Apple may be preparing to enter the the streaming TV big leagues, with a play for the NFL Sunday Ticket.
In the battle for the streaming TV market, sports is one of the most important keys to success. A strong emphasis on sports has allowed fuboTV to quickly go from a small upstart to one of the major competitors at the top of the streaming food chain.
Apple appears ready to get in on the action, and is in early talks for the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket, according to The Information, via The Verge. The NFL Sunday Ticket would give Apple the ability to broadcast all football games not available on local stations.
Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand says the negotiations have not officially begun, but the NFL has had preliminary talks with companies, including Apple.
My sources say that the NFL hasn't officially started "Sunday Ticket" negotiations yet. But the league has had a lot of preliminary conversations with companies, including Apple. Interest in this package is high.
Microsoft appears to be reversing course, getting back into retail with its flagship New York City, London and Sydney locations.
Microsoft famously announced in June 2020 it was closing its retail locations throughout the US. Unlike Apple, whose stores are some of the most profitable retail space in the country, Microsoft was never able to achieve the same degree of success.
When the company announced it was closing its stores, it said it would keep a few locations — New York City, London and Sydney — open as “Microsoft Experience Centers.” The stores would showcase Microsoft’s products, but would not actually sell anything to customers.
The company is now reversing course, and will begin selling products at its Experience Centers. The company confirmed the change of plans in a statement to The Verge.
“Our Microsoft Experience Centers were created to provide customers a way to experience our products in person,” said Travis Walter, Microsoft’s head of retail stores. “We use these spaces to test and experiment, and continue to evolve the experience based on customer feedback. Starting July 1st, customers will be able to purchase select Microsoft products at the New York, London and Sydney locations.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage to introduce WWDC 2021, the second time the company has held the event virtually. As expected, iOS 15 quickly became the focus with Craig Federighi taking the stage.
FaceTime
While highlighting how important FaceTime has been as a way to help people stay in contact during the pandemic, Federighi acknowledged video conferencing can be more difficult than in-person socializing. As a result, the company is working on features to make FaceTime feel more natural.
Spatial audio is making its way to FaceTime, improving the quality of the audio and making it sound as if you’re with the other person.
Voice isolation is a new feature that uses machine learning to block out ambient noise and focus on your voice. Wide spectrum, is the exact opposite, letting in all the background sound.
Grid view is a new way to handle multi-person FaceTime chats, bringing the familiar Zoom-style interface, in addition to FaceTime’s existing floating grid style.
FaceTime Links
FaceTime Links are a new, easy way to invite others to a FaceTime call. Simply start up FaceTime and click “Share” to send a link to those you want to invite.
SharePlay
SharePlay is designed to make it easy to watch TV with others via FaceTime. All articipants can pause and resume the program, as well as talk with each other and chat via Messages, all while the program is playing in the background. SharePlay supports Picture-in-Picture as well.
Apple is also releasing SharePlay API, making it easy for developers to include their own apps. Already, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Paramount+, Pluto, ESPN+ and others are on board.
Notifications
Notifications are getting a major upgrade, including Notification summaries. The feature allows you to schedule when you receive a summary of recent notifications. It’s also possible to select which people’s notifications are included in summaries, making it easy to keep important contacts separate so their notifications get the attention they need.
iOS 15 will also include the ability to automatically notify others in Messages when Do Not Disturb is activated.
iOS 15 expands on Notifications, adding the ability to have custom notifications depending on what you are currently doing. For example, users can have work notifications or personal notifications, which will only allow contacts and apps classified as such to pop up when that notification is active.
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.
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.
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.
Doing a few tests and it feels *way* snappier. Third-party actions too.
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.
A new job posting on Apple’s website indicates the company is looking to expand its Apple Pay services to include cryptocurrencies.
Apple has developed a strong portfolio of payment and finance services, with its Apple Card, Wallet and Apple Pay options. According to a new job posting, for a “Business Development Manager,” Apple may be looking expand those services to include cryptocurrency.
