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Apple’s leadership shakeup continues. Apple has announced that two more executives are departing the company: Katherine Adams, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, and Lisa Jackson, vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives.

Yesterday, Bloomberg broke the surprise news that Alan Dye, Apple’s vice president of Human Interface Design since 2015, is departing the company to lead a new design studio at Meta. Apple confirmed the departure in a statement attributed to Tim Cook, adding that 26-year Apple design veteran Steve Lemay will take over Dye’s role.

In a new post on Daring Fireball, John Gruber has some sourced info on the reaction inside Apple to this news.

Alan Dye, Apple’s vice president of Human Interface Design since 2015, is departing the company. Bloomberg reports that Meta has poached Dye as part of its push “into AI-equipped consumer devices.”

Stephen Lemay, a 26-year Apple design veteran, will take over the role from Dye, who officially joins Meta on December 31.

Apple has frequently used small variations on the same one-sentence justification when giving in to government demands that conflict with the company’s stated values: “Apple complies with the law in each of the countries in which it operates.”

However, there are occasions on which the company has instead chosen to stand up to unreasonable government demands, and we yesterday saw the latest (and highly successful) example …

The Indian government has ordered Apple and other smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a state-owned “security” app on all phones before they are sold to users. Update: As we predicted, Apple has pushed back, but more aggressively by stating outright that it will not comply.

Adding fuel to the privacy fire, the government is also requiring smartphone makers to ensure that the app cannot be removed by users …

The contract that founded the Apple Computer Company (now Apple, Inc) is set to be auctioned and is expected to sell for between $2 million and $4 million. It will likely be the most expensive Apple collectible ever sold.

Auction house Christie’s hasn’t yet added the document to its website, but it is reportedly offering the contract in an auction taking place on January 23 …

A competition regulator has accused Apple of misleading users about the level of privacy offered by the App Tracking Transparency feature. That accusation, while made in good faith, is based on a misunderstanding.

The iPhone maker has responded by saying that it may be forced to withdraw the privacy protection from EU users …

One of the new features of the iPhone 17 Pro is a liquid cooling system known as a vapor chamber. Apple has today highlighted the benefits of this in a new video on its YouTube channel, called Peak Performance.

The minute-long video opens with a man running in a desert and a drop of water falling from the sky to land on his forehead with a sizzle …

Given Apple’s profitability, it won’t come as any surprise to learn that the company generates a huge amount of revenue per employee.

The figure itself is a little more eye-opening, at $2,413,171 – but it’s still not enough to give Apple first place in the tech giant rankings …

A new market intelligence report suggests that the iPhone 17 lineup is selling incredibly well in China, despite this being a somewhat tricky market for Apple.

It reveals that one in every four smartphones sold in China during October was an iPhone, and that total sales beat the previous record set back in 2021 …

Update 9:34am PT: There is no direct deal between Apple and Tencent for the 15% commission rate on WeChat mini games and apps. Instead, Tencent is taking advantage of Apple’s new App Store Mini Apps Partner Program, which launched for all developers today. Tencent, like all developers, will first have to apply to the program.

Members of the program earn 85% of qualifying In‑App Purchase sales within qualifying mini apps.

The original story via Bloomberg is below.

Apple’s App Store commission might be under threat in multiple countries around the world, but the company has just gained a huge new source of commission thanks to a WeChat deal struck in China.

The situation arises because the way most Chinese iPhone users buy apps is very different to anywhere else in the world …

Apple was today denied permission to appeal the result of a billion-dollar lawsuit filed by UK app developers accusing the company of abusive commission levels.

The company last month lost the case and a hearing today is deciding how the damages are calculated. If the ruling stands, it is expected to end up costing Apple anywhere between £1B and £2B ($1.3B to $2.6B) – but Apple is expected to counter this with four arguments …

Chase is back with one of its more lucrative credit card promotions for Apple shoppers.

Starting today and running until December 7, your Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth up to 50% when redeemed for a purchase via Chase’s shopping portal.

Apple has removed two of the most popular gay dating apps in China from its App Store there to comply with a government order.

The company gave the usual statement it makes in such circumstances, but did provide little more detail in this particular case …

As part of an investigation into whether Apple complies with the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU has said that it suspects the company of failing to protect its customers from scams. The Cupertino company is also accused of not providing enough safety measures for children who use its devices.

The iPhone maker has responded with an exceptionally strongly-worded letter, accusing the EU of hypocrisy and cynically attempting to distract attention from the failings of its own laws …

Apple’s monopoly on the sale of iPhone apps is set to be further eroded according to a new tweet showing third-party app stores in the iOS 26.2 beta in Japan. This follows a ruling by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission in August that both Apple and Google must allow alternative app stores.

This will make Japan the 29th country to get third-party app stores for the iPhone, with others set to follow as courts and antitrust regulators continue to issue rulings …

I said only recently that it’s getting harder and harder to believe Apple can deliver on the new Siri. The company’s backtracking on announcements coupled to very vague statements on revised timings were certainly not making it easy to imagine that the new intelligent assistant will deliver.

I’m not yet ready to do my own U-turn on this, and my skepticism still very much remains, but there have at least been a couple of encouraging signs in the last few days …

During Apple’s earnings call with investors yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook provided a (vague) update on Apple’s work on the next-generation version of Siri.

The Apple CEO assured investors that the company is “making good progress” on the more personalized version of Siri ahead of a launch “next year.”

A firm of analysts are predicting that Apple will skip the iPhone 19 name in favor of jumping directly to the iPhone 20 in 2027.

Omdia believes the company will do this in order to mark the 20th anniversary of the iPhone, but it just reinforces my view that it’s time for Apple to drop the numbers altogether …

Apple recently explained how it will comply with an App Store age verification law in Texas, and it will now face a similar requirement in California.

Apple found a privacy-respecting approach to the Texas law, and it seems that it will be able to adopt a similar one here …

Apple is rumored to have a handful of new products in the pipeline coming before the end of the year. A sketchy rumor today suggests we could see those new products start to debut next week, including a new M5 iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, Vision Pro, AirTag 2, and more.