But a lot of those features were already available to some extent on Apple devices through third-party apps.
So, just like the past few years, we will examine the ideas that Apple “Sherlocked” in this year’s updates.
But what do we mean that Apple “sherlocked” something?
Feature: Voice transcriptionSherlocked apps: Otter, AudioPen, Voicenotes.comApart from call transcription, Apple will also offer voice transcription in apps like Notes with the upcoming updates.
That said, some of these Sherlocked apps might survive by offering customized or enterprise solutions, but some small-scale indie apps will eventually lose users to Apple.
Following a keynote presentation at WWDC 2024 that both introduced Apple Intelligence and confirmed a partnership that brings GPT access to Siri through an deal with OpenAI, SVP Craig Federighi confirmed plans to work with additional third-party models.
The first example given by the executive was one the companies with which Apple was exploring a partnership.
“We’re looking forward to doing integrations with other models, including Google Gemini, for instance, in the future,” Federighi said during a post-keynote conversation.
Apple says users will be able to access the system without having to sign up for an account or paying for premium services.
“Now you can do it right through Siri, without going through another tool,” the Apple executive said.
On Thursday, Apple announced that it has opened its iPhone repair process to include used components.
Today’s news adds all components — including the battery, display and camera — which Apple requires to be configured for full functionality.
“‘Parts pairing’ is used a lot outside and has this negative connotation,” Apple senior vice president of hardware engineering, John Ternus, tells TechCrunch.
“I think it’s led people to believe that we somehow block third-party parts from working, which we don’t.
Ternus cites a recent UL Solutions study as evidence that third-party battery modules, in particular, can present a hazard to users.
Beeper gave up on its mission after Apple blocked the app’s efforts late last year.
Each time Beeper issued workarounds and fixes to keep the service afloat, Apple knocked them down one by one.
“Recently, Apple blocked a third-party developer from fixing the broken cross-platform messaging experience in Apple Messages and providing end-to-end encryption for messages between Apple Messages and Android users,” the DOJ complaint reads.
When Apple launched the Apple Watch the following year, it began limiting third-party access to new and improved APIs for smartwatch functionality.
The DOJ notes that Apple prevents iPhone users from responding to notifications using a third-party smartwatch.
The third-party application provider license will enable Paytm to offer payments through the UPI network even as Paytm’s parent firm One97 Communications’ banking unit — Payment Payments Bank — is scheduled to cease operations on Friday.
The Reserve Bank of India ordered Paytm in late January to cease operations at Paytm Payments Bank, an affiliate of the financial services firm that processed majority of its transactions.
The move created shockwaves through the industry, and also meant that Paytm needed to secure the third-party application provider license to continue many of the Paytm app’s operations.
Axis, HDFC, State Bank of India and Yes Bank will serve as payment system provider to the Paytm app, NPCI said Thursday.
The RBI had advised NPCI to swiftly issue the third-party application provider license, or TPAP, to Paytm to help mitigate disruptions for its customers.
Decentralized Twitter/X rival Bluesky is adding to its ranks by scooping up a member of its developer community.
London-based software engineer Samuel Newman, who built the well-received third-party Bluesky client, Graysky, is joining the startup, where he will now help develop Bluesky’s official app along with the rest of the frontend team.
Given his change in position, the future of the Graysky app is uncertain.
Late last year, Graysky also added Trending Topics and a Pro subscription to help the app monetize.
With Newman now joining Bluesky, the hope is that the official client will also gain support for more features.
Meta today is offering more details about how it plans to make its messaging apps, WhatsApp and Messenger, interoperable with third-party messaging services, as required by the new EU law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
In addition, Meta now says it will ask third parties to use the Signal protocol, though it may make exceptions to this in the future.
Meta’s messaging clients will download the encrypted media from the third-party messaging servers using a Meta proxy device, it notes.
But that solution will require third parties to agree to additional protections to keep Meta’s users safe from spam and scams.
In addition, Meta says that third-party providers will need to sign an agreement with Meta or WhatsApp before it will enable interoperability.
Credit bureaus relying on outdated third-party data are only getting a small piece of the puzzle, Georgina Merhom says.
User-permissioned data sources, that consumers provide with their permission, come from a variety of places.
In addition, user-permissioned data sources replace the self-reporting process, brokers trust between the institution and consumer and identifies opportunities that the bank would have otherwise overlooked, Merhom said.
Building a better credit bureau or finding new ways to verify data from people without a lot of credit is not a new concept.
“It costs banks $29 billion a year to process applications, and that’s not even including the money they pay credit bureaus,” Merhom said.
Threads says it will make its API broadly available by JuneMeta-owned social network Threads said today that it will make its API broadly available to developers by June.
Engineer Jesse Chen posted that the company has been building the API for the past few months.
The API currently allows users to authenticate, publish threads and fetch the content they post through these tools.
Last October, Instagram head Adam Mosseri first confirmed that the social platform is working on an API to enable third-party experiences.
While Meta has committed to adopting ActivityPub protocol for Threads and joining the fediverse, the company hasn’t spoken openly about allowing developers to build alternative Threads clients.
Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are among the top brands whose apps are available on the Indian fintech PhonePe’s Indus Appstore, an app store for the Android mobile operating system, launched Wednesday in challenge to Google’s monopoly in its largest market by users.
To fight Google Play Store, PhonePe has armed Indus Appstore with a range of unique and personalized features and developer-friendly terms.
Indus Appstore supports 12 regional languages (as well as English) and round the clock support service.
PhonePe is making the app store available to download to consumers from its website.
“Indus Appstore embodies our commitment to building a truly inclusive digital ecosystem where every Indian user feels at home.”Ivan Mehta contributed to this report.
