Tech News - Mobile

Yesterday, Apple released MacOS Catalina, its latest update for Macs and MacBooks. The new operating system can be installed from the homepage of its App Store. Catalina brings a host of new features, including the option to use apps from the iPad as well as turn the tablet into an additional display for computers. But this new update kills iTunes and faces some major issues. Apple has confirmed that there are some serious issues in MacOS Catalina, and affected consumers should refrain from updating the OS until these issues are addressed. Catalina is finally the download that kills iTunes, which is nowhere to be found in the new update. Instead, Apple has moved the features of iTunes into their own separate Music app, the new update also includes separate apps for Podcasts and TV. MacOS Catalina update is a big problem for DJs who rely on iTunes The Mac platform is especially popular with DJs, who cart around MacBook Pro machines jam-packed with music, playlists, mixes and specialist software to allow them to perform every evening. These have been tied to iTunes’ underlying XML database. But after nearly 2 decades, iTunes are discontinued in macOS Catalina, and the XML file no longer exists to index a local music collection. This has broken popular and niche music tools alike, including some of the major titles such as Traktor and Rekordbox. The Verge reports that Apple has confirmed that this issue is down to its removal of the XML file, but is handing responsibility to the third-party developers behind each app. Unfortunately, for Apple’s reputation, those developers have been expecting the ability for the new standalone Music app to explore an XML file, a feature Apple suggested would be available until they could code around the lack of XML. Fact Mag also reported, “this news contradicts Apple’s earlier assertion that there would be a way to manually export the XML file from the new Music app, though Catalina’s launch yesterday now proves this isn’t the case at all.” Apple advice DJs that, if you rely on a software that needs this XML file to function, then do not update to Catalina until individual developers have issued compatibility updates for the new operating system. Catalina drops support for 32-bit applications and faces other issues as well Catalina also drops support for 32-bit applications. The 32-bit applications will simply not run under the new system, this version of macOS is a 64-bit only. If you are a Mac user that is reliant on a 32-bit app, then you have just a single dialog on installation that warns of the loss of support. And with these there are other questions which a user will need answers to like, you would need to know which of your apps are 32-bit and which are 64-bit? And if they are mission-critical in your role and is a 64-bit alternative available? It's not just this, a number of creative tools, including Apple Aperture, Microsoft Office 2011 and Adobe CS6 are also experiencing issues with Catalina. Additionally, there are issues with font in MacOS Catalina, as per the Chromium blog, the macOS system font appears "off" -- too light / tight kerning. It is clear that Apple wants to push forward with its platforms, but it needs to remember that the hardware has to work in the real world today. Apple should be consistent in what features it offers, it should provide clear and accurate information to developers and users, and it should ensure the very least that its own store is in order. TextMate 2.0, the text editor for macOS releases MacOS terminal emulator, iTerm2 3.3.0 is here with new Python scripting API, a scriptable status bar, Minimal theme, and more Apple previews macOS Catalina 10.15 beta, featuring Apple music, TV apps, security, zsh shell, driverKit, and much more! WWDC 2019 highlights: Apple introduces SwiftUI, new privacy-focused sign in, updates to iOS, macOS, and iPad and more Apple plans to make notarization a default requirement in all future macOS updates

IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) released its annual tech future predictions, earlier this week, unveiling the top ten most likely to be adopted technology trends in 2019. "The Computer Society's predictions are based on an in-depth analysis by a team of leading technology experts, identify top technologies that have substantial potential to disrupt the market in the year 2019," mentions Hironori Kasahara, IEEE Computer Society President. Let’s have a look at their top 10 technology trends predicted to reach wide adoption in 2019. Top ten trends for 2019 Deep learning accelerators According to IEEE computer society, 2019 will see widescale adoption of companies designing their own deep learning accelerators such as GPUs, FPGAs, and TPUs, which can be used in data centers. The development of these accelerators would further allow machine learning to be used in different IoT devices and appliances. Assisted transportation Another trend predicted for 2019 is the adoption of assisted transportation which is already paving the way for fully autonomous vehicles. Although the future of fully autonomous vehicles is not entirely here, the self-driving tech saw a booming year in 2018. For instance, AWS introduced DeepRacer, a self-driving race car, Tesla is building its own AI hardware for self-driving cars, Alphabet’s Waymo will be launching the world’s first commercial self-driving cars in upcoming months, and so on. Other than self-driving, assisted transportation is also highly dependent on deep learning accelerators for video recognition. The Internet of Bodies (IoB) As per the IEEE computer society, consumers have become very comfortable with self-monitoring using external devices like fitness trackers and smart glasses. With digital pills now entering the mainstream medicine, the body-attached, implantable, and embedded IoB devices provide richer data that enable development of unique applications. However, IEEE mentions that this tech also brings along with it the concerns related to security, privacy, physical harm, and abuse. Social credit algorithms Facial recognition tech was in the spotlight in 2018. For instance, Microsoft President- Brad Smith requested governments to regulate the evolution of facial recognition technology this month, Google patented a new facial recognition system that uses your social network to identify you, and so on.  According to the IEEE, social credit algorithms will now see a rise in adoption in 2019. Social credit algorithms make use of facial recognition and other advanced biometrics that help identify a person and retrieve data about them from digital platforms. This helps them check the approval or denial of access to consumer products and services. Advanced (smart) materials and devices IEEE computer society predicts that in 2019, advanced materials and devices for sensors, actuators, and wireless communications will see widespread adoption. These materials include tunable glass, smart paper, and ingestible transmitters, will lead to the development of applications in healthcare, packaging, and other appliances.   “These technologies will also advance pervasive, ubiquitous, and immersive computing, such as the recent announcement of a cellular phone with a foldable screen. The use of such technologies will have a large impact on the way we perceive IoT devices and will lead to new usage models”, mentions the IEEE computer society. Active security protection From data breaches ( Facebook, Google, Quora, Cathay Pacific, etc) to cyber attacks, 2018 saw many security-related incidents. 2019 will now see a new generation of security mechanisms that use an active approach to fight against these security-related accidents. These would involve hooks that can be activated when new types of attacks are exposed and machine-learning mechanisms that can help identify sophisticated attacks. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) Packt’s 2018 Skill Up report highlighted what game developers feel about the VR world. A whopping 86% of respondents replied with ‘Yes, VR is here to stay’. IEEE Computer Society echoes that thought as it believes that VR and AR technologies will see even greater widescale adoption and will prove to be very useful for education, engineering, and other fields in 2019. IEEE believes that now that there are advertisements for VR headsets that appear during prime-time television programs, VR/AR will see widescale adoption in 2019. Chatbots 2019 will also see an expansion in the development of chatbot applications. Chatbots are used quite frequently for basic customer service on social networking hubs. They’re also used in operating systems as intelligent virtual assistants. Chatbots will also find its applications in interaction with cognitively impaired children for therapeutic support. “We have recently witnessed the use of chatbots as personal assistants capable of machine-to-machine communications as well. In fact, chatbots mimic humans so well that some countries are considering requiring chatbots to disclose that they are not human”, mentions IEEE.   Automated voice spam (robocall) prevention IEEE predicts that the automated voice spam prevention technology will see widespread adoption in 2019. It will be able to block a spoofed caller ID and in turn enable “questionable calls” where the computer will ask questions to the caller for determining if the caller is legitimate. Technology for humanity (specifically machine learning) IEEE predicts an increase in the adoption rate of tech for humanity. Advances in IoT and edge computing are the leading factors driving the adoption of this technology. Other events such as fires and bridge collapses are further creating the urgency to adopt these monitoring technologies in forests and smart roads. "The technical community depends on the Computer Society as the source of technology IP, trends, and information. IEEE-CS predictions represent our commitment to keeping our community prepared for the technological landscape of the future,” says the IEEE Computer Society. For more information, check out the official IEEE Computer Society announcement. Key trends in software development in 2019: cloud native and the shrinking stack Key trends in software infrastructure in 2019: observability, chaos, and cloud complexity Quantum computing, edge analytics, and meta learning: key trends in data science and big data in 2019

Mozilla has announced a collaboration with Khronos Group and developers of existing open source Blender tools, to bring GL Transmission Format (glTF) import and export add-on for Blender. This release supports the upcoming release of Blender 2.8 which will feature physically-based rendering (PBR) and improved user interface. The glTF format is the foundation for interoperable 3D tools and services. Basically, it’s the “JPEG of 3D”. It is royalty free and coordinated by the Khronos consortium. With gITF support for Blender, mixed reality developers, designers, and creators anywhere in the world, can create, edit, and remix glTF models without having to purchase the specialized software. How did the collaboration come to be? Mozilla’s Mixed Reality (WebXR) Team conducted a joint ecosystem analysis focusing on content creators, their motivations, current pain points, and the expected impact of tools that could empower them. After the joint ecosystem analysis Khronos, UX3D, and Mozilla decided to co-fund the development of the Blender importer and exporter tool. Airbus was also declared as one of the partners in the development of the Blender glTF tools. They are using the glTF format internally to visualize their Blender created mock-ups in VR and AR. They came up with an ecosystem partners model to accelerate the advancement of the glTF standard and the WebXR ecosystem. The team hopes that “the Blender tools will unleash the creativity of the global community.” The glTF Blender import and export tool will be released and ready for beta testers around the time of the Blender conference in late October. Mozilla will also be sharing a detailed analysis of the tool on Mozilla’s Hacks blog in the coming weeks. Read more about the collaboration on Medium. Building VR objects in React V2 2.0: Getting started with polygons in Blender Is Mozilla the most progressive tech organization on the planet right now? Mozilla announces $3.5 million award for ‘Responsible Computer Science Challenge’ to encourage teaching ethical coding to CS graduates

