Apple last week announced new rules for EU app developers to comply with new regulation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Meanwhile, the company is implementing a Core Technology Fee that Apple says pays for their access to Apple’s proprietary technologies and tools, developer services and support, and platform integrity.
This fee applies to apps both distributed on the App Store and through alternative marketplaces and is €0.50 for each first annual install per year over a 1 million threshold.
After digging through the documents Apple provided and speaking to the company, there are a few caveats and details to these rules that developers should know.
We’re compiling them below as a starting point and will add to this list over time as we learn more.
Tiger Global and a16z-backed productivity company ClickUp has acquired the calendar app Hypercal to boost its platform offering, TechCrunch has learned.
As part of the acquisition, the app’s founder Ricardo Clerigo is also joining ClickUp as Head of Calendar.
Hypercal also had a paid tier costing $10 per month for unlimited calendar and task integrations.
We’ve already eliminated the need for many apps by building docs, whiteboards, dashboards, tasks, and AI natively into our platform.
The calendar apps space has been busy in the last few months.
In an effort to retain developers, Apple has begun its pilot tests of “contingent pricing,” a new way for them to market App Store subscriptions, TechCrunch has learned.
That’s the case with the debut pilot test of contingent pricing that pairs up two apps: Structured and one sec.
(An interesting choice for the pilot, given Apple and Meta’s ongoing beef over App Tracking Transparency, which Meta said harmed its business!)
With contingent pricing, customers who subscribe to one of the apps can receive a discount if subscribing to the other.
Apple says it helps the developers with the implementation of contingent pricing to make the redemption process “seamless” for customers purchasing through its App Store.
Shazam now lets you identify music while wearing headphones, the Apple-owned company announced this week.
You can open up the Shazam app, click to Shazam and then head back to TikTok.
Or, say you’re wearing headphones in a coffeeshop and want to know what song is playing in the café.
It’s worth noting that Shazam already allowed users to identify songs playing in apps, as it rolled out the ability to identify songs on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok last year.
But up until now, you couldn’t do so if you were wearing headphones.
Models and influencers are among Artisse’s early adopters along with some businesses using AI photography for their ads.
“I see AI photography as a new category that should be probably of a similar size, if not bigger than, photo editing apps,” he says.
The investment, which was inbound, made sense because the fund has an influencer marketing arm and could help with marketing the app, Wu explains.
Shopping from AI photos and turning them into physical prints are other ideas being explored.
Artisse’s AI app is available on both iOS and Android.
startup, takes an all-in view when it comes to identity security in an organization.
So the best way to protect against malicious exploits is to secure identity authentication between any and all of them.
“We believe we can actually be that focused identity security layer that covers all the silos,” CEO and co-founder Hed Kovetz said in an interview.
As those familiar with security technology know, the space can be sliced and diced into many different domains and approaches.
Each point of interactivity essentially involves authentication between apps and therein lies the challenge: each of these can become a potential vulnerability.
It’s not just Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube that don’t have apps for Apple’s Vision Pro at launch.
New App Store data indicates the new mixed reality headset and Apple’s foray into virtual reality has so far seen only a tepid response from app developers.
The Vision Pro is theoretically compatible with iOS and iPad apps, unless a developer opts out.
Meta, which makes its own VR headset, has also unsurprisingly opted not to specifically build native apps for the Vision Pro, Appfigures’ list reveals.
That’s not to say there’s nothing for Vision Pro users to do with their new headset at launch.
It’s also unclear if YouTube plans to support Vision Pro in the future.
However, this could change by the time Vision Pro launches on February 2.
The music streaming service isn’t making its iPad app available on the Vision Pro store either.
Spotify told us it couldn’t confirm the speculation about its app plans for the Vision Pro.
Apple explains that unless developers say they don’t want to participate, their iPad apps in the App Store will automatically appear in the Vision Pro store by default.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has continued its crackdown on data brokers with a settlement banning data aggregation company InMarket from selling consumers’ precise location data.
Texas-based InMarket, which debuted as CheckPoints at TechCrunch Disrupt 2010, provides a marketing platform that collects sensitive consumer data — including location data, purchasing history, and demographic information — which brands and advertising agencies use to facilitate targeted advertising on mobile devices.
Based on the data that InMarket collects, brands can target shoppers who are likely to be low-income millennials or Christian churchgoers, according to the FTC.
In its proposed order unveiled Thursday, the FTC accused InMarket of failing to obtain users’ consent before using their location data for marketing and advertising purposes.
That order marked the first time the regulator struck a deal to prohibit a company from selling sensitive location data.
Apple this week updated its App Store rules to comply with a court order after the Supreme Court declined to hear the Epic Games-initiated antitrust case against Apple over commissions.
This seems to skirt the court’s decision requiring Apple to remove the “anti-steering” clause from its agreement with App Store developers.
But in its place is a complicated process that requires app developers to apply for permission to include their desired link or button, via something dubbed the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement.
Apple has used entitlements to set up exceptions to its App Store rules — for example, last year when it allowed “reader” apps (apps that provide access to digital content, like audio, music, video, book, and more) to point to an external website where customers could manage their accounts with the app developers.
In the case of the new U.S.-based Link Entitlement, Apple is again demanding to first vet which applications can include external links and control how they’ve been implemented.
