OnlyFans bans sexual content, SharePlay delayed, TikTok questioned over biometric data collection – TechCrunch

Earlier this month, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Thune (R-SD) despatched a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, which stated they had been “alarmed” by the change, and demanded to know what data TikTok shall be accumulating and what it plans to do with the information. This wouldn’t be the primary time TikTok obtained in hassle for extreme knowledge assortment. Earlier this yr, the corporate paid out $92 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed TikTok had unlawfully collected customers’ biometric knowledge and shared it with third events.

Platforms: Apple

Picture Credit: Apple

  • ⭐️ Apple told developers that a number of the options it introduced as coming in iOS 15 gained’t be out there at launch. This contains one of many highlights of the brand new OS, SharePlay, a characteristic that lets individuals share music, movies and their display screen over FaceTime calls. Different options that may are available in later releases embrace Pockets’s help for ID playing cards, the App Privateness report and others which have but to make it to beta releases.
  • Apple walked back its controversial Safari changes with the iOS 15 beta 6 update. Apple’s unique redesign had proven the deal with bar on the backside of the display screen, floating atop the web page’s content material. Now the tab bar will seem beneath the web page’s content material, providing entry to its standard set of buttons as when it was on the prime. Customers also can flip off the underside tab bar now and revert to the previous, Single Tab possibility that places the deal with bar again on the prime as earlier than.
  • In response to criticism over its new CSAM detection know-how, Apple said the version of NeuralHash that was reverse-engineered by a developer, Asuhariet Ygvar, was a generic model, and never the whole model that may roll out later this yr.
  • The Verge dug by means of over 800 paperwork from the Apple-Epic trial to find the best emails, which included dust on a variety of different corporations like Netflix, Hulu, Sony, Google, Nintendo, Valve, Microsoft, Amazon and extra. These supplied particulars on issues like Netflix’s secret association to pay solely 15% of income, how Microsoft additionally quietly gives a manner for some corporations to bypass its full reduce, how Apple initially noticed the Amazon Appstore as a risk and extra.

Platforms: Google

  • A beta model of the Android Accessibility Suite app (12.0.0) which rolled out with the fourth Android beta launch added something called “Camera Switches” to Swap Entry, a toolset that allows you to work together together with your machine with out utilizing the touchscreen. Digital camera Switches permits customers to navigate their telephone and use its options by making face gestures, like a smile, open mouth, raised eyebrows and extra.
  • Google announced its Pixel 5a with 5G, the newest A-series Pixel telephone, will arrive on August 27, providing IP67 water resistance, long-lasting Adaptive Battery, Pixel’s dual-camera system and extra, for $449. The telephone makes Google’s default Android expertise out there at a cheaper price level than the quickly to reach Pixel 6.
  • An unredacted criticism from the Apple-Epic trial revealed that Google had quietly paid developers hundreds of millions of dollars by way of a program generally known as “Challenge Hug,” (later “Apps and Video games Velocity Program”) to maintain their video games on the Play Retailer. Epic alleges Google launched this system to maintain builders from following its lead by shifting their video games exterior the shop.

Augmented Actuality

  • Snap on Thursday introduced it employed its first VP of Platform Partnerships to guide AR, Konstantinos Papamiltiadis (“KP”). The brand new exec will lead Snap’s efforts to onboard companions, together with particular person AR creators constructing by way of Lens Studio in addition to giant corporations that incorporate Snapchat’s digicam and AR know-how (Camera Kit) into their apps. KP will take part September, and report back to Ben Schwerin, SVP of Content material and Partnerships.

Fintech

  • Crypto trade Coinbase will enter the Japanese market by means of a brand new partnership with Japanese monetary large Mitsubishi UFJ Monetary Group (MUFG). The corporate stated it plans to launch different localized variations of its current world providers sooner or later.

Social

Picture Credit: Fb

  • Fb launched a “test” of Facebook Reels within the U.S. on iOS and Android. The brand new characteristic brings the Reels expertise to Fb, permitting customers to create and share short-form video content material immediately inside the Information Feed or inside Fb Teams. Instagram Reels creators also can now decide in to have their Reels featured on customers’ Information Feed. The corporate is closely investing its its battle with TikTok, even pledging that some portion of its $1 billion creator fund will go towards Fb Reels.
  • Twitter’s redesign of its website and app was met with numerous backlash from customers and accessibility experts alike. The corporate decisions add extra visible distinction between varied components and should have helped these with low imaginative and prescient. However for others, the distinction is inflicting pressure and complications. Consultants consider accessibility isn’t a one-size matches all state of affairs, and Twitter ought to have launched instruments that allowed individuals to regulate their settings to their very own wants.
  • The professional-Trump Twitter different Gettr’s lack of moderation has allowed users to share youngster exploitation photos, in accordance with analysis from the Stanford Web Observatory’s Cyber Coverage Middle.
  • Pinterest rolled out a new set of more inclusive search filters that enable individuals to search out kinds for several types of hair textures — like coily, curly, wavy, straight, in addition to shaved or bald and protecting kinds. 

