Apple will allow iOS developers located in the European Union to distribute apps from the web, rather then via its App Store.
“Web Distribution, available in a software update later this spring, will let authorized developers distribute their iOS apps to EU users directly from a website the developer owns and operates,” it writes.
iOS users will also need to approve the developer installing apps from their site via their iPhone Settings.
Apple’s initial proposal for DMA compliance did not allow web based distribution for apps.
While its current attempt to force EU users to consent to tracking is being challenged via GDPR and consumer protection complaints.
Adding usernames to a messaging app may seem like a standard feature, but for Signal, such identifiers were anathema to its mission of total privacy and security — until now.
The new feature sounds simple: you register a username and that appears instead of your phone number.
But why do this at all when everyone already has contact names, and Signal is totally private anyway?
That is not just happening in India, we’re seeing a number of jurisdictions where to obtain a phone number, you are required to provide more and more personal information.
But it replaces the phone number when you go to initiate contact.” (Signal does append numbers to chosen usernames to ensure they are unique.)
Pixel phone updatesThe company is now allowing users to capture and upload 10-bit HDR videos on Instagram.
This feature is available to users on the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel Fold.
Later in the month, the company made the feature available to Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro users.
Google today said the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro users will be able to use this feature soon.
Pixel Watch updatesGoogle is rolling out two updates to the original Pixel Watch to help users train better, namely Pace training and Heart Zone training.
Apple’s €1.84B fine, new AI rules in India, and the latest pre-IPO roundListen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Monday show, in which we take a look back at the weekend and what’s ahead in the week.
Over the weekend we had a great chat with Nubank’s CEO, which you can find here.
We are back Wednesday, see you then!
Today, the company announced a new capability for its Palmyra model that generates text from images, including graphs and charts, they call Palmyra-Vision.
May Habib, company co-founder and CEO, says that they made a strategic decision to concentrate on multimodal content, and being able to generate text from images is part of that strategy.
“We are going to be focused on multimodal input, but text output, so text generation and insight that is delivered via text,” Habib told TechCrunch.
She reserves the right to create charts and graphs at some point from data, but that’s not something they are doing at the moment.
This particular release is focused on generating text from those kinds of images.
When it was first unveiled in the summer of 2021, Xiaomi’s CyberDog designed was best described as a more nightmarish version of Boston Dynamics’ Spot.
Announced this past summer, CyberDog 2 looks a bit more friendly than its predecessor.
The robot dog is still no Sony Aibo.
Watching it do its little dance really did remind me of a scaled down version of Boston Dynamics’ familiar robot.
The above video also suggests that the robot dog might one day replace the real thing, owing to its ability to speak back.
Mapping startup Hivemapper will launch a new dashcam later this year that its co-founder believes will speed up efforts to claw market share away from Google.
The new Hivemapper Bee camera, revealed Wednesday, is part of the company’s years-long push to decentralize mapping and make map data more affordable and accessible.
Late last year the company launched Scout, a “location monitoring tool” that lets customers “mark” a location and receive images every time a Hivemapper driver passes by.
The company says the Bee will create higher-quality map data that is less likely to be rejected upon submission.
Nelson says there are plenty of people who want to buy a Hivemapper camera for other reasons.
Nielsen today released its January report on viewing usage across linear TV and streaming, which revealed that YouTube is once again the overall top streaming service in the U.S., with 8.6% of viewing on television screens.
The new data points to YouTube’s dominance in the TV streaming arena and marks 12 consecutive months of the platform being in the top spot.
HopeScope, a creator who reviews viral products, notably saw a 172% jump in TV watch time in 2023.
YouTube has reached a few other milestones in recent months, including the 100 million users who pay for YouTube Music and YouTube Premium.
Additionally, YouTube TV now has more than 8 million subscribers and YouTube Shorts recently achieved over 70 billion daily views.
As winter continues to grip much of the world, here’s some hot news to thaw the chill from every entrepreneur’s heart: TechCrunch Disrupt will be back in San Francisco from October 28–30.
Secure your 2-for-1 pass now and unlock savings of over $1,000 on select passes.
What awaits you at TechCrunch Disrupt?
TechCrunch Disrupt will continue our goal of covering the latest pioneering founders, CEOs, and venture capitalists who will share their invaluable perspectives and wisdom.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024?
Just when you thought the hype about room-temperature superconductors was over, it’s not.
Room-temperature superconductors, if one is ever found and independently confirmed, could revolutionize everything from electricity transmission to computing, electric vehicles, MRI machines, maglev trains and more.
Lately, claims of room-temperature superconductivity seem to be blooming like flowers after a rainstorm.
In the last year alone, three high-profile cases were either debunked, retracted or seriously doubted.
Researchers who TechCrunch+ spoke with were skeptical that this new material is a room-temperature superconductor.
