Apr 22, 2025 6 min read

A Commotion Of Links (Apple) for week ending 04-22-25

Yay, Earth Day! It's the international holiday in which we remind ourselves that anybody who thinks we're ever going to colonize Mars is kind of an idiot, so maybe we should treat this class-M planet we've been given like it's the last one we're going to get. Apple releases its annual Environmental Progress Report, Greenpeace reacts, and you can win a new Apple Health fitness badge by positioning yourself under the planet somewhere around western South America and performing 20 reps, Atlas-style. Or something.

Butterflies continue to flap their wings and increase the level of chaos created by tariffs and trade wars. There's a very silly new keyboard for sale. And you can run Windows 11 on an iPad, but you have to be in Europe. This doesn't actually sound like a downside.

The Future, Soon

Images of Apple 'Vision Air' Power Cable Emerge Online https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/17/images-of-apple-vision-air-cable/

Apple 'Vision Air' Headset Rumored to Feature Thinner, Lighter Design With 'Midnight' Finish https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/16/apple-vision-air-rumored-with-new-design/

iPhone 17 Air dummy blank appears in Apple Store for customers to preview the Pixel camera bar design [Funny: rogue (?) Apple Store in China shows CNC’d aluminum iPhone Air mockup, based on leaked CAD, to customers to illustrate the differences between it and the iPhone 16 Pro - AI] https://www.notebookcheck.net/iPhone-17-Air-model-appears-in-Apple-Store-for-customers-to-preview-the-Pixel-camera-bar-design.1002690.0.html

iPhone 17e already well advanced, says leaker with the right credentials [Also claims e-series is on an annual update cycle, instead of ad-hoc cycle of SE - AI] https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/22/iphone-17e-already-well-advanced-says-leaker-with-the-right-credentials/

Company

iPhone Shipments Down 9% in China's Q1 Smartphone Boom https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/18/iphone-shipments-down-in-china-q1/

Trump Raised $239 Million for Inauguration, More Than Doubling His Own Record https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/us/politics/trump-inauguration-donors.html

[WaPo] How Tim Cook helped Apple out of Trump’s tariff storm — for now [Some insider info/authorized leaks: Tim Cook is Apparently respected by Trump staff because he Apparently isn’t a crybaby. Apparently. - AI] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/04/17/apple-iphone-tariff-exemption-trump/

Tim Cook honors Pope Francis on X https://x.com/tim_cook/status/1914319193987826180

Cupertino: City pays Apple $12.1 million following sales tax settlement https://www.siliconvalley.com/2025/04/18/cupertino-city-pays-apple-12-1-million-following-sales-tax-settlement/

[WSJ scoop] EU Delayed Punishing Apple, Meta Just Before Trade Talks Started [“had initially planned to announce cease-and-desist orders targeting the tech giants on Tuesday” also possible fines according to source - AI] https://www.wsj.com/tech/eu-meta-apple-punishment-delay-0453d7a0

Von der Leyen warns X, Meta, TikTok to play by the rules in Europe — no matter who’s CEO [EU chief Talks to Politico a few days after WSJ scoop; names Apple among others - AI] https://www.politico.eu/article/european-commission-ursula-von-der-leyen-warns-x-meta-tiktok-rules-ceo/

How Mark Zuckerberg is flipping the script on kids’ safety online [Zuck is pressuring the GOP that Apple and Google should be the watchdogs for child safety online, not Facebook - AI] https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/20/zuckerbergs-enlisting-the-gop-against-tech-rivals-apple-and-google-00295945

Foxconn’s iPhone factory is fueling a real estate boom in a small Indian farming town https://restofworld.org/2025/foxconn-india-iphone-factory-bengaluru/

Earth Day

Apple Celebrating Earth Day in These Five Ways https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/22/apple-celebrating-earth-day-in-five-ways/

Apple Expands Clean Energy Charging on iPhone Demo Units in U.S. Stores https://www.macobserver.com/news/apple-expands-clean-energy-charging-on-iphone-demo-units-in-u-s-stores/

