MacRumors

Apple has faced increasing scrutiny as of late over the way it runs its App Store, ranging from Spotify's anticompetitive complaint in Europe to a class action lawsuit accusing Apple of operating an App Store monopoly in the United States, which the Supreme Court recently allowed to proceed.

Apple has now responded with a new page on the ‌App Store‌ section of its website titled Principles and Practices, noting that the ‌App Store‌ was created with two goals: to be "a safe and trusted place for customers to discover and download apps" and "a great business opportunity for all developers."

To achieve the first goal, Apple says it "takes responsibility" for "ensuring that apps are held to a high standard for privacy, security, and content" in accordance with its publicly accessible App Store Review Guidelines:

We believe that what's in our store says a lot about who we are. We strongly support all points of view being represented on the App Store. But we also take steps to make sure apps are respectful to users with differing opinions, and reject apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line — especially when it puts children at risk. For example, we strictly prohibit any app that features pornographic material, discriminatory references, torture and abuse, or anything else in exceptionally poor taste.

Apple says an average of 100,000 apps are reviewed per week, most within 24 hours, by a combination of "hundreds of human experts" and "automated systems." Apple says 60 percent of submissions are approved, with 40 percent rejected, mostly commonly due to minor bugs followed by privacy concerns.

All developers have the opportunity to have a rejection reviewed, with Apple making some 1,000 calls a week to developers to help them resolve any issues.

As for the second goal, Apple says the ‌App Store‌ "welcomes competition":

We believe competition makes everything better and results in the best apps for our customers.

We also care about quality over quantity, and trust over transactions. That’s why, even though other stores have more users and more app downloads, the App Store earns more money for developers. Our users trust Apple — and that trust is critical to how we operate a fair, competitive store for developer app distribution.

Apple includes many examples of third-party apps that compete with its own apps, such as Spotify versus Apple Music and Google Maps versus Apple Maps.

Apple notes that it supports developers by providing a robust set of tools and SDKs, free marketing opportunities such as the opportunity to be featured in the Today tab on the ‌App Store‌, programs such as the Apple Developer Academy, and free educational materials such as Everyone Can Code.

84 percent of apps are free, according to Apple, although many are supported by ads, in-app purchases, or subscriptions. Apple collects a 30 percent commission on in-app purchases tied to digital goods, and takes a 30 percent cut of subscriptions for the first year and a 15 percent cut in subsequent years.

Apple's former App Store review team leader raises concerns

In a new podcast interview with Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple's former senior director of the ‌App Store‌ review team Phillip Shoemaker raised concerns about potential conflict between Apple and its competitors on the ‌App Store‌.

"There is now a conflict as Apple goes into these spaces that are ripe with competition," he said. "I'm really worried about the competition."

Apple Pay is coming to New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority on May 31, reports TechCrunch. The rollout means people will be able to use ‌Apple Pay‌ with the new tap-to-pay fare system on the buses in Staten Island and the 4, 5, and 6 subway lines between Grand Central Station in Manhattan and Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The system is currently limited to single-ride passes, so users of daily, weekly, or monthly passes aren't able to use ‌Apple Pay‌ yet. However, additional fare options are due to introduced by late 2020, when the MTA expects to have rolled out ‌Apple Pay‌ on all subway lines and buses, according to TechCrunch.

Apple's totally wireless Powerbeats Pro earphones become available to pre-order in the United Kingdom on May 31, according to a social media ad posted on the official Beats By Dre U.K. Twitter account.

The date was spotted in the small print at the end of the 15-second video short, which features British professional boxer Anthony Joshua and touts the nine hours of listening time offered by the fitness-focused earphones. The promotional ad originally went out on May 27.

The black ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ have been available to pre-order since May 3 in the United States and Canada, with the first deliveries to customers arriving on May 10. However, they remain listed as "coming soon" on Apple's online U.K. store, while fine print on the Beats website for the U.K., France, and Germany simply states that the earphones will begin their rollout later in May.

Extrapolating from the U.K. date in the ad, and given how late in the month we now are, it's highly likely that ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ will also be available to pre-order in black in France and Germany from this Friday, May 31.

