote-controlled home security tool, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the work isn’t public. The project – codenamed J595 – was approved by Apple’s executive team in 2022 but has started to formally ramp up in recent months, they said.

Apple Ignored Child Sexual Abuse Material On iCloud, Suit Says, by Cassandre Coyer, Bloomberg Law

Apple Inc. allowed the storage and distribution of child sexual abuse material on its iMessage and iCloud products under the pretense of privacy protections, according to a proposed class action.

Apple knew it had a “dire CSAM problem but chose not to address it,” according to a complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Bottom of the Page

How many of these 'remote-controlled home security' robotic arm thing is Apple expecting us to buy, per household? Or does this thing also self-drive all over my house, climb over steps, and detect when I've fallen and can't get up?

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Thanks for reading.