Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which incorporates all of the Apple information you missed final week in a useful bite-sized roundup. We name it Apple Breakfast as a result of we predict it goes nice with a Monday morning cup of espresso or tea, however it’s cool if you wish to give it a learn throughout lunch or dinner hours too.
Breaking out of the walled backyard
Final week’s Apple Breakfast mentioned Apple’s quiet admission that it’s going to need to make adjustments to the App Retailer in response to EU laws. Following years of grandstanding on the evils of sideloading and the benevolence of its stewardship, Apple seems to have lastly acknowledged that it could have to calm down its iron grip on iOS app distribution.
This week? We’re going to crank issues up a notch, as Apple prepares to offer solution to an much more essential aspect of its so-called “walled backyard.”
Cupertino is sweet at plenty of issues, however the firm’s superpower is locking in customers. That is right down to the walled backyard, that sticky ecosystem of Apple merchandise that in varied methods encourages you to purchase different Apple merchandise and discourages you from shopping for something from rival corporations. If you happen to purchase an iPhone, you’re extra doubtless to purchase a set of AirPods as a result of they work so nicely with it, which in flip implies that when it comes time to get a brand new smartphone, you’re much less more likely to swap to Android. Apple’s merchandise all work higher with each other than they do with competing units… which you’d in all probability anticipate, besides to not this extent. No person else runs a walled backyard that traps clients wherever close to as successfully as Apple.
The star of the present in that walled garden-the prize-winning rose, if you’ll–is iMessage, as a result of its stickiness impacts different folks in a form of contagious unfold. In case your mates have iPhones and spend their time speaking over iMessage, you’ll need to have the ability to take part; an Android person can be a part of a bunch chat with iPhone customers however received’t get the total set of options (movies get compressed, for instance, whereas reactions don’t work correctly) and, famously, will seem as an out-group-signaling inexperienced moderately than a blue bubble. iMessage peer stress is a big a part of the rationale why, within the US, an astonishing 87 p.c of youngsters personal iPhones, means past the machine’s world market share.
I heard that stat, by the way in which, in an attention-grabbing video final week by Marques Brownlee, who was discussing Nothing’s latest transfer to carry iMessage to Android. Attention-grabbing the thought could also be, however there are many caveats. The brand new Nothing Chats app, primarily a re-skin of the present Sunbird app, makes use of a financial institution of Mac servers as a bridge to assist you to entry your Apple ID’s iMessages on an Android handset. However that comes with a bunch of safety issues: your Apple ID may very well be compromised if somebody hacks Sunbird’s servers, and in reality, Nothing has already pulled the app from the Play Retailer to repair a number of situation. And as soon as it comes again, there’s each probability that Apple will squash the entire thing.
However then once more, perhaps Apple received’t hassle. As a result of larger information emerged later within the week: Apple goes to carry RCS to the iPhone. That is momentous stuff and excellent news for everybody… besides Apple itself.
RCS is a really interoperable messaging customary, and including it to the iPhone will make it a lot simpler for house owners of the machine to message their Android pals; typing indicators, learn receipts, uncompressed photographs… virtually the whole lot will work higher. The Android customers will nonetheless present up as inexperienced bubbles, however aside from that they need to slot in seamlessly.
As I say, then, excellent news for iPhone customers and Android customers alike. However this can scale back the peer stress on youngsters to purchase the identical model of smartphone as their pals, and due to this fact the effectiveness of iMessage as a gross sales device for Apple units. And you’ll guess your backside greenback that Apple solely gave means on this long-requested change after a lot wailing and gnashing of enamel.
In different phrases, as with USB-C on the iPhone and different fee strategies on the App Retailer, the corporate solely gave in as a result of regulators had been about to power its hand. This additionally implies that, as with self-repair, Apple will do its finest to implement the adjustments in as unhelpful a means as attainable, and doubtless as late because it presumably can. Not out of spite, however to maintain piling the fertilizer on that treasured walled backyard.
Foundry
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Podcast of the week
Apple sells a number of Macs with simply 8GB of unified reminiscence. That’s not sufficient in immediately’s tech world. We’re speaking about how this causes an issue and what customers want to concentrate on when looking for a Mac, on this episode of the Macworld Podcast!
You’ll be able to catch each episode of the Macworld Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our personal website.
Critiques nook
The rumor mill
Apple’s 2024 iPad bombshell: A bigger Air, OLED Professional, no extra Lightning mannequin.
Dan Moren explains how AI might take iOS 18 and macOS 15 to the following stage.
Yup, iOS 18 is shaping as much as be a Very Massive Deal.
Software program updates, bugs, and issues
The USB-C Apple Pencil will get a mysterious firmware replace.
iOS 17.2 beta 3 is out now with the Journal app and plenty of new options and adjustments.
And with that, we’re achieved for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you happen to’d wish to get common roundups, join our newsletters. It’s also possible to observe us on Fb, Threads, or Twitter for dialogue of breaking Apple information tales. See you subsequent Monday, and keep Appley.