Following an announcement to developers through App Store Connect last night, Apple now requires all new apps and updates to include a link to their developer’s privacy policy in the app metadata. The new rules will come into effect from October 3rd. Even if the app is a basic utility application that doesn’t connect to the internet, it must still host a website with a privacy policy page. The App Store app listings have had a privacy policy URL metadata field for a long time. They have been mandatory for apps that have subscriptions, but this rule now applies to all apps in the store. Apple will not pull existing apps from sale, but any future update must ensure it has the privacy policy URL set. On iPhone or iPad, customers will be able to tap on the link to the privacy policy and read it in Safari. tvOS does not have a web browser, so developers will have to copy and paste their privacy into a text box when they submit their apps, so the Apple TV can display it. Apple says “The privacy policies must identify what data the app collects, in what manner, and how it is used. It is also the responsibility of the app developer to confirm that the behavior of any embedded third-party frameworks complies with the parent app’s privacy policy. Apple also says that apps must clearly explain data retention policies and detail how a user can revoke consent and request deletion of any personal data stored.” It remains to be seen whether Apple will pull apps that are found to be in violation of their privacy policies. Data-sharing practices in ‘apps’ has come under scrutiny in recent months, in the wake of scandals like Cambridge Analytica. Apple instated informational onboarding screens that describe how it uses personal data earlier this year, as part of European GDPR regulation. The new App Store requirements are likely related to GDPR compliance at some level. A privacy policy is required for App Store distribution, as well as external TestFlight beta testing stages. To read the full story visit the Apple blog page. Apple announces a Special Event to reportedly launch new products including “iPhone XS” and OS updates Could Apple’s latest acquisition yesterday of an AR lens maker signal its big plans for its secret Apple car? Did you know your idle Android device sends data to Google 10 times more often than an iOS device does to Apple?

Yesterday, the Torch community announced the launch of Torch AR, a 3D design platform connecting the world of web and mobile application design to spatial computing. Designing and creating in 3D is tricky at times and requires special knowledge and skills to use 3Dcomputer-aided design apps or code from scratch. With the help of Torch AR, the Torch 3D Inc attempts to offer a mobile augmented reality (AR) prototyping and design app that lets users build interactive 3D prototypes quickly and easily. With the new Torch AR app, users will be able to: build interactive prototypes collaborate on projects in real-time work with existing 3D and 2D files, tools or workflows All this, using the same mobile device where the finished apps will run on. The community has only launched the first piece of a platform and not the complete application. Torch AR will continue to evolve and improve resulting in an app that can not only prototype, but also build, distribute, and manage user’s spatial application. Features of the new Torch AR platform The power to design in 3D Users can easily design and build prototypes on their devices, in 3D, using augmented reality features. This takes away the task of constantly switching between the desktop and the device. Apart from a user’s mobile device (iOS, for now, Android soon), there’s no special hardware required. Also, users need not have game development or coding experience to build in Torch AR. Free to use with collaboration in real-time Torch AR is free of charge for all users. Even if more features and services are built, the design environment released today will remain free. Projects built, can be shared with anyone. They can also be viewed for free in Torch. Many users can simultaneously work together in real-time from anywhere and can even iterate on designs in minutes. Build interactive prototypes Torch's interactions system lets users go beyond simple AR sticker apps to build powerful multi-scene augmented reality experiences. Add Sketchfab model with a swipe Now users can add the perfect Sketchfab model to their project in a few seconds with a swipe. Sketchfab is the largest platform to publish and find 3D models online. Alban Denoyel, CEO and co-founder of Sketchfab, says, “With Torch, you can just search, then drag and drop Sketchfab models into a scene and start prototyping. Torch’s focus on making 3D prototyping easy is a perfect complement to Sketchfab’s focus on providing diverse and qualitative 3D assets.” To know more about Torch AR head over to the Torch3D blog. Deep Learning with Torch Facebook launched new multiplayer AR games in Messenger 7 AI tools mobile developers need to know

