China attacks Apple for allowing Hong Kong crowdsourced police activity app

Apple’s decision to greenlight an app called HKmaps, which is being used by pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong to crowdsource information about street closures and police presence, is attracting the ire of the Chinese government.

An article in Chinese state mouthpiece, China Daily, attacks the iPhone maker for reversing an earlier decision not to allow the app to be listed on the iOS App Store — claiming the app is “allowing the rioters in Hong Kong to go on violent acts” (via The Guardian).

HKmaps uses emoji to denote live police and protest activity around Hong Kong, as reported by users.

The former British colony is a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China that’s been able to maintain certain economic and and political freedoms since reunification with China — under the one country, two systems principle. But earlier this year pro-democracy protests broke out after the Hong Kong government sought to pass legislation that would allow for extradition to mainland China. It’s policing around those on-going protests that’s being made visible on HKmaps.

The app’s developer denies the map enables illegal activity, saying its function is “for info” purposes only — to allow residents to move freely around the city by being able to avoid protest flash-points. But the Chinese government is branding it “toxic”.

“Business is business, and politics is politics. Nobody wants to drag Apple into the lingering unrest in Hong Kong. But people have reason to assume that Apple is mixing business with politics, and even illegal acts. Apple has to think about the consequences of its unwise and reckless decision,” the China Daily writer warns in a not-so-veiled threat about continued access to the Chinese market.

“Providing a gateway for ‘toxic apps’ is hurting the feelings of the Chinese people, twisting the facts of Hong Kong affairs, and against the views and principles of the Chinese people,” it goes on. “Apple and other corporations should be able to discern right from wrong. They also need to know that only the prosperity of China and China’s Hong Kong will bring them a broader and more sustainable market.”

The article takes further aim at Apple — claiming it reinstated a song which advocates for independence for Hong Kong and had previously been removed from its music store.

We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.

A few days ago the company was getting flak from the other direction as Western commentators piled on to express incredulity over its decision, at the app review stage, not to allow HKmaps on its store. The app’s developer said Apple App Store reviewers had rejected it citing the reasoning as “the app allowed users to evade law enforcement”.

"Your app contains content – or facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity – that is not legal … Specifically, the app allowed users to evade law enforcement."@Apple assume our user are lawbreakers and therefore evading law enforcement, which is clearly not the case.

— HKmap.live 全港抗爭即時地圖 (@hkmaplive) October 1, 2019

Yet, as many pointed out at the time, the Google-owned Waze app literally describes its function as “avoid police” if you take the trouble to read its iOS listing. So it looked like a crystal-clear case of double standards by Cupertino. And, most awkwardly for Apple, as if the US tech giant was siding with the Chinese state against Hong Kong as concerned residents fight for their autonomy and call for democracy.

We asked Apple about its decision to reject the app at the App Store review stage last week. It did not provide any comment but a couple of days afterwards a spokesman pointed us to an “update” — where the developer tweeted that the iOS version was “Approved, comming soon!” [sic].

WebApp: https://t.co/r866JJbZvc
Android: https://t.co/750Gotrm6z
iOS: Approved, comming soon!
Contact: @hkmapverify_bot

支持HKmap:
1) 幫手比情報
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3) 買VPN https://t.co/e4kpEzmTdX
4) BTC: 32nyYPj6jx6e4LeCcYMvYPSjfivx38b3o3

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— HKmap.live 全港抗爭即時地圖 (@hkmaplive) October 4, 2019

It's on App Store now https://t.co/bLjjN6yXpA
There will not be any further comments on this matter unless status changes. We understand @Apple have many business considerations, but since they already make thing right I don't see any point to keep pressing.

— HKmap.live 全港抗爭即時地圖 (@hkmaplive) October 5, 2019

At the time of writing the iOS app remains available on the App Store but the episode highlights the tricky trade-offs Apple is facing by operating in the Chinese market — a choice that risks denting its reputation for highly polished corporate values.

