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- Woah, judge orders big change to App Store
Woah, judge orders big change to App Store
A federal judge just forced the biggest change to Apple's App Store since its creation.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to add third-party payment buttons to the App Store before year's end.
It's a big loss for Apple, and potentially a big win for developers and consumers.
The order allows developers to bypass Apple's in-app purchasing mechanism -- and its 30% cut.
The option won't replace Apple's IAP, which will always be more convenient, but will sit alongside it. It will allow developers to add links or buttons that steer customers to their own payment systems outside the App Store.
It's easy to imagine developers adding a button to their apps that says “buy for 30% less” and bypassing Apple's traditional cut.
Spotify, YouTube, Netflix and many others must be salivating at the prospect, while Tim Cook frantically tries to figure out how to prevent a hit to Apple's Services revenue.
Looks like Square and Stripe have a busy year ahead.
-- Leander Kahney, EIC.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Apple to add third-party payment options to the App Store by December 9, after denying the company’s motion for a stay in Epic Games’ case against Cupertino.
Users can access all titles through the main Netflix app, but — as expected — they must be downloaded individually. The service offers five games to begin with, including two Stranger Things titles.
Apple’s latest beta gives iPhone and iPad users the option to search for nearby AirTags and other devices, thanks to a new “Items That Can Track Me” button in the Find My app.
Apple launched a new service aimed at small businesses Wednesday. Now in beta, Apple Business Essentials bundles device management, Apple support and iCloud storage into flexible subscription plans for companies with up to 500 employees.
We gathered up some of the best deals you’re going to see anywhere during our Pre-Black Friday Sale. And if you use code SAVE15NOV, you can get an extra 15% off.
The Mophie Snap+ Powerstation Stand offers 10,000 mAh — enough to come close to recharging an iPhone 13 twice. It uses MagSafe, so handset and charger cling together. And it has a kickstand, making it useful even when your handset is fully charged. If all that wasn’t enough, a tripod socket lets you make this power bank part of your video setup.
Over the past several years, Keychron has gained justifiable fame for its affordable mechanical keyboards, which appeal to a variety of users. Now it plans to release its first mouse, the M1 (not to be confused with Apple’s world-beating chipset).
After years of promises, the Honeywell Home T9 -- one of the first consumer smart thermostats to support remote temperature and humidity sensors -- adds HomeKit support and Siri voice control.
RiotPwr is out with a new version of its iPhone game controller with a Lightning connector. It mimics the design of Microsoft’s Xbox controller, and the new version adds a pair of buttons needed to play many games.
Creating a killer app isn’t the only way to make an honest buck in the Apple ecosystem. You can publish an ebook quickly and easily on Apple Books. It’s a straightforward way to sell your ideas, and doesn’t require any coding. In fact, the only software you need is probably installed on your Mac already: Pages.
Thanks to a swanky new Apple laptop, plus a few other bits and pieces I quickly acquired, as of today I no longer wallow in a PC laptop pigsty. (Yeah, the photo above is genuine, though I swear it wasn’t always quite that messy.) I’ve got a proper Mac computer setup for the first time in a while.
Tweets o' the day
One more thing ...
"It's not about pop culture, and it's not about fooling people, and it's not about convincing people that they want something they don't. We figure out what we want. And I think we're pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That's what we get paid to do. So you can't go out and ask people, you know, what the next big [thing.] There's a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, 'If I'd have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me "a faster horse."'" -- Steve Jobs
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