Graham Spencer

968 posts on MacStories since January 2011

Former MacStories contributor.
graham@macstories.net

Apple Launches Developer Insights Webpage→

Alongside yesterday’s WWDC 2016 announcement, Apple also added a new webpage providing tips and insights from other developers.

The App Store makes it simple for users around the world to discover, download and enjoy your apps. Grow your business with resources designed to help you create great apps and reach more users.

The featured developers and topics are Seriously (focusing on building a brand), Grailr (bringing CARROT Weather to Apple Watch), Evernote (localising its app for Japan), and Smule (growing a thriving community of loyal users).

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Web Snapper

[[graham]] If you missed the news last week, you can now download all 50 issues of what we’re calling the Classic MacStories Weekly – those email newsletters which we sent prior to the launch of Club MacStories. Simply go to your Memberful account page, go to Downloads and you’ll be able to download an archive...

Apple Pulls Third-Party Reddit Clients for NSFW Content

Update (4am PDT 12 April 2016): Some of the third-party Reddit clients have now returned to the App Store. Both Narwhal and Antenna are now available in the App Store, but both have been updated to remove the NSFW toggle that used to be in their apps. It is our understanding that Apple’s objection is with the implementation of those NSFW toggles. Apple wants them removed from all Reddit apps so that if a user does want to view NSFW content, that toggle must be manually changed from the Reddit website.

Today, numerous third-party Reddit clients were removed from the App Store by Apple for breaching clause 18.2 of the App Review Guidelines. This clause states that apps will be rejected if they contain “user generated content that is frequently pornographic”.

The official Reddit app, which launched last week and was featured by Apple on the App Store, currently remains in the App Store, but other Reddit clients including Narwhal, Antenna, Eggplant and BaconReader have all been removed for sale. These third-party Reddit clients were removed from Apple without any advance notice to developers, despite some of the apps being available on the App Store for well over a year. It should also be noted that many of these third-party apps, such as Narwhal, did have a filter to enable or disable NSFW content.

It is our understanding that Reddit did not ask Apple to remove the third-party Reddit apps. This aligns with Reddit’s statement from last week (after the launch of the official Reddit app) in which Reddit’s VP of Consumer Product stated “if you already have an app you like, you’re free to continue enjoying it”.

Rick Harrison, co-author of the Narwhal Reddit client provided this quote to MacStories:

It also seems that a few other popular third-party Reddit apps were removed from the store, but not the official Reddit app. I reached out to Reddit asking them if they knew anything, and they informed me that they did not request Apple to pull these apps, and they were also receiving issues from Apple about 18.2. I think that Apple did not pull their app because they are a big company and were recently featured. As shown time and time again, Apple does not really care whatsoever about indie developers. From taking 30% of barely any revenue to rejecting apps based on features that have been available for 18+ months.

It is too soon to say, but Apple’s actions today may well be the latest example of policy and procedural failure on App Review. We covered this topic in detail in a story last month which chronicled the depth of developer frustration at App Review.

We will continue to monitor this story and provide further updates and details as we come across them.

Apple Pay Now Supported by Barclays in the UK

Barclays, the last of the United Kingdom’s big four banks, has today finally added support for Apple Pay. With the addition of Barclays, there are now 15 banks in the United Kingdom that support Apple Pay today, nearly 9 months after Apple Pay launched in the UK.

As a quick status update, Apple Pay is today available in 5 countries; the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and China. Apple Pay is supported by virtually all banks in the United States (1,110 to be exact, as of today), and it is supported by 15 banks in China since it launched there earlier this year as a result of Apple’s partnership with China UnionPay. By contrast, Apple Pay is not supported by any Australian or Canadian banks - in those two countries, Apple Pay is limited to those with an American Express-issued card.

[via MacRumors]

Q&A

Question: Following up on last week’s Fantastical alert question: Apple’s stock iOS Calendar app allows the user to create a “Time to Leave” alert if a location is entered for the calendar event. Is it possible to create this type of alert in Fantastical iOS? (Jason Williams, @jet_pilot)

Federico

The problem here, Jason, is that...

