Engadget: “Everything Apple revealed at the iPhone 17 launch event”

As expected, Apple announced a new member of the iPhone family during the event. The iPhone Air is the thinnest iPhone yet, measuring just 5.6mm thick, and made of spacecraft-grade titanium. Ceramic Shield 2 surrounds the iPhone Air on both sides, which helps make it more durable than any previous iPhone. The Air’s always-on screen measures 6.5-inches, and it supports ProMotion and up to 3,000 nits of brightness.

Valentina Palladino

Not sure how you can get away with claiming this as the thinnest iPhone yet when its upper quarter is thicker than many past iPhones. No longer the inconspicuous camera bump from 10 years ago, this is a full-blown bulge, with a camera bump on top.

The New York Times: “Apple’s Newest Headache: An App that upended its Control over Messaging”

Since it was introduced on Dec. 5, Beeper Mini has quickly become a headache and potential antitrust problem for Apple. It has poked a hole in Apple’s messaging system, while critics say it has demonstrated how Apple bullies potential competitors.

Apple was caught by surprise when Beeper Mini gave Android devices access to its modern, iPhone-only service. Less than a week after Beeper Mini’s launch, Apple blocked the app by changing its iMessage system. It said the app created a security and privacy risk.

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The Justice Department has taken interest in the case. Beeper Mini met with the department’s antitrust lawyers on Dec. 12, two people familiar with the meeting said. Eric Migicovsky, a co-founder of the app’s parent company, Beeper, declined to comment on the meeting, but the department is in the middle of a four-year-old investigation into Apple’s anticompetitive behavior.

The Federal Trade Commission said in a blog post on Thursday that it would scrutinize “dominant” players that use privacy and security as a justification to disallow interoperability between services. The post did not name any companies.

Tripp Mickle & Mike Isaac

The ‘green bubble’ iMessage situation in the US is beyond absurd. I can’t quite decide which is worse: grown people caring so much about kindergarten-level status signaling, or Apple being eager to exploit this social dynamic to grow iPhone sales. Actually, I guess I can: when you have Tim ‘buy your mom an iPhone’ Cook openly deriding Android users on stage it’s abundantly clear that Apple’s entire strategy is to degrade the experience of anyone daring to venture outside their ecosystem.

Reuters: “Apple warns India’s EU-style charger rules will hit local production target”

India wants to implement a European Union rule that will require smartphones to have a universal USB-C charging port, and has been in talks with manufacturers about introducing the requirement in India by June 2025, six months after the deadline in the EU. While all manufacturers including Samsung have agreed to India’s plan, Apple is pushing back.

Apple has for years offered a unique lightning connector port on its iPhones. The EU, however, estimates a single charger solution would save about $271 million for consumers, and India has said the move will reduce e-waste and help users.

In a closed-door Nov. 28 meeting chaired by India’s IT ministry, Apple asked officials to exempt existing iPhone models from the rules, warning it will otherwise struggle to meet production targets set under India’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, according to the meeting minutes seen by Reuters.

Aditya Kalra & Munsif Vengattil

Typical example of Apple’s arrogance and entitlement: they want to receive fiscal incentives from the government for investments in local manufacturing, but also special exemptions from an upcoming USB-C regulation to keep selling older – and by then cheaper – iPhone models on the Indian market. Ironically, this issue was brought on by Apple’s own obstinance and greed, as the company kept the Lightning port around for so long to collect licensing fees from accessories manufactures.

The Verge: “Apple’s new FineWoven iPhone cases are very bad”

I’m trying to imagine what this case would be like after a year of being subjected to the dust and lint at the bottom of my purse or the stray scratches from nails and keys. God help me if my toddler ever managed to put his grubby hands on it, which he absolutely would. I just don’t see any way that this material ages gracefully. The leather cases had their problems, but when leather gets old, it at least looks nice — a scuffed, dusty fabric case will not.

