“As a response to recent coverage of software being purged from the App Store, Apple is sharing its criteria for how it chooses to remove abandoned apps,” reports 9to5Mac.

Apple’s announcement say it’s only flagging apps for possible removal “that

Developers will also have more time to comply after being notified.” (90 days instead of 30 days). And 9to5Mac adds that Apple “is also reiterating that the practice is not new but instead part of an initiative that started six years ago.

But the Verge took a different message from “Apple to developers: if we deleted your old app, it deserved it.”

[T]he company has responded — by issuing a press release effectively saying that nobody was downloading the apps anyways….

Apple’s explanation does clear up why it, as some developers noted, seemed to apply the rules inconsistently. For example, one developer noted that Pocket God, a popular game from the iPhone’s early days, hasn’t been updated for seven years but is still on the App Store. Apple is basically saying it’s still up because it’s still popular.
From one angle, this reasoning doesn’t necessarily gel with the first half of Apple’s post, where it says it removes old apps to ensure “user trust in quality apps,” and to improve discoverability, security and privacy, and user experience. After all — if an app is problematic because it’s outdated, more downloads would make a bad app a bigger issue. Who’s being harmed if there’s an outdated app almost no one is downloading?

But Apple says it doesn’t want the App Store cluttered up with apps that both developers and users have forgotten about. It has enough problems making it easy for users to find good apps as it is, and it’s easy to imagine Apple seeing deleting old, seemingly irrelevant apps as a good solution.

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juul_advocate shares a report from iTWire: Apple’s output of the iPhone SE will drop by a fifth in the coming quarter, indicating that the Russia-Ukraine conflict and fears of inflation have affected demand for the device, a report claims. The Nikkei Asia website reported that the company had been telling a number of suppliers that production orders for the next three months would be lower by about two or three million units. Orders for AirPods earphones were also down, by about 10 million units for the whole year, the website said, citing four unnamed individuals as sources. Apple announced the third-generation iPhone SE earlier this month at its “Peek Performance” event. It features the A15 Bionic chip, improved battery life, 5G connectivity, and a new camera system, among other things, for a starting price of $429.

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Volvo has unleashed a big improvement in customer satisfaction after equipping its 1,500 service engineers with an Apple Watch to use during their day. What, on the face of it, seems a small change reflects extensive cultural change across the company, which is actively engaged in digital transformation across its business. Computerworld’s Jonny Evans reports: Volvo has equipped its engineers (Personal Service Technicians) with an Apple Watch and iPhone (running the Volvo Service app) to help them work more efficiently than before. The company’s primary focus is to improve customer service, as it recognizes that technicians are the main point of customer contact across the life of the Volvo they drive. So, how can an Apple Watch in a garage improve customer service?

– In use, the engineer will receive a Notification when a customer arrives at the garage with their car.
– The watch will show the customer’s name, relevant notes, and car details.
– During the repair, engineers can access information — and once the repair is complete, they can directly call the customer to tell them.
– They can also schedule and make a subsequent follow-up call.

The benefit is that with all this information being made available through the Watch (and accompanying iPhone app), engineers don’t need to use printed records, or access a PC to stay up to date. That’s not only time-consuming, but learning how to use these systems takes up time. The company told me it took up to 6 months to train new recruits on the 15 different IT systems Volvo used before. Now, thanks to smart analysis and smart integration of legacy systems, what technicians need to know is always with them. The result is that paperwork doesn’t disappear, technicians/engineers can stay focused, essential customer contact records aren’t lost and engineers always have clarity and purpose. It all sounds so simple. It should sound simple. But it isn’t simple. […]

The project is already generating positive results. The company told me that 80% of technicians who use the app have increased their total customer satisfaction scores. Volvo also cites a 30% increase in post-service follow up calls and emails to customers, thanks to the tech pushing complex processes out of the way. Digitalization Director Markus Lundstrom said: “With the Volvo Service app we’re connecting people through technology. At one workshop, customers report a 37% improvement in the ability to access their Personal Service Technician.” The company also reported a 40% decrease in paper printouts. Volvo is also seeing the technicians use their new kit to get other tasks done. “Some of our teams use the Walkie-Talkie feature to communicate with each other across the facility,” they said.

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Slashdot reader PolygamousRanchKid quotes a report from Apple Insider: Apple’s color-coding of SMS communications in green in iMessage plays a role alongside other feature in getting teenagers to switch from Android to iPhone, a report claims, with a pressure to fit in with their peers promoting moves to turn their messages blue. The use of green and blue to show whether a message to a user is made through iMessage or via other devices has become more than a simple convenience indicator for users. It’s also a form of status indicator, showing the user not only owns an iPhone, but can also make use of features on the platform that others cannot. In a profile of the color-indication system by the Wall Street Journal, teenagers and students explain how not having an iPhone and seeing green messages are seemingly a negative to them.
New York masters student Jocelyn Maher said she was mocked by her friends and younger sister when dating, if the potential suitor used Android. ‘I was like, Oh my gosh, his texts are green,’ and my sister literally went Ew, that’s gross,” said Maher.
Apple is apparently well aware that iMessage is a serious draw to its users, with it surfacing in the Epic-Apple trial as part of a series of claims it was used to lock users into its ecosystem. Epic pointed to statements by senior Apple management that the company had blocked the creation of an Android version of iMessage.

The Wall Street Journal headlined its piece, “Why Appleâ(TM)s iMessage Is Winning: Teens Dread the Green Text Bubble.”

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Apple’s iPhones of at least nine U.S. State Department employees were hacked by an unknown assailant using sophisticated spyware developed by the Israel-based NSO Group, Reuters reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The hacks, which took place in the last several months, hit U.S. officials either based in Uganda or focused on matters concerning the East African country, two of the sources said. The intrusions, first reported here, represent the widest known hacks of U.S. officials through NSO technology. Previously, a list of numbers with potential targets including some American officials surfaced in reporting on NSO, but it was not clear whether intrusions were always tried or succeeded.

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