According to the fine print on other regional Beats websites, ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ will be available in Australia, Singapore, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Austria, Italy, Spain, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico, and Brazil in June.

The earphones are initially available in black only, with ivory, moss, and navy colors set to become available this summer in the United States and Canada, and most of the countries listed above, although Apple cautions that color availability is subject to change.

The ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ feature adjustable, secure-fit ear hooks and earbud tips with four size options. As mentioned, they last up to nine hours per charge, with more battery life available on the go via an included charging case.

‌Powerbeats Pro‌ are priced at $249.95 in the United States, $329.95 in Canada, £219.95 in the United Kingdom, and $349.95 in Australia.

Thanks, Chris!

Following Apple's shift to California-themed names for its Mac operating systems with OS X Mavericks back in 2013, Apple appeared to take steps to protect a number of other California-related names by filing for trademarks under a series of shell companies intended to mask the true identity of the applicant.

All told, we identified 19 trademarks that were applied for under six different companies that all appeared to be Apple shell companies. Several of these names, including Yosemite, Sierra, and Mojave, have been used by Apple, while others have yet to be put to use.

Over the years, the trademark review process has played out for all of these applications, with most being subject to some form of back-and-forth between the applicants and examiners involving various approvals, denials, and suspensions. Even for approvals, however, owners are required to submit proof of the trademarks being used in commerce. This Statement of Use can be submitted up to 36 months after trademark approval, as long as the applicant regularly requests successive 6-month extensions to the original 6-month submission period.

With over five years having passed since the trademarks were applied for, many have now been abandoned, either at some point during the review process or through failure to provide proof of commercial use following approval. In fact, of the original 19 names that were included in the trademark applications, all but four of them have been either used by Apple or abandoned, with the remaining live applications being Mammoth, Monterey, Rincon, and Skyline.

Perhaps the most interesting one is Mammoth, which is likely related to Mammoth Lakes and Mammoth Mountain, a popular area for skiing and hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Notably, the trademark application for Mammoth was just approved earlier this month after many years of delays and a suspension. It's seen quite a bit of activity over the past six months, with the applicant Yosemite Research LLC having made some changes to reactivate the suspended application and shifting the attorney of record on the application to be noted trademark attorney Glenn Gundersen, who has worked with Apple on a number of intellectual property issues in the past.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the registration for Mammoth and published it for opposition in March. After receiving no opposition to the trademark registration, the Mammoth trademark was officially allowed earlier this month on May 7. It's certainly possible that the timing is a coincidence, especially since the activity appears to have been driven by deadlines set by the Patent and Trademark Office in its communications regarding the suspended application, but the fact that the trademark was approved just weeks ago after years of relative inaction certainly caught our attention.

Monterey, a historic city and popular vacation spot on the Pacific coast, has been one of the popular macOS name options among our readers, so many will be happy to hear that this one remains a possibility. The trademark was applied for by Asilomar Enterprises LLC in December 2013, but wasn't allowed until June 12, 2018. One extension to the Statement of Use requirement has been granted, and Asilomar will have until June 2021 to prove commercial use of the name, provided additional extensions are requested.

Rincon is a popular surfing area in Southern California, and a trademark on that term was applied for by Landmark Associates LLC. The trademark was allowed on August 2, 2016, and Landmark has applied for successive extensions for the Statement of Use, with the fifth and final extension having been granted in January of this year. As a result, Landmark has until August of this year to prove the Rincon name is actively being used, or else the trademark will be lost.

Finally, Skyline likely relates to the scenic Skyline Boulevard that largely follows the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains running south from San Francisco, and Antalos Apps LLC filed for a trademark on the name in December 2013. The trademark was allowed on March 20, 2018, and the second Statement of Use extension was granted on February 28 of this year. The owner will have until March 2021 to prove use of Skyline in commerce, provided all necessary extensions are requested.

So what will macOS 10.15 be called? Will it be one of these four, or something completely different? Apple has drawn from the original list of trademark applications the majority of the time over the past five releases, but has selected something new a couple of times. One of Apple's presumed shell companies applied for a trademark on the name El Cap, but Apple opted to go with the famous mountain's full name of El Capitan for OS X 10.11, while 2017's macOS 10.13 High Sierra was positioned as a refinement of the previous year's macOS Sierra.

