HiTechEdge

Category: Tech

All news related to tech.

  • App Store Ecosystem Hit $643 Billion in 2020

    App Store Ecosystem Hit $643 Billion in 2020

    A new study has shown just how much the App Store ecosystem has grown, coming in at $643 billion in 2020, a 24% increase.

    While Apple’s iOS platform may lag behind Google’s Android, in terms of market share, it receives the lion’s share of money spent on mobile apps. According to an independent study by the Analysis Group, App Store sales grew 24% year over year in 2020, reaching a whopping $643 billion.

    Even more impressive, the number of small developers — defined as less than 1 million downloads and less than $1 million in earnings per year — has increased 40% since 2015. In fact, small developers now make up more than 90 percent of the App Store’s ecosystem.

    “Developers on the App Store prove every day that there is no more innovative, resilient, or dynamic marketplace on earth than the app economy,” says Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The apps we’ve relied on through the pandemic have been life-changing in so many ways — from groceries delivered to our homes, to teaching tools for parents and educators, to an imaginative and ever-expanding universe of games and entertainment. The result isn’t just incredible apps for users: it’s jobs, it’s opportunity, and it’s untold innovation that will power global economies for many years to come.”

    The study is an important validation of the App Store at a time when Apple is locked in a high-stakes legal fight with Epic over the very future of that ecosystem.

  • EU Commission Working on Digital ID Framework

    EU Commission Working on Digital ID Framework

    The EU Commission has proposed a digital identification framework for its citizens, one that will help further post-pandemic life.

    In the wake of the pandemic, there has been increased emphasis on digital identification systems as a means for people to provide their age, citizenship, licenses, vaccination state and more. The EU has been working on a way to achieve this goal, while still providing the security and privacy necessary.

    The Commission has proposed a digital framework that would allow EU citizens to rely on their phone for necessary documentation and paperwork, a system that would be accepted by all member states. The EU has emphasized that, while large platforms would be required to support it, adoption would be completely voluntary for individuals. Such a stance is in keeping with the EU’s strong privacy protections.

    “The European digital identity will enable us to do in any Member State as we do at home without any extra cost and fewer hurdles,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age. “Be that renting a flat or opening a bank account outside of our home country. And do this in a way that is secure and transparent. So that we will decide how much information we wish to share about ourselves, with whom and for what purpose. This is a unique opportunity to take us all further into experiencing what it means to live in Europe, and to be European.”

    “EU citizens not only expect a high level of security but also convenience whether they are dealing with national administrations such as to submit a tax return or to enroll at a European university where they need official identification,” said Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton. “The European Digital Identity wallets offer a new possibility for them to store and use data for all sorts of services, from checking in at the airport to renting a car. It is about giving a choice to consumers, a European choice. Our European companies, large and small, will also benefit from this digital identity, they will be able to offer a wide range of new services since the proposal offers a solution for secure and trusted identification services.”

    The Commission will continue to work with member states and tech companies to work out the details as the process continues forward.

  • Apple’s M1 Chip Has an Unfixable Flaw, but There’s No Real Concern

    Apple’s M1 Chip Has an Unfixable Flaw, but There’s No Real Concern

    Apple’s new M1 chips have an unfixable vulnerability, but the developer who found it says not to worry.

    The M1 chip is based on the Arm architecture, and is the continuation of the A-series chips Apple has used in the iPhone and iPad for years. Apple has been transitioning the Mac platform to the M1, and has incorporated it in the 2021 iPad Pro as well.

    Developer Hector Martin has discovered a flaw in the M1 that allows two apps to secretly communicate with each other — all without the normal oversight the OS would provide.

    A flaw in the design of the Apple Silicon “M1” chip allows any two applications running under an OS to covertly exchange data between them, without using memory, sockets, files, or any other normal operating system features. This works between processes running as different users and under different privilege levels, creating a covert channel for surreptitious data exchange.

    To make matters worse, Martin says the bug cannot be fixed with a software update, and will require a change in the upcoming versions of the M1 and its successors.

