Welcome to our hebdomadary Apple Breakfast newspaper column , which include all the Apple news you missed last workweek in a ready to hand bite - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we believe it goes great with a cupful of coffee or tea , but it ’s coolheaded if you want to give it a read during tiffin or dinner hour too .
It wasn’t me
We all live that Apple does n’t like being distinguish what to do . The fellowship ’s first instinct , when accused of misbehavior , is to abnegate ( “ You ’re hold it wrong”),lobby , or simply disregard the trouble and hope it go off . In this respect , perhaps , it is n’t that dissimilar from the average transnational company .
Where Apple unfeignedly excel , however , is in the art of tactical surrender . The company will fight tooth and smash for years against public relations insistence or regulative oversight , but when it lastly give in you could be certain it will do so at a sentence and on terms craftily calculated to render maximum advantage at minimal price . Last week , for lesson , we got the news that the EU wo n’t force Apple toopen up iMessageto Android drug user … a conclusion which coincidentally follow the company ’s kid-glove proclamation in November that it would voluntarily doapproximatelythe same thing , in its own practiced time , by keep going thecross - program RCS measure . Similarly , the company headed off pressure from the Right To Repair movement a twosome of year ago by setting up a self - fixing program so unappealing that it seemeddesigned to give out . Apple is very good at pretending to fall back .
But sometimes the most effective manoeuvre is a little less pernicious … and moreopenly hostile . That ’s when we get into the realm ofmalicious submission , where a regulatory body rules against you so you play along the letter of their opinion in the most unhelpful way potential . Under that class comes last week ’s news that Apple is going todisable rest home screen entanglement appsin iOS 17.4 , but only in the EU . The reason for this slow-witted footprint ? The EU told Apple it had to allow third - party browsers and app memory under the Digital Markets Act , and this make so-called protection headaches for web apps that would need an “ enormous amount of engine room ” to solve . Sorry guys , we ’d love you to keep enjoying this characteristic but those spoilsport bureaucrats at the EU have forced us to get disembarrass of it .
It ’s important to recognise here that Apple is making a alternative , while pretending that it is n’t . The company require to convince users that it ’s the EU ’s fault that WWW apps are getting kill off , but the EU has just made a principle ; it ’s up to Apple to comply with that . surely , there may be complications , but it ’s not like Apple will struggle to find a software engineer in the building . This is one of the most well - resourced companies in the human beings , and if it desire to sort something out , it will . It ’s just that in this case , sacrifice a relatively modest feature in one territory is worth it to paint the EU as the villain of the piece , to slash up public thought against the idea of opening up iOS ’s walled garden , and to further labor the idea that sideloading is essentially insecure .
( It ’s plausibly deserving bring up that we ’ve been here before : last summertime Apple responded to proposed security system - related legislation in the U.K. bythreatening to shutterits FaceTime and iMessage services in that country . But Apple appear to have honed the tactic since then ; removing one characteristic is more naturalistic than taking down two massively popular messaging services . )
Whether user will buy all this remain to be seen . A only X / Twitter drug user reply to The Verge’scoverage of the storydutifully argued that European lawgiver had “ got what they wished for , ” but most of the rest seemed unimpressed by Apple ’s play , paint a picture that the EU should get problematical or ( as usual ) that users should flip to Android . The Cupertino focal point on surety is in many ways admirable , but there ’s a scaremongering aspect that is n’t helpful , and may no longer be as good at attain the company ’s intention : each direful invocation ofcackling cybercriminals , if unaccompanied by actual cybercrime , waters down the substance that footling bit more . Nor , for that matter , does it seem wise to kick up the EU by treating it like an galling schoolteacher with an inconvenient new pattern .
But with the walled garden crumbling and the digital vultures encircle , Apple may be growing despairing . exercise full ascendency of its platforms has been extraordinarily lucrative , and the companionship wo n’t lease go without a fight – even if formally , that fight is already over .
metalworks
If the Mac can manage the ‘ jeopardy ’ ofalternative app stores , why ca n’t the iPhone ?
Vision Pro is Apple’sweirdest and riskiestproduct in geezerhood – and itshouldn’t stop there .
Podcast of the week
In this sequence of the Macworld Podcast , we preserve our discussion of theApple Vision Pro – whether it ’s deserving your money and its position in Apple ’s ecosystem .
you may catch every sequence of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own site .
Reviews corner
The rumor mill
tvOS 17.4 betareveals Apple is closeto release aHomePod with a screen .
Report : Apple ’s upcomingA18 and M4 chipsto getboosted AI potentiality .
Applebuys iWork.ai domainas grounds of abig AI pushmounts .
iOS 18to mimic Vision Pro ’s visionOS interface , unelaborated account arrogate .
Software updates, bugs, and problems
‘ shade touch ’ display problemafflicting somelatest - gen Apple Watches .
10 - year old bug stillcausing headachesforMac audiophiles .
Applereleases visionOS 1.0.3with choice toreset your Vision Pro .
Io 17.4 genus Beta 2isnow usable .
