​I’ve been meaning recently to comment on the Supreme Court’s decision to allow Spotify’s law suit regarding their app store to proceed. I both agree 100% with the court’s decision and I believe 100% that Spotify’s suit is absurd.
 
Earlier when I wrote how absurd Spotify’s complaint was, I over-simplified the situation for clarity’s sake. I compared Apple to Walmart and Android to an open farmer’s market. That’s because, to me, Apple’s app store belongs more to Apple than it does to the developers. The Supreme Court apparently agrees with me.
 
Technically, there is a difference. Walmart purchases their merchandise from their vendors. Once Walmart takes delivery of their inventory, the vendors couldn’t care less what Walmart does with it. The vendors are going to get paid even if Walmart sets all that merchandise on fire. 
 
I compared Apple to Walmart in my earlier post because in spirit, the app store is more like their proprietary store front. Apple controls everything about it. SCOTUS’s recent decision emphasizes that my over-simplification was directionally correct and reasonable. 
 
Now, having said that, I also believe that Apple’s case is no less weaker. In fact, it may be stronger now. If the Supreme Court views the App Store as their proprietary store front, my case becomes more compelling. That means an outside party like Spotify has an even weaker standing. 
 
Now that the Supreme Court has declared that the App Store is tantamount to Apple’s store front, an outside party has even less claim to bypass Apple’s standard charges. The case will go forward and Spotify is guaranteed to lose. 

​When Apple released watchOS 5 they highlighted the fact that they were bringing their Podcasts app to the Apple Watch for the first time ever. Then, a few weeks later when they unveiled the new 4th generation Apple Watch, they highlighted the fact that you could now get more complications on the watch’s new larger screen. But here we are 8 months later and Apple still hasn’t gone the last step needed. They still haven’t made a podcasts complication for the new infograph watch faces on the 4th gen Apple Watch. What is up with that? 

Phandroid.com had some interesting info on how Google is delving beyond Android Auto which is basically using a phone as the brains and integrating directly into Volvo’s new Polestar 2. 

​I was a watch person long before the Apple Watch ever came out. I hate being late for anything. So, I never understood how anyone got along without a watch before smart phones. Besides the time, I often found it useful early in the day to glance at my watch and see what day of the month it was. So, you can imagine that I was already wired to make full use of the Apple Watch from day one. 

​Stat News published a very interesting story about medical researchers who are DNA engineering viruses to go after and kill certain bacteria which are resistant to anti-biotics.  It’s a worthy goal and I applaud their efforts. It’s fascinating how we can tinker with the building blocks of life to fundamentally change the nature of living things just like programming a machine. 

​With the sudden departure of many of Apple’s old guard in their design team I can’t help but wonder if they were the losers in a power struggle. The departures are so close together that it can’t be coincidence. AppleInsider had a nice recap of the design team history. But most of what really happens is not spoken of outside those four walls.