    Despite the dire-sounding nature of the bug, Martin says the actual impact is minimal. The vulnerability cannot be used to commandeer a machine, or steal private data. The only real-world danger is that a malware program could communicate with other malware on the same computer. Of course, as Martin points out, if a computer is already compromised with malware, two instances of malware communicating are probably the least of your concerns.

    Really, nobody’s going to actually find a nefarious use for this flaw in practical circumstances. Besides, there are already a million side channels you can use for cooperative cross-process communication (e.g. cache stuff), on every system. Covert channels can’t leak data from uncooperative apps or systems.

    Actually, that one’s worth repeating: Covert channels are completely useless unless your system is already compromised.

  • Xiaomi Intros 8-Minute Phone Charging

    Xiaomi Intros 8-Minute Phone Charging

    Xiaomi has introduced fast-charging, designed to charge a phone to 100% in 8 minutes.

    Xiaomi has been improving its fast-charging technology for some time, and the latest 200W charging doesn’t disappoint, charging a 4,000mAh battery in just under 8 minutes.

    For those with less than 8 minutes, the 200W charging will take a phone from 0 to 10% in 44 seconds, and 50% in 3 minutes.

  • Charter’s Internet Prices Vary Depending on Competition

    Charter’s Internet Prices Vary Depending on Competition

    Charter is charging customers different prices, depending on whether there is decent competition to worry about.

    Charter is known for asking a prospective customer their address before quoting a price. Turns out, there’s a very specific reason for that. Charter charges its customers significantly more if there’s no serious competition available to them.

    Stop the Cap compared pricing for two streets in the same neighborhood. On one street, where Charter Spectrum was the only option, the company charged significantly more than one street over, where a competitor offered fiber internet.

    On the street where Charter had no competition, it offered three package: 200 Mbps for $50, 400 Mbps for $70 and gigabit for $110. On the street where Charter had serious competition, the company didn’t even offer the low-end 200 Mbps package. The 400 Mbps package was $30 (as opposed to $50) and the gigabit plan was $90 (as opposed to ($110).

    To make matters even worse, the introductory prices only lasted 12 months on streets with no competition, as opposed to 24 months for competitive streets.

    According to Stop the Cap, Charter is engaging in this behavior around the country.

    Note similar pricing variability exists in Spectrum service areas around the country, with the most aggressively priced offers reserved for addresses also served by a fiber to the home provider or multiple competitors (e.g. cable company, phone company, Google Fiber or other overbuilder). Current customers typically have to cancel existing service and sign up as a new customer to get these prices.

    It’s little wonder internet service providers are among the most hated companies in the US.

  • Facebook and WhatsApp Do About-Face on Privacy Update

    Facebook and WhatsApp Do About-Face on Privacy Update

    Facebook and WhatsApp appear to be doing an about-face on a controversial privacy update.

    Facebook sparked a furor when it announced it would start sharing WhatsApp data with other Facebook-owned companies. Users who failed to agree to the new terms would be locked out of the app until they did agree. Many users deleted their account and switched to competing platforms, and several countries came out in opposition to the move.

    In response to the backlash, Facebook initially postponed the rollout date, and then partially reversed course, saying people would not get locked out of the app. Instead, users would be persistently reminded to accept the terms, and be subjected to limited functionality until they did so.

    The company now appears to be doing a complete about-face, sayingit will not keep reminding individuals or limit their functionality.

    Considering the majority of users who have seen the update have accepted, we’ll continue to display a notification in WhatsApp providing more information about the update and reminding those who haven’t had a chance to do so to review and accept. We currently have no plans for these reminders to become persistent and to limit the functionality of the app.

    If WhatsApp does indeed abide by this statement, score one for privacy advocates who kept pushing back.

  • Another Wave of DMCA Takedowns About to Hit Twitch

    Another Wave of DMCA Takedowns About to Hit Twitch

    Twitch has notified users that another wave of DMCA takedowns is about to hit, to the tune of roughly 1,000 notices.

