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...
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
...
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, 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’...
NBC News:
When Welker tried to point out what the Fifth Amendment said,
Trump suggested that such a process would slow him down too much.
“I don’t know. It seems — it might say that, but if you’re
talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or 2 million
or 3 mi...
Apple, in an email to developers yesterday (as reported by MacRumors):
3.1.1: Apps on the United States storefront are not prohibited
from including buttons, external links, or other calls to
action when allowing users to browse NFT collections owned
...
Jason Snell, with some excellent analysis (in addition to his usual visualizations of Apple’s numbers):
Another way Apple can reduce the impact of tariffs is by changing
which global factories it uses to build products destined for the
U.S. market. “For the June quarter,...
Jay Peters, The Verge, under the headline “Epic Says Fortnite Is Coming Back to iOS in the US”:
Following a court order that blocks Apple from taking a commission
on purchases made outside the App Store, Epic Games CEO Tim
Sweeney says on X that the company plans to brin...
I’m linking here to Techmeme’s roundup of news coverage and commentary, but I highly recommend you start by reading Gonzalez Rogers’s 80-page decision. It is excoriating. I’ve read few legal decisions quite like it. But it’s also incredibly cogent and plainly written.
From ...
Craig Mod returns to the show to discuss his splendid new book, Things Become Other Things. Other topics include creating with AI tools (including programming), social media permanence vs. ephemerality, and more.
Sponsored by:
Dekáf Coffee Roasters: You won’t believe it’s decaf. That’s the point. 30% off with code: DF.
Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.
Notion: Try the powerful, easy-to-use Notion AI today.
WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million monthly active users.
Mark Wilson, writing for Fast Company:
Pope Francis’s tomb is simple by design. Francis — a modest man
who opted to live in humble quarters alongside his peers rather
than in the Vatican’s official housing for the leader of the
church — requested nothing more than his na...
Jeff Horwitz, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (News+ link):
To boost the popularity of these souped-up chatbots, Meta has cut
deals for up to seven-figures with celebrities like actresses
Kristen Bell and Judi Dench and wrestler-turned-actor John Cena
for the right...
Turn articles into podcasts and listen on the go. Email any article, and our AI transforms it into human-like narration, delivered straight to your private podcast feed. Whether it’s a long read or a quick blog post, enjoy it hands-free on any podcast app. Perfect for commutes, workouts, or just unwinding.
Sign up for free and start listening today. New users get $2 in credits to try it out — no commitment.
Built by an indie developer passionate about great audio experiences. Try it at Listen Later.
There are two ways to consider a forced divestiture of Chrome by Google, as the U.S. Department of Justice has, for months now, been requesting after Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled that Google has illegally maintained its monopoly in web search. One is from a business perspective...
Om Malik:
Some of us are old enough to remember that the reason Mark renamed
the company is because the Facebook brand was becoming toxic, and
associated with misinformation and global-scale crap. It was
viewed as a tired, last-generation company. Meta allowed the
compan...
Alex Heath, reporting for The Verge:
Meta has laid off an unspecified number of employees in its
Reality Labs division, a company spokesperson confirmed. The cuts
affected teams working in Oculus Studios, Meta’s in-house games
division for Quest headsets, as well as some...
Aaron Pressman, writing earlier this month in The Boston Globe, “Why I Abandoned Google Search After 27 Years — and What I’m Using Instead”:
The UK now requires travelers from America to obtain an electronic
travel authorization, or ETA. I wasn’t sure of the exact name o...
60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, in last night’s closing statement:
“Stories we’ve pursued for 57 years are often controversial:
lately, the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Bill
made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way.”
“But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a
merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began
to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been
blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest
journalism requires.”
“No one here is happy about it. But in resigning, Bill proved one
thing: He was the right person to lead ‘60 Minutes’ all along.”
Airbnb CEO (and founder) Brian Chesky, back in October in an interview with Nilay Patel, regarding Tim Cook’s eventual successor:
This goes to the very awkward thing that no one wants to talk
about. Succession planning is hard because the people that are
great product vi...
Majin Bu:
According to my source, Apple is gearing up for another major leap
forward. With iPadOS 19 and iOS 19, expected in 2025, the gap
between iPad, iPhone, and Mac continues to shrink. [...] One of
the most exciting changes will benefit those using the iPad with a
M...
Apple plans to shift the assembly of all US-sold iPhones to India
as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the
matter, as President Donald Trump’s trade war forces the tech
giant to pivot away from China.
The push builds on Apple’s strategy to diversify its supply chain
but goes further and faster than investors appreciate, with a goal
to source from India the entirety of the more than 60mn iPhones
sold annually in the US by the end of 2026.
The target would mean doubling the iPhone output in India, after
almost two decades in which Apple spent heavily in China to create
a world-beating production line that powered its rise into a $3tn
tech giant.
Wayne Ma, reporting for The Information (paywalled, alas):
Earlier this year, Chinese authorities refused to allow one of
Apple’s Chinese equipment suppliers to export machinery to India
that Apple needed for the upcoming iPhone 17’s trial production,
according to two pe...
Andrew Leonard, writing for Salon back in 2013:
The first thing wrong with the stupidest article to be posted to
the Internet in the year 2013 — and possibly the entire century — is the title: “I Was Quite Surprised By Some Things On My
American Airlines International ‘E...
Henry Blodget, who sold Business Insider to German publishing giant Axel Springer for $340 million a decade ago, has supposedly launched a new site, Regenerator, built on Substack. I was going to tack on an “alas” re: building on Substack, but maybe this is the sort of thin...
From the European Commission’s announcement today, “Commission closes investigation into Apple’s user choice obligations and issues preliminary findings on rules for alternative apps under the Digital Markets Act”:
Under the DMA, Apple is required to allow for the distri...
“This novel form of economic extortion will not be tolerated by
the United States,” a White House spokesperson said.
“Extraterritorial regulations that specifically target and
undermine American companies, stifle innovation, and enable
censorship will be recognized as barriers to trade and a direct
threat to free civil society.”
Michael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin, reporting for The New York Times:
CBS News entered a new period of turmoil on Tuesday after the
executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Bill Owens, said he would
resign from the long-running Sunday news program, citing
encroachments o...
The European Commission:
Today, the European Commission found that Apple breached its
anti-steering obligation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and
that Meta breached the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice
of a service that uses less of their personal data. ...
Featured