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For the past decade Apple has tried to make the iPhone one of the most secure devices on the market. By locking down its software, Apple keeps its two billion iPhone owners safe. But security researchers say that makes it impossible to look under the hood to figure out what happened when things go wrong.
Once the company that claimed its computers don’t get viruses, Apple has in recent years begun to embrace security researchers and hackers in a way it hadn’t before.
Last year at the Black Hat security conference, Apple’s head of security Ivan Krstic told a crowd of security researchers that it would give its most-trusted researchers a “special” iPhone with unprecedented access to the the device’s underbelly, making it easier to find and report security vulnerabilities that Apple can fix in what it called the iOS Security Research Device program.
Starting today, the company will start loaning these special research iPhones to skilled and vetted researchers that meet the program’s eligibility.
These research iPhones will come with specific, custom-built iOS software with features that ordinary iPhones don’t have, like SSH access and a root shell to run custom commands with the highest access to the software, and debugging tools that make it easier for security researchers to run their code and better understand what’s going on under the surface.
Apple told TechCrunch it wants the program to be more of a collaboration rather than shipping out a device and calling it a day. Hackers in the research device program will also have access to extensive documentation and a dedicated forum with Apple engineers to answer questions and get feedback.
These research devices are not new per se, but have never before been made directly available to researchers. Some researchers are known to have sought out these internal, so-called “dev-fused” devices that have found their way onto underground marketplaces to test their exploits. Those out of luck had to rely on “jailbreaking” an ordinary iPhone first to get access to the device’s internals. But these jailbreaks are rarely available for the most recent iPhones, making it more difficult for hackers to know if the vulnerabilities they find can be exploited or have been fixed.
By giving its best hackers effectively an up-to-date and pre-jailbroken iPhone with some of its normal security restrictions removed, Apple wants to make it easier for trusted security researchers and hackers to find vulnerabilities deep inside the software that haven’t been found before.
But as much as these research phones are more open to hackers, Apple said that the devices don’t pose a risk to the security of any other iPhone if they are lost or stolen.
The new program is a huge leap for the company that only a year ago opened its once-private bug bounty program to everyone, a move seen as long overdue and far later than most other tech companies. For a time, some well-known hackers would publish their bug findings online without first alerting Apple — which hackers call a “zero-day” as they give no time for companies to patch — out of frustration with Apple’s once-restrictive bug bounty terms.
Now under its bounty program, Apple asks hackers to privately submit bugs and security issues for its engineers to fix, to help make its iPhones stronger to protect against nation-state attacks and jailbreaks. In return, hackers get paid on a sliding scale based on the severity of their vulnerability.
Apple said the research device program will run parallel to its bug bounty program. Hackers in the program can still file security bug reports with Apple and receive payouts of up to $1 million — and up to a 50% bonus on top of that for the most serious vulnerabilities found in the company’s pre-release software.
The new program shows Apple is less cautious and more embracing of the hacker community than it once was — even if it’s better late than never.
Apple recently announced that they would be transition their Mac line from Intel processors to their own, ARM-based Apple Silicon. That process is meant to begin with hardware to be announced later this year, and last two years according to Apple’s stated expectations, and while new Intel-powered Macs will be released and sold leading up to that time, it does mean that the writing is on the wall for Intel-based Apple hardware. Existing Macs with Intel chips will still be useful long after the transition is complete, however, and software porting means they might even support more of your existing favorite applications for the foreseeable future, which is why adding an external GPU (eGPU) likely makes more sense now than ever.
Apple added support for eGPUs a few years ago, made possible by the addition of Thunderbolt 3 ports on Macs. These have very high throughput, making it possible for a GPU in an internal enclosure to offer almost a much graphics processing capability as one connected internally. But while Apple has directly sold a few eGPUs, and natively supports AMD graphics cards without any special driver gymnastics required, it’s still mostly a niche category. But for anybody looking to extend the life of their existing Mac for a few more years to wait and see how the Apple Silicon transition shakes out, updates from Apple and key software partners make an eGPU a great choice.
Here are a couple of Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosure options out there for those considering this upgrade path, and the relative merits of each. Keep in mind that for each of these, the pricing is for the enclosure alone – you’ll have to add your own eGPU to make it work, but the good news is that you can continually upgrade and replace these graphics cards to give your Mac even more of a boost as graphics tech improves.
