Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook defended the company’s decision to remove a mapping app in Hong Kong, saying on Thursday that the company received “credible information” from authorities indicating the software was being used “maliciously” to attack police.

Apple pulled HKmap.live from its App Store on Wednesday after flip-flopping between rejecting it and approving it earlier this month. Apple made the decision after consulting with local authorities, because it could endanger law enforcement and city residents. Cook echoed that sentiment in an email to Apple employees.

I’ve never said this about a Tim Cook missive but what a load of crap. Apple is between a rock and a hard place on this and, as I said to Jim Dalrymple on last night’s Your Mac Life podcast, it’s a position they’ve put themselves in and I have no sympathy for the company on this issue. They deserve all the flack they are getting – from both sides.

Follow the headline link to take Apple’s official Catalina tour. You’ll likely want to click or tap one of the arrows at some point, just to switch the tour to manual. Makes it much easier to follow. But worth stepping through.

I love that this works fine on your iOS device, or on an older version of macOS. Gives you a chance to learn, without committing to the install. Be sure to click the + when it appears on a page to learn more.

First things first, from this MacRumors article:

Apple has pulled an app from the App Store that Hong Kong protestors have been using to track police movements, saying it violates the company’s guidelines and local laws.

Apple approved HKmap Live last week after reviewing its decision to initially reject the app from the  App Store .

And:

However, on Wednesday Apple was criticized by Chinese state media for its decision to make the app available. “Letting poisonous software have its way is a betrayal of the Chinese people’s feelings,” said the People’s Daily.

Apple’s official response:

We created the  App Store  to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps. We have learned that an app, HKmap.live, has been used in ways that endanger law enforcement and residents in Hong Kong. Many concerned customers in Hong Kong have contacted us about this app and we immediately began investigating it. The app displays police locations and we have verified with the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau that the app has been used to target and ambush police, threaten public safety, and criminals have used it to victimize residents in areas where they know there is no law enforcement. This app violates our guidelines and local laws, and we have removed it from the  App Store .

With all that as background, take a read of Ben Lovejoy’s op-ed.

This is an incredibly complex situation for Apple, indeed for anyone doing business in China. Sides are being drawn, push coming to shove. Ben does a nice job laying out a number of issues that are all coming into focus here.

Mitchel Broussard, MacRumors:

Apple has added the Xbox Wireless Controller to Apple.com, although the accessory is currently unavailable to purchase at the time of writing. Apple sells a few different gaming controllers on its website to connect to iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS devices, but as of yet the company has never directly sold Microsoft or Sony’s own gaming controllers.

I’ve been using an MFi controller on my iPad and, I have to say, it makes all the difference in playing Apple Arcade games.

The Smithsonian Magazine:

are’s breakthrough designs for the Macintosh, which included the smiling computer at startup, trash can for recycling and a computer disk for saving files, are now commonplace in the digital era. They are so recognizable that they are legendary.

Known today as “the woman who gave the Macintosh a smile,” Kare had little experience with computers when she first went to work for Apple in 1983. She was a young sculptor when she received a call from an old friend asking if she would be interested in applying for a job creating graphics and typefaces for the new personal computer Apple was planning to release in 1984.

Kare had never designed a typeface before, but she didn’t let her unfamiliarity stop her.

I love reading stories about Kare’s design process and philosophies.

CNET:

I recently spent a few days trying a variety of Arcade titles on an Apple TV 4K and a 55-inch 4K TV, primarily using the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One controllers. In short, while there’s plenty of promise, Apple Arcade doesn’t yet work as well in the living room as it does on the go.

I’ve played a couple of games on the Apple TV but CNET is right in saying there’s a lot more work to be done. For me, using an Xbox One controller is not a fun experience.

Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post:

“Sorry, we can’t help you,” said the Apple store Genius. My AirPods were dying. After just 15 minutes of use, the wireless headphones I use daily chirp a sad little battery-depleted alert. I came to Apple to get them repaired.The employee said there were lots of people like me, with $159 AirPods purchased in 2016 and 2017 that now can’t hold a charge. But even though Apple promises “battery service,” the store had no way to fix my AirPods. It didn’t even have a way to test them.

If you are running into battery issues with your AirPods, here’s the sequence Fowler lays out for figuring out the economic path to follow:

• If your AirPods are less than a year old and the battery is not performing up to the promised five hours of listening time, an Apple store will replace them at no cost.

• Apple recently began selling its AppleCare+ warranty for $29, which covers the battery, too. But this extended warranty lasts only two years — which wouldn’t have been long enough to save my AirPods.

• If your AirPods are out of warranty, Apple will replace them for $49 per stick — so in reality, $98 total. To help owners navigate this process, the company’s official guide clarifies that a replacement for the charging case, which doesn’t wear out as quickly, is also $49. The key phrase to say is “battery service.” (Apple is providing additional training to customer service representatives on that point, but if you still have trouble, show them this link — or this column.)

