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The Qi-Too-Unlocked Edition Thursday, March 28, 2024

Surprise! Your iPhone 12 Got An Upgrade To 15W Magnetic Charging With Qi2, by Simon Jary, Macworld

Although it hasn’t officially been announced by Apple, iOS 17.4 appears to have unlocked Qi2 support for the iPhone 12. A series of tests and feedback from Macworld readers prove that the iPhone 12 now works at full 15W wireless charging speed when magnetically connected to a non-MagSafe Qi2 charger.

The Principles Of Wearable Etiquette, by Victoria Song, The Verge

Is it rude to wear a smartwatch if you’re a bridesmaid? Are you a glasshole if you use smart glasses to take a picture of a cute dog on your commute? Am I being unnecessarily cautious because I’m afraid to wear the Vision Pro when alone in public? I’m no etiquette expert, so I decided to ask one for some wearable do’s and don’ts.

The gadget isn’t the problem.

Apple In Courts

The US Is Suing Apple For Anti-competitive Behaviour. But The Company’s Walled-off Tech Ecosystem Has Driven Its Bold Innovation, by Luke Heemsbergen, The Conversation

The department’s lawsuit will face a few big hurdles. Perhaps chief among them: many of the “anti-competitive” systems Apple has built are the very things that enable the bold innovation they’re famous for.

Don't Blame Apple For The US Smartphone Market, Blame The US Carriers, by Philip Berne, TechRadar

Instead of going after Apple for dominating the market, the Justice Department should encourage the US mobile networks to offer more options in stores. The rest of the world has far more options, and the global market is more competitive. If the US carriers are the reason we don’t have the same choice as the rest of the world, maybe it’s the US carriers that are the problem, and not Apple.

Apple Wins Antitrust Suit Over Venmo, Cash App Fees After Judge Tosses Case, by Tristan Greene, Cointelegraph

Essentially, the initial complaint alleges that Apple’s terms of service for products such as Venmo and Cash App to appear on the App Store prohibit those companies from including cryptocurrency features in their products. The judge’s ruling cites the relevant rule (Guideline 3.1.5 in the App Store T.O.S.) and dismisses its applicability in the suit.

Stuff

Affinity Users Won’t Be Forced Into Paying Subscriptions Following Canva Acquisition, by Jess Weatherbed, The Vege

After Canva’s acquisition of Affinity design software sparked concern regarding the future of its one-time purchase pricing model, both companies are now promising that users won’t be forced into subscribing to the service — ever.

Notes

Here’s Our First Look At Apple’s In-the-box iPhone Updating Machine, by Allison Johnson, The Verge

When you buy a new iPhone, there’s usually a software update waiting to be installed as part of the setup process — anything that was released between the time the phone left the factory and got into your hands. In the case of the iPhone 15, that update was critical if you wanted to transfer data from an old device. But spending 20 minutes downloading an update before you can play with your new phone is, in fact, a bummer. What to do.

Apple’s response, it appears, is to build a machine with one job: wirelessly updating iPhones. The image published by iGeneration shows two of these machines stacked one on top of the other, each with six slots. Each compartment has markings to help correctly align phones of different sizes.

5 Years Later, Apple’s Wild Bid To Be A Streaming Giant Has Actually Paid Off, by Ian Carlos Campbell, Inverse

Apple TV+’s success was as much a combination of developing the right shows at the right time as it was leveraging the tight control Apple had over all the screens where its streaming service would be easiest to watch. As the streaming service barrels towards its first decade, the only things that might stand in its way are the allure of advertising and whether Apple’s attempts to juice its own subscription services are fair to customers.

Bottom of the Page

Can we have heat waves at the equator? It sures feel like it. (And we have been advised to put on sunscreens and use umbrellas.)

And the temperature difference is even more telling this week, it seems, when I ride the escalator up from the underground air-conditioned subway station to the great outdoors -- a.k.a. the non-air-conditioned street level.

~

Thanks for reading.