In the Microsoft Surface event in New York last week, they announced a new application called Your Phone. It will work with Windows 10. The Windows phone has been dead for over two years now after Microsoft trying really hard to give it momentum. They had even acquired Nokia, a once market dominant phone maker to make Windows phones. But all of that did not work since there just weren’t enough apps to make it appealing for people to buy the handsets. The Android app mirroring feature will be available as a part of the Your Phone app for Windows 10. The app will be out with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. https://twitter.com/Windows/status/1047224970403667969 The app mirroring is easier to achieve with Android because it is more open than iOS. After acknowledging the death of Windows Phone, Microsoft took steps to accept it and push their apps to other Mobile operating systems. This includes the release of MS Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for both Android and iOS. They even launched a launcher for Android called the Microsoft Launcher which has over 10M downloads. Microsoft launcher brings Microsoft’s own services and Office apps connectivity to your Android phone’s home screen. It even supports the Windows 10 Timeline feature allowing you to resume Microsoft apps and sites across devices. Microsoft has now come to terms with the fact that people don’t need the Windows OS on a phone, there are better OSes already running on majority of the smartphones. Microsoft is trying to embrace other OSes as the ‘mobile version of Windows’. Android in particular, as it has less restrictions and allows incorporation of more features. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO303V2bQsg The demo video displays the use of the app on an Android phone, it is not clear whether it will make it to iOS in the future. If you can access Android apps on Windows PC, you are less likely to use your phone while using a PC. Microsoft announces new Surface devices to enhance user productivity, with style and elegance A decade of Android: Slayer of Blackberry, challenger of iPhone, mother of the modern mobile ecosystem .NET Core 2.0 reaches end of life, no longer supported by Microsoft

Android Studio has been the IDE of choice for Android developers since its release in 2014. Version 3.2 of Android Studio was released at the end of April, bringing about a few very interesting changes to the Android Studio ecosystem. Here are the most important changes you need to be aware of: IAndroid Studio Jetpack has been updated and improved. The new, updated jetpack is going to make the overall development process much smoother and easier. It should minimize repetitive work and help to streamline the development workflow. New Navigation Editor. The new navigation editor helps developers to gain a better view of their app’s design and layout. It should make it much easier to plan navigational patterns between different parts of an app. AndroidX Refactoring. Android has introduced a new refactoring mechanism for the Android Support Libraries to a new Android extension library using the androidx namespace. The New App Bundle. The new dynamic app bundle is much smarter and intuitive than the previous version. Once you have created your app and uploaded its  resources, you won’t now need to generate customized APKs for different types of machines on which these APKs are going to run. You can now simply use the dynamic APK builder. This will automatically create different versions of the APK best suited to different machines. You can then add some added bundles for your app that can be downloaded by users on demand. Layout preview. During the app development process, the presence of runtime data can hamper the visualization capability of the app. This can affect the app design process. With the new  layout preview, you can preview your design using sample data in the layout editor. You can then change the data as you require, which will allow you to see a complete preview of your app design. Slice Functionality. Android Studio 3.2 will now create a preview of your app in Google Search results. This is what’s being called ‘slice functionality’. This will be particularly useful for mobile developers that want to think carefully and thoroughly about how they market their app. More new lint checks. Beyond Kotlin interoperability lint checks, Android Studio 3.2 is implementing 20 new lint checks. These will help developers find and identify common code problems. These new checks range from warnings about potential usability issues to high-priority errors regarding security vulnerabilities. New Gradle target. You can use the new lintFix Gradle task to apply all of the safe fixes suggested by the lint check directly to the source code. An example of a lint check that suggests a safe fix to apply is SyntheticAccessor. Metadata updates. Various metadata, such as the service cast check, have been updated for lint checks to work with Android P Developer Preview. Android Studio has been the default development environment for Android developers and with these new changes, it is trying to incorporate some cool new smart features which are sure to help the developers create better and faster apps more efficiently and save a lot of their development time. What is Android Studio and how does it differ from other IDEs? Unit Testing Apps with Android Studio The Art of Android Development Using Android Studio  

Apple maps failed horribly with incorrect data at launch in 2012. Since then they have been putting efforts to make it better. In a blog post, Justin O’Beirne, who has contributed to Apple Maps, has made a comparison of the new and old Apple maps. The following is a summary of his analysis. Greener maps with more vegetation The new Apple maps is greener, a lot more vegetation. The cities are also more noticeable, even the smaller ones, they have more detail. The vegetation is mapped from the satellite view like Google Maps. According to the blog, 25% of county seats had no vegetation or green areas whatsoever on the old map. Here is a dramatic example: Source: Justin O’Beirne Blog The vegetation coverage covers the smallest details. Small strips of grass, vegetation between roads are all covered. In some areas, Apple maps cover vegetation details where no other maps service does it. Even Google Maps does not cover some of these vegetation details. Source: Justin O’Beirne Blog More structures are covered Other than vegetation, even shapes of structures, smaller structures other than buildings are also now in Apple maps. Details are distinguished in areas like beaches, harbors, racetracks, and parking lots. Smaller details in golf courses like fairways, running tracks in schools, pools, and playgrounds in parks are also covered. The building structures are being upgraded. Since the original launch in 2012, of course, there have been redevelopments, new buildings, etc. Apple is covering all of that trying to give a comprehensive and proper update. The buildings also have great detail showing arches, stepped design, and partitions. But some of the structures showcase incorrect height. The details in some rooftops are not there which are in Google Maps. But the perimeters of the buildings are more accurate than of Google Maps. Updating road data Apple used to license road data from TomTom, it wasn’t up to date and now Apple is replacing all of it with new data. Some roads are not present even on Google Maps but are in Apple Maps now. But Apple does not have all the business areas/stores. Also, the street names are not properly displayed, there are errors and in some cases, it is difficult to find streets while zooming in to Apple Maps. Apple maps have been in the making since 2014. It has certainly improved a lot, more details than Google in some areas but still lacks the large amount of data that Google Maps has. For more in-depth details, visit Justin O’Beirne Blog. A kernel vulnerability in Apple devices gives access to remote code execution Helium proves to be less than an ‘ideal gas’ for iPhones and Apple watches Apple launches iPad Pro, updates MacBook Air and Mac mini

