An appeals court has paused one of the most consequential parts of the Epic v. Apple ruling, placing a stay on the enforcement of the injunction issued by the lower court. As a result of the stay, Apple can maintain its IAP system as the sole source of in-app payments on iOS, despite the district court’s earlier ruling that the exclusive arrangement is illegal.

The stay, issued Wednesday afternoon, does not reverse the earlier ruling but puts enforcement on hold until the appeals court can fully hear the case, a process that will likely take months.

Months? 🤨 Likely years if ever. This is the type of thing that just gets buried in litigation for eternity.

The teaser trailer is light on plot specifics, but has some amazing visuals. We open with Miles (Shameik Moore) chillaxing at home—actually, he’s grounded—after successfully saving the multiverse and becoming his world’s Spider-Man. Then Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) unexpectedly opens a portal to pop by, having figured out how to communicate with Miles across dimensions at the end of the first film. I mean, she could have called first so he could clean up his room a bit. But Gwen only teases him a little when she sees Miles' drawing of her. (“I missed you too.")

Absolutely love this series.

The suspension comes just two months before the start of an Olympics that makes Beijing the first city to host both the summer and winter Games. The I.O.C. has not indicated that the Peng controversy would affect the Games, with Richard W. Pound, a Canadian lawyer and the organization’s longest-serving member, saying that the committee prefers “quiet and discreet diplomacy.”

No other sports organization has followed the WTA’s lead.

Everyone should follow their lead.

“Big Tech has been enjoying a free ride on our Internet infrastructure while skipping out on the billions of dollars in costs needed to maintain and build that network,” Carr wrote. Carr made his claim that Big Tech gets a “free ride” without mentioning any of the large network projects that Big Tech companies have undertaken themselves, such as Google building data centers and direct connections to ISP networks around the world. Carr urged Congress to “enact legislation that ensures Big Tech contributes an equitable amount” toward federal broadband-deployment grants that will pay ISPs to expand networks in unserved and underserved areas. Carr also urged the FCC to raise money for the Universal Service Fund by “shifting a fair amount over to Big Tech.”

Absolute garbage.

Earlier this year, we launched Richer Install, an extended install UI on Chrome on Android that allows developers to add screenshots to their manifest. Developers can also add a description, which is recommended but not necessary. Due to this newer UI, we saw an install rate for some PWAs double, showing that users have greater confidence in installing web apps when we give more context and richer experiences.. The desktop version of this UI is currently a work in progress.

It would be really great to see something akin to Richer Install for iOS. But unless regulated to do so. I have no hope that Apple would ever give the web the standards it deserves.

The manifesto within Google, which has been signed by at least 600 Google employees, asks company leaders to retract the vaccine mandate and create a new one that is “inclusive of all Googlers,” arguing leadership’s decision will have outsize influence in corporate America. It also calls on employees to “oppose the mandate as a matter of principle” and tells employees to not let the policy alter their decision if they’ve already chosen not to get the Covid vaccine.

Their “personal choice” is easy. Start looking for new work. 👋

Children accounted for just over 25 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the week ending on November 18. However, children make up only about 22 percent of the US population. As more adults have gotten vaccinated, children have made up larger shares of infections.Throughout the whole pandemic, children have made up nearly 17 percent of all cases. Almost 6.8 million children are known to have been infected since the pandemic began.

If you’re physically able, it is your responsibility to get vaccinated. Period.

The Taylor factory is expected to serve as an advanced chip-making facility for Samsung’s contract-manufacturing operations that make semiconductors designed by other firms. Such high-end manufacturing is attracting the bulk of semiconductor industry investment. The types of chips with the longest backlogs tend to be lower-priced and haven’t been the focus for massive expansion.

I don’t foresee any real relief to the massive chip shortage we are currently facing. As the article notes, the chips with the longest backlog are not the focus of expansion. And rightly so, building a new factory to produce legacy chips is not a sound investment. The need for legacy chips for everything from automobiles to general consumer products will likely have to simply level out over time as demand and supply comes back into alignment. What do they call it? “Market Correction” 🤷‍♂️

They found a meaningful reduction in the number of no-show appointments among patients who lived near the Green Line, with the no-show rate dropping by 4.5 percent compared to the baseline. The effect was particularly profound for Medicaid patients, who saw their no-show rate decline by 9.5 percent compared to the baseline.