Images

  • Photoshop for iPad gained new image correction tools, together with the Therapeutic Brush and Magic Wand, and added help for connecting an iPad to exterior screens by way of HDMI or USB-C. The corporate additionally launched a Photoshop Beta program on the desktop.

Messaging

  • WhatsApp is being adopted by the Taliban to unfold its message throughout Afghanistan, regardless of being on Fb’s listing of banned organizations. The corporate says it’s proactively removing Taliban content material — however which may be tough to do since WhatsApp’s E2E encryption means it can’t read people’s texts. This week, Fb shut down a Taliban helpline in Kabul, which allowed civilians to report violence and looting, however some critics stated this wasn’t really serving to native Afghans, because the group was now in impact governing the area.
  • WhatsApp can also be testing a new feature that may present a big preview when sharing hyperlinks, which some suspect might launch across the time when the app provides the flexibility to have the identical account operating on a number of gadgets.

Streaming & Leisure

  • Netflix introduced it’s adding spatial audio support on iPhone and iPad on iOS 14, becoming a member of different streamers like HBO Max, Disney+ and Peacock which have already pledged to help the brand new know-how. The characteristic shall be out there to toggle on and off within the Management Middle, when it arrives.
  • Blockchain-powered streaming music service Audius partnered with TikTok to permit artists to add their songs utilizing TikTok’s new SoundKit in only one click on.
  • YouTube’s cellular app added new functionality that permits customers to browse a video’s chapters, and leap into the chapter they need immediately from the search web page.
  • Spotify’s Anchor app now permits customers in world markets to record “Music + Talk” podcasts, the place customers can mix spoken phrase recordings with any observe from Spotify’s library of 70 million songs for a radio DJ-like expertise.
  • Podcasters are complaining that Apple’s revamped Podcasts platform is just not working properly, reports The Verge. Podcasts Join has been buggy, and sports activities a complicated interface that has led to critical consumer errors (like total exhibits being archived). And listeners have complained about syncing issues and podcasts they already heard flooding their libraries.

Relationship

  • Tinder announced a new feature that may enable customers to voluntarily confirm their identification on the platform, which is able to enable the corporate to cross-reference intercourse offender registry knowledge. Beforehand, Tinder would solely test this database when a consumer signed up for a paid subscription with a bank card.

Gaming

Picture Supply: The Pokémon Firm

  • Pokémon Unite will come to iOS and Android on September 22, The Pokémon Firm introduced throughout a livestream this week. The strategic battle sport first launched on Nintendo Swap in late July.
  • Developer Konami introduced a brand new sport, Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, which is able to come solely to Apple Arcade. The sport is described as a “full-fledged side-scrolling motion sport,” that includes a roster of iconic characters from the basic sport collection. The corporate final yr launched another version of Castelvania on the App Retailer and Google Play.
  • Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle has now surpassed $3 billion in participant spending since its 2015 debut, reported Sensor Tower. The sport from Bandai Namco took 20 months to succeed in the determine after hitting the $2 billion milestone in 2019. The brand new landmark sees the sport becoming a member of different top-grossers, together with Conflict Royale, Lineage M and others.
  • Sensor Tower’s mobile gaming advertising report revealed knowledge on prime advert networks within the cellular gaming market, and their market share. It additionally discovered puzzle video games had been among the many prime advertisers on gaming-focused networks like Chartboost, Unity, IronSource and Vungle. On much less game-focused networks, mid-core video games had been prime titles, like Name of Obligation: Cell and High Battle. 

Picture Credit: Sensor Tower

Well being & Health

  • Apple is reportedly scaling again HealthHabit, an inner app for Apple staff that allowed them to trace health targets, discuss to clinicians and coaches at AC Wellness (a docs’ group Apple works with) and handle hypertension. According to Insider, 50 staff had been tasked to work on the venture.
  • Samsung launched a brand new product for Galaxy smartphones in partnership with healthcare nonprofit The Commons Challenge, that permits U.S. customers to avoid wasting a verifiable copy of their vaccination card within the Samsung Pay digital pockets.

Picture Credit: Samsung

Adtech

Authorities & Coverage

  • China cited 43 apps, together with Tencent’s WeChat and an e-reader from Alibaba, for illegally transferring user data. The regulator stated the apps had transferred customers location knowledge and speak to listing and harassed them with pop-up home windows. The apps have till August 25 to make modifications earlier than being punished.

Safety & Privateness

  • A VICE report reveals a captivating story a few jailbreaking group member who had served as a double agent by spying for Apple’s safety staff. Andrey Shumeyko, whose on-line handles included JVHResearch and YRH04E, would promote leaked apps, manuals and stolen gadgets on Twitter and Discord. He would then inform Apple issues like which Apple staff had been leaking confidential information, which reporters would discuss to leakers, who bought stolen iPhone prototypes and extra. Shumeyko determined to share his story as a result of he felt Apple took benefit of him and didn’t compensate him for the work.

? South Korea’s GS Retail Co. Ltd will purchase Supply Hero’s meals supply app Yogiyo in a deal valued at 800 billion won ($685 million USD). Yogiyo is the second-largest meals supply app in South Korea, with a 25% market share.

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