Google has announced a FIDO2 based local user verification for Google Accounts, for a simpler authentication experience when viewing saved passwords for a website. Basically, you can now use fingerprint or screen lock instead of passwords when visiting certain Google services. This password-free authentication service will leverage the FIDO2 standards, FIDO CTAP, and WebAuthn, which is designed to “provide simpler and more secure authentication experiences. They are a result of years of collaboration between Google and many other organizations in the FIDO Alliance and the W3C” according to a blog post from the company. This new authentication process is designed to speed up the process of logging into Google accounts as well as being more secure by replacing the password typing system with a direct biometric authentication system. How this works is that if you tap on any one of your saved passwords on passwords.google.com, then Google will prompt you to "Verify that it’s you," at which point, you can authenticate using your fingerprint or any other method you usually use to unlock your phone (such as using a pin number or a touch pattern). Google has not yet made it clear which Google services could be used by the biometric method; the blog post cited Google's online Password Manager, as the example. Source: Google Google is also being cautious about data privacy, noting, “Your fingerprint is never sent to Google's servers - it is securely stored on your device, and only a cryptographic proof that you've correctly scanned it is sent to Google's servers. This is a fundamental part of the FIDO2 design. This sign-in feature is currently available on all Pixel devices. It will be made available to all Android phones running 7.0 Nougat or later "over the next few days.  Google Titan Security key with secure FIDO two factor authentication is now available for purchase Google to provide a free replacement key for its compromised Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Titan Security Keys Cloud Next 2019 Tokyo: Google announces new security capabilities for enterprise users

