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Charlotte Henry

Charlotte is a media junkie, covering how Apple is not just a revolutionary tech firm, but a revolutionary media firm for TMO. She is based in London, and writes and broadcasts for various outlets.

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Articles by Charlotte Henry

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Time For The Apple Watch to Separate From The iPhone

Charlotte Henry ·

The Apple Watch Series 7 became available to order on Friday. In the latest edition of his ‘Power On’ newsletter, Bloomberg News‘s Mark Gurman noted how the wearable has got closer to breaking free from the iPhone but isn’t there yet.

Seven years into the Apple Watch era, one of Apple’s most promising device categories still does things the old way. As any Apple Watch owner knows, an iPhone is required for activation and setup, syncing data and day-to-day operating. The Apple Watch doesn’t meet the Jobs vision for every Apple device being able to operate and exist on its own. Apple has taken some steps over the years to push the Apple Watch in that direction, though… Despite those enhancements, you still can’t buy an Apple Watch, set it up from the device itself, and move over all of your content from the cloud. That limits the potential user base of the Apple Watch—and excludes people who might want to only own an Apple Watch and a Mac or iPad and no iPhone. Or, one day, people who want an Apple Watch as their only device.

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Dutch Regulator Demands Apple Makes Changes to In-app Purchases

Charlotte Henry ·

Regulators in the Netherlands have found that Apple’s rules around its in-app payment system are anti-competitive. It has ordered the company to make changes, Reuters reported.

The Dutch investigation into whether Apple’s practices amounted to an abuse of a dominant market position was launched in 2019 but later reduced in scope to focus primarily on dating market apps. They included a complaint from Match Group, owner of the popular dating service Tinder, which said Apple’s rules were hindering it from direct communications with its customers about payments. The Netherlands’ Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) last month informed the U.S. technology giant of its decision, making it the first antitrust regulator to make a finding the company has abused market power in the app store, though Apple is facing challenges in multiple countries. ACM has not levied a fine against Apple, but demanded changes to the in-app payment system, the people said.

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YouTube Rewind Scrapped Permanently

Charlotte Henry ·

YouTube is to stop making its annual ‘Rewind’ videos. The look-back clip was scrapped in 2020 because…2020, but the move has now been made permanent, TubeFilter reported.

The decision was made on what would be the 10th anniversary of Rewind. YouTube says it is not abandoning the project because of the widespread criticism it has received on more recent efforts, but because its platform has become so massive that it is impossible to encapsulate its vastness and diversity within a minutes-long compilation. Accordingly, YouTube says it will be passing the baton to creators, who have increasingly been producing their own homespun versions of YouTube Rewind in recent years. “Since Rewind started in 2011, we have seen creators from MrBeast [54 million views], elrubiusOMG, and Slayy Point, to so many more, create their own end-of-year videos, uniquely capturing the year from each of their perspectives,” a YouTube spokesperson tells Tubefilter.

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Steve Jobs Tried to Get Michael Dell to License macOS on Every Machine he Sold

Charlotte Henry ·

There has been lots of conversation and reminiscing about Steve Jobs on the tenth anniversary of his passing. One of those with a story is Michael Dell. He recalled how Mr. Jobs wanted macOS on every Dell machine, and to be paid a license fee for it. As CNET noted, such a deal would have had a profound impact on the future of computing.

“He said, look at this — we’ve got this Dell desktop and it’s running Mac OS,” Dell tells me. “Why don’t you license the Mac OS?” Dell thought it was a great idea and told Jobs he’d pay a licensing fee for every PC sold with the Mac OS. But Jobs had a counteroffer: He was worried that licensing scheme might undermine Apple’s own Mac sales because Dell computers were less costly. Instead, Dell says, Jobs suggested he just load the Mac OS alongside Windows on every Dell PC and let customers decide which software to use — and then pay Apple for every Dell PC sold. “It could have changed the trajectory for Windows and Mac OS on PCs. But obviously they went in a different direction.”

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William Shatner Set to Head into Space With Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin

Charlotte Henry ·

William Shatner is heading into space. For real. He will join a flight by Jeff Bezos’s space travel company Blue Origin on 12 October, BBC News reported.

Aged 90, the actor will become the oldest person to have flown into space. “I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle,” Shatner said in a statement. Shatner will be joining three other people aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket for the company’s second human spaceflight. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos joined the first crewed flight in July, along with his brother, an 82-year-old pioneer of the space race and an 18-year-old student.

[Image credit: Bryan Regan / Shutterstock.com]