If Mark Zuckerberg says it’s very difficult to use the new App Store EU rules — and Meta just announced their quarterly results of $40 billion in revenue — then there is no chance the rest of us can make it work. Sideloading and marketplaces are like a mirage.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/1/24058572/zuckerberg-meta-apple-app-store-iphone-eu-sideloading
Step one, take off the headset https://www.manton.org/2024/02/01/step-one-take.html
Had a dream last night that I was hired at GitHub. My team was about 4-5 people, much younger than me, with hardly any actual experience… except they were all better programmers than I was. On the first day I deployed a change that broke a bizarre GitHub spreadsheets feature.
There has been a long list of proprietary Apple connectors over the years, but this wide Lightning cable in the Vision Pro is one of the funniest.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/31/24057392/apple-vision-pro-battery-lightning-cable
I paused posting to Threads last year because I thought the platform would be joining the fediverse soon-ish. They’re making good progress with the early enabled accounts, but it’s going to be a while until folks on Threads can follow my Micro.blog profile, so I’m going to resume posting there.
Apple needs a flop https://www.manton.org/2024/01/31/apple-needs-a.html
I’ve got the senate committee hearing about child exploitation on in the background while I work this morning. Interesting to hear Mark Zuckerberg pivot a couple of the questions into needing to be solved in the app stores, not the social platforms.
Castro has found a new home with Bluck Apps, who already has a podcast app on Android. They blog about what’s next:
"In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be making some changes under the hood to make the backend more stable and make sure new episodes sync more quickly. Once things are stabilized and the transition is complete, we’ll be turning our attention toward new features, such as syncing across devices."
Because some folks asked about it, I did reach out to Tiny but it didn’t go anywhere, and honestly I’m a little relieved. We have a full plate already with Micro.blog.
Great to see more of the Texas grid powered by renewable energy. From KUT, broke a record a couple days ago with 36% of power coming just from solar, hitting 15,222 megawatts.
Very excited about Project Tapestry from the Iconfactory, now available to back on Kickstarter. We need more apps for the social web like this that work across multiple platforms. It will support Micro.blog too!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iconfactory/project-tapestry
Accidentally poured chocolate milk in my cereal. Guess it’s going to be one of those kind of mornings.
Manual cross-posting to Threads and more https://www.manton.org/2024/01/29/manual-crossposting-to.html
Because of their decades of truly great products, Apple thinks they are more clever than anyone else. Because of their focus on privacy, Apple thinks they are righteous. Because of their financial success, Apple thinks they are more powerful than governments. The DMA will test whether they’re right.
Reviewing news coverage of the Core Technology Fee, usually glossed over is that the CTF applies to every install of a marketplace. From Apple:
"Developers of alternative app marketplaces will pay the Core Technology Fee for every first annual install of their app marketplace, including installs that occur before one million."
Because marketplaces will usually be free, this makes it nearly impossible for them to work without charging developers just as much as Apple does, or having enough cash that it can lose money. Everything in Apple’s rules is designed to prevent anyone from using this.
MacStories has also published their write-up on the App Store changes for the Digital Markets Act. The more I think through the system Apple is attempting, the more it becomes clear the Core Technology Fee is not compliant with the DMA. Marketplaces simply cannot work with the CTF in place.
https://www.macstories.net/stories/understanding-apples-response-to-the-dma/
With all the App Store EU changes, briefly considered that maybe my iPhone 14 Pro will be my last iPhone. It is a great phone, but I’m not currently inspired to drop $1k in Apple’s lap every couple years. Think I’ll keep it a while.
Spurs with back-to-back wins. Ignore the season record so far… Fun game and great 4th quarter. 🏀
For folks who have been actively using Threads, are we at the point where we need URL shorteners again? We’ve largely not had to think about this with most social networks after Twitter started with t.co URLs, but it seems that Threads does care about the URL length.
Ben Werdmuller blogs about how the IndieWeb is for everyone, inspired by a post from Tantek Çelik. Tantek:
"The IndieWeb is for everyone, everyone who wants independence from organizations, independence of agency to associate, and who embraces the web of humans that want to interconnect, to communicate, to value and respect each other, whether one degree apart or thirty."
Both great posts.
https://werd.io/2024/the-indieweb-is-for-everyone https://tantek.com/2024/026/t3/indieweb-for-everyone-internet-of-people
John Gruber’s post about Apple’s EU plans is long, but the part in the middle with the details of the fees is one of the most concise summaries of how Apple wants this to work. The question we have to answer next is whether the Core Technology Fee is compliant with the DMA. I’m not sure.