Recently, Google imposed background limitations on the Android 8.0 (API level 26) for what apps can do while running in the background. Per this new update, Android 8 forces developers to use Firebase for their push notifications, or otherwise tell the user that the app has misbehaved. Push notifications are needed by all messaging apps such as Telegram-FOSS, riot.im, and other FOSS apps The problem here is that the Firebase Android client library is not open source. FOSS apps now cannot keep push notification features in Android 8 while also remaining 100% open source and not being stigmatized as misbehaved.. Google official reason for putting this limitation is to improve the user experience. They state that when many Android apps and services are run simultaneously, it places a load on the system. Further if additional apps or services, run in the background, it places an additional load on the system, which could result in a poor user experience. For example, when a user is playing a game in one window while browsing the web in another window, and using a third app to play music, this could result in abrupt shut down of one of the apps, due to immense load on the system. What are the Background Service limitations? Google has mentioned that under certain circumstances, a background app is placed on a temporary whitelist for several minutes. While an app is on the whitelist, it can launch services without limitation, and its background services are permitted to run. An app is placed on the whitelist when it handles a task that's visible to the user, such as: Handling a high-priority Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) message. Receiving a broadcast, such as an SMS/MMS message. Executing a PendingIntent from a notification. Starting a VpnService before the VPN app promotes itself to the foreground. Prior to Android 8.0, the usual way to create a foreground service was to create a background service, then promote that service to the foreground. From Android 8.0, the system will not allow a background app to create a background service. This means that all apps on Android will now be forced to use its use Google’s proprietary service, Firebase for push notifications. Since apps like Telegram-FOSS, riot.im, and other Free and Open source software  apps cannot use the service, these apps are being reported to the user as ‘using too much battery’. Telegram-FOSS team has notified its users The Telegram-FOSS team has now notified its users that since they cant use “Google's push messaging in a FOSS app”, it  will show a notification to users, to keep the background service running, else the users will not be notified about new messages. If the app would set the notification to lower priority (such as hiding it in the lower part of the notification screen), users would immediately get a system notification about Telegram "using battery", which is confusing and is the reason for this not being the default. The Telegram-FOSS team has also claimed that “Despite Google's misleading warnings, there is no difference in battery usage between v4.6 in "true background" and v4.9+ with notification.” This news has received varied reaction from users. Some are being extremely critical about Google. A user on Reddit says that “Google is probably regretting that they made Android open source. They will fight tooth and nail to undo that.” Another user on Hacker News adds, “Google is one of the most evil companies out there for a company that started out with don't be evil. The have some very smart people, some amazing tech, but unfortunately they have some very evil people working for them help bent on maintaining their advantage by any means necessary. Without using Google's push notifications, you are going to end up with something that works about 75% of the time. When this first started happening to me, I lost tons of time thinking it was a bug only to finally realize I needed to use Google's library to get reliability for what once worked.” Some users have pointed out that Apple has been restricting push notifications from a long time allowing apps to use nothing but APNS, run nothing in background or even include GPL source code. Another user comments, “The difference is Apple has been the same from the beginning. There was no bait and switch. People who bought Apple products knew what Apple was and will be and what the terms were. With Google there is a bait and switch. They came to market defining themselves as the open alternative to Apple to get market share and developer interest, and now that they've achieved dominance the terms are changing. There's no surprise that there's going to be massive pushback (and probably antitrust implications)” Another user suggested that it’s better to opt for non-Android phones. https://twitter.com/datenteiler/status/1137743892009406466 Few believe that Google is taking this measure clearly to counter iOS phones in the market. A user on Hacker News says that, “The competition in this case is Apples iOS, for which even HackerNews users love to harp over and over and over again how amazing it is and how little battery it uses because it doesn't allow apps to use anything but APNS, run anything in background or even include GPL source code. This is what's Android competing against - a completely locked down operating system which cannot deliver any kind of GPL code. And every time it allows more freedom to developers it's punished in the market by losing against iOS and mocked on this very website about how it allows their app developers to drain battery and access data. What exactly do you expect Google to do here?” Seeing the backlash, Google may relax its Firebase licensing or change the rules about background apps in the future. For now though, the FOSS apps will have to resort to guiding users to lower the priority of the resulting notification and the battery warning. SENSORID attack: Calibration fingerprinting that can easily trace your iOS and Android phones, study reveals Tor Browser 8.5, the first stable version for Android, is now available on Google Play Store! Introducing Minecraft Earth, Minecraft’s AR-based game for Android and iOS users

Last week, Dan Abramov, one of the React developers, while announcing the release of React 16.8, shared that React Native 0.59 will be released with Hooks. The team was waiting for Hooks to land in React’s stable version before they support it in the next release of React Native. Today, they have released React Native 0.59 RC0, which along with React Hooks, ships with extracted React Native CLI, major QoL improvements, and more. Here are some of the major changes this version will come with: As mentioned earlier, React Native 0.59 will come with React Hooks. This feature allows you to “hook into” or use React state and other lifecycle features via function components. The React Native GitHub repo was quite big, and that is why the team decided to move some of the components to separate repos. As a result, the React Native CLI now has a separate repository. The team has also removed WebView from the React Native code. Now developers need to use its extracted version. Though the team has not shared which exact components will be deprecated in the release notes, this version will surely deprecate quite a few components. Along with these changes, many QoL improvements have been made on the native Android side such as 64 bits support via a new JSC, AppCompatActivity, etc. As this is not a stable release, developers are recommended not to upgrade to React Native 0.59 unless they want to collaborate in testing. To know more in detail, check out React Native’s release notes. The React Native team shares their open source roadmap, React Suite hits 3.4.0 React Native 0.57 released with major improvements in accessibility APIs, WKWebView-backed implementation, and more! JavaScript mobile frameworks comparison: React Native vs Ionic vs NativeScript