The size of the China market is such that just “economical deceleration” can — and has — put a serious dent in Apple’s bottom line. If the company were to exit — or be ejected — from the market entirely there would be no way for it to cushion the blow for shareholders. Yet with a premium brand so bound up with ethical claims to champion and defend fundamental human rights like privacy Apple risks being pinned between a rock and a hard place as an increasingly powerful China flexes more political and economic muscle.

Wider trade tensions between the US and China are also creating further instability, causing major operating headaches for Chinese tech giant Huawei — with the Trump administration pressuring allies to freeze it out of 5G networks and leaning on US companies not to provide services to Chinese firms (leading to question marks over whether Huawei’s smartphones can continue using Google’s Android OS, and suggestions it might seek to deploy its own OS).

The going is certainly getting tougher for tech businesses working from East to West. But it also remains to be seen how sustainable Apple’s West-to-East democratic balancing act can be given heightened and escalating geopolitical tensions.

Apple’s increasingly tricky international trade-offs

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Daily Crunch: Apple releases latest MacOS update

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Apple’s MacOS Catalina is now available

Catalina bucks the trend of recent MacOS updates with some pronounced changes — the underlying principles are the same, but the latest version of Apple’s Mac operating system makes some fundamental updates to popular apps, like getting rid of iTunes.

Brian Heater argues that these changes will have an immediate impact on current usage while also laying the groundwork for future evolutions.

2. Sony’s next console is… the PlayStation 5, arriving holidays 2020

The company is saving most of the details for future announcements, but it did reveal a few things about the upcoming game console — like the fact that the controllers will include new haptic feedback.

3. Group Nine acquires PopSugar

Earlier this year, there were reports that Group Nine — which was formed by the merger of Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo and Seeker — was in talks to acquire a different women’s lifestyle publisher, Refinery29, which was ultimately acquired by Vice Media instead.

4. Chinese firms Tencent, Vivo and CCTV suspend ties with the NBA over Hong Kong tweet

Smartphone maker Vivo, broadcaster CCTV and internet giant Tencent said today they are suspending all cooperation with the National Basketball Association, becoming the latest Chinese firms to cut ties with the league following a tweet from a Houston Rockets executive supporting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters.

5. Opera’s desktop browser gets built-in tracking protection

The marquee feature of Opera’s latest desktop browser is the addition of a blocker that will make it harder for advertisers and others to track you while you browse the web — and which has the additional benefit of speeding up your browsing session. In fact, Opera argues that turning on both the tracking protection and the built-in ad blocker can speed up page loads by up to 23%.

6. Via is launching an on-demand public transit network in the city of Cupertino

The aim is for these on-demand shuttles — starting with six vans branded with the city of Cupertino logo — to provide more efficient connections to CalTrain and increase access to public transit across the city.

7. Laurel Bowden of VC firm 83North on the European deep tech and startup ecosystems

London and Tel Aviv-based VC firm 83North has closed out its fifth fund at $300 million. In a conversation with general partner Laurel Bowden, the veteran investor shared a few thoughts about the tech scene in Europe versus Israel, what the firm looks for in a team and how to scale globally. (Extra Crunch Membership required.)

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Google’s Grasshopper coding class for beginners comes to the desktop

Google today announced that Grasshopper, its tool for teaching novices how to code, is now available on the desktop, too, in the form of a web-based app. Back in 2018, Grasshopper launched out of Area 120 as a mobile app for Android and iOS and since then, Google says, ‘millions’ have downloaded it.

A larger screen and access to a keyboard makes learning to code on the desktop significantly easier than on mobile. In the desktop app, for example, Google is able to put columns for the instructions, the code editor and the results next to each other.

Google also today added two new classes to Grasshopper, in addition to the original ‘fundamentals’ class on basic topics like variables, operators and loops. The new classes are Using a Code Editor and Intro to Webpages, which teaches you more about HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

In case you are wondering why a “Using a Code Editor” class is useful, it’s worth noting that most of the coding experience in the first few courses is more about clicking short code snippets and putting them in the right order than typing out code by hand.

After completing all courses, users will be able to build a simple webpage and ready to take on more complex courses on other platforms like Codecademy, for example.

