Monday Morning News

Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/07/monday-morning-news040716/
classic-mac-screenRumour has it Apple is in talks to buy Jay Z’s Tidal, the streaming service focused on high quality music streaming as well as exclusives from artists. The Verge writes that such an acquisition makes sense for a multitude of reasons, but mostly because of the culture compatibility between the two companies which put artists first.

Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell has fired back at Spotify. In a letter addressed to Spotify’s general counsel, Sewell says Spotify wants exemptions to the rules that Apple applies to all developers. Sewell notes that the App Store has generated millions in revenue for Spotify, and Spotify’s app exists on the App Store today despite being in violation of Apple’s guidelines.

On Friday and over the weekend, a patent from Apple that has the ability to disable the camera in your iPhone at concerts had people losing their minds. I’d like to think that it was because they were imagining the scenarios where the technology could be abused (preventing recording during key moments in public, for example), but who knows.

While I’m generally impressed at how tame the politics discussion has been in our forums, the fact that we’ve had better headphone jack discussion is cause for comment. Over at Six Colors, Jason Snell searches for a good reason to remove the headphone jack, and while there are currently no good reasons that Apple would remove it, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any altogether.

Apple has released an animated emoji sticker pack for Messages in iOS 10. Smileys, Hearts, Hands, and Classic Mac are available for anyone running the first developer preview of iOS 10 to download, the first three which appear to be ripped straight from watchOS. The only interesting part of the pack is Classic Mac, and I, for one, welcome our new sticker pack overlords.

Everyone can feel too old for stickers. The elements of stickers explains that stickers, like emoji, are the preferred non-textual method of communication, particularly in Asian countries where stickers reign supreme in apps such as WeChat and Line. There’s even a marketplace for sticker packs, with all proceeds going to the designers.

A longish piece from AppleInsider says you shouldn’t listen to the naysayers who claim that this year’s iPhone will be nothing special. Android device growth is a good thing for Apple, primarily because the kinds of Android devices that are being sold can potentially be upgraded to an iPhone, down the track.

Speaking of Android, 9to5Mac wonders whether the iPhone is heading down the same path as Mac and PC. While there are similarities between the two platforms, Apple has generally worried about average selling price and profits first, and marketshare second.

The Verge writes Apple’s usage of 3D Touch on the home screen as shortcuts to commonly-used features within apps is flawed, saying that a much more functional widget would be preferable.

If you haven’t already played around with it, Bitcam by the Iconfactory is the old-school digital camera app you were looking for.