Razer Core X Chroma ($399)
The Razer Core X Chroma is Razer’s top of the line GPU enclosure, and it supports full-sized PCIe graphics cards up to three slots wide, up to a maximum of 500 watts. The integrated power supply provides 700w of power, which enables 100w output for charging any connected laptop, and on the back of the eGPU you’ll find four extra high-speed USB ports, as well as a Gigabit Ethernet port for networking. The Chroma version also comes with tunable LED lighting for additional user customization options. Razer provided me with a Core X Chrome, an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti for the purposes of testing across both Mac and PC systems.
This isn’t the smallest enclosure out there, but that’s in part because it supports 3-slot cards, which is over and above a lot of the competition. It’s also relatively short and long, making it a great option to tuck away under a desk, or potentially even held in an under-desk mount (with enough clearance for the fan exhaust to work properly). It’s quiet in operation, and only really makes any audible noise when the GPU held within is actually working for compatible software.
Most of my testing focused on using the Razer Core X Chroma with a Mac, and for that use you’ll need to stick with AMD’s GPUs, since Apple doesn’t natively support Nvidia graphics cards in macOS. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is a beast, however, and delivers plenty of horsepower for improving activities like photo and video editing, as well as giving you additional display output options and just generally providing additional resources for the system to take advantage of.
Thanks to Adobe’s work on adding eGPU support to its Lightroom, Photoshop and Premiere products, you can get a lot of improvement in overall rendering and output in all those applications, particularly if you’re on a Mac that only has an integrated GPU. Likewise with Apple’s own applications, including Final Cut Pro X.
In my experience, using the eGPU greatly improved the export function of both Adobe and Apple’s pro video editing software, cutting export times by at least half. And working in Lightroom was in general much faster and more responsive, with significantly reduced rendering times for thumbnails and previews, which ordinarily take quite a while on my 2018 Mac mini.
Apple also uses eGPUs to accelerate the performance of any apps that use Metal, OpenGL and OpenCL, which is why you may notice a subtle general improvement in system performance when you plug one in. It’s hard to quantify this effect, but overall system performance felt less sluggish and more responsive, especially when running a large number of apps simultaneously.
The Razer Core X Chrome’s extra expansion slots, quiet operation and max power delivery all make it the top choice if you’re looking for an enclosure to handle everything you need, and it can provide big bumps both to Macs and Windows PCs alike – and both interchangeably, if you happen to use both platforms.
Akitio Node Titan ($329)
If you’re looking to spend a little less money, and get an enclosure that’s a bit more barebones but that still offers excellent performance, check out the Akitio Node Titan. Enclosure maker Akitio was acquired by OWC, a popular Mac peripheral maker and seller that has provided third-party RAM, docks, drives and more for decades. The Node Titan is their high-end eGPU enclosure.
The case for the Node Titan is a bit smaller than that of the Razer Core X, and is finished in a space gray-like color that will match Apple’s Mac notebooks more closely. The trade-off for the smaller size is that it only supports 2-slot graphics cards, but it also features an integrated pop-out handle that makes it much more convenient, combined with its lighter, more compact design, for taking with you place to place.
Akitio’s Node Titan packs in a 650w power supply, which is good for high-consumption graphics cards, but it also means that another compromise for this case vs. the Core X Chrome is that the Titan supplies only 85w output to any connected laptops. That’s under the 96W required for full-speed charging on the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro, though it’s still enough to keep your notebook powered up and provide full-speed charging to the rest of Apple’s Mac notebook lineup.
The Node Titan also provides only one port on the enclosure itself – a Thunderbolt output for connecting to your computer. Graphics cards you use with it will offer their own display connections, however, for attaching external displays.
In terms of performance, the Akitio Node Titan offers the same potential gains with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT for your Mac (and both AMD and Nvidia cards for PCs) when connected, since the GPU specs are what matter most when working with an enclosure. It operates a little more noisily, especially in terms of making a quiet, but still detectable constant hum even when the GPU is not being taxed.
The Node Titan is still an excellent choice, however, and potentially a better one for those looking for more portability and a bit more affordability at the expense of max notebook power output and a host of handy port expansions.
Bottom line
Back when more Macs had the option for user-expandable RAM, that was a great way to squeeze a little more life out of external machines and make a slowing machine feel much faster. Now, only a few Macs in Apple’s lineup make it easy or even possible to upgrade your memory. Adding an eGPU can have a similar effect, especially if you spend a lot of time in creative editing apps, including Adobe’s suite, Apple’s Pro apps, or various other third-party apps including DaVinci Resolve.
The total price of an eGPU setup, including card, can approach or even match the price of a new Mac, but even less expensive cards offer significant benefit, and you can always swap that out later depending on your needs. It is important to note that the future of eGPU support on Apple Silicon Macs isn’t certain, even though Apple has said they’ll support Thunderbolt. Still, an eGPU can stave off the need for an upgrade for years, making it easier to wait and watch to see what the process transition really means for Mac users.