Maybe FineWoven would be acceptable in a less expensive case. Or maybe if Apple had never called it “durable”, I could accept it. But for $59? On a phone case that needs to stand up to daily abuse? Absolutely not. I would have been thrilled with a coarser fabric like the old Google Pixel cases, RIP, and those certainly stand up better to scratches and scuffs. I think Apple did a decent thing by discontinuing the leather cases, but FineWoven is just not the premium replacement we were looking for.

Allison Johnson

These new iPhone cases made from recycled materials have gotten a surprising amount of backlash for a product that’s not even a month old. Can’t quite decide what I find more amusing: that Apple fanboys are abruptly realizing how the company is selling overpriced and subpar accessories to prop up their margins, or how they’re discovering there’s a whole ecosystem of third-party accessories offering a larger variety of products at a fraction of Apple’s prices (which is bound to happen with charging cables as well, now that Apple was required to switch to USB-C by EU regulation). And, let’s face it, presenting FineWoven as a sustainable alternative to leather is most likely mere marketing aimed at justifying its high price. If people replace these more often because they’re less durable than leather, the overall carbon footprint of FineWoven cases will accumulate over time, even if individually each new case generates less emissions than a leather one.

Wired: “Forget New Twitter—Retro is a New Instagram”

It’s fitting, then, that just as Twitter is getting a rethink, a new app is emerging to challenge Instagram. The app’s founders won’t say that’s what they’re doing, but they left Meta last spring to incubate a bunch of products that would actually bring family and friends back into your social photo feed, instead of brand marketers and celebrity reels. The result is Retro.

Retro is a new, photo-focused mobile app rolling out to Apple’s App Store today. Like other newer photo-sharing apps—BeReal comes to mind—Retro uses specific constraints to differentiate itself. It’s private by default; people must request to follow (and ultimately co-follow) each other. Users are prompted to first share select photos from their phone’s camera roll in order to view others’ photos.

Your photo albums are then grouped week by week, going back as many weeks as your native camera roll exists. Any photos from earlier than four weeks ago are locked, and your friends need a private key to view them. There are no photo filters in Retro, at least not yet, and video clips are capped at 60 seconds. If Instagram is now a publicly performative photo app, and your private messages are a messy mix of text, tapbacks, and the occasional photo, Retro is trying to thread the space between the two.

Lauren Goode

Another month, another photo sharing app thinking it can take on Instagram. While not as constraining as BeReal, nothing in this description strikes me as instantly compelling. It’s iOS only at launch, a major flaw for an app launching in 2023. That aside, I also don’t like that you must first share some of your photos in order to participate, it reminds me of Snapchat’s Streak.

PetaPixel: “Gen Z discovers Modern Digital Cameras are Better than iPhones”

In a new TikTok trend, which is set to a remix of George Michael’s Careless Whispers, content creators are comparing portraits taken on their iPhones with the far superior photos that they took on a traditional digital camera.

The viral trend was started by influencer Lauren Wolfe in early March. In her original TikTok video, Wolfe compared the poorly lit photos she took at sunset on a beach on her iPhone to the stunning, unedited images that she took on a Canon Powershot G7 X.

Wolfe’s video amassed over 4 million views with TikTok users declaring: This fully convinced me to buy a digital camera.

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And in each experiment, TikTok users concluded that the digital camera was always, unquestionably better than the smartphone — leaving one exasperated viewer complaining: What did I spend $1,300 on an iPhone with 3 cameras for?

Pesala Bandara

Well, well, how the tables have turned! Dedicated digital cameras undoubtedly have several advantages over smartphones, no matter how many cameras manufacturers pack into their slim bodies: from larger sensors with better dynamic range and less noise to better optics, and let’s not forget better ergonomics. The recent trends towards aggressive post-processing would also contribute to smartphone pictures looking ‘too crisp’ and ‘fake’.

