Today’s update includes a couple larger groups of stories that are connected, as well as a few other interesting stories to me.
Apple Facing Turning Point on App Store Policies Amid Antitrust Investigations
Around the time that Apple announced that the App Store on iPhones and iPads produced $519 Billion USD in “commerce” in 2019, the European Union announced two separate antitrust investigations into Apple over the App Store. People may or may not know that Apple takes 30% of every transaction in the App Store, in app purchases included. IF you subscribe to Spotify through the iPhone app, apple takes 30% of that fee, every month. If you subscribe through the Spotify website, Apple does not get that cut. There is a lot more depth there, around how apps can or cannot offer subscriptions outside of the app store. For example, you can’t buy books from the Kindle store, or subscribe to Netflix from an iPhone.
I could write a lot more about this, and I might still, but between some news items this week, and the antitrust investigation in Europe, this really feels like a tipping point for Apple and the App store. It is becoming clear that the current state can’t stay this way forever.
The Verget - App Store Revenues
Techspot - EU Antitrust Investigation
The Verge - App Store Policies
The Verge - Epic, Match Group, Spotify publicly complaining about the 20% policy
Zoom backtracks, Will Offer End to End Encryption For All
Zoom has quickly become a household name, like Kleenex, but it has had some significant growing pains. A lot of those were happening before I started writing these updates, but the most recent issue was that a few weeks ago Zoom announced they would add end to end encryption on video calls for paid users, but not for free users. Today, Zoom relented, and announced it will enable end to end encryption for all users, free or paid. This is the way it should have always been.
Phillips Hue announces new, brighter bulb
I really enjoy the Phillips Hue ecosystem. I have several of the colour bulbs, and a light strip around my TV. Phillips has announced a new bulb that has a higher brightness, equivalent to a 100W old style light bulb. Previous Phillips bulbs were limited to an equivalent of 60W of brightness. These are not the fancier bulbs that support dimming or different colours. They just turn on and off. These are still a good option for areas you may or may not want fancy colours.
There is also a new light strip with the fascinating feature that you can physically cut the strip to get it to a length you want, but also re-attach that part to the strip, or another strip, using some kind of adapter device. That sounds very useful.
Tesla improving range, prepping larger batteries
A couple related stories from Tesla. The “Long Range Plus” model of the Model S has been re-reviewed to have a 647 km range, up from a previous of 622. This is the longest range to date in a Tesla vehicle, and at 647 km it is approaching the endurance of conventional gas cars. My Mazda 3 gets about 650km of range in the summer. More range is always good, and the idea of electric cars having as much or more range than gas cars will go a long way to helping one of the big fears people have, which is long distance driving. The extra range was not achieved through a larger battery, instead Tesla reduced the weight of the vehicle, improved the aerodynamics of the wheels, and offered software improvements to the motors and regenerative braking to increase efficiency.
Related tot that, evidence of Telsa Model 3 and Model Y variants that feature 100 kW batteries has surfaced. Current Model 3 and Model Y vehicles have 75 kW batteries. The Model 3 Long Range currently has an advertised range of 511 km, and a 25% larger battery translates to about 638 km. Along the same vein of the Model S, more range is always good. My hope is that a larger battery in the Model 3 and Y would push down the cost of the 75 kW battery equipped vehicles in the future. But what is more likely is that we will see a new Model S with an even larger battery pushing 800 km of range, while the 3 and Y get upgraded to 100 kW batteries with 600+ km of range at the existing prices, since having the more expensive Model S have the same range as the Model 3 and Y doesn’t make sense from a product perspective.
Either way, as we move towards the future of electric vehicles, every improvement is notable, and more range is very exciting.