Apple, in its media statement re: Hot Tub (the you-have-to-admit-it’s-a-fun-name hardcore porn app now available in the AltStore PAL alternative app marketplace in the EU), closed its statement with the following: “The truth is that we are required by the European Commission to allow it to be distributed by marketplace operators like AltStore and Epic who may not share our concerns for user safety.”

On X, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney wrote:

Contrary to Apple’s false statement, the Epic Games Store doesn’t carry this app, doesn’t carry any porn apps, and has never carried porn apps.

Epic Games does run an alternative app marketplace for iOS in the EU, and Sweeney is correct that neither Hot Tub, nor any other porno apps, are in it. But what Apple is alluding to here is Epic’s financial backing of AltStore by way of an “Epic MegaGrant”. AltStore announced the grant back in August:

GOOD NEWS EU 🇪🇺 For innovation in app distribution, Epic Games has granted us a MegaGrant grant that we plan to use to cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee going forward — and we won’t take it for granted!

What does this mean? AltStore PAL is now FREE — no subscription necessary 🎉

Prior to the grant, AltStore PAL charged €1.50 per installation to cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee, the rules for which have gotten more complicated since originally announced, but for app marketplaces themselves (like AltStore PAL) costs €0.50 per-user per-first-installation per-year. After the grant from Epic, AltStore PAL became a free download.

Is it fair for Apple to lay AltStore PAL’s content decisions at Epic’s feet? I’d say it’s more fair than describing Hot Tub as “approved” by Apple for having been notarized.

From an AltStore announcement yesterday:

iPhone turns 18 this year, which means it’s finally old enough for some more ~mature~ apps…

Introducing Hot Tub by c1d3r, the world’s 1st Apple-approved porn app!

The screenshots and video previews are blurred-for-obfuscation by default, but Hot Tub’s website makes pretty clear that the content it aggregates is serious porn. Figuratively speaking, they’re not fucking around. Literally speaking, that’s exactly what they’re aggregating — including an in-app “teens” channel.

Describing Hot Tub as “Apple-approved” is cheeky, if we’re being generous, and downright misleading if we’re not. What they mean is that Hot Tub was duly notarized by Apple — an ostensibly technical, not editorial, review that encompasses (using terms from Apple’s own documentation) accuracy, functionality, safety, security, and privacy. I say “ostensibly” there because Apple has, controversially, refused to notarize apps for other reasons, including in November when it rejected for notarization the classic Mac emulator Mini vMac, on the grounds that Mini vMac both violated Apple’s software licensing terms and misused Apple’s trademarks.

But pornography has pretty much always been Apple’s canonical example for the sort of content they do not want in the App Store, and thus — because Apple’s stance is that the App Store ought to be the sole source for consumer software for iOS — the sort of content they do not consider appropriate for native apps. You’ve been able to watch porno on your iPhone since the first day it shipped — a full year ahead of the App Store — by using the web. Apple’s line has always been clear: native apps = Apple-approved; the web = anything goes. (That same line goes for payment processing for digital goods and services as well.)

Back in 2010, MG Siegler (then at TechCrunch) reported on an email exchange between Steve Jobs and customer Matthew Browing. Browing wrote to Jobs:

It appears that more and more Apple is determining for its consumers what content they should be able to receive. For instance, the blocking of Mark Fiore’s comic app (due to being political satire) or blocking of what Apple considers to be porn.

I’m all for keeping porn out of kids hands. Heck — I’m all for ensuring that I don’t have to see it unless I want to. But… that’s what parental controls are for. Put these types of apps into categories and allow them to be blocked by their parents should they want to.

Apple’s role isn’t moral police — Apple’s role is to design and produce really cool gadgets that do what the consumer wants them to do.

Jobs responded:

Fiore’s app will be in the store shortly. That was a mistake. However, we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone.

(The man knew how to write an email.)

Fast-forward to the present, and Apple has been citing pornography as one of its reasons for adamantly opposing the EU’s DMA from the very beginning. Last year, after the DMA went into effect, FastCompany’s Michael Grothaus interviewed App Store chief Phil Schiller:

Schiller is quick to point out that despite these new security measures, there are limits to the protections that Apple can provide to users who allow alternative app marketplaces to operate on their iPhones. The company has virtually no control over the content of apps from those marketplaces — even if that content is objectionable or harmful.

“Ultimately, there are things that we have not allowed on our App Store — things that we didn’t think would be safe or appropriate,” Schiller says. “It will not be our decision whether those other marketplaces have the same terms and limitations.”

So yes, for the first time, apps dedicated to pornography can be run on the iPhone. This should be something parents are aware of, because the DMA does not give Apple the legal right to forbid certain types of app stores from operating on its platform, nor does Apple have the ability to prevent a child from downloading such an app store onto their iPhone.