In recent decades, Hong Kong has been considered a haven for data centers given its strategic location in Asia, a legal system trusted by international businesses and reliable internet connectivity. Many virtual private network (VPN) operators keep servers in the city, serving mainland users who want to conceal their internet activity or access websites blocked by the Chinese authority.
But some VPN providers are reevaluating the risks of keeping their servers in Hong Kong upon the enactment of the national security law, which critics warn could compromise user privacy and have a chilling effect on free speech. Under the new legal framework, internet service providers will be required to turn over user data to the authorities.
VPN services are gaining ground globally as they claim to provide better privacy from users’ internet providers and sites visited, although they could be vulnerable to attacks if not properly secured.
The company stressed that it does not store any personally identifiable information on its servers, so the decision to remove Hong Kong from its server list is to “protect our configuration keys” and “monitor the reach of the new security law on technical ecosystems in Hong Kong.”
Other popular VPN services we contacted said they will keep their servers in Hong Kong for now. ProtonVPN, operated by the same Swiss company that owns ProtonMail, said although it’s not removing its Hong Kong-based servers, it has changed the designation of the region to a high-risk jurisdiction, giving it the extra layer of privacy protection as countries like Russia, Turkey and Vietnam.
“Our use of full disk encryption and a strict no-logs policy greatly limits the potential risk to activists and dissidents if the Chinese government were to move against our servers in Hong Kong,” Proton’s spokesperson Edward Shone told TechCrunch, adding that users who connect to Hong Kong are advised to activate a special feature that makes it “far more difficult” to locate their true IP address.
Panama-headquartered NordVPN will also keep its servers in Hong Kong. “All of our servers are either diskless or encrypted, so even a physical takeover wouldn’t compromise our users’ privacy,” said NordVPN spokesperson Laura Tyrell. The company observed a huge spike in inquiries for its service in Hong Kong — by a factor of 120 times — shortly after China announced the upcoming law in May. It has since added more servers in the surrounding regions, including Hong Kong, to “keep up with the velocities.”
A spokesperson for ExpressVPN, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, told TechCrunch it currently doesn’t have plans to remove Hong Kong as a server location option for users because its “VPN servers are already specifically architected not to contain personal or sensitive data on customers.”
Its proprietary technology ensures servers run only on volatile memory (RAM), not on hard drives. “As a result, no data, including certificates or credentials, can persist after a system is powered down, whether because it is rebooted or physically removed from a data center,” added the spokesperson.
But all the VPN companies we contacted said they are closely monitoring the impact and enforcement bodies of Hong Kong’s new security law and will react accordingly to safeguard user interests.
Apple removal?
The VPN providers we spoke to are still accessible in Hong Kong, but it’s not inconceivable to see app stores start removing VPNs from the city under the new legal framework, as Apple did during a crackdown back in 2017 to comply with Chinese regulations that illegalized VPNs without official approval.
As Shames Abdelwahab, the spokesperson for TunnelBear, observed: “We can speak to the fact that distribution is often hit first as the first stage of cyber censorship.”
“We are, of course, concerned about users’ ability to access privacy and security services like VPNs, and we have experienced our app being removed from app stores in countries like China,” said the ExpressVPN spokesperson.
Apple, whose business heavily depends on China, has drawn a barrage of criticism in recent years for accommodating Beijing’s censorship demands. Besides banning VPNs, it has also restricted Chinese and foreign podcasts. Chinese users can still retrieve these apps by switching to a different regional app store, but the registration process is cumbersome, as it usually requires a foreign address, phone number and credit card.
Apple cannot be immediately reached for comment on the story.
Proton’s Shone echoed the concern over an Apple ban: “Our worry is that the Hong Kong authorities will begin demanding the removal of news apps, communications apps and VPNs and Apple will obey to maintain market access to mainland China. Tim Cook and others are due to give evidence on Capitol Hill later this month as part of an antitrust investigation into big tech.”
“We sincerely hope that this issue of censorship will form part of the questioning,” he said.
The article was updated on July 16, 2020 to clarify that ExpressVPN is registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Apple says it’s going fully carbon neutral by 2030, Spotify adds video to its podcast strategy and the U.S. charges two alleged Chinese spies in what it describes as a global hacking campaign. Here’s your Daily Crunch for July 21, 2020.
The big story: Apple commits to carbon neutrality
Apple announced today that it plans to make its entire business — including its supply chain and resulting products — carbon neutral by 2030. This strategy includes reducing emissions from the production process, removing carbon from the atmosphere and working with renewable energy suppliers.