9to5Mac: “MKBHD claims that post-processing is ruining iPhone photos”

As pointed out by MKBHD, most phones handle well in favorable scenarios, such as a clear sky or a subject in front of a clear background. But when you have different colors and textures in the same scene, the post-processing must be smart enough to understand what will be the best setting for all these elements.

But the thing is, while companies like Google are doing it the right way, Apple is definitely not. As shown by the YouTuber, the iPhone 14 Pro always tries to lighten the shadows, especially on people’s faces, making the photo look very artificial. The iPhone also exaggerates the sharpness of the photos compared to other smartphones. MKBHD even complains that his skin tone looks quite different on the iPhone camera.

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In the iPhone 14 Pro camera review by Sebastiaan de With, developer of the popular camera app Halide, he also pointed out multiple flaws in Smart HDR. For example, every time there’s a very bright background, the iPhone also tries to boost the brightness of the people in the photo, making them look very white. I have honestly never seen it make for a better photo. The result is simply jarring, he said.

Filipe Espósito

It feels somewhat inappropriate to comment on this topic since I haven’t owned an iPhone in more than four years – nor do I have any intention of returning to Apple’s ecosystem – but the iPhone photos from Marques’ video are blatantly worse. Attempting to level shadows over an entire face in postprocessing is a terrible choice; in real-world situations it’s common that certain areas are lit more intensely than others, and a photo should properly reflect that, not invent some ideal scenario where the light source is dead-center and smooth. On top of that, the iPhone photos have a sickly yellow tone, an obvious case of incorrect color temperature. It’s possible that I picked up on these glaring flaws during the blind smartphone camera test, hence the iPhone dropped to the lower half of my rankings for the portrait section.

TechCrunch: “Apple’s Continuity Camera lets you use your iPhone as a webcam”

Apple is improving its webcam on the shiny new M2 MacBooks, but for those of us still chugging along on our existing MacBooks, we’ll be able to use our iPhones as webcams (… if we don’t want to sneak a look at our phone during a Zoom meeting).

Later this year, Apple will begin selling a Belkin mount that lets you clip your iPhone to the top of your MacBook. Then, while on FaceTime calls from your laptop, you’ll be able to use iPhone camera functions like portrait mode, center stage and studio light, a new feature that brightens your face and darkens the background behind you. You can also use your iPhone camera on other MacOS apps, like Zoom.

Amanda Silberling

From the unparalleled innovative company that revealed the amazing solution: ‘need to unlock your phone while wearing a mask? just buy a Watch!’, now comes another brilliant solution: ‘need better video calling quality? just buy another iPhone!’ Because, let’s be honest, who is going to strap their iPhone to a laptop for hours and stop checking their notifications and social media during online meetings?

Ars Technica: “The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse”

A few months after the initial approach, NSO’s chief executive, Shalev Hulio, landed in Uganda to seal the deal, according to two people familiar with NSO’s East Africa business. Hulio, who flew the world with the permission of the Israeli government to sell Pegasus, liked to demonstrate in real time how it could hack a brand-new, boxed iPhone.

The eventual business was small for NSO. A person familiar with the transaction said it brought in between $10 million and $20 million, a fraction of the $243 million that Moody’s estimated the privately owned NSO made in revenues in 2020.

But about two years after the sales pitch, someone deployed Pegasus to try to hack the phones of 11 American diplomats and employees of the US embassy in Uganda, according to two US officials, who spoke after notifications were sent out by Apple when the iPhone maker discovered and closed a flaw in its operating system in November.

It is not clear who tried to hack the US citizens. Uganda’s neighbor, Rwanda, had also been using Pegasus to hack phones inside Uganda, but the revelation shocked the US. NSO has always told its customers that US phone numbers are off-limits. In this case, all 11 targets were using Ugandan numbers but had Apple logins using their State Department emails, according to the two US officials.