And, lastly, with regard to Hot Tub and AltStore in particular, Apple issued this statement to media outlets, including Daring Fireball, yesterday:

We are deeply concerned about the safety risks that hardcore porn apps of this type create for EU users, especially kids. This app and others like it will undermine consumer trust and confidence in our ecosystem that we have worked for more than a decade to make the best in the world. Contrary to the false statements made by the marketplace developer, we certainly do not approve of this app and would never offer it in our App Store. The truth is that we are required by the European Commission to allow it to be distributed by marketplace operators like AltStore and Epic who may not share our concerns for user safety.

So, no, Apple neither approves of Hot Tub in particular, nor the ability to distribute native porn apps in general. Everyone involved with both AltStore and Hot Tub knows this, but they also know that framing it this way — the announcement came with this banner graphic promoting Hot Tub as “The First Apple-Approved Porn App” — is a good way to get headlines. (The Verge: “The First ‘Approved’ iPhone Porn App Is Coming to Europe” — which aside from the mild clickbait slant, misleadingly conflates “Europe” with “the EU”.) But there’s some undeniable schadenfreude seeing Apple on the wrong end of notarization being used as a tool to convey subject-matter approval. [Update: And now it’s become a thing, where AltStore is sticking to their guns that Hot Tub, having been notarized, is thus “approved” by Apple. C’mon.]

If we want to get nitty-gritty over verbs, I’d argue that Apple accepts apps — like Hot Tub — for notarization, not approves. Begrudging acceptance is more of a thing than begrudging approval.

But, as Apple itself emphasizes in its statement, the DMA requires them to allow it. I’ve seen no celebratory tweets or announcements from European Commission officials celebrating the availability of Hot Tub. Just crickets chirping. When it comes to native iOS porn apps, the EU now has an unequivocal advantage over not just the United States but the rest of the world. You’d think they’d want to celebrate the achievement.

Sony is closing Firewalk Studios, the studio behind its PlayStation Concord game that it took offline last month after a disastrous launch. In a message to PlayStation staff, Hermen Hulst, CEO of the PlayStation studio business group, says Firewalk Studios will close alongside Neon Koi, a mobile game studio. The shutdowns will affect about 210 jobs, Bloomberg reports.

“We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options,” says Hulst. “After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.”

Hulst says Concord didn’t hit Sony’s targets and that the PlayStation maker will “take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to advance our live service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area.”

Concord debuted on August 23rd on both PS5 and PC, but Sony took the game offline on September 6th after poor sales of the game. Estimates have put sales at under 25,000, and Concord only managed to hit an all-time peak of just 697 players on Steam, lower than the launch peak of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

Sony’s Neon Koi mobile game development studio is also shutting down, despite Hulst saying “mobile remains a priority growth area.” Sony originally acquired the German-Finnish studio when it was known as Savage Game Studios in 2022, and the team was working on an unannounced triple-A mobile live service action game.

“With this re-focused approach, Neon Koi will close, and its mobile action game will not be moving forward,” says Hulst. “Both decisions were given serious thought, and ultimately, we feel they are the right ones to strengthen the organization.”

Some of the impacted developers may find roles within Sony’s other studios, but the rest will join the thousands in the game industry that have been laid off over the past couple of years.

Update, October 29th: Added Bloomberg’s reporting about how many jobs were impacted.

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

Spotify claims Apple may again be in violation of European regulation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which requires interoperability from big technology companies dubbed “gatekeepers.” This time, the issue isn’t about in-app purchases, links or pricing information, but rather how Apple has discontinued the technology that allows Spotify users to control the volume on their connected devices.

When streaming to connected devices via Spotify Connect on iOS, users were previously able to use the physical buttons on the side of their iPhone to adjust the volume. As a result of the change, this will no longer work. To work around the issue, Spotify iOS users will instead be directed to use the volume slider in the Spotify Connect menu in the app to control the volume on connected devices.

The company notes that this issue doesn’t affect users controlling the volume on iOS Bluetooth or AirPlay sessions, nor users on Android. It only applies to those listening via Spotify Connect on iOS.

Who should get to decide the rules for how the hardware volume buttons work on iPhones and iPads? Apple, or the European Commission?

Kieran Kelly, reporting for LBC:

New cars that are sold in Europe from this week will host automatically-installed speed limiters, following the introduction of a new EU law.

Even though the rule to install the technology does not apply in the UK, many of the cars will have been made in Europe and so will feature the Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) anyway.

The technology allows the car to automatically restrict its speed based on GPS location, speed-sign recognition and cameras within the vehicle. This is not done simply by applying the brakes, which could be dangerous, but by gradually reducing the engine’s power. However, drivers will first get a warning that they are driving too fast and be told to slow down before the measure takes affect.

When a friend sent me this link, I thought at first that LBC was some sort of Onion/Babylon Bee-style parody site. But no, this is real. Any politician in the U.S. seeking to end their career should propose similar legislation here.

In the EU, drivers will be able to turn off the system every time they start their car. It cannot be permanently shut off.

I take back my complaint that the EU no longer innovates in technology. They brought the EU cookie-consent web experience to cars. Nonstop pointless nagging and annoyance.

Speaking of nifty new Safari extensions from Christian Selig, Achoo is an iOS 15 Safari extension that gives you a good “View Source” command for inspecting (and editing) the code for any web page. $1, cheap!