In addition to its climate change-focused announcement, Apple said it’s launching an Impact Accelerator that invests in minority-owned businesses.
“Systemic racism and climate change are not separate issues, and they will not abide separate solutions,” VP Lisa Jackson said in a statement. “We have a generational opportunity to help build a greener and more just economy, one where we develop whole new industries in the pursuit of giving the next generation a planet worth calling home.”
The future of work is human — Human Ventures CEO (and former TechCrunch CEO) Heather Hartnett says her firm is calling for entrepreneurs who are building companies that reimagine the way we work.
NBCU’s Peacock streaming service hits 1.5M app downloads in first 6 days — That’s 25% more than the 1.2 million installs Quibi saw during the same period post-launch in the U.S., but only 12% of the 13 million downloads Disney+ generated within its first six days, according to Sensor Tower.
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 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.
Apple this morning announced plans to make its entire business carbon neutral within the next 10 years. The news follows the company’s push toward a fully carbon neutral corporate structure, adding its manufacturing supply chain and resulting products into the mix.
The roadmap to sustainability as released today, as part of the company’s annual Environmental Progress Report. Reducing every device it sells to zero climate impact means a couple of things. The primary concern is finding ways to reduce emissions from productions by 75%. The remainder will be focused on efforts to help remove carbon from the atmosphere.
The company has already begun pushing to make a larger percentage of its products from recycled materials, thanks in part to its own in house robots Dave and Daisy (serious 2001 vibes), which recover key rare earth magnets and tungsten, along with some steel recovery. The company also runs its own Material Recovery Lab in Austin, with help from engineers at Carnegie Mellon.
Apple says it’s working with more than 70 energy suppliers to go 100% renewable for its production centers, partnership it believes will reduce roughly the same amount of carbon emissions annually as three million cars. The company is also working to launch one of the world’s biggest solar arrays in Europe. As far as the remaining 25% of carbon reduction, there are number of initiatives outlined in the report, including efforts to resort forests in Africa and South America.
There are also plans to launch an “Impact Accelerator,” aimed at investing in minority-owned businesses launched as part of the company’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. As for how that relates to the topic of sustainability, VP Lisa Jackson says in a press release, “Systemic racism and climate change are not separate issues, and they will not abide separate solutions. We have a generational opportunity to help build a greener and more just economy, one where we develop whole new industries in the pursuit of giving the next generation a planet worth calling home.”
Apple has generally received high marks from Greenpeace in recent years, for its aggressive efforts to limit the impact of its massive global operations.
Founded by former Apple engineers, a new app called Struck wants to be the Tinder for the Co-Star crowd. In other words, it’s an astrology-based matchmaker. But it took close to 10 attempts over several months for the startup to get its app approved by Apple for inclusion in the App Store. In nearly every rejection, app reviewers flagged the app as “spam” either due to its use of astrology or, once, simply because it was designed for online dating.
Apple continually cited section 4.3 of its App Store Review Guidelines in the majority of Struck’s rejections, with the exception of two that were unrelated to the app’s purpose. (Once, it was rejected for use of a broken API. Another rejection was over text that needed correction. It had still called itself a “beta.”)
The 4.3 guideline is something Apple wields to keep the App Store free from what it considers to be clutter and spam. In spirit, the guideline makes sense, as it gives Apple permission to make more subjective calls over low-quality apps.
Today, the guideline states that developers should “avoid piling on to a category that is already saturated,” and reminds developers that the App Store has “enough fart, burp, flashlight, fortune telling, dating, and Kama Sutra apps, etc. already.”
In the document, Apple promises to reject anything that “doesn’t offer a high-quality experience.”
Struck, unfortunately, found itself in the crosshairs of this new enforcement. But while its app may use astrology in a matchmaking process, its overall design and business model is nowhere close to resembling that of a shady “fortune-telling” app.
In fact, Struck hasn’t even implemented its monetization model, which may involve subscriptions and à la carte features at a later date.
Rather, Struck has been carefully and thoughtfully designed to provide an alternative to market leaders like Tinder. Built by a team of mostly women, including two people of color and one LGBTQ+ team member, the app is everything mainstream dating apps are not.
Image Credits: Struck
Struck doesn’t, for example, turn online dating into a Hot-or-Not style game. It works by first recommending matches by way of its understanding of users’ detailed birth charts and aspects. But you don’t have to be a true believer in astrology to enjoy the experience. You can use the app just for fun if you’re open-minded, the company website says. “Skeptics welcome,” the website advertises.