Mehul Srivastava

A story about smartphone security at first glance, to me it blatantly exposes the ingrained hypocrisy of US foreign policy. Earlier this summer, an investigative report revealed how NSO’s Pegasus spyware was used to target tens of thousands of prominent personalities from all over the world (with the exception of the United States). The US response at the time: crickets… The same software was apparently used by the Polish government to hack an opposition senator, and the list of examples certainly wouldn’t stop here.

The Washington Post: “I checked Apple’s new privacy ‘nutrition labels’. Many were false”

Apple only lets you access iPhone apps through its own App Store, which it says keeps everything safe. It appeared to bolster that idea when it announced in 2020 that it would ask app makers to fill out what are essentially privacy nutrition labels. Just like packaged food has to disclose how much sugar it contains, apps would have to disclose in clear terms how they gobble your data. The labels appear in boxes toward the bottom of app listings. (Click here for my guide on how to read privacy nutrition labels.)

But after I studied the labels, the App Store is now a product I trust less to protect us. In some ways, Apple uses a narrow definition of privacy that benefits Apple — which has its own profit motivations — more than it benefits us.

Apple’s big privacy product is built on a shaky foundation: the honor system. In tiny print on the detail page of each app label, Apple says, “This information has not been verified by Apple.”

Geoffrey A. Fowler

As several times before, the privacy and safety promises of Apple’s App Store reveal quite a few holes under closer scrutiny. In this case, the information presented by app developers in privacy nutrition labels is apparently not double-checked by Apple in the app review process. Nor does Apple have any way to verify if apps share user data with third parties such as Google and Facebook once that data leaves the device. Apple’s main interest is using ‘privacy’ as bullet-proof marketing against rival tech giants and the ad industry, as a method to position the iPhone ecosystem as ‘exclusive’ and justify its price premium.

Los Angeles Times: “Clubhouse users spend hours on the app. What’s the appeal?”

Harfoush, a digital anthropologist and author who lives in Paris, is part of an “anti-grift squad” that helps newcomers to the audio-only interactive streaming platform avoid falling prey to scams.

She and a crew of veteran users dedicate hours each week to running free onboarding sessions for first-time users, and host a weekly room, or session, on the app to document some of the shady practices they see cropping up. Harfoush believes the intimacy of Clubhouse’s format — a cross between a conference panel discussion and a radio call-in show — makes even familiar scams more effective. We’re naturally more persuadable by hearing somebody talk to us than reading something, she said.

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Users claiming to be business experts have run pitch rooms, Harfoush said, where they invite hopeful entrepreneurs to outline their dreams for a new business on stage, and then go register related domain names with the intent of selling them back to the hopefuls at a markup. Fake literary agents promise aspiring authors that they’ll edit their manuscripts and connect them with publishers, for an upfront fee.

Other users claiming to be music producers invite aspiring beatmakers to present their tracks live for critique, and then simply steal the tracks as their own. And motivational speakers are using Clubhouse as a new venue to convince anyone that they can learn how to become a millionaire — if only they pay thousands of dollars for an exclusive executive coaching seminar. Audience plants, fake time limits and other hard-sell tactics abound.

Sam Dean

I must be getting old because new social networks launch and… I feel absolutely no interest in joining them. After TikTok, now Clubhouse is booming since December – granted, I could not join Clubhouse even if I wanted too, because it is still exclusive to the iPhone. At first glance, it is quite literally a public conference call where other people can join and listen in – or alternatively unedited live podcasting. I have used Webex for the past couple of months while working from home and it has a feature called ‘Personal Rooms’ – add the public aspect and you get Clubhouse.

Engadget: “iOS 14.5 will let Apple Watch owners unlock iPhones while wearing a mask”

There is, unfortunately, one major caveat: the feature only works if iPhone’s owner is also wearing an Apple Watch. So long as the Watch itself is already unlocked, you’ll just need to look at your iPhone as usual; after that, you’ll get a haptic buzz on your wrist letting you know that the unlock was successful. As we understand it, the feature — which must be manually enabled before use — allows Face ID to proceed with an unlock despite much lower facial recognition accuracy because the nearby Watch has already been authenticated. You’ll also be able to lock your phone from your Apple Watch, though it’s worth noting that all other actions that might rely on a face unlock — like, say, approving an App Store purchase — can’t be handled this way.