Streaming Live TV with a Synology

[[graham]] I resisted the urge to buy a Synology for a few months, but I finally caved and purchased a DS216play in mid-February. It has only been a few weeks, but I can safely say that I’m really happy with my purchase. Throughout March I’ve been playing with various apps and generally geeking out with...

Apple Announces Q2 2016 Earnings Call for April 25

As noted by MacRumors, Apple’s Investor Relations website was yesterday updated to note that Apple’s earnings call for the second quarter of fiscal year 2016 (January, February and March 2016) will be held on Monday, April 25, 2016.

Apple’s guidance for the second fiscal quarter of 2016 is revenue between $50 and $53 billion, gross margin between 39 and 39.5 percent, and a tax rate of 25.5 percent. But as is illustrated above, Apple’s guidance in the past has often underestimated the actual results, sometimes significantly so.

As we have for previous earnings calls, MacStories will cover the conference call on our site’s homepage on April 25 starting at 2 PM PT, posting charts of the results, collecting key quotes from Apple executives and highlighting interesting Tweets from others.

[via MacRumors]

FBI Accessed San Bernardino Shooter’s iPhone Without Apple, Drops Litigation→

Sheera Frenkel and Hamza Shaban, writing for BuzzFeed:

The Justice Department (DOJ) announced Monday that it had successfully accessed data on the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters and that it was dropping its case against Apple to help unlock the phone.

Investigators are no longer seeking Apple’s help to penetrate the device, according to a court filing by the DOJ Monday.

A week ago the Department of Justice successfully postponed a court hearing after revealing that the FBI had been approached by a third party who had a possible method to unlock the iPhone (subsequently rumored to be Israeli firm Cellebrite). That method appears to have paid off, with the Department of Justice asking the court to vacate the order compelling Apple to assist the FBI and writing in its Status Report to the court that:

The government has now successfully accessed the data stored on Farook’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple Inc. mandated by Court’s Order Compelling Apple Inc. to Assist Agents in Search dated February 16, 2016.

In response to the Department of Justice’s Status Report, Apple issued a response to The Verge and other media outlets:

From the beginning, we objected to the FBI’s demand that Apple build a backdoor into the iPhone because we believed it was wrong and would set a dangerous precedent. As a result of the government’s dismissal, neither of these occurred. This case should never have been brought.

We will continue to help law enforcement with their investigations, as we have done all along, and we will continue to increase the security of our products as the threats and attacks on our data become more frequent and more sophisticated.

Apple believes deeply that people in the United States and around the world deserve data protection, security and privacy. Sacrificing one for the other only puts people and countries at greater risk.

This case raised issues which deserve a national conversation about our civil liberties, and our collective security and privacy. Apple remains committed to participating in that discussion.

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Apple Is Selling Microsoft Office 365 as an Accessory for the iPad Pro→

James Vincent, writing for The Verge:

Apple wants the iPad Pro to replace Windows, and to convince customers it’s bringing in a familiar face or two: Microsoft’s Office Suite. As part of the ordering process for the new iPad Pro, buyers are given the option of adding a subscription for Office 365 — the only non-Apple accessory to appear in the order form. Office 365 bundles in the mobile apps and full Mac versions of a number of old standbys, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. (You can also choose between the Home, Personal, and University tiers, each of which offers different features.)

The Microsoft Office apps for iOS are easily some of the best apps available, particularly for the iPad. Whilst they aren’t yet at feature parity with their Windows and Mac counterparts, they are remarkably close in many respects. I’ve been using the Word, OneNote and Excel iPad apps extensively in the recent weeks, and I have been really happy with how they work.

It is worth noting that Microsoft Office is actually free to use on the 9.7” iPad Pro, but requires an Office 365 subscription if you want to edit documents on the 12.9” iPad Pro. This disparity is because of Microsoft’s rather odd policy in which Office is free to use on any device with a display smaller than 10.1” - but for devices with a larger screen, an Office 365 subscription is required.

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