Improving public infrastructure helps with ALL aspects of life for the general public. The examples continue to pour in.

“The reason that Netflix had to build a CDN is because America’s ISPs are garbage,” Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Katharine Trendacosta tells The Verge. “And what they knew was that their customers don’t want an endlessly buffering screen or degraded quality.”

Pretty much sums it up right there.

➜ networkQuality -s
==== SUMMARY ====                                                                                         
Upload capacity: 174.183 Mbps
Download capacity: 143.084 Mbps
Upload flows: 20
Download flows: 20
Upload Responsiveness: Medium (940 RPM)
Download Responsiveness: High (2981 RPM)

Nice to get a quick speed check from the command line. networkQuality -s

Despite being an Apple-led program, taxpayers are footing the bill to roll out this single-platform digital ID program in their states — even if they don’t have an iPhone. The contract clearly says “except as otherwise agreed upon between the Parties, neither Party shall owe the other Party any fees under this Agreement,” meaning that the participating states will be funding its promotion and adoption using taxpayer’s tender.

Seriously. An Apple only feature and we’re expected to basically run, promote, and pay for a program with no accountability from Apple? 🤨

In the past couple years, Facebook’s appetite for deals has run the gamut from Giphy, which lets you place funny GIFs in your social media posts, to Kustomer, a business software company for Facebook’s corporate clients. Most of them, though, have been concentrated in one area: gaming and virtual reality. Which makes sense, since Zuckerberg has formally announced that gaming and virtual reality, bundled up in the expansive and hard-to-define rubric of “the metaverse,” are the future of Facebook.

Have we learned nothing?? 🙄

Apple’s system of annual releases leaves it with the worst of both worlds: siloed updates that come too infrequently for minor features while still not having enough major features to be worth the hype. If Apple can’t make macOS and iOS updates more substantial, it might be time to leave the annual release cycle behind.

I would go even further. Annual releases are just not what they once were. We used to pay $129 for the newest OS to run with 100’s of new features. 10.4 “Tiger” was out up to 10.4.11, almost 3 full years, and was the OS version in the PowerPC to Intel transition. These OS’s made a lot of progress over the years, including drastic changes, and sweeping update.

But no more. I propose MacOS and iOS go to rolling releases. What’s that? Do you know what version of Chrome you’re on? Do you know the most recent version? I doubt you even care. Chrome, Firefox, and a lot of other software do small constant releases. That is was Apple should transition to. They straddle that line now. Lots of the new iOS “features” are released in a point update rather than first x.0.

On top of that untether the default apps from the OS. There is no reason why Safari, Mail, and others have to wait around for a full OS release to be updated. It makes absolutely zero sense today.

“The system might work well for health plans and these middlemen, but it creates difficult access barriers for vulnerable patients,” Koziara said. “We’re concerned about the emerging issue of ‘pharmacy deserts’ where patients, particularly among communities of color, cannot readily access a community pharmacy for their medications.”

The healthcare system is broke, broke, broke.

Amid touting unproven and experimental treatments, Rodgers cast aspersions and spread misinformation on highly effective and safe COVID-19 vaccines. He repeated the falsehood that the vaccines can affect fertility—there’s no evidence of that. Regardless, he also claimed he simply couldn’t take the vaccines even if he wanted to. He says he is allergic to ingredients in the mRNA vaccines, though he didn’t identify those ingredients. He also declined the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, citing concerns about blood clots—even though clots are extremely rare and mainly affect women.

I say suspend Rodgers for the season. Purposely misleading his team and league about is vaccination status puts others at rise. And deserves equally serious consequences.

While some days I create new things with cutting edge technology and revel in the latest Beta or Daily Build and push the limits with an untested specification, other days I take to remember the Dark Matter Developers. I remind my team of them. They are out there, they are quiet, but they are using our stuff to get work done. No amount of Twitter Polls or Facebook Likes or even Page Views will adequately speak for them.

This particular paragraph really resonated with me.

“The bipartisan infrastructure deal will deliver $65 billion to help ensure that every American has access to reliable high-speed Internet through a historic investment in broadband infrastructure deployment,” the White House said Friday. “The legislation will also help lower prices for Internet service and help close the digital divide, so that more Americans can afford Internet access.”

