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“Microsoft has agreed to withdraw its regulatory complaints against Google, reflecting our changing legal priorities. We will continue to focus on competing vigorously for business and for customers,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email.

Google, in a separate email, said the companies would want to compete vigorously based on the merits of their products, not in “legal proceedings”.

This was Prince’s signature song. The video is fascinating especially if you watch the movie afterwards, as I did last night. You can definitely hear how the audio from this video is used in the movie. Speaking of the movie, as I said on Twitter last night, “I learned something disturbing tonight I didn’t know 30 years ago. “Purple Rain” has some classic tunes but it’s a crappy movie.” It really is poorly acted. But the musical performances more than make up for the deficiencies.

Dan Moren:

But. My chief frustration—and what keeps me from using more of the service’s functionality—is that the only way to get at the features is via my computer or iOS apps. I can’t stream any of this content where I watch most things: my TV.

That may be changing, though.

I read Dan’s piece with a lot of interest. This could be a great app for a lot of people on Apple TV. Comcast seems to want to do something to get the FCC off its back, and this could be it.

Marco Arment:

While a good search-ad system could benefit the App Store, customers, and many of us, nothing in Apple’s track record suggests that they’re willing or able to do this well.

But a bad search-ad system, on top of bad search, will only further damage the App Store, funnel more of our already slim margins back into Apple like a massive regressive tax, and erode customers’ confidence in installing new apps.

I’ll be honest: I can’t imagine a scenario where this would go well.

The paywalled report claims that the fighting is holding back Apple from fixing “technical problems that have plagued iCloud and iTunes,” while at least one key engineering manager is said to have departed the company over the ongoing conflict.

Political infighting is the worst.

FY 16 Second Quarter Results Apple’s second quarter earnings announcement has been rescheduled to Tuesday, April 26, at 2:00 p.m. PT/5:00 p.m. ET out of respect for the friends and family of Bill Campbell, whose memorial service will be held Monday. Apple executives and employees will be attending the service to remember Bill and his many years of friendship and service to the Apple community.

Very classy.

Reviews in the tech industry are hit or miss at best—we can all agree on that. Sometimes a review comes out that I just don’t get at all. Mashable’s review of the latest MacBook is one such review for me.

Microsoft Corp’s quarterly adjusted profit missed analysts’ estimates as a continued slump in personal computer sales hurt the company’s core Windows business, sending its shares down 4 percent in extended trading.

Bad day to report earnings.

Google’s parent Alphabet Inc reported a first-quarter adjusted profit that was lower than analysts’ estimates, as cost per clicks fell.

I believe this is only going to get worse.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said on Thursday the agency paid more to get into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters than he will make in the remaining seven years and four months he has in his job.

According to figures from the FBI and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Comey’s annual salary as of January 2015 was $183,300. Without a raise or bonus, Comey will make $1.34 million over the remainder of his job.

I have no issue with that.

In my opinion, the single greatest, most electrifying Super Bowl halftime show ever performed.

Legendary musician Prince has died, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

So sad.

I’ve been waiting for this! I’m a Les Paul guy, but I think I’m going to try something different and go with the Warhammer Pelham Blue FR this time.

All of Canada is in mourning because none of our NHL teams managed to make the playoffs this year. You can sooth the pain with some of these. The number one movie is obvious but I highly recommend the surprisingly sweet “Goon”, shot partially in my hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Each April thousands of music fans flock to the Southern California desert for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Now in its 17th year, the event has expanded to eight booming stages and tents where musicians perform. We visited on the first of the event’s two weekends—the second weekend kicks off on Friday—for a look at the personal effects and habits of musicians and others helping to make the festival happen.

This was a fun article by Leah Latella at WSJ. Lots of pics too.

I’m still having a lot of fun with Apple Pencil and Adobe Illustrator Draw (see what I made with them last week). Here’s a new drawing, of a young Elvis Costello. I’m not sure if I got the likeness really right, as portraits are not really my thing. But I do know I had a lot of fun doing it.

Khoi is a talented guy and I have a lot of respect for him.

Tips, lesson materials, stories, and other resources to help you get the most out of your Apple products and bring fresh ideas to your classroom.

I love the sites Apple puts together for education. It’s so important to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom.

For those of you thinking about making the switch, this may help. Typinator is a well regarded piece of software.

I feel so bad for Brian.

I thought this was a great article. I’ll give this a try later today.

Very nice.

This is a great piece from Adam Lashinsky. Take a minute and read it.

Being in San Francisco for WWDC is getting expensive. Really expensive. For many people airfare + hotel in 2016 will cost twice as much as it did in 2014: upwards of $2,000 USD. That’s more than the price of getting into the event itself (assuming you’re lucky enough to win a ticket)! Already tons of our friends have said they have to skip this year and might not be back.

But it’s OK: the iOS and Mac community isn’t limited to San Francisco once a year.

The high cost of hotels, etc. certainly isn’t Apple’s fault, but it’s nice to see some of the independent conferences come together and offer users an alternative.

You can see Apple’s full list of supported banks and countries. I love Apple Pay.

Europe’s antitrust chief is expected to hit Google on Wednesday with anti-competitive charges concerning its Android mobile phone operating system, two people familiar with the matter said.

Google is already in a battle with the EU over promoting its shopping service in search results.

A question many outside security experts will ask is, what took the FBI so long? Supposedly, the phone had been unlocked a couple of weeks ago.

Apple will continue to get these request from both foreign and domestic governments which is why they are working hard at locking down security in iOS so these requests become moot.

Is it just me (and this feels weird to say) but does $25 million seem like not a lot of money to settle this lawsuit?

The press release is typical marketing speak. Bottom line is a lot of good people lost their jobs today.

I read Shakespeare in High School English and, while I enjoyed it, it wasn’t until I heard it on stage and in film that I really appreciated the beauty of Shakespeare’s language. Looking forward to seeing this on the App Store on April 23 – the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.