HTC Vive Focus 2.0 update promises long battery life, among other things for the VR headset HTC Vive Focus, the standalone VR headset, gets a major system update 2.0, making the headset even more versatile, before its global release. HTC announced at the annual Vive Ecosystem Conference in Shenzhen, that its standalone 6DoF Vive headset can install a System update 2.0 which promises long battery life, ability to link with HTC smartphones, passenger and surroundings mode along with other exciting features. Vive Focus Smartphone Integration Features Here’s a quick rundown of updates made to HTC Vive Focus: Key feature updates Smartphone Integration: There is a newly added ability to link HTC Smartphone with the Vive Focus. This helps users take calls, receive messages, and view social media notifications from a paired HTC smartphone, without taking the headset off. This new Focus feature will be made available first to the HTC U12+ and will later get distributed for all the other HTC smartphone users through HTC’s and Tencent’s app stores. Surroundings Mode: This mode is handy when using Vive focus in a moving vehicle. It is a see-through mode which can be enabled by double-clicking the power button on the headset. The camera in the headset then gets activated. This helps the user to see the world outside the headset without taking it off. Passenger Mode: This mode makes it possible for the users to experience the Virtual world seamlessly, making sure that the user does not drift away in the virtual world due to the turbulence of a moving vehicle. Stream Content from Viveport or SteamVR: The new Vive Focus update also provides users the ability to stream Viveport or SteamVR content from a PC to a Vive Focus using Riftcat VRidge app over 5GHz WiFi. VR apps installation: You can now install apps directly on the microSD card with the new System Update 2.0. You can also purchase apps using credit cards from within the Viveport store. Other Upcoming Features There are other upcoming features lined up for HTC Vive Focus in the third quarter of 2018. These features include: Software update which will make Vive’s 3DoF headset controller behave like a 6DoF controller by using computer vision technology on focus’ camera. Hand movements tracking with the help of front cameras using gesture recognition technology. You will be able to stream different forms of media such as apps, videos and games directly from the six-inch U12+ phone screen to the bigger VR display. An additional combination of media storage device and external battery pack, the Seagate VR Power Drive will also be enabled in the HTC Vive Focus. The VR power drive is also compatible with U12+ and will be optimized for the Focus as well. This promises to improve the battery life considerably. Vive Focus system update 2.0 is available on all HTC Vive Focus devices which are available only in China for now. No announcement has been made regarding its availability in the West, but with the company shipping dev kits to developers in the past few weeks, the announcement will be made soon. Also, details regarding the cost and storage capacity will be announced later this year but it’s not yet confirmed. With competitors such as Google daydream powered Lenovo Mirage Solo, the latest updates made to the HTC Vive Focus have built major anticipation in the mind of the users regarding what more to expect in the VR world. Qualcomm may announce a new chipset for standalone AR/VR headsets this week at Augmented World Expo Top 7 modern Virtual Reality hardware systems Understanding the hype behind Magic Leap’s New Augmented Reality Headsets  

Google is, reportedly, planning to bring Node.js to Fuchsia. Yang Guo, a staff software engineer at Google, posted a tweet, yesterday, where he says he’s looking for a full-time software engineer at Google Munich, Germany, who can port Node.js to Fuchsia. https://twitter.com/hashseed/status/1108016705920364544 “We are interested in bringing JS as a programming language to that platform to add to the list of supported languages,” states Guo. Currently, Fuchsia supports languages such as C/C++, Dart, FIDL, Go, Rust, Python, and Flutter modules. Fuchsia is a new operating system that Google is currently working on. Google has been working over Fuchsia for over two years in the hope that it will replace the much dominant Android. Fuchsia is a capability-based operating system and is based on a new microkernel called "Zircon".   Zircon is the core platform responsible for powering the Fuchsia OS. It is made up of a microkernel (source in kernel/...) and a small set of userspace services, drivers, and libraries (source in system/...) that are necessary for the system to boot, talk to hardware, as well as load and run the userspace processes. The Zircon Kernel is what helps provide syscalls to Fuchsia, thereby, helping it manage processes, threads, virtual memory, inter-process communication, state changes, and locking. Fuchsia can run on a variety of platforms ranging from embedded systems to smartphones, and tablets. Earlier this year in January, 9to5Google published evidence, stating that Fuchsia can also run Android Applications. Apparently, a new change was spotted by the 9to5 team in the Android Open Source Project that makes use of a special version of ART (Android Runtime) to run Android apps. This feature would allow devices such as computers, wearables, etc to leverage Android apps in the Google Play Store. Public reaction to the news is positive, with people supporting the announcement: https://twitter.com/aksharpatel47/status/1108136513575882752 https://twitter.com/damarnez/status/1108090522508410885 https://twitter.com/risyasin/status/1108029764957294593 Google’s Smart Display – A push towards the new OS, Fuchsia Fuchsia’s Xi editor is no longer a Google project Google AI releases Cirq and Open Fermion-Cirq to boost Quantum computation

