SongShift Team (also: MacRumors):
The Spotify Developer Platform Team reached out and let us know we’d need to remove transferring from their service to a competing music service or have our API access revoked due to TOS violation.
Spotify only wants you to use the API to import, not to export. The mixlib app is also affected (via Olivier Simard-Casanova).
Even putting aside that this sort of API restriction is bad for customers, you’d think that Spotify would have its eye on the bigger picture of not undermining its argument about fairness.
Jason Snell:
Spotify hates how Apple tends its own ecosystem, but it has zero interest in allowing its customers to migrate metadata in any way that might make it more convenient to leave Spotify behind. That’s their decision to make, of course, but for a company that claims to support consumer freedom, it has just made a hypocritical decision designed to reduce the freedom of its own customers.
Previously:
Update (2020-10-14): Damien Petrilli:
Until there is a regulation to prevent Apple to integrate Apple Music so tightly to iOS it’s probably safer for Spotify to prevent easy migration.
[…]
It’s like asking to play fair in a game where all other players cheat and respect no rule.
Update (2020-10-22): SongShift (via Petr Zvoníček):
Spotify has updated their Developer TOS to allow transferring your playlists from their service, just not the ones created by them.
iOS iOS 14 iOS App Music Spotify Web Web API
Bryan Cantrill (Hacker News):
So Rust is going really well for us at Oxide, but for the moment I want to focus on more personal things — reasons that I personally have enjoyed implementing in Rust. These run the gamut: some are tiny but beautiful details that allow me to indulge in the pleasure of the craft; some are much more profound features that represent important advances in the state of the art; and some are bodies of software developed by the Rust community, notable as much for their reflection of who is attracted to Rust (and why) as for the artifacts themselves. It should also be said that I stand by absolutely everything I said two years ago; this is not as a replacement for that list, but rather a supplement to it.
Language Design Programming Rust Programming Language
Juli Clover (also: Hacker News):
A California judge today denied Epic Games’ request for a preliminary injunction that would have required Apple to allow Fortnite back into the App Store, which means the app will continue to remain unavailable on Apple’s iOS platform for the duration of the legal battle between the two companies.
While the Fortnite app for iOS devices will not be reinstated into the App Store , Epic did successfully win an order that will require Apple to continue to allow Epic to operate its Unreal Engine developer account.
Florian Mueller:
While the TRO was a pre-PI decision, the PI is preliminary to a hypothetical permanent injunction that may or may not come down after the bench trial to be held in Oakland in May 2021. Whoever loses will likely appeal, and then it’s another question whether a permanent injunction coming down at that point will or will not continue to be enforced.
[…]
The PI order gives both parties some guidance as to where they bear the burden of proof and on what aspects of the case they must do more going forward. For instance, Apple will later have to convince the court that what its app distribution terms are designed to achieve cannot be achieved with softer rules. Only Epic, however, is told that “adamant[ly]” taking unreasonable, “baffling” positions has already made it lose some of its credibility with Judge Gonzalez Rogers.
Arguing that the hotfix to introduce direct payment was not deceptive seems like an unforced error.
Previously:
Antitrust Apple Business Epic Fortnite iOS iOS 14 Lawsuit Legal Unreal Engine
Thomas Reed:
Just learned that MacUpdate was purchased by the company that makes MacKeeper in July. 👀
Andrew Okhota:
MacUpdate has announced its new ownership as part of Clario. There will be no change to MacUpdate as a platform and no change to MacUpdate community teams and management. Clario will invest in MacUpdate to provide an even safer environment for downloads and support an improved experience for the MacUpdate community.
Previously:
Acquisition iOS Mac MacKeeper MacUpdate Web
Justin O’Beirne:
On April 9th, 2020, Apple’s new map expanded to a number of U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands[…]
Justin O’Beirne (MacRumors):
On October 1, 2020, Apple’s new map expanded to Ireland and the United Kingdom[…]
This is the ninth time that Apple has expanded its new map since its public launch in September 2018. And it’s also the first time that Apple has expanded its new map outside of the United States[…]
Nick Heer:
Look Around is uniquely interesting. It is the first attempt in a long time at building a true competitor to Google Street View. Microsoft’s Bing Maps has a “street level” view, but it lacks imagery for Calgary, and its last update in Vancouver occurred about eleven years ago. Meanwhile, I’ve seen Apple’s cars roaming around different cities in Alberta for about a year now.
Previously:
Apple Maps iOS iOS 14 Mac macOS 10.15 Catalina Maps