    Many Twitch users play music in the background while they’re streaming. Unfortunately, in many cases, that music is covered by copyright law. Beginning last May, Twitch started seeing a massive surge in the number of takedown requests. The first such large wave was last May, followed by another in October, with Twitch deleting the offending content.

    According to an email seen by The Verge, Twitch streamers should prepare for another round.

    “We recently received a batch of DMCA takedown notifications with about 1,000 individual claims from music publishers,” reads the email. “All of the claims are for VODs, and the vast majority target streamers listening to background music while playing video games or IRL streaming.”

    As The Verge points out, Twitch did not initially offer very good tools to help streamers manage their content and deal with the takedowns. The company has since apologized and improved its tools.

    Those improvements will hopefully help this takedown will go a bit smoother than the first two.

  • FBI Working With Have I Been Pwned to Disclose Compromised Passwords

    FBI Working With Have I Been Pwned to Disclose Compromised Passwords

    The FBI will start contributing data to Have I Been Pwned, the website that allows people to see if their passwords have been compromised in a data breach.

    As data breaches become a regular occurrence, it’s important to periodically check to see if a password has been compromised by a breach. Have I Been Pwned offers that service, and the FBI wants to contribute.

    According to Troy Hunt, Have I Been Pwned’s creator, the FBI reached out to him to see if there was a way to provide the site with comprised passwords they become aware of in the course of their investigations.

    And so, the FBI reached out and we began a discussion about what it might look like to provide them with an avenue to feed compromised passwords into HIBP and surface them via the Pwned Passwords feature. Their goal here is perfectly aligned with mine and, I dare say, with the goals of most people reading this: to protect people from account takeovers by proactively warning them when their password has been compromised. Feeding these passwords into HIBP gives the FBI the opportunity to do this almost 1 billion times every month. It’s good leverage ?

    As Hunt points out, the FBI’s goals are aligned with his in this instance, and they have the ability to make a significant contribution to the database of comprised passwords. This is a big win all around, and should help keep people safe.

  • Shortcuts Run Much Faster in iOS 14.6

    Shortcuts Run Much Faster in iOS 14.6

    It appears iOS/iPadOS 14.6 contains an undocumented improvement, running Shortcuts actions faster than previous versions.

    The Shortcuts app is the unsung hero of iOS and iPadOS, providing a way to automate a series of actions for increased productivity. Federico Viticci, of MacStories, is a long-time iPad proponent and has extolled the virtues of Shortcuts.

    There’s good news for iPhone and iPad power users, as it appears iOS/iPadOS runs shortcuts faster. First spotted by 9to5Mac, users on Twitter started noticing the improvement.

    9to5Mac did their own tests and confirmed Shortcuts actions are indeed faster in iOS/iPadOS 14.6 and the 14.7 beta. One test involved a shortcut with 380 actions that took 8 seconds to complete with iOS 14.5.1. Running iOS 14.6, the same shortcut only took 4 seconds to complete.

    Similarly, one user on Reddit had a shortcut containing 700 actions that now runs in a mere 13 seconds, as opposed to roughly 30 seconds pre-iOS 14.6.

  • Huawei Will Release HarmonyOS June 2

    Huawei Will Release HarmonyOS June 2

    Huawei is preparing to release its HarmonyOS for smartphones, in an effort to end its dependence on Google.

    The Trump administration banned Huawei, restricting its access to Google’s Android updates, as well as Google’s apps. As a result, the company has had to look for alternatives, such as striking a deal with TomTom to replace Google Maps.

    While Huawei had been working on HarmonyOS before it was banned, being cut off from Google’s services raised the stakes even more. Since Android is open source, Huawei is using Android as the basis for HarmonyOS.

    Huawei is now planning on releasing HarmonyOS on June 2, although it remains to be seen if it will impress or disappoint. It doesn’t bode well for the company that early information indicated HarmonyOS was based on Android 10, whereas Google is already working on Android 12.

    https://youtu.be/NKBXq1q6chQ