When Background App Refresh is enabled, some iOS apps are using the feature to regularly send data to tracking companies, according to a privacy experiment from The Washington Post that explores the relationship between apps and tracking companies.

The Washington Post's Geoffrey Fowler teamed up with privacy firm Disconnect and used specialized software to see what his iPhone was doing and when. And while it's no surprise that apps are using trackers and sharing user data, the frequency with which apps took advantage of background refresh to send data off to tracking companies is surprising, as is some of the data shared.

Fowler found that apps were sending data like phone number, email, location, IP address, and more.

On a recent Monday night, a dozen marketing companies, research firms and other personal data guzzlers got reports from my iPhone. At 11:43 p.m., a company called Amplitude learned my phone number, email and exact location. At 3:58 a.m., another called Appboy got a digital fingerprint of my phone. At 6:25 a.m., a tracker called Demdex received a way to identify my phone and sent back a list of other trackers to pair up with.

Apps that were found passing data along included Microsoft OneDrive, Mint, Nike, Spotify, The Weather Channel, DoorDash, Yelp, Citizen, and even The Washington Post's own iOS app. Citizen shared personally identifiable information that violated its privacy policy (the tracker was later removed), and Yelp was sending data every five minutes, something the company later said was a bug.

During the course of a week of testing, Fowler ran into 5,400 trackers, mostly found within apps, which Disconnect told him would likely send 1.5 gigabytes of data over the course of a month.

Trackers within apps, for those unfamiliar, serve different purposes. Some analyze user behavior to let apps streamline advertising campaigns, combat fraud, or create targeted ads. Delivery app DoorDash, for example, was found using a whopping nine trackers in its apps, sharing data like device name, ad identifier, accelerometer data, delivery address, name, email, and cellular phone carrier.

DoorDash also has trackers from Facebook and Google Ad Services, which means Facebook and DoorDash are notified whenever you're using the DoorDash service. DoorDash is not alone in sending tracking data, nor are the apps listed above - using tracking information is standard practice - but most people aren't aware that it's happening.

Not all data collection is bad, such as when it's anonymized and stored for a limited period of time, but some trackers are collecting specific user information and don't provide clear information on how long that data is stored nor who it's shared with.

As Fowler points out, there is no way to know which apps are using trackers and when that data is being sent from your ‌iPhone‌, nor does Apple have tools in place that give ‌iPhone‌ users a way to see which apps are using trackers and for what purpose. Apple was contacted for comment, but provided a standardized privacy response.

"At Apple we do a great deal to help users keep their data private," the company says in a statement. "Apple hardware and software are designed to provide advanced security and privacy at every level of the system."

"For the data and services that apps create on their own, our App Store Guidelines require developers to have clearly posted privacy policies and to ask users for permission to collect data before doing so. When we learn that apps have not followed our Guidelines in these areas, we either make apps change their practice or keep those apps from being on the store," Apple says.

Fowler suggests Apple could require apps to label when they're using third-party trackers, while privacy company Disconnect suggests greater privacy controls in iOS to give users more control over their data.

iOS users concerned about the data apps are sending, especially at night and without user knowledge, can turn off Background App Refresh in the Settings app and can use a VPN like Disconnect's Privacy Pro to limit the data apps are able to send to third-party sources.

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming iOS 12.4 update to developers, almost one week after seeding the second iOS 12.4 beta, and two weeks after releasing iOS 12.3, a major update that introduced a revamped TV app.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 12.4 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

There were no new features discovered in the first two iOS 12.4 betas, so it's not entirely clear what's coming in the update. As a more significant 12.x update, it's possible that the update is focusing on a feature that's not yet available - the Apple Card.

Apple is planning to release the ‌Apple Card‌ in the summer, so iOS 12.4 could be the update that prepares the iOS operating system for that launch, adding hidden features that will be unlocked when the update becomes available to the public.

If we find new features in the third beta of iOS 12.4, we'll update this post.

iOS 12.4 may be one of the last updates to the iOS 12 operating system as Apple transitions to iOS 13, which is expected to be introduced at WWDC in June.