Apple is opening up web distribution for iOS apps targeting users in the European Union from today.
Apple’s walled garden stance has enabled it to funnel essentially all iOS developer revenue through its own App Store in the past.
An Apple rep described this as a baseline safety and security standard which they said iOS users expect to help ensure their device is protected from external risks.
Given Apple has only just started implementing web distribution for iOS apps it remains to be seen whether the EU will step in for a closer look at this aspect of its DMA compliance too.
It’s also unclear how much demand there will be among iOS developers for direct web distribution.
Tesla drops prices, Meta confirms Llama 3 release, and Apple allows emulators in the App StoreHeya, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter that recaps the past few days in tech.
Google’s annual enterprise-focused dev conference, Google Cloud Next, dominated the headlines — and we had plenty of coverage from the event.
Lorenzo wrote about how hackers stole over ~340,000 Social Security numbers from government consulting firm Greylock McKinnon Associates (GMA).
Elsewhere, Sarah had the story on Spotify’s personalized AI playlists, which lets users create a playlist based on written prompts.
Emulators in the store: Apple updated its App Store rules to globally allow emulators for retro console games an option for downloading titles.
The study builds on earlier work investigating his impact on online speech by spotlighting how policy changes Musk enacted are actively rewarding hate speech posters with increased reach, engagement and even direct payouts through X’s subscriber feature.
Some of the accounts pivoted to war hate posts after previously posting COVID-19-related conspiracy theory content, per the report.
The CCDH found these accounts were able to boost their reach on X after posting hateful content targeting the war.
But not all: The CCDH found ads being served alongside hateful posts made by all the tracked accounts.
“We found ads for Oreos, the NBA, the FBI and even X itself placed near hateful posts,” it wrote.
Video game giant Activision is investigating a hacking campaign that’s targeting players with the goal of stealing their credentials, TechCrunch has learned.
Somehow, the hackers are getting malware on the victim’s computers and then stealing passwords for their gaming accounts and crypto wallets, among others, according to sources.
Zeebler described the effort as an “infostealer malware campaign,” where malware designed as legitimate-looking software unknowingly installed by the victim surreptitiously steals their usernames and passwords.
Zeebler told TechCrunch that he found out about the hacking campaign when a PhantomOverlay customer had their account for the cheat software stolen.
After that, Zeebler said he contacted Activision Blizzard as well as other cheat makers, whose users appear to be affected.
The Oregon House this week passed a right to repair bill by nearly a 3-to-1 margin at 42 votes to 13.
If signed into law, the northwestern state wouldn’t be the first the union to pass a right to repair bill (more like the fourth), but the legislation contains aggressive language that goes beyond those on the books.
“Apple agrees with the vast majority of Senate Bill 1596,” John Perry, Apple senior manager, Secure System Design, said in a testimony to state lawmakers last month.
“By eliminating manufacturer restrictions, the Right to Repair will make it easier for Oregonians to keep their personal electronics running.
they will stand on the hill on is the parts pairing.”The bill has received bipartisan support in both the state Senate and House.
The U.S. government announced Tuesday sanctions against the founder of the notorious spyware company Intellexa and one of his business partners.
This is the first time the U.S. government has targeted specific people, in addition to companies, with sanctions related to the misuse of commercial spyware.
These sanctions will impact Dilian and Hamou specifically, but they will also send a message to other people involved in the spyware industry.
“If I’m a mercenary spyware company, I should be getting really worried,” added Scott-Railton.
And earlier this year, the U.S. government announced that the State Department could impose visa restrictions to people believed to have been involved or facilitated the abuse of commercial spyware around the world.
The market for high-level quantum computer science — which applies quantum principles to manage complex computations in areas like finance and artificial intelligence — appears to be quickening its pace.
In the latest development, a startup out of San Sebastian, Spain, called Multiverse Computing is announcing that it has raised €25 million (or $27 million) in an equity funding round led by Columbus Venture Partners.
The funding, which values the startup at €100 million ($108 million), will be used in two main areas.
“Multiverse’s exceptional team will soon apply their unparalleled capability to deliver quantum and quantum-inspired software solutions also within the life sciences and biotechnology markets, where Columbus Venture Partners will help to identify unmet market needs and high-profile industrial partners,” Javier Garcia, a partner at Columbus Venture Partners, in a statement.
Others competing in the same space include the Alphabet spinout Sandbox AQ, Quantum Motion, and Classiq.
Three councils in the United Kingdom have taken some of their public-facing systems offline due to an ongoing cybersecurity issue.
The NCSC and the three councils declined to say whether the cybersecurity issue relates to an in-house system or an outside vendor.
TechCrunch found that some of Canterbury City Council’s payments systems, provided by EKS, were unavailable.
Dover and Thanet are also both reporting issues with online forms and online payments.
Since 2018, outsourcing giant Civica has provided EKS services as part of a seven-year deal to cut costs across the three councils.
ABL Space Systems is looking to raise up to $100 million in new funding, and has just closed over $40 million, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
It’s the first indication that ABL has raised venture funding since October 2021, when the launch company closed $200 million at a $2.4 billion valuation.
Together, they’re meant to provide a mobile, all-in-one launch system.
However, the overall launch site layer represents a weak link.”Unsurprisingly, they argue that GS0 is the solution to this vulnerability, offering both a launch mount and a site system in a “proliferated” architecture.
“It was not in our plans to have RS1 grounded for most of 2023,” O’Hanley wrote after the launch.
Hackers compromised the code behind a crypto protocol used by multiple web3 applications and services, the software maker Ledger said on Thursday.
The company says it has sold six million units of its hardware wallet, and Ledger Live, its software equivalent, is used by 1.5 million users.
That would allow the hackers to drain the crypto inside users’ wallets — so long as the users accepted the push to connect their wallets to the malicious Ledger version.
ZachXBT, a well-known independent crypto researcher, wrote on X that one victim had more than $600,000 in crypto drained from their account.
Several blockchain security researchers, as well as people who work in the web3 industry, warned users on social media of the supply chain hack against Ledger.
