lowededwookie

Hmmm who should I trust?

Apple, a company who has not done any wrong by me and has only served to make my life just that little bit easier?

How about the government who wants the ability to have a back door into my system in the off chance I might decide to commit a crime therefore see me as nothing more than a potential criminal meanwhile employing policies that allow them to basically not fix the real issues, not look after the people they are in charge of looking after, and getting rich from what by dictionary definition amounts to bribes?

I worked in the IT Department in the New Zealand Parliament for about 4 months. Frankly that solidified my belief that I shouldn't vote for any government because they are worse than Kindergarten children. Parliament is the scariest place on earth because you quickly realise that those muppets are the ones running the country.

Nope, I'm on Apple's side here people.

spheric said:

foregoneconclusion said:

The EU is desperate to collect a penalty fee. In the U.S. legal system, Spotify wouldn't have had the standing to complain since they had already moved 99% of their iOS subscribers to web payments WITHOUT needing any kind of in-app communication. Nothing about their financial reality supported the complaint. Not the revenue part of it or the communication part of it. 

Yes, with a nominal GDP of almost US$20 trillion projected for 2024, I'm sure they're desperate to collect 500 million Euro from a company violating existing antitrust laws. 

Apple hasn’t broken any laws. The only laws that Apple appears to have broken are recent laws designed to punish Apple for being successful. Those laws didn’t exist at the time the EU went after Apple.

Incidentally, remember when they created a law forcing a standard power supply being USB-C? They claim Apple was filling their rubbish dumps with their leads. Only, Apple has only ever had 3 leads for their iPhones. 30-pin Dock connector, Lightning, and now USB-C. How many different charger leads existed on the EU’s beloved Nokia? Oh that’s right, there was a different power plug for every single model of Nokia phone until they settled on that crappy USB-Micro connector.

The EU is the biggest bunch of hypocrites which isn’t difficult to understand when Russia is one of the lead countries.

This is very reminiscent of the old Microsoft Exchange issue. If you had Outlook or Apple Mail connected to a Microsoft Exchange account your battery would disappear super quick after an update.

I had this issue and when I disconnected the Exchange account my battery was fine.

kellie said:

First you have to assume CO2 is a pollutant.  In which case you should stop breathing because you’re externalizing the costs of your existence upon me.  There is still much debate over the impact of CO2 on climate change.  I know the plant world is very happy to see more CO2 in the atmosphere.  

Second, China CO2 output is skyrocketing.  Any CO2 reductions Apple implements in China are meaningless and have virtually no impact on global CO2 levels.  

The costs to reduce CO2 are added to the cost of goods sold.  Apple wants to maintain or increase profitability so these new costs are passed along to the consumer.  Pollution control either increases costs or reduces profits.  Of course governments love the idea of a carbon tax to supposedly address the costs to society of CO2 emissions but it’s just a money grab. 

Overall it’s politically correct virtue signaling.  If Apple really wanted to address environmental impacts of their products they would make Macs that had user upgradeable SSD’s or RAM.  Their current designs decrease the useful life of their products and create massive profit opportunities.  iPhones should have upgradeable storage as well.  

Actually China’s pollution output is steadily dropping. In 2018 China had reduced its emissions by 75% and was on track in 2019 to reduce them even more If that decline continues China could very well get on top of most of its pollution problems within the next 5 to 10 years.

The Chinese government is handing out massive fines to industries that are producing too much pollution so it’s in the companies’ best interests to reduce pollution. Apple will be adding to that incentive.

That leaves the real problem being European and American productions.

HA, that’s exactly how I thought Apple would play it and damn right too.

They’re not doing anything illegal but they’re also not going to make it easy for companies wanting a free ride.

Well played Apple, well played.

GeorgeBMac said:

seanismorris said:

I wonder what Epic is thinking...
I get they are frustrated with the 30% “Apple Tax” but their actions make no sense.

I'm thinking that for them, they can only win.   They can't lose:

Their game is to break down the walls of the walled garden.  

-- If they succeed then they win

-- if they don't succeed then they go back to obeying the rules -- and have lost very little (but gained a bunch of free publicity!)

Epic will turn more developers away than gain by this move. Apple created the 30% to level the playing field. EVERY developer has to pay the SAME amount regardless or how big they are. Epic wants new deals just for them so developers aren't going to take to this too well. Sure it might make others come back to Apple and demand similar deals but most developers are intelligent and realise the need for Apple to take a cut.

Remember, Epic has always had the ability to side step the App Store for these purchases by purchasing through their own website. Epic CHOSE to skirt these rules and try and do it in-app. Epic has taken a double barrelled shotgun, pointed it at its feet and yelled "PULL". Now Epic has no legs to stand on.

Sweet, international rollout is coming.

That guy really doesn’t sound impressed. It’s like he’s being paid to promote a computer he really doesn’t believe in.

Oh, great. That means I won’t be able to play Rocksmith 2014.

Rocksmith+ sucks because there’s no Mac version and I can’t seem to use the Rocksmith cable with iOS.

nubus said:

EU proposed the legislation 4 years ago and it was signed in April 2022. It is hardly a surprise to Apple that Spotify would submit an app for review.

And we all know the next steps:

1. A politician (probably French or Belgian) will make a bombastic statement on X/Twitter on Friday, and Apple will then approve the app on Saturday.
2. Someone here will complain that EU is communist, bureaucratic, and/or corrupt. Even though Apple is mainly getting their products manufactured in a "communist" country and on corruption the US is doing worse than 11 countries in EU... but the story is once again that EU is the worst thing ever.
3. And someone will complain about the courts or the legislation or something else. This is mainly due to the use of common law in US/UK while EU is - like most of the world - isn't using common law.
4. Stock owners will bleed again. 

But at the core... why didn't Apple expect Spotify to submit an app?

You seem to not understand the situation. Yes Apple knew it was coming so why does whinie cry baby Spotify not understand that what the EU has done has made the problem worse for developers as Apple now has to adhere to a completely unthought out set of rules with each new app being released for the EU market.

So not only does Apple have to check that your data isn’t being siphoned by crooks, these apps aren’t doing anything dodgy or illegal, aren’t going to introduce issues, aren’t going to break people’s phones, aren’t going to give easy access to pornography to minors, aren’t going to take photos of children in compromising situations and upload those to bad sites, etc etc etc, but now Apple has to make sure all of these checks are being done in such a way the EU is happy.

If I was Apple, Spotify would be pushed to bottom of the priority list because at least small developers are prepared to pay their way on Apple’s platform.

If Spotify want special priority they should develop their own AppStore and have to do all the work.