You’ve most likely skilled the irritating quirks that come whenever you ship a textual content to an iPhone from an Android machine, or vice versa. Messages from Android customers pop up as inexperienced bubbles on iPhones as an alternative of blue (the horror!), and movies despatched between the 2 programs are sometimes compressed to the purpose of being unwatchable. The lack of unpolluted interoperability has turn out to be such a headache that extra folks have began to push more durable for the 2 platforms to get alongside.
At Vox Media’s Code Conference on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook took questions from the viewers. LiQuan Hunt, who works at Vox Media, requested if Apple would ever undertake the identical messaging commonplace as Android, or a minimum of make them play good with each other. Hunt then adopted as much as say that the disconnect makes it onerous to speak when texting along with his mom. In response, Cook mentioned, “Buy your mom an iPhone.”
It was a jocular quip, however one which amplifies the tensions between the 2 smartphone ecosystems. Nearly a month in the past, Google began a determined advertising and marketing marketing campaign to persuade Apple to undertake the RCS messaging protocol that’s turn out to be commonplace throughout Android units. But now Cook has made it fairly clear that gained’t be occurring any time quickly.
Here are the week’s different notable information occasions on this planet of client tech.
Brazil and Apple Charge Into Battle
Apple stopped together with chargers in iPhone packaging again in 2020, citing the environmental impression of transport tens of hundreds of thousands of chargers out to individuals who may discover them superfluous and simply throw them away. The transfer has ruffled some feathers, together with these of some governments.
On Tuesday, Brazil mentioned it will ban the sale of iPhones within the nation if the units don’t include a charging cable within the field. It additionally fined Apple 12.275 million reais, which is roughly $2.3 million. Apple is interesting the order.
A penalty that measurement is a teardrop within the ocean for Apple—the corporate’s market capitalization is $2.3 trillion, one million occasions the quantity of the advantageous. Still, Brazil’s transfer might set a precedent for different international locations to make related calls for. Laws within the European Union have prompted Apple to open restore applications and tinker with switching its iPhones to USB-C connectors. While the corporate could think about Brazil’s transfer a risk, it’s not the one machine producer that has stopped together with chargers. Samsung doesn’t embrace chargers with its Galaxy S21 or S22 telephones both. Brazil hasn’t gone after that firm but, however we’ll see how that fares relying on how Apple’s attraction shakes out.
Google Maps Expands Eco Directions
In October 2021, Google launched a characteristic within the US that allow customers select extra eco-friendly routes of their commute. They’re not all the time the quickest routes to a vacation spot, however Google says it elements in highway situations and site visitors to search out probably the most fuel-efficient path.
Now, eco-friendly routes in Maps can be found in 40 European international locations, together with some new options. The greatest addition is the flexibility to include your car’s gas kind. You can choose whether or not your automotive is electrical or runs on fuel or diesel, and Maps will incorporate that into its route figuring.