And while Tinder and others tend to leverage psychological tricks to make their apps more addictive, Struck aims to slow things down in order to allow users to once again focus on romance and conversations. There are no endless catalogs of head shots to swipe upon in Struck. Instead, it sends you no more than four matches per day and you can message only one of the four.
Image Credits: Struck
The app’s overall goal is to give users time to analyze their matches’ priorities and values, not just how they appear in photos.
If anything, this is precisely the kind of unique, thoughtfully crafted app the App Store should cater to, not the kind it should ban.
“We come from an Apple background. We come from a tech background. We were very insistent on having a good, quality user interface and user experience,” explains Struck co-founder and CEO Rachel Lo. “That was a big focus for us in our beta testing. We honestly didn’t expect any pushback when we submitted to the App Store,” she says.
Image Credits: Struck
But Apple did push back. After first submitting the app in May, Struck went through around nine rounds of rejections where reviewers continued to claim it was spam simply for being an astrology-based dating application. The team would then pull out astrology features hoping to get the app approved… with no luck. Finally, one reviewer told them Struck was being rejected for being a dating app.
“I remember thinking, we’re going to have to shut down this project. There’s not really a way through,” recounts Lo. The Struck team, in a last resort, posted to their Instagram page about their struggles and how they felt Apple’s rejections were unfair given the app’s quality. Plus, as Lo points out, the rejection had a tinge of sexism associated with it.
“Obviously, astrology is a heavily female-dominated category,” she says. “I took issue with the guideline that says ‘burps, farts and fortune-telling apps.’ I made a fuss about that verbiage and how offensive it is for people in most of the world who actually observe astrology.”
Finally, after several supporters left comments on Lisa Jackson’s Instagram where she had posted about WWDC, the app was — for unknown reasons — suddenly given the green light. It’s unclear if the Instagram posts made a difference. Even the app reviewer couldn’t explain why the app was now approved, when asked.
The whole debacle has soured the founders on the way Apple today runs its App Store, and sees them supportive of the government’s antitrust investigations into Apple’s business, which could result in new regulations.
“We had no course of action. And it felt really, really wrong for this giant company to basically be squashing small developers, says Lo. “I don’t know what’s going to become of our app — we hope it’s successful and we hope we can build a good, diverse business from it,” she continues. “But the point was that we weren’t even being given the opportunity to distribute our app that we had spent nine months building.”
Image Credits: Struck
Though Apple is turning its nose up at astrology apps, apparently, you don’t have to take astrology to heart to have fun with apps like Struck or those that inspired it, such as Co-Star. These newer Zodiac apps aren’t as obsessed with predicting your future as they are with offering a framework to examine your emotions, your place in the world and your interpersonal relationships. That led Co-Star to snag a $5 million seed round in 2019, one of many astrology apps investors were chasing last year as consumer spend among the top 10 in this space jumped 65% over 2018.
Struck, ultimately, wants to give the market something different from Tinder, and that has value.
“We want to challenge straight men since it is — quote unquote — a traditionally feminine-looking app,” says Lo. “For us, it’s 2020. It’s shocking to us that every dating app looks like a slot machine. We want to make something that has a voice and makes women feel comfortable. And I think our usership split between the genders kind of proved that.”
Struck is live today on the App Store — well, for who knows how long.
It initially caters to users in the Bay Area and LA and will arrive in New York on Friday. Based on user feedback, it will slowly roll out to more markets where it sees demand.
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the TechCrunch series* that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all.
The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 204 billion downloads and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019. People are now spending three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.
In this series, we help you keep up with the latest news from the world of apps, delivered on a weekly basis.
This week, we’re looking at the political intersections between the app stores and international relations, with news of app censorship in Hong Kong and the potential for a TikTok ban in the U.S. and how rivals are preparing their alternatives. There’s other big news around regulations and lawsuits hitting this week, including one over Firebase-powered app tracking and another that changes how app marketplaces have to operate in the EU. For a bit of fun, we’re also taking a look at some of the new emoji shipping in iOS and Android later this year.
* This Week in Apps was previously available only to Extra Crunch subscribers. Starting this week, we’re making these reports available to all TechCrunch readers.
Headlines
Over 2,500 games removed from China’s App Store in early July
Image Credits: Sensor Tower
More than 2,500 mobile games have been removed from China’s App Store during the first week of July, according to a new report from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The removals were expected due to a planned crackdown on unlicensed games, but this data is the first to demonstrate the impact on the app economy. For comparison, the July figure is four times the number of games that were delisted during the first week of April, five times higher than the first week of May and more than four times higher than the first week of June. Combined, the removed games generated $34.7 million in lifetime gross revenue, with one game accounting for more than $10 million and six that earned more than $1 million. More details are on TechCrunch here.
