Apple proposed a much less objectionable “external payments” disclosure in August, but claims that the EC told them not to implement it.
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More Old Mac Font Memories
Dr. Drang, writing at And Now It’s All This:
Back before the LaserWriter and PostScript (it’s an all InterCaps
day here at ANIAT) made resolution independence commonplace, most
printers were of the dot-matrix variety, usually at a fairly low
resolution. The original Imag...
Apple, Appealing €500M DMA Fine, Contends It Made a Series of Proposals to the European Commission Throughout 2024 but Did Not Receive Feedback
politico.eu/article/apple-to-appeal-e500m-digital-fine-over-eus-silence-in-compliance-talks/
Jacob Parry, reporting last week for Politico:
“We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made
dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users
have asked for,” said Apple spokesperson Emma Wilson. “Despite
countless meetings, the Com...
Trump Says He Has ‘A Little Problem With Tim Cook’ Regarding Apple’s Plans to Increase iPhone Production in India
theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/15/trump-little-problem-tim-cook-apple-india-production-iphones
Arjun Kharpal, reporting for CNBC:
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said. “I
said to him, ‘my friend, I treated you very good. You’re coming
here with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over
India.’ I don’t want you building in India....
CarPlay Ultra, the Next Generation of CarPlay, Is Now Available in New Aston Martins
apple.com/newsroom/2025/05/carplay-ultra-the-next-generation-of-carplay-begins-rolling-out-today/
Apple Newsroom:
Starting today, CarPlay Ultra, the next generation of CarPlay, is
available with new Aston Martin vehicle orders in the U.S.
and Canada, and will be available for existing models that feature
the brand’s next-generation infotainment system through a softw...
‘Max’, the Dumbest Name Ever, Changes Back to ‘HBO Max’
variety.com/2025/tv/news/max-changes-name-hbo-max-1236397399/
Variety:
The surprise announcement, made less than two months after Max
tweaked its logo to look more like the classic black-and-white HBO
color scheme, was revealed at Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfront
presentation to ad execs in New York on Wednesday.
In a press releas...
The App Store Shows a Warning for EU Apps That Use External Purchases
mjtsai.com/blog/2025/05/14/critical-warning-for-external-purchases-in-app-store/
The app in question, Instacar, is not available in the US App Store, but multiple people in the EU have confirmed this warning on its App Store page is real:
This app does not support the App Store’s private and secure
payment system. It uses external purchases.
The wa...
★ Single-Story a’s in Very Early Versions of Macintosh System 1
A single-story “a” in Chicago feels more blasphemous than that AI image Trump tweeted of himself as the new pope.
Pete Rose and ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson Among Players Reinstated by MLB in Historic Decision
cnn.com/2025/05/13/sport/pete-rose-shoeless-joe-jackson-mlb-decision-spt
Kyle Feldscher, CNN:
Major League Baseball on Tuesday removed Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson — two of the sport’s most famous players who were previously kicked out of baseball for gambling on the game — from the league’s permanently ineligible list.
The historic decision by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred allows Rose to be considered for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, an honor that had been ruled out as part of the settlement he reached with Major League Baseball. Rose died in September, and Manfred ruled that his lifetime ban ended with his death.
Like a stopped clock displaying the correct time twice a day, even Rob Manfred occasionally makes a correct decision for baseball.
WorkOS: Scalable, Secure Authentication
workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=q12025
My thanks to WorkOS for sponsoring last week at DF. Modern authentication should be seamless and secure. WorkOS makes it easy to integrate features like MFA, SSO, and RBAC. Whether you’re replacing passwords, stopping fraud, or adding enterprise auth, WorkOS can help you build frictionless auth that scales.
New features they launched just last month include:
- WorkOS Connect — “Sign in with [Your App]”
- WorkOS Vault — Encryption Key Management (EKM) and Bring-Your-Own-Key (BYOK)
- AuthKit Integrations — Native support for several new identity providers including LinkedIn, Slack, GitLab, BitBucket, Intuit, and more.
Future-proof your authentication stack with the identity layer trusted by OpenAI, Cursor, Perplexity, and Vercel.
Daring Fireball
• Daring Fireball Department of Commerce
[Sponsor] Bolt: What Do You Want to Build?
Prompt, run, edit, and deploy full-stack web and mobile apps with Bolt, the AI-powered web development agent that brings coding to your browser.
Bolt lets you build, edit, and test web applications in real time with simple, chat-based prompts. No experience needed.
That Stupid Apple Notes ‘a’
engadget.com/apps/the-only-thing-i-want-from-apples-big-2025-redesign-is-a-120023531.html
Nathan Ingraham, writing for Engadget:
There are a lot of rumors flying around about a big iOS and macOS redesign coming this year, perhaps as a distraction to the continued issues around Apple Intelligence. And while I’m game for a fresh coat of paint across the softwar...
Developers as Suppliers
Benedict Evans, tweeting on Threads this week:
Apple thinks an awful lot about customer delight and customer satisfaction…
And separately, a whole other part of Apple treats its suppliers with quiet ruthlessness, squeezing them for every penny of margin.
And at some po...
Trump Administration ‘Actively Looking’ at Suspending Habeas Corpus
CBS News:
The Trump administration is “actively looking at” the possibility
of suspending the writ of habeas corpus to handle people the
administration says aren’t in the country legally, White House
deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Friday.
A writ of habeas cor...
Epic Submits Fortnite to App Store Through Swedish Subsidiary
cnbc.com/2025/05/09/fortnite-apple-app-store-epic-games.html
Kif Leswing, reporting for CNBC:
Epic Games said on Friday that it submitted Fortnite to Apple’s App Store, the month after a judge ruled in favor of the game maker in a contempt ruling.
