189: ‘Long Press on the French Fries’ With Rene Ritchie

Rene Ritchie returns to the show. Topics include Apple’s Q2 2017 financial results, the iPhone’s decline in China over the past two years, Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop and Windows 10 S, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick getting called to Tim Cook’s office regarding Uber’s surreptitious “fingerprinting” of iPhones, judging Apple Watch’s success, Hulu’s entry into the cord-cutting “live TV” subscription market (and Apple’s conspicuous absence from that same market), and more.

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Links:

• Apple Q2 2017 results:
  • Apple’s press release.
  • Data (PDF).
  • Transcript of the analyst call opening remarks.
  • Transcript of the analyst call Q&A segment.
• Is WeChat a problem for Apple in China?
  • Ben Thompson: “Apple’s China Problem”.
  • John Gruber: “Apple’s China Problem: WeChat”.
  • Connie Chan: “When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China”.
• Other events in San Jose during WWDC week:
  • Layers design conference (save $100 with code “martini” or “🍸”).
  • AltConf.
  • CocoaConf.
  • Apple’s “Beyond WWDC” page.
• Scandal of the week at Uber:
  • “On Uber’s ‘Identifying and Tagging’ of iPhones”.
  • Unroll.me CEO’s “heartbreak”.
• App Store economics:
  • Matt Gemmell: “No company has done as much damage to the perceived value of software, and the sustainability of being an independent developer, as Apple.”
  • Rene Ritchie: “Indie Development in the Age of the App Store”.
• Hulu’s new $40/month live TV service.
• It sucks that you can’t type common characters like tab and π, ¶, and © on an iOS software keyboard.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.