In addition to updating its developer guidelines to allow music streaming apps to link to external website, Apple has also added new language that allows game emulators on the App Store. The updated guidelines, first noticed by 9to5Mac, now say that retro gaming console emulator apps are welcome and can even offer downloadable games. Apple also reportedly confirmed to developers in an email that they can create and offer emulators on its marketplace.
Emulator software wasn't allowed on the App Store prior to this update, though developers have been finding ways to distribute them to iOS users. To be able to install them, users usually need to resort to jailbreaking and downloading sideloading tools or unsanctioned alternate app stores first. This rule update potentially eliminates the need for users to go through all those lengths and could bring more Android emulators to iOS.
Apple warns developers, however, that they "are responsible for all such software offered in [their] app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws." Clearly, allowing emulators on the App Store doesn't mean that it's allowing pirated games, as well. Any app offering titles for download that the developer doesn't own the rights to is a no-no, so fans of specific consoles will just have to hope that their companies are planning to release official emulators for iOS. While these latest changes to Apple's developer guidelines seem to be motivated by the EU's Digital Markets Act regulation, which targets big tech companies' anti-competitive practices, the new rule on emulators applies to all developers worldwide.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-officially-allows-retro-game-emulators-on-the-app-store-130044937.html?src=rss
Apple will make it easier for you to pay for music purchases and subscriptions outside of its payment system, if you're living in a European Union country. As first noticed by 9to5Mac, the company has updated its Apple Developer guidelines page to state that iOS and iPadOS music streaming apps "in specific regions" can now include a link to an external website where you can find alternative ways to pay for content and services. Developers can also ask you to provide your email address, so they could send you a link to that website.
In early March, the European Union slapped Apple with a €1.8 billion ($1.95 billion) fine for preventing music streaming app developers from informing iOS users "about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app and from providing any instructions about how to subscribe to such offers." This anti-steering practice, the European Commission said, is illegal under the bloc's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules, which became applicable in May 2023.
By the end of March, EU officials revealed that they were investigating Apple, Meta and Google over their compliance with the DMA. The commission wasn't happy with the changes the companies made in order to adhere to the law, and it was concerned that they were still constraining "developers' ability to freely communicate and promote offers and directly conclude contracts, including by imposing various charges." With these recent changes, music apps can be more transparent about their pricing, so you can make an informed choice on whether to pay via Apple or use the other methods offered by the developers.
Apple will be taking a 27 commission on proceeds apps earn from sales for digital goods or services on developers' website after a link out, according to its website. Spotify, which hasn't allowed users to subscribe through Apple's in-app purchase since 2016, told us that the company has yet to accept its app submission that includes pricing and a link out for premium purchase.
Update, April 09, 2024, 3:30AM ET: This story has been updated to include details about Apple's commission and information about Spotify's bid to get its updated app on the App Store.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ios-music-apps-in-the-eu-can-now-send-users-to-external-websites-for-purchase-111511085.html?src=rss
Apple will make it easier for you to pay for music purchases and subscriptions outside of its payment system, if you're living in a European Union country. As first noticed by 9to5Mac, the company has updated its Apple Developer guidelines page to state that iOS and iPadOS music streaming apps "in specific regions" can now include a link to an external website where you can find alternative ways to pay for content and services. Developers can also ask you to provide your email address, so they could send you a link to that website.
In early March, the European Union slapped Apple with a €1.8 billion ($1.95 billion) fine for preventing music streaming app developers from informing iOS users "about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app and from providing any instructions about how to subscribe to such offers." This anti-steering practice, the European Commission said, is illegal under the bloc's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules, which became applicable in May 2023.
By the end of March, EU officials revealed that they were investigating Apple, Meta and Google over their compliance with the DMA. The commission wasn't happy with the changes the companies made in order to adhere to the law, and it was concerned that they were still constraining "developers' ability to freely communicate and promote offers and directly conclude contracts, including by imposing various charges." With these recent changes, music apps can be more transparent about their pricing, so you can make an informed choice on whether to pay via Apple or use the other methods offered by the developers.