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Via and city of Cupertino are launching an on-demand public transit network

Shuttle startup Via and the city of Cupertino are launching an on-demand public transportation network, the latest example of municipalities trying out alternatives to traditional buses.

The aim is for these on-demand shuttles, which will start with six vans branded with the city of Cupertino logo, to provide more efficient connections to CalTrain and increase access to public transit across the city.

The on-demand shuttle service, which begins October 29, will eventually grow to 10 vehicles and include a wheelchair accessible vehicle. Avis Budget Group, another partner in this service, is the fleet management service that will maintain the vehicles.

In Cupertino, residents and commuters can use the Via app or a phone reservation system to hail a shuttle. The network will span the entire 11-square-mile city with a satellite zone surrounding the Sunnyvale CalTrain station for commuters, Via said Monday. Cupertino Mayor Steven Scharf views the Via on-demand service as the next generation of “what public transportation can be, allowing us to increase mobility while taking a step toward our larger goal of reducing traffic congestion.”

The service, which will run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, will cost $5 a ride. Users can buy weekly and monthly passes for $17 and $60, respectively.

Via has two sides to its business. The company operates consumer-facing shuttles in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York.

Via also partners with cities and transportation authorities, giving clients access to their platform to deploy their own shuttles. The city of Cupertino, home to Apple, SeaGate Technologies and numerous other software and tech-related companies, is one example of this. Austin’s Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority also uses the Via platform to power the city’s Pickup service. And Via’s platform is  used by Arriva  Bus UK, a Deutsche Bahn Company, for a first- and last-mile service connecting commuters to a high-speed train station in Kent, U.K.

In January, Via announced it was partnering with Los Angeles as part of a pilot program that will give people rides to three busy public transit stations. Via claims it now has more than 80 launched and pending deployments in over 20 countries, providing more than 60 million rides to date.

While city leaders appear increasingly open to experimenting with on-demand shuttles, success in this niche business isn’t guaranteed. For instance, Chariot, which was acquired by Ford, shut down its operations in San Francisco, New York and the UK in early 2019.

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Apple’s MacOS Catalina is now available

For years now, Apple’s been judicious with its MacOS updates. Understandably so. Given the massive online outcry every time Facebook changes the placement of a button, it’s in UX designers’ best interest to keep changes gradual and subtle. These days, the overarching philosophy of operating system design seems to be more about guiding the user’s hand and making pronounced changes over time.

By the standard of annual consumer electronic upgrades that Apple has played a key role in perpetuating, updates to MacOS have, perhaps, been too subtle to foster the same sort of excitement. And honestly, that’s perfectly fine. If a laptop is a flashy new car, the operating system is the great steering wheel that doesn’t whiff out the window while you’re driving.

Catalina bucks the trend of recent MacOS updates a bit, in that the updates feel more pronounced. While it’s true that the underlying principles are the same, there are some fundamental changes to day-to-day applications that both impact current use and lay the groundwork for future evolutions of the desktop operating system.

The most pronounced change is the much ballyhooed death of iTunes. The name will continue to exist in some residual instances, but for most intents and purposes, iTunes is being laid to rest with Catalina. Eighteen years was a pretty good run, of course, and signs of the once mighty music application will very much live on in Apple Music. But the new operating system finds the company very much planting its flag with premium content plays, the undisputed future of Apple’s massive revenue generating machine.

That extends, of course, to the arrival of an upgraded TV app, which sets the stage for TV+ and Arcade, which also gets a handful of new arrivals to celebrate today’s public release of Catalina. Podcasts also gets its own desktop app, but for now, at least, that’s not a direct revenue source for the company. It is, however, important for the company to lay claim to the rapidly mainstreaming medium to which it indirectly gave name.

The arrival of Catalyst, meanwhile, lays the seeds for the future of Mac apps. Following the arrival of Apple’s own News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home, the company has opened the program up to all iPad developers to easily port their apps to the desktop. In a broader sense, the move continues to blur the lines between the two operating systems, for better and worse. For Apple, however, the decision is much more pragmatic: Mac software development has stalled as iOS has boomed. This is a simple solution to help keep thing this in check.

