jhollington

Spotify doesn't pay 30% for all customers it holds, and not even close to a majority of them. That 30% applies to the first year of a maintained subscription, and it pays 15% on subscribers that it has held for over a year.

Actually, Spotify hasn't paid 30% for any customers it holds in at least seven years. It stopped accepting in-app subscriptions in 2016, which means that by the end of 2017, it was only paying 15% for those customers who were still signed up through Apple.

However, last summer, Spotify began telling the few customers who were still paying through Apple that they'd have to resubscribe to Premium directly or be switched to a free account. That was in July, which means by the end of last year, Spotify should have been paying Apple nothing at all.

The 30% mantra is the most disingenuous thing that Spotify has ever said. 

insync88 said:

Level (using level bolt) uses geofencing and Bluetooth through its own app.I had it set up through HomeKit (using a scene) but it would always ask to authenticate,with the level app my door unlocks automatically once I’m in Bluetooth range.

Thanks. That's pretty much what I figured it had to do, as August does the same. The article suggested it was using HomeKit for this, which had me a bit skeptical. 

Personally, I'm kind of waiting to see how the whole Home Key thing ends up working in iOS 15 et al, and then perhaps we'll also see some HomeKit-specific locks that don't rely on separate apps, similar to how Logitech's HomeKit cameras and doorbell now works. 

mike1 said:

I thought HomeKit didn't allow Siri to unlock doors as a safety feature. (Preventing someone from yelling into an open window to unlock the front door.)

You can unlock with Siri, but you have to do so on an authenticated device like an unlocked iPhone or an Apple Watch with Wrist Detection on. 

If you call out "Hey Siri" to a HomePod, it will ask you to authenticate on your iPhone using Face ID, Touch ID, or your password before the door gets unlocked.

I'm more curious how Level is going to allow users to automatically unlock upon returning home. The article says it uses HomeKit for that, but it's not really something that HomeKit supports. Geofencing can't be used to unlock a door, since HomeKit requires authentication to do so, and even so, unless Bluetooth proximity is involved it's not a good idea for most people as it's not nearly precise enough — you probably don't want your door unlocking automatically when you're still several hundred feet away from your house. Other locks like August use their own apps with a combination of geofencing and Bluetooth proximity so it only unlocks when you're reasonably close by.