Vratislav Holub In this regular column, every day we look at the most interesting news that revolves around the California company Apple. We focus here exclusively on the main events and selected (interesting) speculations, leaving the various leaks aside. So if you are interested in current events and want to be informed about the apple world, definitely spend a few minutes on the following paragraphs.
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Pavel Jelic The winners of the Swift Student Challenge have been announced
Every year, the Californian giant organizes a summer conference called WWDC, during which it mainly focuses on programming, operating systems and software in general. At this conference, as a rule, upcoming operating systems are introduced. As you all know, Apple also tries to attract young people, especially students, which it motivates to study and offers them internships, cheaper products and a number of other benefits. But the most important thing is without a doubt the education itself. For this reason, every year Apple announces a competition/challenge called the Swift Student Challenge, in which almost any student from any country can show off and show what is hidden in it.
Under normal circumstances, the winners of this challenge can watch the entire WWDC conference directly, with Apple paying for their travel and accommodation expenses. But the year 2020 encountered an unpleasant situation, which is a global pandemic. That is why this year we will have a completely virtual conference for the very first time. And what will happen to the students who won the aforementioned competition? The best of the best will wear a limited edition WWDC 2020 jacket, to which Apple will add a number of badges. For now, we can call students Sofia Ongele, Palash Taneja and David Green the winners, while another winner was announced by Apple through the App Store, where he writes about Lars Augustin, Maria Fernanda Azolin and Ritesh Kanchi.
The European Commission will shine a light on Apple again
Apple differs from its competition in many ways. The biggest difference that we can see, for example, when comparing iOS with Android or macOS with Windows, is the different closure of the systems. While on Android developers can tinker with the device in the smallest detail and change a number of things, this is not possible on iOS. The Apple company has always focused on the privacy and overall security of its users, which has been a thorn in the side of the competition and the European Commission for a long time. In the past, for example, we could see cases where Apple favored its Music service over Spotify, and there is also a lot of discussion about payments via the NFC chip, which is made possible exclusively by a solution called Apple Pay.
Apple Pay payment method:
To make matters worse, the European Commission once again intends to shine a light on the Californian giant. Today's statement states that two new antitrust investigations have been launched, which will deal with the App Store and the aforementioned Apple Pay service. The first investigation will look into the terms of the App Store. The European Commission will focus on whether the conditions are not in conflict with European competition rules. In this case, the spotlight will mainly fall on in-app purchases, specifically in the direction of whether developers have the opportunity to inform users about possible alternative (cheaper) purchase options that may be located outside the app. The moves directly follow past complaints from Spotify and e-book distributor Kobo.
The second investigation will concern Apple Pay and the NFC chip. Since Apple Pay is the only solution that has access to the NFC chip in the case of so-called Tap and Go payments, Apple prevents users from having a choice at all. Another published point concerns innovation. If developers do not have the opportunity to come up with something new and are limited in this direction, their imagination and possible technological innovations are completely suppressed. Of course, Apple itself reacted to the whole situation through its press spokesperson. He said in a statement that in Cupertino, they focus primarily on the safety and trust of the customer, which they do not want to disrupt in any way. Words of praise did not miss the Apple Pay payment service, which is extremely popular worldwide, offers unrivaled security and takes care of the user's privacy. What do you think about this whole situation? Do you think it's right that Apple is trying to bring maximum security with a "closed platform," or should it open up and offer the aforementioned options to developers as well?
- Source: Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), a MacRumors
So if the European Commission and the EU have failed to shine a light on the Corona virus, then at least shine a light on Apple again. That is of course clear. I am completely satisfied with Pay. I don't need any other solution.
Of course, they would all like to use the advantages of the platform and would ideally like everything for free or access to everything. And we know very well where it leads :)
The demagoguery of the European mummy probably doesn't even need to be commented on - it's just another example of their need to stuff their smart advice somewhere - not only is it unnecessary, but it's downright counterproductive. The editor should then consider whether he wants to correct the word "don't want" to "don't want". Not all readers are recruited from Moravia and/or southern Bohemia.