Apple will be taking a 27 commission on proceeds apps earn from sales for digital goods or services on developers' website after a link out, according to its website. Spotify, which hasn't allowed users to subscribe through Apple's in-app purchase since 2016, told us that the company has yet to accept its app submission that includes pricing and a link out for premium purchase.
Update, April 09, 2024, 3:30AM ET: This story has been updated to include details about Apple's commission and information about Spotify's bid to get its updated app on the App Store.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ios-music-apps-in-the-eu-can-now-send-users-to-external-websites-for-purchase-111511085.html?src=rss
Yahoo has bought Artifact, the news aggregation and recommendation app from Instagram’s co-founders. The app will no longer operate as a standalone service. Yahoo will fold Artifact's AI personalization tech and other features into products including Yahoo News in the coming months.
Terms of the deal, which closed last week, were not disclosed. Artifact founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger will advise Yahoo (Engadget’s parent company) during the transition.
“AI has allowed us to give users a better experience discovering great content they care about,” Artifact CEO Systrom said in a press release. “Yahoo recognizes that opportunity, and we could not be more excited to see what we’ve built live on through Yahoo News.”
Artifact debuted in January last year and it picked up a bit of steam thanks to its solid discovery system that surfaced stories users by and large wanted to read (it delivered me a nice blend of gaming, breaking news and architecture stories). The app aimed to improve its personalized news feed over time. It did an effective job of that while incorporating other AI-powered features such as news summaries.
However, the app didn’t quite take off in the same way as Instagram. While the team behind it did add social features such as profiles, comment voting and so on, Artifact just didn’t find a big enough audience. Systrom and Krieger announced plans to shut down Artifact back in January, but the pair actually kept it running a while longer by themselves until selling it.
As it happens, Yahoo bought another app that used AI to summarize news, Summly, over a decade ago. Similarly, it shut down that app and folded the tech behind Summly into other products.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/yahoo-bought-ai-powered-news-app-artifact-from-instagrams-co-founders-140040172.html?src=rss
Yahoo has bought Artifact, the news aggregation and recommendation app from Instagram’s co-founders. The app will no longer operate as a standalone service. Yahoo will fold Artifact's AI personalization tech and other features into products including Yahoo News in the coming months.
Terms of the deal, which closed last week, were not disclosed. Artifact founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger will advise Yahoo (Engadget’s parent company) during the transition.
“AI has allowed us to give users a better experience discovering great content they care about,” Artifact CEO Systrom said in a press release. “Yahoo recognizes that opportunity, and we could not be more excited to see what we’ve built live on through Yahoo News.”
Artifact debuted in January last year and it picked up a bit of steam thanks to its solid discovery system that surfaced stories users by and large wanted to read (it delivered me a nice blend of gaming, breaking news and architecture stories). The app aimed to improve its personalized news feed over time. It did an effective job of that while incorporating other AI-powered features such as news summaries.
However, the app didn’t quite take off in the same way as Instagram. While the team behind it did add social features such as profiles, comment voting and so on, Artifact just didn’t find a big enough audience. Systrom and Krieger announced plans to shut down Artifact back in January, but the pair actually kept it running a while longer by themselves until selling it.
As it happens, Yahoo bought another app that used AI to summarize news, Summly, over a decade ago. Similarly, it shut down that app and folded the tech behind Summly into other products.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/yahoo-bought-ai-powered-news-app-artifact-from-instagrams-co-founders-140040172.html?src=rss
You know those folks who say they’d donate a major organ to own a fancy car? Ask them if they’d feel as comfortable sacrificing a rear window instead. Polestar’s newest ride has made its North American debut at the NY Auto Show and notably lacks a rear windshield. The rationale is rear passengers get better headroom and a more comfortable ride than in other cars. Drivers, meanwhile, get a high-res display where the rear-view mirror used to be, linked to a live feed from a rear-mounted camera. Given how often people’s heads or luggage obscure the backward view, it’s a trade I’m readily prepared to accept.
Gmail wasn’t the first service that turned its users into the product, but it’s probably the one we’re the most comfortable with. After all, while Facebook and its kin have been perpetually slammed for privacy issues, who really gets mad at Gmail? Our anniversary package has a deep dive into the last 20 years of Google’s flagship mail product.
