🇯🇵 Japan passes law requiring Apple to allow third-party app stores on iOS

📰 Japan's Fair Trade Commission published a 119-page guide to the Mobile Software Competition Law, which will go into effect on December 18.

🅰️ Under its provision, Apple will have to allow third-party app stores and third-party payment systems in apps available either in their own app stores or in third-party app stores on all iPhones sold in Japan. Basically, the law is a complete copy of the draft DMA law in the EU, which is even referenced in the document.

👨‍💻 Apple also has to create a firewall that will prevent their own teams from accessing and using sensitive developer data when creating competing products, and they'll also have to submit annual compliance reports. Time has been given for implementation no later than January 18, 2026.

#iOS #laws @iPhone

🤖 Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, gave an ominous warning that the iPhone could go the way of the iPod 10 years from now

And the reason is artificial intelligence.

ℹ️ Cue’s remarks came during the Google Search antitrust remedies trial while discussing how AI has the potential to reshape the tech industry and open the door to new entrants.

Incumbents have a hard time ... we’re not an oil company, we’re not toothpaste — these are things that are going to last forever ... you may not need an iPhone 10 years from now.

🧐 Cue went on to say that the best thing Apple did was kill the iPod, a move he said was bold. “Why would you kill the golden goose,” he added.

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AppleInc @iPhone

🍏 “Apple: The First 50 Years” book

📰 The book by David Pogue an American writer and tech journalist for CBS, has been announced.

📖 Pogue covers technology and has been an Apple fan longer than most of us. According to the book's official website, here's what to expect in its 600 pages:

On April 1, 1976, two scruffy twentysomethings, both named Steve, founded a startup. Their goal: To bring the revolutionary power of computers to everyone.

Over the next five decades, Apple reshaped the technology and cultural landscapes, introducing the public to breakthroughs like the mouse, laser printing, CD-ROM, WiFi, digital video, home networking, touchscreen phones, and tablets. Jobs’s obsessive eye for detail set the stage for products—Mac, iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch—that married advanced technology with beauty, simplicity, and fine design.

Deeply researched and lavishly illustrated in color, Apple: The First 50 Years includes new interviews with 150 key people who made the journey, including Steve Wozniak, John Sculley, Jony Ive, and many current designers, engineers, and executives. The book busts long-held myths; goes backstage for both the titanic successes (450 million iPods, 700 million iPads, 2.2 billion iPhones) and the instructive failures (Lisa, Apple III, MobileMe); and assesses the forces that challenge Apple’s dominance as it enters its second half century.

📆 The book will be released on March 17, 2026, two weeks before the company's anniversary. The book is already available for pre-order. Pogue also promised to go on tour to promote the book.

#AppleInc #AppleFan @iPhone

🤪 A revolution is coming to Siri

📰 Bloomberg reports that the voice assistant will soon be able to search for and edit photos, add items to your marketplace shopping cart, and much more:

With nothing but your voice, you’ll be able to tell Siri to find a specific photo, edit it and send it off. Or comment on an Instagram post. Or scroll a shopping app and add something to your cart. Or log in to a service without touching the screen. Essentially, Siri could operate your apps like you would — with precision, inside their own interfaces.

🤞 If Apple really implements all of the above, it will fulfill promises made 15 years ago, Mark Gurman comments. All smart home devices that the company plans to release will also depend on the new technology.

👨‍💻 Testing of the updates is already underway. Siri is being “taught” to interact with Uber, Threads, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, and built-in Apple apps. Siri will likely either not interact with banking and “other sensitive” services at all, or will do so only to a very limited extent.

#AppleIntelligence #Siri @iPhone