Longer-term, the fallout from the crackdown may show up in Apple’s bottom line as China has been the most lucrative mobile games market in the world. In 2019, games on China’s App Store generated an estimated $12.6 billion, or 33.2% of all global games spending on the Apple App Store.
Snap launches a developer program for app makers
Snap this week debuted a 13-week remote program, Yellow Collabs, focused on helping developers create deeper Snap Kit integrations. The company wants more developers to integrate its technology into their own apps. Through the new program, companies can choose to work with Snap to integrate the full Snap Kit platform, or they can narrow in on verticals like Snap Minis, Dynamic Lenses, Scan or Snap ML features. The program will run September 21-December 18 this year. Snap had earlier tried to get its technology in front of smaller startups by way of its Yellow accelerator. But this program hadn’t required integrations. The new effort puts a more direct focus on finding developers who want to build in partnership with Snap.
Microsoft xCloud to launch in September with 100+ titles
Image Credits: Microsoft
Microsoft’s xCloud — a cross-platform game streaming service and a competitor to Google’s Stadia — is arriving in September. The company this week announced a round of updates for the new service, which allows Xbox users to play their games on mobile devices or even move between consoles and mobile as they continue a game. The blog post says xCloud will first be offered to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, a $15/mo service, and will include more than 100 Game Pass titles at launch. Over time, the service will become more broadly available.
The growing trend of moving between devices to play favorite games has already led to mobile hits like Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox and others. For game developers, this trend matters to the bottom line, as mobile gaming’s lead over consoles and PC has been growing in recent years.
Data from App Annie and IDC indicates that mobile gaming first overtook both home game consoles and PC and Mac gaming for consumer spend in 2014. But in 2020, mobile is extending its lead to more than 2.8x over desktop gaming and 3.1x more than home game consoles. In other words, console makers have to figure out how to bring the mobile market into the fold because that’s where consumers are spending the majority of their money.
Image Credits: App Annie/IDCApple updates coding technology to replace non-inclusive language
Apple on Thursday announced it’s now working to remove and replace non-inclusive language across their developer ecosystem, including within Xcode, platform APIs, documentation and open source projects. The changes began on June 22 with its beta software, including iOS 14, and related developer documentation. For example, it will now replace words like “whitelist” and “blacklist” with “allow list” and “deny list.” The word “main” will take the place of “master” in the default SCM branch in Xcode 12. The word “Black,” when referring to ethnicity or cultural identity, will now be capitalized. These and other changes are available in Apple’s updated Style Guide.
New regulations in EU limit Apple’s and Google’s power over apps
On July 12, a new EU regulation came into effect that creates more rules around why and when apps are removed from their marketplaces, and more. The platforms will now have to provide 30 days notice to publishers before removing apps and terminating services, allowing developers the time to appeal or make changes to their software to come into compliance with the violation or violations in question. That means the platforms won’t be able to just ban apps and pull them down with no warning or explanation — unless the app involves illicit or inappropriate content, safety concerns, counterfeiting, fraud, malware, spam or it has suffered a data breach, MacRumors reported.
Highlights:
• Mandatory 30 days notice before app can be removed from the App Store by Apple
• Apple needs to disclose any preferential treatment it gives to big developers & publishers
• Apple must have an external mediator for disputes that can't be resolved by App Review https://t.co/vC2aCyCPzu
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) July 14, 2020
The platforms also have to provide more insight into rankings and explain how “trending” apps are chosen, disclose any differentiated treatment between sellers (like better deals that large publishers receive) and share information about their rules and terms in “plain and intelligible language.” Platforms will also have to offer third-party mediation for disputes that can’t be resolved through an app review process.
The regulations apply to platform owners who cater to businesses that sell products through their marketplaces. Apple and Google are large examples of this, but the rules could also apply to Amazon and Valve, notes Macworld.
The regulation goes into effect as both Apple and Google are under scrutiny in the U.S. for anti-competitive behavior. Apple, in particular, has been increasingly held accountable for the way it wields power over its App Store where it takes commissions on businesses — including those it competes with — and forces developers to offer Apple’s own in-app purchase system, when the developers have something to sell.
