Apple is introducing another way to ensure its AirTags won't be used for stalking when iOS 15.2 comes out. According to MacRumors, the beta version of the mobile platform that has just come out has a new feature that will let users scan for AirTags that may be tracking their location. At the moment, users can find the feature under the Items tab in the Find My app — all they need to do is tap the "Items That Can Track Me" option to do a scan.
Any trackable item nearby that belongs to someone else will be detected and show up as an unknown item. Apple will then point users to a set of instructions on how to disable the device that's being used to track them. While it could put people's mind at ease, the new feature could also be a double-edged sword. For users that hide AirTags in bikes, other items thieves could steal and even their pets' collars, this could prevent them from catching the culprit and retrieving their property. The feature might work a lot differently, however, by the time iOS 15.2 is ready for wider rollout.
To note, Apple updated AirTags to address stalking concerns back in June. It adjusted the time period after which the device would play a sound when separated from its owner from three days to a random time between 8 and 24 hours. This experimental feature is an additional privacy measure.
Another interesting feature that showed up with the beta version of iOS 15.2 is Digital Legacy. It will allow users to designate people as Legacy Contacts, who'll be able to access their account and digital information when they pass away. In the current iteration of the mobile OS, Legacy Contact lives inside Password and Security within the Settings app.
For too long, people with speech impairments have struggled to be understood not only by other people, but also by voice-based technology. Though some companies have started to make their products work better for people with atypical speech, the most prevalent services still don't hear them well. Google announced today that it's made a new Android app called Project Relate that could help people with speech impairments communicate more easily with others and the Assistant. It's looking for beta testers to test and improve the app starting today.
Like product manager for Google Research Julie Cattiau said in a video, "standard speech recognition doesn't always work as well for people with atypical speech because the algorithms have not been trained on samples of their speech." Project Relate would use custom models trained on each individual user's speech patterns. When someone first launches the app, it'll ask them to repeat a few phrases to create a base model and understand the way they speak.
Then, Project Relate can do three things: Transcribe the user's speech into text that they can copy and paste or show to people on their screen, read out what the user said in a synthesized voice and communicated with the Google Assistant.
The app is still being tested, with the company saying it will get back applicants for beta testing positions "in the coming months." But this is an important first step towards improving speech recognition for those with atypical speech.
Qualcomm is betting it can become a cornerstone in the augmented reality world. The chipmaker has unveiled a Snapdragon Spaces platform that helps developers create apps for "next generation" AR glasses. The toolset includes tech to help understand environments and users (including gesture and hand tracking from the newly acquired HINS), software kits for 3D engines like Unreal, OpenXR support and hooks for platforms like Niantic's Lightship and Unity's AR Foundation.
The ultimate aim is to make AR more accessible. Ideally, developers will make apps directly available to you through mobile app stores, using glasses tethered to smartphones. You might not see Snapdragon Spaces used for stand-alone glasses, at least not at first.
The manufacturer support will be there. Spaces won't be widely available until spring 2022, but Qualcomm has lined up partners like Lenovo (including Motorola), Oppo and Xiaomi. Carriers like T-Mobile and NTT DoCoMo will help build "5G experiences" using Spaces. Lenovo will be the first to make use of the technology, pairing its ThinkReality A3 glasses with an unnamed Motorola phone.
It's too soon to know if Snapdragon Spaces will have a meaningful effect on AR. While this should streamline app work, that will only matter if there are both compelling projects and AR glasses people want to buy. This also won't be much help for iPhone owners waiting on possible Apple AR devices. Efforts like this might lower some of the barriers, though, and it's easy to see a flurry of AR software in the near future.
Twitter is expanding its premium subscription service to more users. Twitter Blue, which unlocks additional features like the ability to “undo” a tweet or browse news without ads, is now available to users in the United States ($2.99/month) and New Zealand ($4.49/month).
The service is designed to appeal to Twitter’s most dedicated power users, with the kind of specialized features that have sometimes appeared in third-party Twitter clients. For example, Twitter Blue comes with an “undo” feature that’s likely the closest thing to an edit button the company will ever make.
A subscription also buys several new customization tools, including the ability to rearrange which features appear as shortcuts in the app’s navigation bar, or the option to choose new color themes and app icons. Subscriptions also buy you early access to new features as Twitter tests them out. For now that includes video upload up to 10 minutes long (videos are capped at 2 minutes for non-paying users) and the ability to pin conversations to the top of your DM inbox. These experimental features “might eventually become available to the rest of Twitter, graduate to a feature of Twitter Blue, or sunset based on feedback we hear from subscribers,” the company says.