Given the need for frequent mask use, Apple has attempted to address this issue last May with an update that prompts Face ID to more quickly kick users into their passcode input screen when their faces are obscured. While a good idea in theory, the change wasn’t particularly elegant in practice — users have frequently been left waiting while iOS seemingly decides what to do. With all of this in mind, it’s little surprise that Apple is reportedly testing optical in-display fingerprint sensors that could debut in iPhones as soon as this year.

Chris Velazco

These days, Apple’s solution to each and every problem people have boils down to: purchase another Apple product! This is especially true for problems Apple themselves introduced through previous design decisions: headphone jack removed ▶ buy AirPods; included iPhone charger removed ▶ buy a separate one; all MacBook ports except USB-C removed ▶ buy Apple dongles; and now TouchID removed, coupled with ubiquitous face masks ▶ buy an Apple Watch! Zero empathy for people who may have lost jobs or income this past year during the pandemic. But hey, it’s a great way to make money and improve stock market performance!

The Washington Post: “Apple will pay $113 million for batterygate slowing of iPhones”

The company’s much maligned throttling efforts drew nationwide scorn when they came to light in 2017, stunning consumers who at the time saw it as an attempt to nudge them into buying newer, more expensive devices. States led by Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana soon opened a probe of the matter, and on Wednesday, they secured a financial penalty and legal commitment from Apple to be more transparent in the future.

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Apple’s approach ultimately left many users feeling as if the only way to get improved performance was to purchase a newer-model iPhone from Apple, the Arizona complaint contends. As a result, the company relied on unfair and deceptive acts and practices to boost its sales potentially by millions of devices per year, according to Arizona’s attorney general.

Tony Romm

The list of lawsuits and fines for Apple’s ‘battery-gate’ does not stop here: the latest was filed just yesterday in Belgium and Spain by consumer advocacy group Euroconsumer; Apple agreed to another settlement earlier this year in the US, and was fined in Italy and France over the same issue. This is a situation where I wish fines and enforcement would be handled by the EU instead of individual countries – after all, there are iPhone buyers in every state, not just Italy, France and Spain, and Apple should be held accountable in front of all their customers. In a more general sense, it is another example of global companies exploiting the lack of global tax policy and legal framework to avoid scrutiny and maximize their profits.

MacRumors: “MagSafe Charger only charges at Full 15W Speeds with Apple’s 20W Power Adapter”

YouTuber Aaron Zollo of Zollotech tested several first and third-party power adapter options with the iPhone 12 Pro and a MagSafe charger using a meter to measure actual power output. Paired with the 20W power adapter that Apple offers, the MagSafe Charger successfully hit 15W, but no other chargers that he tested provided the same speeds.

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For maximum charging speeds with the MagSafe Charger and an iPhone 12 or 12 Pro, Apple’s 20W power adapter is required, and older power adapter options won’t work as well. Third-party companies will need to come out with new chargers that use the particular power profile that Apple is using to provide the optimum amount of power before a third-party charger will be able to provide the full 15W with the MagSafe Charger.

Juli Clover

Apple products in 2020: you need a flowchart and expert advice to decide which power adapter to buy.

MacRumors: “The EU wants All Phones to Work with Interoperable Chargers, Here’s what that means for Apple’s Lightning Port”

According to a 2019 impact assessment study on common chargers of portable devices conducted by the EU, almost a fifth of people surveyed reported having faced “significant issues” because of non-standard chargers. Such issues included incompatible chargers between devices, variable charging speeds between different chargers, and having to have several chargers available to cover all needs.

In addition, the EU claims that by agreeing on a common charger standard, it will put an end to charger clutter and 51,000 tons of electronic waste annually.