A meaningful impact? Given the amount of lobbing done by ISPs and cutting from the original $100 billion proposed, I hope it has meaningful impact. But am pessimistic. 🙁

This year, we’re pleased to continue accepting submissions in App Store Connect throughout the upcoming holidays.

This is a welcomed change of tradition. Up til now, the store submissions and reviews shutdown entirely and your app was ‘locked’ into that version for the holidays, there was no way to get an update out. My hope is these are automated and not taking people away from their families durning the holiday times. 🎄

“Sideloading is a cybercriminal’s best friend, and requiring that on the iPhone would be a gold rush for the malware industry,” he said to a large audience. “That one provision in the DMA could force every iPhone user into a landscape of professional con artists constantly trying to fool them.”

I in no way think that Apple’s biggest concerned is with the safety of iPhone users in this case. Their number one concern is App Store revenue. Period. They believe in their bones that they are owned a % of every transaction that happens on their device. Regardless of what or how it occurs. The simple conclusion they draw is, if it happen in any way on an iPhone you owe Apple a cut.

Federighi also never mentioned Apple’s likely other motive for fighting against sideloading: Sideloading would further hinder the company’s ability to ensure it gets a slice of every app’s revenue, after a US judge already chipped away at that capability by deciding that Apple must allow links to third-party payment systems in apps downloaded from the App Store.

That’s not necessarily bad news for New York. Underwood’s brief makes a persuasive argument that the right to bear arms was historically understood to permit greater gun regulation in cities than in less-populated areas. It cites everything from a 1328 English law banning guns in “fairs” and “markets” to a colonial New Jersey law making it unlawful to “ride or go armed with sword, pistol, or dagger” except when traveling over long distances.

I struggle to think that any decisions about guns and the right to bear arms not taking into account the constant and damage of gun violence on the public.

Consumer-advocacy group Public Knowledge said it is “disappointed that Congress did not provide funding to keep students connected as they study from home” but that the “broadband subsidies will still benefit students and families at risk of losing their connectivity… No American should be forced to go without food, water, electricity, or essential communications over broadband.”

Pretty much sums up my feelings. Broadband is essential in every use of the word. It’s time to handle ISPs as that, a utility, regulated and subsidized until every farmhouse and outhouse has gigabyte speeds. There is no “free market” at work here. To pretend is to signal you can afford whatever your ISP is charging without a second thought.

The most recent FCC broadband deployment report said that, as of year-end 2019, 95.6 percent of Americans had access to fixed broadband with speeds of at least 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream. Deployment at higher speeds is more limited, especially in rural and tribal areas. For example, the report said that 250/25Mbps speeds are available to 87.2 percent of people nationwide, 55.6 percent of people in rural areas, and 49.6 percent of tribal residents.

3/25Mbps is can simply not be called standard or minimum, it’s unusable. Anyone who believes that speed is sufficient has not spend any reasonable time trying to use speeds like that in their day to day. I get that infrastructure is expensive. That’s why it’s an investment, it’ll take years to get there, but it’s worth it. There is no excuse not to have 250/25Mbps in 98% nationwide, 90% rural, and 100% tribal. The ONLY obstacle is the will to get it done.

From Pai himself

We find that the current speed benchmark of 25/3Mbps remains an appropriate measure by which to assess whether a fixed service is providing advanced telecommunications capability. We conclude that fixed services with speeds of 25/3Mbps continue to meet the statutory definition of advanced telecommunications capability; that is, such services “enable[] users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video telecommunications.”

While I doubt you could do all those things on 25/3Mbps. You can definitely not do any two of those at the same time.

The scenes we saw yesterday were outrageous and extremely disappointing to those of us who cherish American democracy, one hallmark of which is the peaceful transition of power. To answer your question, I think it was a terrible mistake to suggest that the results of the election, and particularly the process that culminated yesterday in the Senate and the House, could in any way be changed. That was a terrible mistake and one that I do not think in any way should have been indulged.

A terrible mistake? No. This has been a calculated, purposeful perversion of power. It is now only a ‘mistake’ to subvert the election and hold on to power failed. Weeks and months of supporting blatantly false narrative of a “stolen” election can simply not be washed away with ‘a mistake’, ‘condemnation of their actions’, or other notions of separating those who continue to perpetuate the lies and those who storm federal buildings.