This is useful info, but to me, the core of the article is the complete lack of repairability here:

The life span of an expensive, resource-intensive gadget shouldn’t be limited to the life span of one consumable component. You wouldn’t buy an electric toothbrush where you couldn’t replace the brush. Or a car with glued-on tires.

Or a consumer electronics device that has to be disposed of when the battery wears out, impossible to replace.

Read the whole article. It’s full of interesting nuggets. I’d change that title though. To me, the lack of repairability is front and center.

Fox 4 News, Dallas:

“The suspect entered the rear of the building wearing body armor and armed with an assault rifle in an attempt to commit a robbery. The suspect attempted to disarm the security officer. However, the security officer was able to pull his weapon and fire multiple shots at the suspect,” said Sgt. Warren Mitchell.

The suspect tried to run away after being shot but collapsed in the alley. He was taken to the hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

This is the first time I’ve heard of a confrontation between Apple Store security and thieves/robbers. This a one off exception, or a sign of things to come? The suspect came prepared to kill, assault rifle in hand.

Sophie Charara, Wired UK:

Apple doesn’t break out Beats 1 monthly listening figures; various commentators have speculated they are relatively low, the official line is “tens of millions”. What we do know is that one of Lowe’s priorities is to merge the two elements of Apple’s £9.99 a month Music offering: its Spotify-style streaming service and the Beats 1 radio shows.

And:

When it comes to someone like Billie Eilish, who now has her own Beats 1 show, the Apple Music team realised that their pre-adds, which allow users to register their interest in an album before it’s out, had made people more invested in her March 2019 album When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

It turns out users are four times more likely to complete an album if they’d pre-added it to their collection, 1.5 times more likely to listen to it again and they listen to music four times longer than other Apple Music subscribers. In short, Apple is trying to build a better hype machine than its rivals to counteract the popular, but depersonalised playlists that have come to dominate music streaming.

And:

Data from music analytics firm BuzzAngle shows the top 25 artists accounted for 11 per cent of total streams in the US in 2018, and artists still need hundreds of thousands of plays a month to start making the equivalent of minimum wage. In Digital Music News’ December 2018 analysis of streaming service payouts, it found that Pandora pays the highest royalty rates with Apple Music in third place with an estimated $0.00735 per stream, ahead of Spotify at an estimated $0.00437 a stream, which has at least been moving in the right direction in recent years.

These are just a few nuggets from a long and interesting read, with quotes from Beats Radio Creative Director Zane Lowe and head of Apple Music Oliver Schusser.

Variety:

Apple has emerged victorious after shelling out for “A Christmas Carol,” a new live-action musical based on the Charles Dickens classic to star Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, numerous people close to the heated bidding told Variety.

And:

Reynolds and Ferrell stand to make staggering amounts as producers and stars, along with significant paydays for writer-directors Sean Anders and John Morris (“Daddy’s Home,” “Instant Family”). Fees for talent alone will clock in at north of $60 million.

Astonishing. The article digs into some of the behind-the-scenes negotiations, with Netflix leading, Apple stepping in at the last moment with an offer Reynolds and Ferrell couldn’t refuse.

Will watch.

PetaPixel:

If you’re a Mac user who regularly uses Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom Classic CC, we don’t recommend updating your computer to macOS Catalina just yet. Even though the new operating system has been in beta for months, updating your Mac today will lead to a few annoying issues that you might want to wait for Adobe to iron out.

Apple officially released macOS Catalina yesterday, and neither Adobe Lightroom Classic nor Adobe Photoshop CC were fully prepared to handle the new operating system as of this writing. According to Adobe’s macOS compatibility pages for both Photoshop and Lightroom, the latest version of these apps “work with macOS 10.15 (Catalina) but have … known compatibility issues.”

If you are a “professional” user of either app, you’d have to be insane to update to macOS Catalina until Adobe pulls its head out of its posterior and fixes these issues.

Variety:

Aniston: “There was really something exciting about being the first at Apple. Apple is pretty awesome. They make cool stuff. Why wouldn’t they maybe make cool television? And they are all about quality, not quantity, so that was really appealing. And in spite of their comical secrecy, it’s been worth it. Who doesn’t want to be part of the Wild Wild West?”

I’m really looking forward to this show and seeing what Aniston pulls off.

AppleInsider:

Back in 2013, while everyone else was watching Apple unveil macOS Mavericks, David Hodge was missing WWDC announcements because he was in the middle of selling his company. Even as Apple presented its news that Apple Maps was adding the 3D flyover, it was already negotiating to acquire Hodge’s firm and improve future versions of its maps.

Now, six years later, Hodge has revealed a step by step account on Twitter of what happens when Apple buys your company.

They incurred $195,000 in legal bills for a deal that might not have even closed – yikes.

