Linked List: September 13, 2019

Friday, 13 September 2019

Disney CEO Bob Iger Resigns From Apple Board 

CNBC:

Disney is launching streaming video service Disney+ on Nov. 12, which will compete with Apple’s Apple TV+ service, scheduled to become available on Nov. 1.

Iger resigned on Sept. 10, the day Apple announced the price and release date for its streaming service. The two streaming services will increasingly come into conflict in the future as both compete for original content.

This seems to be just for propriety’s sake — Apple TV+ and Disney+ do compete directly, so it just wouldn’t be appropriate for Iger to remain on Apple’s board. His statement and Apple’s both make the departure seem very amicable. Apple’s statement is downright effusive:

Bob has been an exemplary board member for nearly eight years, and for as long as he has led Disney he has been one of Apple’s most trusted business partners. He is a dedicated, visionary CEO and a role model for an entire generation of business leaders. More than anything, Bob is our friend. He leads with his heart and he has always been generous with his time and advice. While we will greatly miss his contributions as a board member, we respect his decision and we have every expectation that our relationship with both Bob and Disney will continue far into the future.

Might the iPhones 11 Contain Hardware for Two-Way Inductive Charging? 

Sonny Dickson, on Twitter:

Reliable sources are saying iPhone 11 and 11 Pro do include the hardware for bilateral charging, but that it is software disabled. Uncertain whether this was removed prior to final production run.

This is the feature that was much-rumored in lead-up to this week, where you could set your AirPods charging case on the back of your iPhone and charge the AirPods case inductively (a.k.a. “wirelessly” but don’t get me started on that).

I wondered in response whether Apple had ever shipped hardware features without mentioning them, only to enable them in a software update later. They have:

And I’ve been told by a reliable little birdie that in years past Apple has shipped hardware that wound up never enabled in software.

House Judiciary Committee Investigating Apple Regarding ‘Competition in Digital Markets’ (PDF) 

(Note that the link is a scanned PDF.)

My reading is that this is a really broad request. They want Apple to break down revenue by specific products in a far more granular way than they provide in quarterly statements — e.g. revenue for Apple Watch specifically. And they’re asking for “all communication” from executives regarding a slew of topics.

The letter says “we write to request that Apple Inc. (the “Company”) provide the documents and executive communications set forth in the Schedule in accordance with the attached Definitions and Instructions no later than October 14, 2019.” Unclear to me as a non-lawyer is whether this really is a “request” — and even if it is, it feels like an offer Apple can’t refuse.

I enjoy that on page 4, they use “sherlock” as a verb, albeit in quotes, with no explanation other than a footnote pointing to this Washington Post story from last week.

What It’s Like to Demo a Game Live on Stage at an Apple Event 

“Steve would really like you to get 5 stars…”