Microsoft and Google team up on PWAs
Image Credits: PWABuilder
Microsoft’s PWABuilder, an open-source developer tool for building PWAs and Google’s Bubblewrap, a command line and utility for generating Play Store packages from PWAs announced this week they’re working together to help developers publish PWAs in the Google Play Store. Now, PWAs packaged for Google Play via PWABuilder will support the new web shortcuts standard. In addition, PWABuilder now supports the full range of trusted web activity options to make apps better on Android devices. From the PWABuilder, developers can customize the appearance of the Android status bar and nav bar in a PWA, customize the Android splash screen, change their launcher name, use an existing signing key, utilize deeper push notification support, configure their package’s ID and versioning, fallback behavior and more.
Google launches new Kotlin Basics course
Apple isn’t the only one rolling out free educational training for would-be mobile developers. This week, Google announced the launch of Android Basics in Kotlin, a new online course for people without programming experience to learn how to build Android apps. Today, 60% of professional Android developers use Kotlin, and Kotlin powers 70% of Google Play’s top 1,000 apps. The course complements Google’s existing Android Basics curriculum, launched in 2016, which aims to teach programming to non-developers.
U.S. beat China on App Store downloads for first time since 2014, due to coronavirus impacts
Image Credits: Sensor Tower
The U.S. App Store’s downloads surpassed China’s downloads for the first time since 2014. According to data from Sensor Tower’s Q2 2020 report, the U.S. App Store saw 27.4% year-over-year growth in the quarter, compared to the 2.1% growth for the China App Store. During the quarter, the U.S. App Store generated 2.22 billion new installs compared with China’s 2.06 billion downloads, to regain the top position. This then translated to the U.S. beating China on App Store consumer spend, as well.
The shift was attributed to the surge in downloads for mobile apps that came as U.S. consumers were forced to stay home under shelter-in-place orders. Leading the downloads were education and business apps, as mobile users and their families had to shift to remote work and online learning. More details are here on TechCrunch.
U.S. Federal court rules Facebook can sue mobile surveillance software makers
A federal court ruled this week that WhatsApp and its parent, Facebook, could proceed with a lawsuit against Israeli mobile surveillance software company NSO Group. Facebook last October had filed a complaint alleging that NSO Group exploited an audio-calling vulnerability in WhatsApp to send malware to about 1,400 mobile devices, which then extracted messages, browser history and contacts from phones. NSO Group argues it has previously been granted immunity from U.S. lawsuits about its dealings with foreign governments, which uses its technology to fight terrorism, under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA).
Messenger adds Screen-Sharing feature
Image Credits: Facebook
Facebook Messenger may be better known for casual conversations among friends and family, but its latest feature borrows from more professional business communication apps. The mobile messenger this week introduced screen-sharing on iOS and Android — meaning you no longer need a desktop or web app to share your screen. Instead, in a video call, you can use screen-sharing to do things like scroll through your photos, use social media apps together (like Instagram, of course) or go online shopping (which you can also do in Instagram — see below). Screen-sharing will also now support up to 16 users in Messenger Rooms on web and desktop, as well.
Instagram launches new Shop, nears U.S. launch of Reels
Image Credits: Instagram
Instagram is making some changes. The company had already begun testing swapping the Activity tab for a Shopping icon. Now, it’s rolling out its newly redesigned Instagram Shop, too. The Instagram Shop is described as a place to browse products from favorite brands and creators, as well as curated collections published by the Instagram-run @shop account. Users can also now check out directly with Facebook Pay on their purchases.
In addition, Instagram confirmed on Thursday it will bring its TikTok rival, Reels, to the U.S. next month.
The company expects to bring the new video feature — which is designed specifically for short-form, creative content — to its platform in early August, a spokesperson said. The U.S. launch comes shortly after Reels’ arrival in India this month, following a ban of TikTok in that market. Reels has also been tested in Brazil, France and Germany. The U.S. won’t be the only country to see Reels’ arrival, but Instagram didn’t say which other markets are on the list.
Image Credits: Instagram
The move to more quickly roll out Reels to more markets comes as TikTok has come under intense scrutiny for its ties to China. India banned the app, along with 58 other mobile applications designed by Chinese firms, in June. The Trump administration more recently said it was considering a similar ban on TikTok, for reasons related to national security. This week, it said such a decision could be just weeks away.
Meanwhile, Rep. Stephen Lynch, chairman of the subcommittee on national security, sought assurances from both Apple and Google this week that they would warn users about applications that are developed, operated or owned by foreign entities and could pose privacy risks to Americans.
Instagram has a real chance at scooping up millions of users around the world if TikTok is removed in more markets outside of India. Already, India’s Roposo, a TikTok rival, says it has seen as many as 500,000 new users joining its app every hour since the ban, and expects to have 100 million by month’s end. Meanwhile in the U.S., Snapchat is testing out a more TikTok-like way to scroll videos.
