All of us were disturbed and shocked by the 15th film, The Kashmir Files. That felt like a propaganda, vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival.
Yikes!
Apple reported their quarterly results for Q4’22 yesterday and the folks at Six Colors have published their transcript of the call that Tim Cook and Luca Maestri have with analysts.
During the call, Apple mentioned that the company saw double-digit grown in India and iPhone growth was “impressive”.
iPhone Revenue grew 10% year over year to a September quarter record of 42.6 billion despite significant foreign exchange headwinds. We set September quarter records in the vast majority of markets we track, and our performance was particularly impressive in several large emerging markets with India setting a new all-time revenue record and Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Mexico more than doubling year over year. Thanks to our strong iPhone lineup, we set a quarterly record for upgraders and grew switchers double digits. This level of sales performance, along with unmatched customer loyalty, drove the active installed base of iPhones to a new all time high across all geographic segments.
(Emphasis mine.)
No surprises here. The iPhone continues to get more expensive in India, yet more people continue to buy it every year.
Yael Rubinstein, writing on the Pocket Casts blog:
We’ve been eager to take this step since we joined Automattic last year — after all, the company’s creed includes the phrase “I know that open source is the most powerful idea of our generation.” We believe that podcasting can not and should not be controlled by Apple and Spotify, and instead support a diverse ecosystem of third-party clients.
It was just a matter of time when this would happen, as anyone who knows Automattic knows their love for open source. The only surprising thing to me is that Pocket Casts is only making their mobile apps open source, the Desktop and Web versions are not included in this anouncement and the company says it has no plans to do so either.
This announcement has generally been received positively by users and developers of other podcasts apps.
The iOS repository as well as the Android repository are up on GitHub with a Mozilla Public License 2.0.
Jagmeet Singh, writing for TechCrunch:
Uber has started offering electric vehicles to customers in certain parts of the Delhi-NCR region and says it will be expanding its efforts over the coming months. The electric cabs are currently only available for pre-scheduled trips.
The company did not share how many EV cabs were operational on its platform in India, but insisted that it is working with multiple fleet partners, OEMs and charging infra providers “to gradually build the EV business in a sustainable manner.”
With fuel prices soaring in the country, Uber’s contractual drivers have already been raising their displeasure at making less than what the company had promised them. I just hope that the company doesn’t shaft them like they did with the ICE vehicles.
Adobe press release:
Today, Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Figma, a leading web-first collaborative design platform, for approximately $20 billion in cash and stock. The combination of Adobe and Figma will usher in a new era of collaborative creativity.
Together, Adobe and Figma will reimagine the future of creativity and productivity, accelerate creativity on the web, advance product design and inspire global communities of creators, designers and developers. The combined company will have a massive, fast-growing market opportunity and capabilities to drive significant value for customers, shareholders and the industry.
Dylan Field, writing on the Figma blog, says:
Today, we’re announcing that Figma has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Adobe. This has been in the works over the past few months and I’m so excited to finally share this news with the world.
Ten years ago, Evan and I set out on a journey to make design accessible to all. Looking back, I’m proud to say we’ve made progress through introducing Figma to designers of all ages, geographies and levels of experience.
He goes on to say,
There is a huge opportunity for us to accelerate the growth and innovation of the Figma platform with access to Adobe’s technology, expertise and resources in the creative space. For example, we will have the opportunity to incorporate their expertise in imaging, photography, illustration, video, 3D and font technology to the Figma platform. Additionally, we will have the opportunity to reimagine what the best creative tools could look like within the Figma technology stack.
And clarifies that,
Adobe is deeply committed to keeping Figma operating autonomously and I will continue to serve as CEO, reporting to David Wadhwani.
Figma has gone on to become an immensely popular design tool in the last few years, and designers are noticeably disappointed about this news.
RIP to a real one https://t.co/1FNYB1XiQF
— Harshil (@harshil) September 15, 2022
Please don’t. https://t.co/AtWtHhCduF
— Anders Norén (@andersnoren) September 15, 2022
I mean, yes, they say it's gonna operate autonomously. But we all know that's not gonna last. I wonder what kind of splash screen Figma will get.
— Sindre Sorhus (@sindresorhus) September 15, 2022
Goodbye my lover
Goodbye my friend
You have been the one
You have been the one for mehttps://t.co/w4Ej8nggBV— Kasper Marx Andersen (@KaAnDK) September 15, 2022
The Figma news is why we can't have nice things
— Collin Henderson (@syropian) September 15, 2022
To be fair, I feel like I’m seeing a lot of folks pretty stoked about this Figma news.
Though also to be fair, those folks do all work for Figma.
— Hector Simpson (@dizzyup) September 15, 2022
There’s no doubt that this is a big win for Adobe, and I’m very curious how much Figma changes going forward. My bet is that it gets worse.
Aditya Kalra, reporting for Reuters:
Tinder-owner Match Group has filed an antitrust case against Apple with the competition regulator in India, accusing it of “monopolistic conduct” that forces developers to pay high commissions for in-app purchases, a legal filing seen by Reuters shows.
Apple is fending off a raft of antitrust challenges around the globe and Match’s July filing adds to two other cases in India though Match is the first foreign company to mount such a challenge against the iPhone maker in the country.
Match notes in its filing that Indians prefer using a “state-backed online transfer system,” seemingly referring to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payment system promoted by the Indian Govt. that has swept the country in recent times.
The govt. has repeatedly shown how much it loves UPI, and if that’s any indication, Apple just might be in some trouble here.
The WordPress.org homepage and the WordPress.org/download page have just gotten a much-needed makeover.
Nicholas Garofalo, writing on WordPress.org News:
The new homepage brings more attention to the benefits and experience of using WordPress, while also highlighting the community and resources to get started.
The new download page greets visitors with a new layout that makes getting started with WordPress even easier by presenting both the download and hosting options right at the top.
This redesign follows the redesign of the WordPress News blog earlier this year.