Welcome to our Apple Breakfast column, which incorporates all the Apple information you missed final week in a helpful bite-sized roundup. We name it Apple Breakfast as a result of we expect it goes nice with a morning cup of espresso or tea, nevertheless it’s cool if you wish to give it a learn throughout lunch or dinner hours too.
The cash of colour
Video video games have modified in numerous optimistic methods since I used to be mad at them within the Nineties, from improved graphics to a broader outlook that caters, with solely a small quantity of acrimony, to hardcore and informal players alike. However one factor that’s received indisputably worse is the rising dominance of downloadable content material (DLC) tradition, the place studios shamelessly launch half-finished video games after which milk their most loyal followers with years of subscriptions and paid-for extras. It makes me nostalgic for the times once you solely needed to pay as soon as for an everlasting masterpiece like Cannon Fodder or Smart World of Soccer.
Why are you desirous about DLC, David? As a result of this week Apple repeated its annual trick of launching a brand new colour halfway by way of an iPhone era, wowing followers with the thrill of a yellow enclosure. I really feel about delayed colour launches a lot the identical method I really feel about DLC. I don’t approve.
“Yellow” isn’t a superb new invention that Apple has had its engineers engaged on for the previous six months. The corporate might very simply have launched the yellow iPhone 14 alongside the opposite colour finishes final fall, nevertheless it determined to not for one easy cause: launching a brand new colour is a intelligent option to acquire consideration and enhance a product simply as gross sales are falling off. It’s a cynical option to grab a few headlines and flog a couple of further items.
The place does the client determine in all this, apart from as a income? Barely in any respect. Apple isn’t making an attempt to ship the very best expertise to the most individuals, however to hamper their selection in a method that’s calculated to generate the utmost revenue.
In case you had been shopping for an iPhone 14 final September and particularly like the colour yellow, you confronted a selection between two compromises: both purchase a cellphone in a colour you don’t like as a lot, or wait, hope Apple benevolently picks yellow as its bonus colour this cycle, after which find yourself shopping for your new cellphone at a time that’s much less handy. The identical selection confronted green-loving iPhone 13 patrons in 2022, and pro-purple iPhone 12 clients in 2021; compromise on colour, or compromise on timing. And the identical might apply to these loyal early adopters who purchased the second-gen HomePod earlier this yr however—as was the case with the HomePod mini—might gaze longingly on the extra colour choices that launch halfway by way of the product’s lifespan. It’s all deeply irritating and the polar reverse of placing the client first.
However this coverage, of intentionally holding again interesting components of a product so you possibly can promote the improve additional down the road, ties in with a broader technique of which Apple is commonly suspected. Why did Apple take so lengthy to carry a big display to the iPhone, or a stylus to the iPad? Why did widgets and night time mode land a lot afterward iOS than they did on Android? Perhaps it’s as a result of the corporate knew it might promote its units with out these options within the quick time period, and that they’d be helpful afterward when it wanted to influence clients to purchase the following era. Every Apple product is competing with its personal predecessor simply as a lot as with up to date merchandise from rival producers, and this implies the corporate is motivated to leak out helpful options as slowly as potential: launch the proper iPhone tomorrow and also you’ve simply killed the goose that lays the golden eggs.
I don’t count on Apple to alter its methods any greater than I count on online game publishers to cease promoting DLC. There’s an excessive amount of of a monetary incentive; the market has spoken. But it surely does make me frown every spring when a brand new iPhone colour seems and we’re all purported to be happy. What use is that this now, Tim Apple? What am I purported to do with this silly blue cellphone I’ve been carrying round for six months? Do you suppose I’m made of cash?
Foundry
Trending: High tales
The Mac is about to enter a efficiency supercycle like we’ve never seen.
Ads are everywhere on Apple units and it’s not an excellent look, reckons the Macalope.
If Apple loves music a lot, why can’t it get streaming right?
Apple Music Classical will launch on March 28 with the ‘world’s largest’ catalog.
From charging to Face ID, Michael Simon debunks 3 current iPhone myths.
Apple Music Classical has arrived in the App Store ultimately… nevertheless it’s nonetheless on “pre-order.”
The rumor mill
Does the yellow iPhone affirm there won’t be an Apple spring event?
Apple’s rumored $700 worth hike for the iPad Professional is as ridiculous as rumors get.
The latest iPhone 15 leaks affirm main upgrades for all 4 fashions.
A HomePod with a display will reportedly launch within the first half of 2024.
Apple’s spring shock might be the early arrival of the M3 MacBook Air.
A new iMac would possibly finally arrive later this yr.
Podcast of the week
In Episode 831: Your scorching takes on the yellow iPhone, Clear Vitality Charging, and upcoming new Macs.
You’ll be able to catch each episode of the Macworld Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.
Software program updates, bugs & issues
Apple has released tvOS 16.3.3, which features a repair for a long-running Siri Distant disconnection downside.
And with that, we’re achieved for this week. In case you’d prefer to get common roundups, join our newsletters. It’s also possible to observe us on Twitter or on Facebook for dialogue of breaking Apple information tales. See you subsequent Saturday, get pleasure from the remainder of your weekend, and keep Appley.