receive to our Apple Breakfast column , which include all of the Apple news show you missed last workweek in a ready to hand bite - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a morning cup of coffee berry or teatime , but it ’s nerveless if you need to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too .
The money of color
Video games have changed in destiny of positive way since I was keen on them in the 1990s , from improved graphics to a broader outlook that caters , with only a small amount of acrimony , to hard-core and everyday gamers alike . But one affair that ’s got indisputably defective is the grow dominance of downloadable content ( DLC ) civilisation , where studios unashamedly launch half - fetch up game and then milk their most loyal lover with long time of subscriptions and paid - for extras . It makes me nostalgic for the days when you only had to make up once for an unending masterpiece like Cannon Fodder or Sensible World of Soccer .
Why are you think about DLC , David ? Because this week Apple repeated its yearly magic of plunge a new color midway through an iPhone propagation , wowing lover with the agitation of ayellow enclosure . I feel about delayed gloss launches much the same style I feel about DLC . I do n’t approve .
“ Yellow ” is not a splendid raw invention that Apple has had its engineers working on for the past six month . The company could very easily have released the yellow iPhone 14 alongside the other color finishes last crepuscle , but it decided not to for one simple reason : launch a new semblance is a cunning manner to gain attention and advance a product just as gross revenue are fall off . It ’s a cynical way tograb a few headlinesand flog a few extra units .
Where does the client figure in all this , other than as a source of tax income ? scarce at all . Apple is n’t assay to deliver the best experience to the most people , but to halter their selection in a way that is calculated to generate the maximal earnings .
If you were buying an iPhone 14 last September and particularly like the color yellow , you faced a choice between two compromises : either buy a phone in a color you do n’t like as much , or wait , desire Apple benevolently plunk yellow as its bonus vividness this cycle , and then end up purchase your new phone at a metre that ’s less commodious . The same choice confront green - jazz iPhone 13 buyer in 2022 , and pro - purple iPhone 12 customers in 2021 ; via media on colouring material , or compromise on timing . And the same could go for to those loyal former adopters who bought the second - gen HomePod earlier this class but — as was the shell with the HomePod mini — may stare longingly on the additional colouration options that launch halfway through the mathematical product ’s life-time . It ’s all deep frustrative and the polar opposite of put the client first .
But this insurance , of deliberately check back appealing elements of a product so you could sell the upgrade further down the line , sleeper in with a broader strategy of which Apple is often suspected . Why did Apple take so long to bring a declamatory screen to the iPhone , or a stylus to the iPad ? Why did widgets and night mood land so much later on iOS than they did on Android ? Maybe it ’s because the party knew it could sell its equipment without those lineament in the short term , and that they would be useful afterwards on when it needed to sway customers to bribe the next coevals . Each Apple product is competing with its own harbinger just as much as with contemporary product from rival manufacturers , and this stand for the companionship is motivated to leak out utilitarian features as slowly as potential : release the sodding iPhone tomorrow and you ’ve just killed the goose that lay the golden ballock .
I do n’t gestate Apple to change its style any more than I expect telecasting plot publisher to stop over selling DLC . There ’s too much of a financial incentive ; the market has spoken . Unless multitude stop throwing their money at the former iPhone color , Apple is n’t perish to stop give back colors so it can release them with ostentation a few calendar month by and by .
But it does make me lour each bounce when a new iPhone colouring material appears and we ’re all supposed to be pleased . What utilization is this now , Tim Apple ? What am I hypothesize to do with this stupefied blue phone I ’ve been carrying around for six months ? Do you think I ’m made of money ?
Foundry
The Mac is about to put down aperformance supercyclelikewe’ve never ensure .
If Appleloves music so much , why ca n’t itget streaming correct ?
Apple Music Classicalwill launching on March 28 with the‘world ’s largest ’ catalogue .
From charging to Face ID , Michael Simondebunks3 recentiPhone myths .
Apple Music Classicalhasarrived in the App Storeat last … but it ’s still on “ pre - order . ”
The rumor mill
Does theyellow iPhoneconfirm therewon’t be an Apple spring outcome ?
Apple ’s rumored$700 price hikefor the iPad Pro isas ludicrous as rumor get .
Thelatest iPhone 15 leaksconfirmmajor upgradesfor all four models .
AHomePod with a screenwillreportedly launchin the first half of 2024 .
Apple’sspring surprisecould be the former arrival of theM3 MacBook Air .
Anew iMacmightfinally arrivelater this year .
Podcast of the week
InEpisode 831 : Your red-hot takes on the yellow iPhone , Clean Energy Charging , and upcoming novel Macs .
you may becharm every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own site .
Software updates, bugs & problems
Apple hasreleased tvOS 16.3.3 , which includes a fix for a long - runningSiri Remote disconnectionproblem .
