That summer, the Pokémon Go craze was in full bloom. Every day, tens of millions of Americans took to the streets, phones held aloft, impelled by the urge to “catch ’em all.” Hundreds of millions of users were playing the game worldwide.
The game’s rise dovetailed with a new era of digital spying. The information users were freely surrendering to private companies to play digital games, or to use cool new apps or other online platforms, was making intelligence services drool. Spy services dove headlong into stealing, hacking, or buying data from the private sector that they could not somehow procure elsewhere—even if they didn’t really yet understand the value of that information.
Accessible through music.apple.com/replay, the feature provides users with detailed insights into their music preferences and listening habits over the last 12 months. Apple has been offering monthly replays since February, but now users can view their stats for the full year.
Apple today announced that its Vision Pro headset will be launching in Taiwan on Tuesday, December 17, with pre-orders beginning this Thursday, December 5, at 9:00 a.m.
Even in its 10th year, Apple Pay is still reaching new markets. The latest, per Apple server sleuth @aaronp, is Uruguay.
Nintendo has released a new game for iPhone today, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete. The title brings back much of the experience in its predecessor, but with new content and perhaps most interestingly, a pricing experiment.
Given the trajectory of this market over the past 20 years in the US, it’s possible that the global ringtone market will stagnate in the near future and leave these companies to turn to other unexpected ventures. For now, they represent a small, strange corner of the music business, where the dream of the early aughts remains alive.
The plaintiff in the case, Amar Bhakta, has worked in advertising technology for Apple since 2020. According to the suit, Apple used its privacy policies to harm his employment prospects. For instance, it forbade Bhakta from participating in public speaking about digital advertising and forced him to remove information from his LinkedIn page about his job at Apple.
“For Apple employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden. It is a prison yard. A panopticon where employees, both on and off duty, are subject to Apple’s all-seeing eye,” the lawsuit says.
Indonesia is expecting to get a $1 billion investment commitment from tech firm Apple Inc in a week, its investment minister said on Tuesday, after the government banned iPhone 16 sales for failing to meet local content rules.
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"Whoever benefits from the sales must invest here, create jobs here. What's important is how the global value chain moves here, because once it does, suppliers follow," Rosan said, adding the investment commitment is part of a first phase.
A phone -- that goes with you everywhere you go, can see what you see, can hear what you hear -- is not just like the computer that sits on my desk day-in day-out. Different rules need to be applied.
I am glad Apple, even though it is not always succeeding, is taking control of the iPhone's security and privacy seriously. I am sad that there are people who think we are better off not allowing anyone to buy a phone that a private company like Apple controls.
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