For the uninitiated, Waffle House is a waffle-centric chain of 24/7 American diners with a reputation for random outbursts of violence. It’s apparently so well known that Tekken players have been petitioning the game’s director to add a Waffle House level. Sadly, it probably won’t happen because Waffle House stands accused of underpaying its workers and, given the above context, exposing them to an unsafe working environment.
You know those folks who say they’d donate a major organ to own a fancy car? Ask them if they’d feel as comfortable sacrificing a rear window instead. Polestar’s newest ride has made its North American debut at the NY Auto Show and notably lacks a rear windshield. The rationale is rear passengers get better headroom and a more comfortable ride than in other cars. Drivers, meanwhile, get a high-res display where the rear-view mirror used to be, linked to a live feed from a rear-mounted camera. Given how often people’s heads or luggage obscure the backward view, it’s a trade I’m readily prepared to accept.
Gmail wasn’t the first service that turned its users into the product, but it’s probably the one we’re the most comfortable with. After all, while Facebook and its kin have been perpetually slammed for privacy issues, who really gets mad at Gmail? Our anniversary package has a deep dive into the last 20 years of Google’s flagship mail product.
For the uninitiated, Waffle House is a waffle-centric chain of 24/7 American diners with a reputation for random outbursts of violence. It’s apparently so well known that Tekken players have been petitioning the game’s director to add a Waffle House level. Sadly, it probably won’t happen because Waffle House stands accused of underpaying its workers and, given the above context, exposing them to an unsafe working environment.
Think of Prelaunch.com as a ‘Shark Tank’ for ideas… but without hungry investors asking difficult questions. The world’s first ‘Market Validation’ platform was designed to help creators better understand what their designs needed to become million-dollar success stories – but now the website is launching an ‘Idea Validation’ feature that lets you understand if your idea has any potential. Thanks to a community panel of more than 200 million people, Prelaunch tests your concept in the marketplace of ideas to see whether it’s ready for the world, helping you fine-tune your design in its nascent stages, so you don’t end up spending all your money on R&D only to realize your product had a flaw, or was targeted at the wrong audience, or worse, was too ahead of its time.
Did you know Apple launched a game console in 1996 called the Pippin? Or that they also launched a touchscreen tablet with a stylus in 1992 called the Newton? How about the fact that Nintendo had its own VR headset back in 1995 called the Virtual Boy? Surely you knew about TwitterPeek, the microblogging platform’s first (and only) hardware device designed for only tweeting, which was launched back in 2008? Chances are you haven’t heard of these products for a good reason – they went as fast as they came, as the companies worked extremely hard to bury these massive failures. Some of these products weren’t well thought-out, others were just a little too early for their time. Most large companies can survive such setbacks… but smaller ones (like the startup Juicero that charged $400 for a device that simply squeezed bags of juice) usually collapse when their products fail. Prelaunch helps mitigate that possibility by allowing you to vet your ideas before you end up walking into a Shark Tank where you get shredded for your product, valuation, or sales. The Prelaunch website helps you get consumer feedback before you even get consumers, so you know whether an idea is worth spending hundreds of thousands (or potentially millions) of dollars into.
The “Idea Validation” feature steps away from the traditional, often tedious process of market research and surveys. Instead, it offers a streamlined, three-step approach for creators to bring their idea to life: describe your product, highlight its killer features, and then flesh out the specifications. The platform then harnesses the power of AI to generate a product landing page, complete with images and descriptions, in mere seconds. Prelaunch has integrated multiple survey panel providers, unified and standardized their processes, and as a result, now has access to 200 million people who are ready to give feedback.
Prelaunch’s entire process takes mere minutes, as opposed to the months (or even years) and financial capital it takes to develop a proof of concept.
Why is this revolutionary? Well, analysis from Prelaunch.com suggests that projects with prototypes stand a significantly better chance of validation and success. This new feature doesn’t just level the playing field; it virtually eliminates it, allowing creators with nothing more than a concept to compete with those who have tangible prototypes. The platform leverages the power of AI to help flesh out the idea, so it can be rapidly tested with a target audience to check for viability.
The platform offers the following metrics to creators:
Interest rate: Percent of visitors who liked the idea. It measures how many users clicked the ‘Like’ button or reacted positively to the webpage’s content. A higher rate implies greater audience engagement and appreciation for the content.