Accessibility gets some much welcome updates, too, including much improved Voice Control, while Apple continues to add updates on the security side.

For the sake of this writeup, however, I’m going to start with the bit that gets me the most excited: Sidecar. From my own perspective, Apple tends to bury the lede in its own feature set. Though I completely understand that it’s simply not as universal an application as, say, Music, TV or (likely) Arcade. Maybe it’s because I’m just getting back from yet another work trip (we held a little event in San Francisco), but Sidecar is a legit productivity game changer for me.

Against all recommendations, I opted to run a beta of Catalina on my primary work machine. I know, I know, but when a beta drops while you’re on the road, there’s really no other option. I had some issues with the software I won’t go into here, because betas gonna beta. I surprisingly had some issues getting the feature to work again with the latest version of iPadOs and the GM of Catalina, but everything should be smooth sailing by the final release.

There’s no doubt, of course, that this is the latest bit of Sherlocking — Apple integrating its own version of a popular third-party app into the operating system. But with something like this, there’s really no competing with native support for most users. For those who need fair more nuanced use of things like Apple Pencil for, say, art making, Duet and Luna may still be worth checking out. If, like me, you just want to use the iPad as a second screen for some added real estate on the road, Sidecar’s the thing.

Enabling the feature is as simple as signing into all of your accounts: Make sure all of the relevant wireless protocols are turned on and then select the associated device from the drop-down. Your primary desktop can either be mirrored or used as an extension like a standard external monitor. The primary benefit of mirroring seems to be the ability to essentially use the screen as a touchscreen and iPad input. This should prove appealing for artists and a potential alternative to a pro tablet like the kind Wacom makes.

For me, the second display is the thing. Hooking up the extending real estate is a big sigh of relief, making it far easier to keep multiple windows open at the same time. Having Slack open on the iPad while I use Pages and Chrome on the main desktop is a pretty significant time saver.

A small quibble: Keeping the Sidecar and display settings separate is a bit of an annoyance. The side I ultimately use for the iPad usually comes down to where I’m sitting. It would be great to be able to swap on the fly. The addition of a virtual sidebar, meanwhile, is an interesting one, but pretty redundant in mirrored mode.

All told, however, Sidecar is far and away the best addition to MacOS in recent memory.

I’m less in love with the loss of iTunes. I totally understand why Apple made the switch, and honestly, I’m a bit surprised it took them this long. I’m a long-time Spotify user with no interest in making the jump to Apple Music. I prefer the device flexibility Spotify affords. Among other things, the move to Music feels like an opportunity to constantly push users to “Try it Free.”

Music can still be used to play a locally stored song, but the move to streaming service has weaned me off of the notion of digital music ownership. Somewhere in my apartment, there’s a dusty old hard drive with hundreds of gigs of music, including weird old stuff that no one bothered to obscure the distribution rights for. Perhaps one day I’ll dive back in, but honestly it’s feeling increasingly less likely.

The principles of Podcast should be familiar to anyone who’s ever used the mobile app. It’s all pretty simple and, like Music, focused on discovery. Separating it from Apple Music seems to imply that the company doesn’t have much interest in making huge Spotify-esque investments in the category. And for now, at least, why bother? Apple has a pretty massive head start in the space.

Apple TV gets a nice refresh, as well. It, too, is focused on discovery. Even more importantly for Apple’s long game, however, it lays the groundwork from TV+, which is set to arrive next month. Premium channels like HBO, Showtime and Starz have been integrated here, in a bid to become a more robust cable replacement for cord cutters. Also nice is the arrival of a dedicated Kids section with curated all ages content.

Arcade certainly isn’t what people are referring to when discussing the Mac’s long journey to becoming a more serious gaming system. And while the titles are largely designed to be played on mobile devices, those subscribing at $5 a month will no doubt welcome the ability to play on the desktop. There’s a lot to be said for the ability to take a quick work break with a round of the excellent Zelda knockoff/homage, Oceanhorn 2.

