'Hot garbage!'

Developers trash Apple's App Store plans.

Big, big changes to the iPhone are afoot — sideloading, alternative app stores, streaming game apps and more — but so far, app developers are not fans.

Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, which publishes the massively popular Fortnite, calls Apple’s plans for the EU App Store “hot garbage” and “malicious compliance.”

Of course, Sweeney’s not an impartial observer: Epic sued Apple over the same issues that EU regulators addressed.

Nonetheless, I’ve not seen many positive reactions to Apple’s plans. Developers are criticizing all of it, with only a few exceptions.

Steve Troughton-Smith, an influential developer with a large social media following, is generally positive, however. He says Apple’s plans are technically impressive, even if the business proposals are not. “There's a foundation here that I think has great potential to enable whole new aspects of iOS,” he said on Mastodon.

Also in today’s newsletter:

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

A message from CdkeySales

A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team

Tweetz o’ the day

One more thing ...

Windows has won. It beat the Mac, unfortunately, it beat UNIX, it beat OS/2. An inferior product won.

— Steve Jobs, 1995.

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