Twitter
Notably, the latest iteration of Twitter Blue also comes with two new features powered by the company’s recent acquisition of Scroll, a startup that partnered with publishers to offer ad-free content. Twitter Blue subscribers are now able to access ad-free articles from more than 300 publishers, including The Atlantic, BuzzFeed and Rolling Stone.
It’s somewhat similar to Google’s AMP or Facebook’s Instant Articles in that articles are meant to load quickly and cleanly. But unlike those programs, where readers are directed to stripped down article pages, Twitter Blue articles will still open directly on the publisher’s website. Tony Haile, the former Scroll CEO who now is the senior director of longform at Twitter, says the company is trying to build “win-win partnerships” with publishers who retain “complete control of the experience.”
Though the company hasn’t disclosed the terms of these arrangements, a portion of each Twitter Blue subscription goes directly to publishers, Haile said. And subscribers will also get access to a dashboard in the Twitter app that breaks down your news-reading habits and how much revenue your clicks are bringing to the publishers you read most often. “Our goal is to help each publishing partner make 50% more per person than they would’ve made from serving ads to that person.” Twitter writes in a blog post.
Twitter
Finally, Twitter Blue comes with a “top articles” feature that brings in some functionality from the niche but highly regarded news app Nuzzel, which was shuttered earlier this year. Like the original app, the new “top articles” feature will curate a list of the top stories shared by people in your Twitter network over the last 24 hours. (Former Nuzzel fans will be happy to learn they can pin the new “top articles” section directly to their nav bar from the in-app settings menu.)
The expansion of Twitter Blue comes amid a broader shift for the company, which has been shaking up many of its core features for the first time in its 15-year history. Elsewhere, the company has embraced creator-centric features like Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces, and is building out a newsletter platform. Twitter Blue is different, though, because the company is hoping to draw in its most hardcore users rather than attract new voices to its platform.
But it’s unclear just how many of those users will be willing to pay for those extra features. The company has been testing Twitter Blue in Australia and Canada since early June, but hasn’t shared on early adoption or other metrics for the service, Twitter said Tuesday it will continue to add new features and will be paying close attention to user feedback.
Back in 2018, the Google Arts & Culture app introduced a feature that looks your doppelgänger in works of art. It's searched for matches for more than 120 million selfies so far. Now, the app can look for animals in art that resemble your pets too.
Using a machine learning algorithm, Pet Portraits matches a snap of your furry, finned or feathered friend against tens of thousands of works from Google's partner institutions. The app might determine that the best match for your pet is in a piece of street art from Mexico or a cat figurine from ancient Egypt.
You can share your Pet Portraits as still images or choose a few of them to turn into a GIF slideshow. To get started, tap the rainbow camera button at the bottom of the screen on the Google Arts & Culture app, which you can download on iOS or Android.
The Pet Portraits feature wasn't available at the time of writing, so unfortunately I wasn't able to test it out with snaps of the Engadget team's pets. However, Google has shared a few examples of the tool in action, including one or two that maybe aren't super close to being a perfect match.
Niantic Labs is offering everyone the chance to get their hands on the tech behind Pokémon Goand Pikmin Bloomso they can build their own augmented reality and "real-world metaverse" apps. Developers can start using the Niantic Lightship platform today. The company also announced a $20 investment fund to back developers that "share our vision for the real-world metaverse and contribute to the global ecosystem we are building."
Developers can use Ninatic's toolkit to create real-time 3D mesh maps so apps can understand the surfaces and topography of the world surrounding a device. Other APIs will help apps know the difference between different aspects of an environment, such as the ground, sky, water and buildings. The toolkit also enables developers to make apps that allow up to five players to take part in the same AR multiplayer session, keeping all of their content and interactions in sync.
The tools are mostly free. The multiplayer APIs will be available at no cost for the first six months no matter how many users an app has. After that, Niantic will charge a fee if the APIs are used in an app with more than 50,000 monthly active users.
Several notable brands have taken part in a private beta of the development kit, including Universal Pictures, PGA of America and Warner Music Group. Coachella has created an AR experience that its festival attendees will be able to check out next year. They'll be able to see a large version of Coachella's butterfly landing on the seven-story Spectra rainbow walkway tower.
Meanwhile, Shueisha is working with developer T&S to bring characters from One Pieceand other manga into the real world with AR. That app will be available in 2022.
Now that Netflix is offering mobile games on Android, there's a lingering question: how will iOS players join in when Apple's policies bar all-in-one gaming services? The hard way, apparently. In his "Power On" newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman (with help from developer Steve Moser) claimed to have seen code indicating Netflix would release all its games "individually" on iOS, through the App Store. They won't all be downloadable and playable within the app, Gurman added.