Photos adopts some key features from its mobile counterpart. AI/ML will determine and highlight your best shots, while images are categorized by days/months/years. Photo previews are large and now include live photo and video playback.

On the more pragmatic side of things, syncing and backup get some nice upgrades, now available outside of iTunes. That’s a change that certainly makes sense, with those features now accessible through the Finder. Honestly, that’s where they belong. Accessing them through iTunes always felt like a relic of the early iTunes/iPod days. This information is available directly in the main Finder sidebar.

As ever, there’s no hesitation in recommending Mac users update to the latest version of the operating system. Of course, that’s helped along by the fact that it’s a free upgrade. This is one of the more transformative MacOS updates in recent memory, and most of the new features are welcome — as I said, I’m not in love with Music for personal workflow reasons, but Sidecar is a biggie.

MacOS Catalina is now available for all users.

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HTC’s new CEO discusses the phonemaker’s future

On September 17, HTC announced that cofounder Cher Wang would be stepping down as CEO. In her place, Yves Maitre stepped into the role of Chief Executive, after more than a decade at French telecom giant, Orange.

It’s a tough job at an even tougher time. The move comes on the tail of five consecutive quarterly losses and major layoffs, including a quarter of the company’s staff, which were let go in July of last year.

It’s a far fall for a company that comprised roughly 11 percent of global smartphone sales, some eight years ago. These days, HTC is routinely relegated to the “other” column when these figures are published.

All of this is not to say that the company doesn’t have some interesting irons in the fire. With Vive, HTC has demonstrated its ability to offer a cutting edge VR platform, while Exodus has tapped into an interest in exploring the use of blockchain technologies for mobile devices.

Of course, neither of these examples show any sign of displacing HTC’s once-booming mobile device sales. And this January’s $1.1 billion sale of a significant portion of its hardware division to Google has left many wondering whether it has much gas left in the mobile tank.

With Wang initially scheduled to appear on stage at Disrupt this week, the company ultimately opted to have Maitre sit in on the panel instead. In preparation for the conversation, we sat down with the executive to discuss his new role and future of the struggling Taiwanese hardware company.

5G, XR and the future of the HTC brand

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As Sinai Ventures returns first fund, partner Jordan Fudge talks new LA focus

At age 27, Jordan Fudge is quietly making a splash in the VC world.

Fudge is the managing partner of Sinai Ventures, a multi-stage VC fund that manages $100 million and has more than 80 portfolio companies including Ro, Drivetime, Kapwing, and Luminary. His 2017 investment in Pinterest — a secondary shares deal from his prior firm that was rolled into Sinai when he spun out — will have returned the value of Sinai’s Fund I by itself once the lockup on shares expires next week.

Fudge and co-founder Eric Reiner, a Northwestern University classmate, hired staff in New York and San Francisco when Sinai launched in early 2018. Today, they’re centralizing the team in Los Angeles for its next fund, a bet on the rising momentum of the local startup ecosystem and their vision to be the city’s leading Series A and B firm.

Fudge and Reiner have intentionally stayed off the radar thus far, wanting to prove themselves first through a track record of investments.

Jordan Fudge. Image via Sinai Ventures

A part-time film financier who also serves on the board of LGBT advocacy non-profit GLAAD, Fudge describes himself as an atypical VC firm founder, an edge he’s using to carve out his niche in a crowded VC landscape.

I spoke with Fudge to learn more about his strategy at Sinai and what led to him founding the firm. Here’s the transcript (edited for length and clarity):

Eric Peckham: Tell me the origin story here. How did Sinai Ventures get seeded?

Jordan Fudge: I was working for Eagle Advisors, a multi-billion dollar family office for one of the founders of SAP, focused on the tech sector across public markets, crypto, and eventually VC deals. Two years in, I pitched them on spinning out to focus on VC and they seeded Sinai with the private investments like Compass and Pinterest I had done already, plus a fresh fund to invest out of on my own. It was $100 million combined.

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