Survey completion rate: Percent of people who completed the survey out of all people who started the survey.
Saves rate: Percent of visitors who provided their email. It measures the number of users who chose to save the webpage for future reference, indicating an intent to revisit the content. A higher rate signifies greater user commitment and interest in the content compared to simply liking it.
Rating: Rating of the product from the “Rate this product” survey question.
Price: Average, Minimum, and Maximum results from survey questions like – “How much would you like to pay?”
Concept Idea Score: Calculated based on a formula that contains several components of interest rate, saves rate, etc.
Demographics: Data based on country, age, and gender.
For a limited time, Prelaunch.com is offering this feature for free—a gesture that speaks volumes about their commitment to nurturing creativity and innovation. Prelaunch CEO Narek Vardanyan’s vision is clear: to empower creators to bring their ideas to life by providing valuable feedback as early as possible.
On a lighter note, imagine if famous inventors and creators had access to something like the “Idea Validation” feature. Would Edison have had an easier time convincing people about the light bulb? Would Da Vinci have gotten immediate feedback on his flying machine designs? While we can’t rewrite history, Prelaunch.com is ensuring that the future of innovation is brighter, bolder, and validated by the very people it seeks to inspire. Welcome to the future of creation, where your next big idea doesn’t just have to be a dream.
US Congressional staff members can no longer use Microsoft's Copilot on their government-issued devices, according to Axios. The publication said it obtained a memo from House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor, telling Congress personnel that the AI chatbot is now officially prohibited. Apparently, the Office of Cybersecurity has deemed Copilot to be a risk "due to the threat of leaking House data to non-House approved cloud services." While there's nothing stopping them from using Copilot on their own phones and laptops, it will now be blocked on all Windows devices owned by the Congress.
Almost a year ago, the Congress also set a strict limit on the use of ChatGPT, which is powered by OpenAI's large language models, just like Copilot. It banned staffers from using the chatbot's free version on House computers, but it allowed them to continue using the paid (ChatGPT Plus) version for research and evaluation due to its tighter privacy controls. More recently, the White House revealed rules federal agencies have to follow when it comes to generative AI, which would ensure that any tool they use "do not endanger the rights and safety" of Americans.
Microsoft told Axios that it does recognize government users' need for higher security requirements. Last year, it announced a roadmap of tools and services meant for government use, including an Azure OpenAI service for classified workloads and a new version of Microsoft 365's Copilot assistant. The company said that all those tools and services will feature higher levels of security that would make it more suitable for handling sensitive data. Szpindor's office, according to Axios, will evaluate the government version Copilot when it becomes available before deciding if it can be used on House devices.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-copilot-has-reportedly-been-blocked-on-all-congress-owned-devices-034946166.html?src=rss
US Congressional staff members can no longer use Microsoft's Copilot on their government-issued devices, according to Axios. The publication said it obtained a memo from House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor, telling Congress personnel that the AI chatbot is now officially prohibited. Apparently, the Office of Cybersecurity has deemed Copilot to be a risk "due to the threat of leaking House data to non-House approved cloud services." While there's nothing stopping them from using Copilot on their own phones and laptops, it will now be blocked on all Windows devices owned by the Congress.
Almost a year ago, the Congress also set a strict limit on the use of ChatGPT, which is powered by OpenAI's large language models, just like Copilot. It banned staffers from using the chatbot's free version on House computers, but it allowed them to continue using the paid (ChatGPT Plus) version for research and evaluation due to its tighter privacy controls. More recently, the White House revealed rules federal agencies have to follow when it comes to generative AI, which would ensure that any tool they use "do not endanger the rights and safety" of Americans.
Microsoft told Axios that it does recognize government users' need for higher security requirements. Last year, it announced a roadmap of tools and services meant for government use, including an Azure OpenAI service for classified workloads and a new version of Microsoft 365's Copilot assistant. The company said that all those tools and services will feature higher levels of security that would make it more suitable for handling sensitive data. Szpindor's office, according to Axios, will evaluate the government version Copilot when it becomes available before deciding if it can be used on House devices.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-copilot-has-reportedly-been-blocked-on-all-congress-owned-devices-034946166.html?src=rss