We are looking for a candidate who is comfortable with ambiguity, enjoys thinking about edge cases and asking “what is an alternative way of doing this”, and is a strong verbal and written communicator with a high level of integrity, energy, and sense of urgency to “make things happen”.
Most telling was one of the listed Key Qualifications:
5+ years experience working in or with alternative payment providers, such as digital wallets, BNPL, Fast Payments, cryptocurrency and etc..
As companies like PayPal and Visa increasingly support crypto, it’s not surprising Apple would be looking for a way to incorporate it in its financial apps.
Google Chrome has catapulted in popularity since its debut, and now has more than 3 billion users worldwide.
Internet Explorer was once the most popular browser, with Mozilla’s Firefox second. Once Google entered the fray with Chrome, the entire market was turned upside-down, and Chrome quickly become the most popular browser.
Recent research by AtlasVPN, however, puts Chromes market share at a whopping 3,258,256,887 users, or 41% of the population.
“The key reason for such browser popularity is the fact that it has been created by the tech giant Google,” writes AtlasVPN’s Anton P. “In addition, many people praise it for various customizable options and speed compared to other browsers.”
Safari comes in second, with 944,576,100 users, thanks largely to its base of iOS/iPadOS devices, as well as the Mac . Firefox comes in third place with 181,435,430 users. Microsoft Edge, Samsung Internet and Opera round out the top six with 171,327,607, 166,779,086 and 112,196,840 respectively.
Qualcomm has released the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 processor to help further Arm-based Windows PCs, as well as Chromebooks.
Apple upended the PC industry when it announced it would switch its Mac computers to its own custom silicon. Apple’s new M1 processors are the evolution of the same Arm-based chips Apple has used in iPhones and iPads for years. Shortly after the announcement, former Apple executive and Be, Inc. founder Jean-Louis Gassée predictedMicrosoft would be forced to follow suit, due to the advantages Arm’s architecture offers over Intel.
Qualcomm is working hard to help the Windows and Chromebook world embrace Arm-based chips with its new Snapdragon 7c Gen 2.
“Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 brings the leading innovations of our compute portfolio to the next generation of entry-tier and affordable devices. Laptops powered by this platform will redefine mobile computing for education users, first line workers, and everyday light consumers, enabling reliable and powerful devices that feature advanced AI, and support for multi-day battery life,” said Miguel Nunes, Senior Director, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We are excited to bring this next generation upgrade to our entry level platform, for the very best mobile PC experiences.”
Qualcomm has simultaneously released Snapdragon Developer Kit, aimed at helping developers test their Windows 10 applications on the Arm-based chips.
“We have a proud history of creating helpful developer tools in coordination with Microsoft, and the Snapdragon Developer Kit is the latest outcome of that collaboration,” said Miguel Nunes, Senior Director, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “This developer kit provides an affordable alternative to other consumer and commercial devices. With the smaller desktop configuration, this kit gives developers more flexibility than notebook options, and at a lower price point. We remain committed to helping developers address requests from customers, while reducing the overall cost of deployment.”
Apple has enabled iPadOS updates over 5G, giving users the opportunity to update their iPads using their wireless data.
In the early days of iOS, Apple did not allow users to download OS updates via their wireless plans. Instead, OS updates required a WiFi connection. As unlimited plans became the norm, Apple changed their stance, allowing OS updates over 4G LTE.
With the iPhone 12, Apple expanded wireless OS downloads to include 5G as well. Now the company has rolled out the feature to the latest 12.9 and 11-inch iPad Pros, both of which support 5G.
Apple currently has three different 5G data modes: Allow More Data on 5G, Standard and Low Data Mode. To update over 5G, users will need to enable the More Data mode.
Allow More Data on 5G: Enables higher data-usage features for apps and system tasks. These include higher-quality FaceTime, high-definition content on Apple TV, Apple Music songs and videos, and iPadOS updates over cellular. This setting also allows third-party apps to use more cellular data for enhanced experiences. This is the default setting with some unlimited-data plans, depending on your carrier. This setting uses more cellular data.
Given the high speeds 5G offers, 5G OS updates are a welcome addition to the new iPad Pros.