Fortnite was booted from iPhones and Apple’s App Store in 2020, after Epic Games up...
How Many Apps Used the Link-Out Policy That Apple Claims Complied With Judge Gonzales Rogers’s Original Anti-Steering Injunction?
appleinsider.com/articles/25/05/01/epic-vs-apple-what-apple-is-being-forced-to-do-to-the-app-store
William Gallagher, writing last week for AppleInsider:
Judge Rogers maintains that Apple had successfully made as few
developers as possible benefit from the court’s original
anti-steering ruling. “As of the May 2024 hearing,” she wrote,
“only 34 developers out of the ap...
Apple Files Emergency Motion to Pause ‘Extraordinary’ App Store Ruling on Anti-Steering Injunction
macrumors.com/2025/05/08/apple-appeals-app-store-ruling-epic-games/
Tim Hardwick, reporting for MacRumors:
Apple has filed an emergency motion asking the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals to pause key parts of a recent ruling that dramatically
changes how the App Store operates, following a contempt finding
in its long-running legal battle ...
Patrick Collison Interviews Former Apple Designer Jony Ive at Stripe Sessions
I’m about halfway through and already feel the need to link to this. Good questions and thoughtful answers. Just delightful.
Yours Truly on ‘Primary Technology’
Co-hosts Stephen Robles and Jason Aten were kind enough to have me on their podcast earlier today, and the show’s already up:
Special guest John Gruber joins us to break down Eddy Cue’s statements on AI replacing the iPhone in 10 years, using AI search in Safari, Apple’s continued fight for App Store control, and what we’ll hear about Siri and Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2025.
Available in Overcast, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Or watch on YouTube. Fun show.
How to Catch a North Korean Fake Worker
theregister.com/2025/04/29/north_korea_worker_interview_questions/
Iain Thomson, for The Register:
According to Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike’s senior veep in the counter
adversary division, North Korean infiltrators are bagging roles
worldwide throughout the year. Thousands are said to have
infiltrated the Fortune 500.
They’re masking IPs,...
The Trump Administration Signal Scandal, Somehow, Gets Worse
Micah Lee, in a spectacularly detailed post:
On Thursday, 404 Media reported that in the Reuters
photo showing former National Security Advisor and war
criminal Mike Waltz checking his Signal messages under the
table, he was actually using an obscure modified Signal app...
Eddy Cue, on the Stand in U.S. v. Google Trial, Says Apple Is Eying a Move to AI in Safari
Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. is “actively looking at” revamping the Safari web
browser on its devices to focus on AI-powered search engines, a
seismic shift for the industry hastened by the potential end of a
longtime partnership with Google.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice pres...
Aftermath
Aftermath:
Welcome to Aftermath, a worker-owned, reader-supported news site
covering video games, the internet, and the cultures that
surround them.
You might remember most of us from Kotaku, where we broke news,
covered events, and brought you hard-hitting investigatio...
Polygon Gutted by Large-Scale Layoffs After Sale to Sweatshop Aggregator Valnet
Kyle Orland, reporting for Ars Technica last week:
Vox Media has sold video game specialist website Polygon to
Internet brand aggregator Valnet, the publisher of
content-churning sites including Game Rant, OpenCritic, Android
Police, and Comic Book Resources. The move co...
Amazon, Finally, Now Has a ‘Get Book’ Button in Its iOS Kindle App
theverge.com/news/661719/amazon-app-ios-apple-iphone-ipad-kindle-buy-books
Andrew Liszewski, The Verge:
Contrary to prior limitations, there is now a prominent orange
“Get book” button on Kindle app’s book listings. [...]
Before today’s updates, buying books wasn’t a feature you’d find
in the Kindle mobile app following app store rule changes ...
Florida Republican Congresswoman Kat Cammack Introduces ‘App Store Freedom Act’ to Mandate Third-Party App Stores on iOS and Android
theverge.com/news/662180/app-store-freedom-act-apple-third-party-app-stores
Emma Roth, reporting for The Verge:
Representative Kat Cammack (R-FL) introduced a bill Tuesday that
would require “large app store operators” like Apple to let users
install third-party app stores and set them as their default. The
bill, called the App Store Freedom Act...
Daring Fireball
• Daring Fireball Department of Commerce
[Sponsor] WorkOS: Scalable, Secure Authentication
workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=q12025
Modern authentication should be seamless and secure. WorkOS makes it easy to integrate features like MFA, SSO, and RBAC.
Whether you’re replacing passwords, stopping fraud, or adding enterprise auth, WorkOS can help you build frictionless auth that scales.
Future-proof your authentication stack with the identity layer trusted by OpenAI, Cursor, Perplexity, and Vercel.
Upgrade your auth today.
Tim Sweeney Talks to Peter Kafka, Still Thinks Fortnite Is Coming Back to iOS This Week
businessinsider.com/tim-sweeeney-epic-games-apple-app-store-interview-peter-kafka-2025-05
About 16 minutes into the podcast (the whole thing is a great succinct interview):
Kafka: You said Fortnite is going to come back to iOS. You
guys were kicked off the platform in 2020 for violating Apple’s
rules. There’s nothing in the judge’s ruling that says Apple has
...
Listen Later
My thanks to Listen Later for sponsoring last week at DF. Listen Later is a super simple, super useful service that turns articles into podcast episodes. When you sign up, you get a custom email address to send articles to; every article you forward to your Listen Later addr...
Trump Has No Idea What the Declaration of Independence Means
Trump, showing off to ABC News’s Terry Moran the historical copy of the Declaration of Independence now hanging in the Oval Office:
Trump: Of course, you have the Declaration of Independence.
Moran: What does it mean to you?
Trump: Well, it means exactly what it says. It’...