Following Twitter, Google and YouTube have become the latest companies to send a cease-and-desist letter to Clearview AI, the startup behind a controversial facial recognition program that more than 600 police departments across North American use. Clearview came under scrutiny earlier this year when The New York Times showed that the company had been scraping billions of images on the…
Netflix starts streaming AV1 on Android to save cellular data
February 5, 2020
Netflix announced today that it’s beginning to stream video using AV1 on Android. This high-performance, royalty-free codec provides 20% improved compression efficiency over VP9.
Developed by the Alliance for Open Media, founding members include Google, Netflix, and…
In early January, the FBI asked Apple to unlock two iPhones as part of the Pensacola case. Apple stood its ground and said it wouldn’t create a backdoor for iOS but would help as much as it could without crossing that line. Even though the FBI has the ability to unlock the…
Apple enables universal purchases for Mac and iOS apps
February 5, 2020
Apple’s Catalyst apps were designed to help bridge software between its macOS and iOS platforms, and now the company is taking things a step further by enabling universal purchases between the two platforms, as spotted in Apple’s Xcode 11.4 beta by developer Steve Troughton-Smith on Twitter. In other words, if developers choose to enable it, customers who buy the Mac App Store version of an…
New ‘CarKey’ feature in iOS 13.4 beta brings built-in support for unlocking, driving, and sharing NFC car keys
February 5, 2020
Apple today released the first beta version of iOS 13.4 for developers, and now has found evidence of a new feature that will make it possible to use the iPhone as a car key, and more.
iOS 13.4 contains references to a “CarKey” API, which will make it possible to use…
iOS 13.4 has reverted a bad design choice made with the iOS 13 Mail app, namely the actions toolbar the bottom of the screen.
The delete and reply buttons now sit at opposite ends of the toolbar, and Apple has added back the quick actions for flagging and moving…
With the latest beta releases, Apple has added the ability for developers to create unified purchases across Mac and iOS.
This means that a developer can list an iPad app in the App Store and a Mac version in the Mac App Store. When the customer buys either version, it automatically unlocks for all platforms. Previously, developers could only offer separate independent purchases.
This feature is…
Apple today released first developer betas as part of its next round of software releases: iOS 13.4, iPadOS 13.4, macOS 10.15.4, tvOS 13.4, and watchOS 6.2. Here’s what’s new in these releases.
One of the biggest changes in today’s updates is that developers can now…
Samsung Galaxy S20 US pricing revealed
February 5, 2020
Just yesterday we got word on the South Korean pricing of the new Galaxy S20 lineup and now a new leak has revealed the US prices of Samsungs upcoming flagships. According to an insider source, the Galaxy S20 lineup will start at $999 for the standard S20 and will go all…
Though Apple has worked for two years to streamline iOS and macOS development by enabling iOS apps to work on Macs, the process has always been intended as gradual, consisting of steps towards the ultimate goal. Today, Apple unexpectedly took one of its biggest steps with the debut of a “universal purchase” option for Mac apps developed with Xcode, allowing macOS and iOS apps to share a single…