The recent 582-40 parliamentary vote in favor of a common charging standard came about because the European Commission’s previous approach of merely “encouraging” tech companies to develop a standardized solution “fell short of the co-legislators’ objectives”, according to a briefing on the European Parliament website.

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We do not believe there is a case for regulation given the industry is already moving to the use of USB Type-C through a connector or cable assembly, said Apple following the recent parliamentary vote. This includes Apple’s USB-C power adapter which is compatible with all iPhone and iPad devices. This approach is more affordable and convenient for consumers, enables charging for a wide range of portable electronic products, encourages people to re-use their charger and allows for innovation.

Tim Hardwick

Fast-forward ten months, Apple just launched a new iPhone lineup with the same proprietary Lightning charging port. The only apparent concession – if you can call it that – to this European Union regulation is that Apple straight up removed wall chargers from the packaging, providing only a USB-C to Lightning cable. Technically, Apple is complying with Option 2 outlined in the article above (any manufacturers that wish to use a proprietary port on their device must include an adapter from USB-C to the proprietary connector), but without providing an USB-C AC power plug.

Charged: “Apple wants to kill the ad industry. It’s forcing developers to help”

Apple sign-in is the ultimate lock-in, along with everything else new we’ve seen this year, from an iPhone-only credit-card, to a plethora of exclusive subscription services, only available on Apple’s own hardware. Apple sign-in seals that deal, binding users to Apple’s hardware for the long haul, making it tedious to log in to services on any other device (there is support for web logins, but it’s poorly documented and notably omits the “seamless login” line shown on every other page).

All of the largest tech companies have switched gears to this model, including Google, and now sell a narrative that nobody can be trusted with your data–but it’s fine to give it all to them, instead.

There’s bitter irony in Apple denouncing other companies’ collection of data with a sign-in service, then launching its own, asking that you give that data to them, instead. I definitely trust Apple to act with my interests at heart today, but what about tomorrow, when the bottom falls out of iPhone sales, and the math changes?

I’m not arguing that any of these advertising practices are right or wrong, but rather that such a hamfisted approach isn’t all that it seems. The ad industry gets a bad rap–and does need to improve–but allowing a company that has a vested interest in crippling it to dictate the rules by forcing developers to implement their technology is wrong.

Owen Williams

Another story from last year I have been meaning to comment on; I have been reminded of it by a recent blog post explaining why AnyList won’t support ‘Sign In with Apple’. Launched last year, the feature became mandatory for App Store apps starting June 30^th – in typical Apple fashion, not only is it mandatory for iOS apps offering third party login services, it should be placed above rival buttons from Google and Facebook. Another piece of the puzzle in the ongoing rivalry between Apple and Google around online advertising and the direction of the web, and continues an established trend of Apple limiting web tracking in favor of in-app activity under the pretense of improved privacy for users.

The Verge: “Apple’s new iOS 14 home screen brings Windows Phone Live Tiles back to life”

I’ve always wanted Apple to bring these Live Tiles to the iPhone. Apple’s overhauled iOS 14 home screen finally does that, enabling lively widgets for apps that sit on the home screen. It’s the final addition to the iPhone that I’ve been missing from Windows Phone, 10 years after Microsoft first introduced Live Tiles to the world.

Live Tiles were one of Windows Phone’s most unique features. They enabled apps to show information on the home screen, similar to the widgets found on Android and iOS. You could pin almost anything useful to the home screen, and Live Tiles animated beautifully to flip over and provide tiny nuggets of information that made your phone feel far more personal and alive.

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Apple has taken the best of both Android widgets and Windows Phone’s Live Tiles and combined them into iOS 14. It’s not the first time we’ve seen Windows Phone features appear in iOS or Android, and it underlines how important Microsoft’s mobile efforts were even if they were a glorious failure.