The main Netflix app would still offer access to the game catalog, but you'd merely be launching a separate app when you tap a game. That's currently how it works with Android, but Netflix has the option of folding games into its Android app. On iOS, it would have no choice but to make games available separately. Apple requires that every game on the App Store receive an individual screening, even if it's only available through the cloud.
You could see this coming in light of Apple's approach, but it still indicates that Netflix will have to make some compromises if it's going to bring mobile games to iOS. This also underscores a growing rivalry between Apple and Netflix, as Gurman explained. The two are competing on an increasing number of fronts, ranging from gaming to streaming video services, but neither can afford to estrange the other. The potential exists for a significant conflict, especially if Apple has to make further concessions on App Store rules.
Microsoft is trying to nudge more people toward newer Windows versions. As Thurottreports, Microsoft has warned that the OneDrive desktop app will stop syncing with personal Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 computers on March 1st, 2022. The software will no longer receive updates from January 1st onward. You can still use the web to manually transfer files, but that's clearly a hassle if you routinely access cloud files from an older PC.
Business customers won't have much of a reprieve, either. Microsoft is tying corporate OneDrive support to the Windows cycle for relevant machines. Windows 7 and 8.1 workplace users will have until January 10th, 2023 (the end of extended support for both platforms), while Windows 8 users are already out of luck.
The company wasn't shy about its reasoning. This will help "focus resources" on newer Windows platforms and technologies, according to OneDrive developers. In other words, Microsoft really wants you to upgrade to Windows 10 or Windows 11.
This isn't a completely unexpected move. Microsoft has long had trouble persuading some customers to upgrade to newer versions of Windows, to the point where companies and governments would rather pay for special support contracts than update. That hurts Microsoft's bottom line, of course, but it also poses security risks — WannaCry took advantage of organizations running outdated Windows versions. The new OneDrive policy may push some users to install newer Windows versions even if they're otherwise happy with an old operating system.
Square is now allowing all teenagers to use Cash App, after restricting it to adults until now. Those aged 13 to 17 will need permission from a parent or guardian to use the app, however.
Users can send money to each other and receive discounts on some purchases. Teens can also use a Visa debit card called Cash Card to pay for goods. They can add the Cash Card to Apple Pay or Google Pay, and they'll receive a physical version of the card too. The card is customizable — you can choose a color and stamps, draw on it or make it glow in the dark. Changing the design costs $5 and there might be ATM withdrawal fees too.
There are some restrictions on accounts for those aged 13 to 17. Those users' parents or guardians will have access to their transaction records, including transfers, and they can shut down a teen's account and Cash Card at any time. Parents and guardians will be the legal owners of teens' accounts (13- to 17-year-olds will be classified as authorized users).
Under 18s will be locked out of some parts of the app too. They won't be able to trade bitcoin or access the Investing, Borrow, Check Deposit, Paper Money Deposit or Cross-Border Payments features. They can't use their Cash Card at certain businesses either, including bars, car rental places or hotels.
To request access to the app, teens will need to enter their parent or guardian’s information when they're signing up for a card or sending a peer-to-peer payment form their balance. Cash App will then contact the teen's parent or guardian for approval.
Google is honoring South Korea's law requiring support for third-party payments, but not quite in the way you might have expected. The Wall Street Journalreports Google will allow the use of alternative payment systems for Play Store apps in South Korea. Check out with a supporting app and you'll have the choice of billing methods for the transaction. However, this won't let developers duck Google's fees.
The company stressed that it would still charge service fees, but would cut that cost by four percent to help offset costs from running a separate billing system. E-book and music streaming app developers would pay Google a six percent cut instead of the previous 10 percent, for instance, while most creators will pay 11 percent instead of 15 percent. Some very popular developers won't see much change at all, though, dropping from 30 percent to 26 percent. More implementation details are coming in the "weeks and months" ahead.
Senior public policy director Wilson White argued that Google still needed to take a cut to "continue to invest" in Android and the Play Store. The fees help keep those platforms free, White said. They also fund the advancement of Android, developer tools and security.
Whether or not Korean regulators will accept Google's approach isn't clear. The new law doesn't bar Google from taking a slice of in-app purchases, but the small drop in fees might not be enough to offset the costs of third-party systems. The law was meant to open up app stores and foster competition — that won't happen if it's too cost-prohibitive to use third-party payments. While this might stop Google from suing developers who offer alternatives, it may still discourage those developers from considering alternatives in the first place.