Apple accused of censorship over Hong Kong pro-democracy app
Apple is accused of denying an App Store release to a pro-democracy app PopVote, a voting platform designed by protest organizers, which also works on Android. While Google Play quickly approved the release, Apple rejected the app for issues with the code. The issues were fixed and the app was resubmitted, but never approved. Developers were unable to reach anyone at Apple about the delay, either.
Hong Kong is still fighting back against the draconian national security law imposed last month by Beijing. Over the past weekend, more than 600,000 voted in the opposition’s primaries, according to Quartz, which broke news of the censored app. The unofficial election had served as a protest against the new law. Local officials had warned that the democratic polls could be illegal, which is why PopVote believes it has been censored and not merely delayed.
Google sued for tracking users in apps via Firebase
Google is being sued for tracking user activity through hundreds of thousands of apps, even after users opted out of information sharing. The suit specifically complains that Google tracks users’ app activity through the Firebase SDK, which can log “the user’s interactions with the app, including viewing content, creating new content, or sharing content.”
App Annie launches ad analytics
Image Credits: App Annie
App Annie is building on last year’s acquisition of analytics company Libring with this week’s launch of a new version of Libring, TechCrunch reported this week. The new product is rebranded as App Annie Ascend and aims to reach a different market, including game publishers and others on the supply side of the ad industry, for example. The launch arrives just as Apple introduced a new way for users to limit ad tracking, which opens up a market for third-party providers of this data. Ascend uses hundreds of connectors to pull data from platforms like AdColony, Unity and Chartboost, allowing customers to see these data sets “side by side.” Reddit and Jam City are among Ascend’s early adopters.
Nextdoor makes it easier to donate to local nonprofits
Neighborhood social networking app Nextdoor has made it easier to donate to local nonprofits with the launch of its new “Sell for Good” feature. The option allows users to sell items on the platform, for example on the For Sale and Free section, then donate the proceeds. The option gives community members other ways to raise funds and saves them a trip to Goodwill, too.
New emoji are on the way
Image Credits: Google
New emoji are arriving on iOS and Android in 2020. For World Emoji Day on Friday, Apple and Google showed off how their respective platforms have designed the new characters. Emojipedia has a first look at Apple’s new emoji, like the ninja, boomerang, piñata and bubble tea, among others. Tim Cook also tweeted a video of the new Memoji. Google shared its plan to bring 117 new emoji to Android 11 this fall, as well as an update to its Gboard app that makes it easier to pick an emoji.
Istanbul and Berlin-based startup Meditopia, which has become a top meditation app in non-English speaking markets, raised$15 million in Series A funding co-led by Creandum and Highland Europe.
Lo-fi, text-based social app for queer women, Lex, raised $1.5 million from in seed funding from Corigin Ventures, X-Factor Ventures, Tusk Ventures and various angels. The app offers text-based personal ads as an alternative to mainstream dating apps.
Google invests $4.5 billion in India’s Reliance Jio Platforms, India’s largest telco, in order to develop a low-cost smartphone to bring new mobile users online. The phone will run a modified version of Android OS and the Play Store. The deal is unusual for the fact that Google and Facebook have invested in the same business. Facebook is the largest minority stakeholder, with a 9.99% share.
Robinhood raised $320 million more for its stock trading app, bringing its latest round to $600 million. The app is now valued at $8.6 billion.
SiriusXM bought podcast app Stitcher from E.W. Scripps in a deal worth up to $325 million. SiriusXM previously acquired Pandora for $3 billion.
Downloads
Mozilla’s VPN for Android
Image Credits: Mozilla
Mozilla’s new VPN app has launched on both Windows and Android this week, after having previously run a pilot program to test the software. The cross-platform app has since been rebranded as Mozilla VPN and is available for $4.99/mo in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand, to start. iOS, Mac and Linux aren’t yet available, but the latter two are in development. The iOS app was included in the pilot but didn’t launch. Unlike many VPN apps, Mozilla’s generates revenue only through its subscriptions — not selling user data, it claims. However, because of its requirement to signup with a Firefox account, users will have to share their email, location and IP address with the service.
Brief
Image Credits: Brief
Founded by former Google engineers, Brief is a newly launched news app that aggregates and summarizes the news in hopes of tackling a number of problems with today’s news cycle, including information overload, burnout, media bias and algorithms that prioritize engagement over news accuracy. The app uses a format that involves short summaries, timelines and key quotes to balance reporting from both sides, while keeping the information flow minimal and the data un-personalized so as not to cater to the reader’s bias.
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