Apple Addresses Spotify’s Claims in a Statement

After Spotify filed a complaint against Apple earlier this week, Apple has today released a statement trying to address Spotify’s claims.

According to the statement:

What Spotify is demanding is something very different. After using the App Store for years to dramatically grow their business, Spotify seeks to keep all the benefits of the App Store ecosystem — including the substantial revenue that they draw from the App Store’s customers — without making any contributions to that marketplace. At the same time, they distribute the music you love while making ever-smaller contributions to the artists, musicians and songwriters who create it — even going so far as to take these creators to court.

and

Spotify wouldn’t be the business they are today without the App Store ecosystem, but now they’re leveraging their scale to avoid contributing to maintaining that ecosystem for the next generation of app entrepreneurs. We think that’s wrong.

Great points, but the statement complete sidesteps why the company disallows apps to mention other available payment models. I think Apple is fair in asking for a 30% cut for payments made through the App Store, but Spotify (and other apps) should also be allowed to tell their users that they can purchase the same subscriptions, using other payment methods, sometimes cheaper, from the service’s own website. Apple itself says that many Spotify users are free users and Apple is fine not getting any revenue from them. For any revenue Spotify receives outside of the App Store payment system, Apple shouldn’t need to ask for a cut.

Moreover, Spotify wouldn’t be in this tough position if Apple didn’t have its music streaming service, with substantial unfair advantages over Apple, offered at the same price as Spotify. Right now, Apple offers a competitor service on the same platform as Spotify, at the same price as Spotify, and has substantial advantages that users like.

March 15, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Spotify Files a Formal Complaint Against Apple

Spotify has announced that it has filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission (EC), the regulatory body responsible for keeping competition fair and nondiscriminatory.

Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify, writes:

In recent years, Apple has introduced rules to the App Store that purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience—essentially acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers. After trying unsuccessfully to resolve the issues directly with Apple, we’re now requesting that the EC take action to ensure fair competition.

and

We aren’t seeking special treatment. We simply want the same treatment as numerous other apps on the App Store, like Uber or Deliveroo, who aren’t subject to the Apple tax and therefore don’t have the same restrictions.

More power to Spotify!

The company has created a lovely website called Time to Play Fair that shows a timeline of all the ridiculous App Store policies that Apple has in place as well as the rejections that Spotify has faced over the years.

March 13, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Apple’s Video Streaming Service Coming March 25

Anousha Sakoui and Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg:

[Apple] is planning a March 25 event to announce both services, according to people familiar with the plan. The iPhone maker invited Hollywood stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner and director JJ Abrams, to attend, one of the people said.

Earlier, John Paczkowski at Buzzfeed News first reported that Apple was planning at event on March 25, supposedly to announce its News subscription service.

February 14, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Panic Will Be Renaming the Next Version of Coda

Yesterday, Panic revealed on Twitter that they have renamed Coda — their wonderful text-editor — as Coda by Panic, after working with the folks at Coda — a new kind of productivity document.

?❔ Many of you noticed a new Coda on the scene — a reimagined document that just launched at http://coda.io/ — and were concerned about their name. Thanks for looking out for us! We’ve worked with them and resolved the collision — they are Coda and it’s ok.

But then, Panic also revealed that the next big version of Coda, to be released sometime in 2019, will likely be called something else altogether.

?❕ The big twist: that also means the massive update to Panic’s Coda currently in the works will not be called Coda!!? (It actually makes a lot of sense — it really is a whole new app.) We’ll post some details on this exciting new thing in a few weeks. 2019 is gonna be fun!

I have been using Coda as my primary code-editor, website manager, and all-in-one web development suite for several years now and absolutely love it. I can’t wait to hear more about this upcoming release and rebranding.

Nick Heer points out that this was something Panic had already teased in their 2017 company report:

To catch up to today, we had to take a dramatic step. We’ve been informally calling it Coda Next during production. (We may even rebrand the product entirely, since it’s a dramatic step forward from today’s Coda.)

Nick goes on to say:

Call me crazy, but “Coda Next” — or, even better, just “Next” — sounds great as the name of a truly next-generation web development environment for Mac users.

I agree. I like the name “Next”.

February 13, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Office 365 Comes to the Mac App Store

Apple’s Press Release on their Newsroom:

Today, Office 365 is available for the first time on the Mac App Store, making it easier than ever for Mac users to download Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and the whole suite of Microsoft’s popular apps. Users can also purchase a subscription for Office 365 from within the apps, so they can get up and running instantly.

This was announced at WWDC in June last year. I wonder how much of a cut from the subscriptions is Apple getting from this.

My bet? Not a lot.

January 25, 2019 ✚ Permalink

macOS Mojave is Now Available

macOS Mojave — Apple’s newest version of its operating system for Macs is now available for download from the Mac App Store.

I installed it on my 2016 15″ MacBook Pro and the whole process took around 60 minutes. The performance hasn’t changed, and the new features are seemingly nice, though I have mixed feelings about the Dark Mode feature. It looks fantastic, but the light text on dark background is a hit-or-miss in many areas, especially in third-party apps.

September 25, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Instagram Announces Changes to “Improve” Your Feed

Instagram has today announced that it is making some changes to the Instagram Feed. The feed has been my single biggest annoyance about the app over the last few months, so I was excited when I read the title. Not only are the ads that show up every three posts irrelevant and annoying, the out-of-order timeline is even more terrible.

Unfortunately, these changes are too little and too late.

We’ve heard it can feel unexpected when your feed refreshes and automatically bumps you to the top. So today we’re testing a “New Posts” button that lets you choose when you want to refresh, rather than it happening automatically. Tap the button and you’ll be taken to new posts at the top of feed — don’t tap, and you’ll stay where you are. We hope this makes browsing Instagram much more enjoyable.

and

Based on your feedback, we’re also making changes to ensure that newer posts are more likely to appear first in feed. With these changes, your feed will feel more fresh, and you won’t miss the moments you care about. So if your best friend shares a selfie from her vacation in Australia, it will be waiting for you when you wake up.

The first change is nice, but what is up with the second? “More likely”? Why can’t I just see the posts in the feed in the order they were posted? Goddamnit!

Facebook really needs to stop shoving its algorithms everywhere.

March 23, 2018 ✚ Permalink