[Apple Newsroom] Apple unveils environmental progress, surpassing 60 percent reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions [Apple releases 2025 Environmental Progress Report, ahead of Earth Day - AI] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/04/apple-surpasses-60-percent-reduction-in-global-greenhouse-gas-emissions/

↳ [Apple] Environmental Progress Report https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/Apple_Environmental_Progress_Report_2025.pdf

Apple Releases Latest Sustainability Report: Greenpeace Response [Greenpeace response is maybe even positive about Apple, but criticizes Apple’s suppliers - AI] https://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/press/68025/apple-releases-latest-sustainability-report/

Apple Intelligence

New Siri chief is replacing existing teams with Vision Pro staffers https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/04/22/new-siri-chief-is-replacing-existing-teams-with-vision-pro-staffers

Meta Removes Use of Apple Intelligence in Its Apps on iPhone https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/meta-removes-use-of-apple-intelligence-in-its-apps-on-iphone/

Apple cleans up its image with Apple Intelligence in a new ad spot https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/04/21/apple-cleans-up-its-image-with-apple-intelligence-in-a-new-ad-spot

Apple Uses Bug Report Data for AI Training in iOS 18.5 Beta [With no opt-out - AI] https://www.macobserver.com/news/apple-uses-bug-report-data-for-ai-training-in-ios-18-5-beta/

Apple drops ‘available now’ from Apple Intelligence page/The National Advertising Division recommended that Apple ‘modify or discontinue’ the claim. [Change happened in late March, was recently noticed - AI] https://www.theverge.com/news/653413/apple-intelligence-available-now-advertising-claim

How Apple's new Machine Learning research will help Apple Intelligence get smarter [Roundup of papers Apple Research will present at the International Conference on Learning Representations next week - AI] https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/04/22/how-apples-new-machine-learning-research-will-help-apple-intelligence-get-smarter

Vision Pro

Indie App Spotlight: ‘Ping Pong Club’ brings realistic table tennis to Apple Vision Pro https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/19/indie-app-spotlight-ping-pong-club-table-tennis-vision-pro/

Showbiz

Brett Goldstein Compares ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 To Dead Cat: “We Buried It” [Tells funny story on NPR podcast - AI] https://deadline.com/2025/04/brett-goldstein-compares-ted-lasso-season-4-dead-cat-1236372666/

No escape, no control: A 'Severance' keyboard is coming soon [It’s a real keyboard, it functions, and the lack of ESC CTRL and Option keys makes it damn-near useless. Hysterical! - AI] https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/04/21/no-escape-no-control-a-severance-keyboard-is-coming-soon

Misc

iPhone 18's Costly 2nm Process Adoption Could Lead to Price Hikes https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/17/iphone-18-costly-2nm-process-price-hikes/

Google, Apple, and Snap aren’t happy about Meta’s poorly-redacted slides [they did that dippy thing where anybody can just click and remove the black boxes in the doc - AI] https://www.theverge.com/news/649834/meta-redactions-apple-google-snap-angry-ftc-antitrust-trial

Today in Apple history: Gizmodo tears down a lost iPhone 4 prototype [April 20/15th anniversary! - AI] https://www.cultofmac.com/apple-history/gizmodo-iphone-4-prototype-leak

Report: Pensacola man stole 171 iPhones while working as UPS employee https://weartv.com/news/local/report-pensacola-man-stole-171-iphones-while-working-as-ups-delivery-driver%20

Thieves took their iPhones. Apple won’t give their digital lives back. [New lawsuits are asking if Apple could be doing more to help people locked out of their phones after theft - AI] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/04/20/apple-stolen-iphone-lawsuit-theft/

Update Now: iOS 18.4.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.4.1 Address Actively Exploited Vulnerabilities https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/16/ios-18-4-1-security-fixes/

Teen coder shuts down open source Mac app Whisky, citing harm to paid apps [Also that he’s a busy college student, and that he’s supporting a commercial solution — A.] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/04/teen-coder-shuts-down-open-source-mac-app-whisky-citing-harm-to-paid-apps/

M2 iPad Air Runs Windows 11 ARM via Emulation, Thanks to EU Rules [via new third-party App Store - AI] https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/22/m2-ipad-air-runs-windows-11-arm/