Tom Warren

Even though I love Live Tiles, I have never been a fan of widgets on Android. After switching from iOS two years ago I simply put my most used apps on my – single – home screen and relied on search for the rest. But these discussions about upcoming widgets in iOS sparked my interest, so I started experimenting with widgets a bit. I currently own a Samsung Galaxy S8 with Android 9 and Samsung’s One UI, version 1.0.

Twitter Blog: “Your Tweet, your voice”

There’s a lot that can be left unsaid or uninterpreted using text, so we hope voice Tweeting will create a more human experience for listeners and storytellers alike. Whether it’s #storytime about your encounter with wild geese in your neighborhood, a journalist sharing breaking news, or a first-hand account from a protest, we hope voice Tweeting gives you the ability to share your perspectives quickly and easily with your voice. We can’t wait to see how people will use this to make their voices heard and add to the public conversation.

Maya Patterson & Rémy Bourgoin

Speaking of Twitter, they have been launching features more frequently lately, and this one could be a hit (or a gimmick that nobody uses past the initial excitement). I for one have no desire to put my literal voice on the Internet – not because I wouldn’t have something to say, but I hate how my voice sounds on recording – but I can see people making good use of this, for example journalists for fast reporting, in situations when it’s more convenient to speak than to write.

Protocol: “A new email startup says Apple’s shaking it down for a cut of its subscriptions”

But even as he ranted furiously about Apple’s actions, Heinemeier Hansson said he was worried about the repercussions. If we can’t have Hey on iOS, he said, we’re nowhere. We have to be on the biggest platform in this segment, and Apple knows that. When he tweeted about the app’s initial rejection last week, he got a number of responses from developers who would privately rail against Apple's policies but publicly make excuses for the company. You listen to some of these app developers, and they sound like hostages, Heinemeier Hansson said. They sound like they’re reading a prepared statement, because otherwise Apple could hurt their business. Which is true!

Apple’s somewhat confusing app-review policies are an open secret in the developer industry: No matter how many times you’ve submitted an app, you still hold your breath every time, because who knows what could have changed? Heinemeier Hansson said it’s possible that someone at Apple might change their mind and unilaterally decide to approve Hey. But that won’t solve his problem. The guy who loves picking fights on behalf of the greater internet good has found a new one. Even if it goes away for us, this is still a systemic story of abuse, he said. I think this is where we need this kind of systemic reform that hopefully the EU is pushing.

David Pierce

Antitrust action against Big Tech was a hot topic of debate in 2019, starting from Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to break up these big companies – including Apple. One year later, most of the world has other, more pressing things to worry about, while Big Tech is consolidating their power over competitors. Apple itself easily fits what Warren describes as ‘Using Proprietary Marketplaces to Limit Competition’ with its iOS App Store, the cause of controversy for the above article.

Wired: “The biggest reason not to ditch your iPhone for Android? WhatsApp”

The world’s most popular messaging service, with more than two billion users, has a somewhat baffling flaw. But why? According to WhatsApp, it’s because of a technical knot that’s fiendishly difficult to unpick. “There is a difference in the formats in which the data is stored in the Android and iOS apps, as the database schemas are different”, a spokesperson explains. On an iPhone, iOS backs up WhatsApp chats to iCloud. On Android, backups go to Google Drive. And the two systems don’t like talking to one another.

Simply put, the two backup formats are completely different to one another. That’s mostly down to security. Create a backup for WhatsApp on an iPhone and the file is created to be securely stored on iCloud. Do the same on Android and the file is created to be securely stored on Google Drive. But as the two systems have different security requirements, it isn’t currently possible to transfer one backup to another operating system.

James Temperton

I stumbled upon this complication almost two years ago, when I decided to abandon the iPhone and switch to Android, and it’s disappointing to see nothing has improved since. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a reason not to switch phones, but it’s certainly one of the bigger headaches. At the time, I also searched in vain for a decent solution to migrate my WhatsApp chat history, but in the end I resigned myself to simply making manual backups of more important conversations.