An unnamed iOS researcher that goes by the Twitter handle @axi0mX has released a new iOS exploit, checkm8 that affects all iOS devices running on A5 to A11 chipsets. This exploit explores vulnerabilities in Apple’s bootroom (secure boot ROM) which can give phone owners and hackers deep level access to their iOS devices. Once a hacker jailbreaks, Apple would be unable to block or patch out with a future software update. This iOS exploit can lead to a permanent, unblockable jailbreak on iPhones. Jailbreaking can allow hackers to get root access, enabling them to install software that is unavailable in the Apple App Store, run unsigned code, read and write to the root filesystem, and more. https://twitter.com/axi0mX/status/1178299323328499712 The researcher considers checkm8 possibly the biggest news in the iOS jailbreak community in years. This is because Bootrom jailbreaks are mostly permanent and cannot be patched. To fix it, you would need to apply physical modifications to device chipsets. This can only happen with callbacks or mass replacements.  It is also the first bootrom-level exploit publicly released for an iOS device since the iPhone 4, which was released almost a decade ago. axi0mX had also released another jailbreak-enabling exploit called alloc8 that was released in 2017. alloc8 exploits a powerful vulnerability in function malloc in the bootrom applicable to iPhone 3GS devices. However, checkm8 impacts devices starting with an iPhone 4S (A5 chip) through the iPhone 8 and iPhone X (A11 chip). The only exception being A12 processors that come in iPhone XS / XR and 11 / 11 Pro devices, for which Apple has patched the flaw. The full jailbreak with Cydia on latest iOS version is possible, but requires additional work. Explaining the reason behind this iOS exploit to be made public, @axi0mX said “a bootrom exploit for older devices makes iOS better for everyone. Jailbreakers and tweak developers will be able to jailbreak their phones on latest version, and they will not need to stay on older iOS versions waiting for a jailbreak. They will be safer.” The researcher adds, “I am releasing my exploit for free for the benefit of iOS jailbreak and security research community. Researchers and developers can use it to dump SecureROM, decrypt keybags with AES engine, and demote the device to enable JTAG. You still need additional hardware and software to use JTAG.” For now, the checkm8 exploit is released in beta and there is no actual jailbreak yet. You can’t simply download a tool, crack your device, and start downloading apps and modifications to iOS. Axi0mX's jailbreak is available on GitHub. The code isn't recommended for users without proper technical skills as it could easily result in bricked devices. Nonetheless, it is still an unpatchable issue and poses security risks for iOS users. Apple has not yet acknowledged the checkm8 iOS exploit. A number of people tweeted about this iOS exploit and tried it. https://twitter.com/FCE365/status/1177558724719853568 https://twitter.com/SparkZheng/status/1178492709863976960 https://twitter.com/dangoodin001/status/1177951602793046016 The past year saw a number of iOS exploits. Last month, Apple has accidentally reintroduced a bug in iOS 12.4 that was patched in iOS 12.3. A security researcher, who goes by the name Pwn20wnd on Twitter, released unc0ver v3.5.2, a jailbreaking tool that can jailbreak A7-A11 devices. In July, two members of the Google Project Zero team revealed about six “interactionless” security bugs that can affect iOS by exploiting the iMessage Client. Four of these bugs can execute malicious code on a remote iOS device, without any prior user interaction. Researchers release a study into Bug Bounty Programs and Responsible Disclosure for ethical hacking in IoT ‘Dropbox Paper’ leaks out email addresses and names on sharing document publicly DoorDash data breach leaks personal details of 4.9 million customers, workers, and merchants

Microsoft has brought its Sharepoint software to Virtual reality headsets. This new technology, called SharePoint Spaces will allow SharePoint users to visualize and interact with data and product models using Virtual reality. SharePoint Spaces were announced at the opening keynote of SharePoint Virtual Summit, an online event coverage of the SharePoint Conference. Sharepoint is a team collaboration software tool by Microsoft, used by Office 365 users for organizing documents, managing content, and building sites internally. SharePoint Spaces will expand on SharePoint capabilities by creating mixed reality experiences for businesses viewable in VR headsets and in any browsers that support WebVR. It has templates for VR experiences such as a gallery of 3D models or 360-degree videos. Possible use cases of SharePoint spaces, as shared by Microsoft include: Recruiting and onboarding SharePoint Spaces can be used for 360-degree virtual induction of new recruits. Instead of being informed verbally, the employee can learn about the organizational structure, and campus layout through an interactive, and immersive experience. They can also access information about the products of the company. Learning Combining virtual reality with SharePoint can also be used to enhance learning techniques. Microsoft says “With SharePoint spaces, learning comes to life as you gain broad perspective with a panoramic view of a topic and learning objectives.” SharePoint Spaces allow readers and learners to explore personalized, and dynamic content by experiencing with your senses. Product development This tool can also be used for creating 3D prototypes, especially necessary in the product development landscape. Experts can study and evaluate data, content, and processes from every angle. They can also attach annotations, and visualize improvements. Microsoft will soon open a preview version of SharePoint Spaces. It will later be made available to all Office 365 commercial users. SharePoint has also incorporated AI for powerful content collaboration in Office 365. This includes: Personalized and intelligent search in the SharePoint mobile app, Personalized Office.com, Enhanced image capabilities, and Cognitive services for business process automation. Complete details about SharePoint innovations are available on the Microsoft blog. Amazon open sources Amazon Sumerian, its popular AR/VR app toolkit Verizon launches AR Designer, a new tool for developers Google open sources Seurat to bring high precision graphics to Mobile VR