Thanks to Twocanoes Software for sponsoring The Loop this week. Winclone 8 is a complete solution for backing up, migrating, and deploying Windows 10 on a Mac. You spent a ton of time getting your Windows setup just right, and Winclone makes sure that you can get back to that same setup. Winclone creates an image of your Boot Camp partition, including all Windows system files, applications, and data. If you have a failed update, bad drive, or ransomware attack in Windows, you can quickly restore your Winclone backup and you are back up and running. Winclone 8 now fully supports Catalina.

Get 50% off Winclone 8 with code LOOP2019 this week only.

Good read, lots of detail, from someone who’s been following iTunes for years.

One of the many features that came along with iOS 13 and macOS Catalina is Sidecar, the ability to connect your iPad to your Mac as a second display, one that supports touch and Apple Pencil.

Have you heard about Sidecar, but not yet given it a try? Check out the linked doc, Apple’s detailed, but easy-to-follow Sidecar overview and set-up instructions.

If you’ve updated to Catalina, do give this a try. It’s kind of cool.

LA Times:

The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for blind people to sue Domino’s Pizza and other retailers if their websites are not accessible.

In a potentially far-reaching move, the justices turned down an appeal from Domino’s and let stand a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling holding that the Americans With Disabilities Act protects access not just to restaurants and stores but also to the websites and apps of those businesses.

This is a pretty big deal. Far-reaching indeed. Is your web site accessible?

Hulu press release:

Available today on iOS for viewers on our Hulu (No Ads) plan, you’ll now be able to download thousands of shows and movies — like past seasons of hit series including Family Guy, Desperate Housewives, This is Us, How I Met Your Mother, and ER, as well as Hulu Originals like The Handmaid’s Tale, Shrill and The Act — to take with you on the go.

And:

Navigate to the Downloads tab at the bottom of your screen to access your downloaded content. To find more shows and movies to download, click “See What’s Downloadable” and browse through thousands of titles just a few clicks away.

Similar to what Netflix has had for a while now. To me, download support is a critical feature for a media service to make the cut, earn that monthly payment. As the field gets more crowded, download support will be one of the features that helps me decide which services to keep, which to discard.

My question is, will Apple TV+ support downloads? Answer is (H/T Zac Hall), yup.

From the Original Apple TV+ press release:

Subscribers can watch Apple TV+ originals both online and offline, ad-free and on demand, on the Apple TV app, which comes pre-installed on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and iPod touch and will soon be on Mac with macOS Catalina.

Good to know.

ESPN:

The NFL fined Roethlisberger $5,000 for a uniform violation because the star quarterback wore an Apple Watch when the Steelers hosted the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night, sources told ESPN.

Roethlisberger is said to be “livid” about the fine and is appealing it, according to sources. But NFL rules ban all electric devices that transmit messaging.

Don’t shed any tears for Roethlisberger. He has career earnings of $187 million dollars and he’ll make $26 million this year. He can pay the fine out of the change he’d find in his couch cushions.

Touch Arcade:

The trio of games is very interesting and pretty varied. Bossa Studios’ The Bradwell Conspiracy is something many fans on multiple platforms have been looking forward to. The narrative driven first person experience has loads of puzzles and secrets.

Redout: Space Assault was originally announced for PC. The arcade shooter from 34BigThings has debuted through Apple Arcade with a PC release to follow in the future. I’m always up for more space shooter action and this one looks really good. It supports controllers right from the get go as expected. You play as Leon who is a pilot working to colonialize Mars with mankind struggling.

Nightmare Farm is the most surprising release for me. You’ve probably played a ton of Neko Atsume by now. Hit Point who brought us Neko Atsume is responsible for Nightmare Farm that is about a young girl in a nightmare world meeting unique characters to try and grow.

I’m still addicted to Grindstone.

Vice:

Apple Arcade’s launch was a mixture of well-known franchises (Frogger, Rayman), new games from designers during the App Store’s creative heights (Card of Darkness, Overland), and releases from high-profile publishers (Square Enix, Capcom). The service, part of a larger shift towards monthly subscriptions, is a big deal for Apple, so it made sense to double down on attention-grabbing titles.

Operator 41, also part of the launch, is hardly that, but is notable for a different reason: Operator 41 was developed by 14-year-old London designer Spruce Campbell.

Fantastic story. Hard to wrap my head around the fact that a 14-year-old was able to build a game that made the Apple Arcade cut. Remarkable.

Josh Centers, TidBITS:

tvOS 13 is here, but the update is sufficiently subtle that you may not even realize you’re running it, unless you’ve bumped into the new auto-play videos on the Home screen or one of the bugs that our readers have been reporting. I covered most of what’s new earlier this year in “An Early Look at tvOS 13” (10 June 2019), but an interesting new feature cropped up later in the beta cycle: Picture in Picture (PiP).

And:

Likely for the sake of simplicity, in the shipping version of tvOS 13, any video playing in PiP disappears if you return to the Home screen.

Nice explainer. Hoping Apple continues to develop PiP. It’s especially useful for live TV, where you keep an eye on the boxed video, bring it to the forefront when something significant happens.