YouTube has begun piloting a “Premium Lite” subscription that lets you eliminate ads for a more affordable price. The new tier, currently available in some parts of Europe, costs just €6.99 a month. But it doesn’t include background playback or other benefits available with a full Premium plan.
Some classic iOS games got upgraded for their Apple Arcade debuts this week, but that’s just the start of this week’s roundup. A new iOS app gives you the chance to win prizes for not driving like a jerk. And a new Mac app lets you effortlessly declutter your presentations.
Plus, a couple of heavy-hitter apps got updates — one kind of serious from a privacy perspective, and one almost completely frivolous. Are you ready for your app upgrades?
Google rolled out a couple of new search-related security tools Thursday for its main iOS app. With them, you can add security to saved search histories and quickly delete recent searches. We’ll show you how to use them, below.
Google Meet has introduced a one-hour cap on group video calls for those who use the service without paying. The new restriction, outlined in an updated support document, does not apply to one-on-one calls.
A public beta of a privacy-preserving search engine from Brave debuted Tuesday. It doesn’t track users, their searches or their clicks.
It is, of course, entering into a David vs. Goliath fight with Google, which dominates the search business with a more than 90% share.
Google promises to let users easily delete their recent search history. It’s part of a number of privacy changes announced Tuesday at Google I/O.
The company makes its money from advertising but has had to step up its privacy offerings because of pressure from government regulators and Apple.
Google Stadia could be the answer for anyone who wants to play console-quality games on an iPad. There are many big-name titles to choose from, and players can use off-the-shelf game controllers. This is cloud gaming — everything is played online so the service doesn’t take up space on your iPad.
I spent quite a bit of time playing Stadia games on an Apple tablet. Here’s why I recommend it.
Google just added the ability to locate lost iPhones using the Google Assistant. It’s a super-handy feature for those who own a Google smart speaker or display, and it’s very easy to set up. We’ll show you how.
In a Tuesday note to clients, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty raised her services-related revenue forecast for Apple through 2022 even as she lowered the overall price target for AAPL stock.
“Following strong March quarter App Store results and an analysis of the key drivers of Apple’s Licensing & Other segment, we raise our already above-street FY21 and FY22 Services revenue estimates by 3% and 5% respectively, and are increasingly convinced that consensus Services forecasts over the next 2+ years are too low,” Huberty wrote.
According to a recent complaint filed with a U.K. antitrust regulator, Apple and Google are working a bit too closely for comfort. The complaint alleges “collusion at a very senior level” of both companies when it comes to search engines.
But make no mistake: While things certainly cooled down since the days when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs threatened to go to “thermonuclear war” against Google, the two companies remain on a collision course. And the conflict will come over the exact same issue they’re currently allegedly colluding on.
It’s all about the future of search as we know it.
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority is looking into accusations of “collusion at a very senior level” against Apple and Google.
Online campaign group Marketers for an Open Web made the complaint. It says the two tech behemoths are “not competing head to head,” but rather working together when it comes to search.
The group points to documents uncovered in a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit, including a 2018 internal email in which Apple and Google staffers discussed how they “work as if we are one company.”
Wikipedia reportedly asked the tech companies that use its free encyclopedia to start chipping in on the cost. That includes Apple, who built Wikipedia into macOS and iOS.
Apple users are more likely than ever to buy a new iPhone, according to survey results released Tuesday. Nearly 92% of current iOS users intend to stick with the platform.
But the situation isn’t so rosy for archrival Samsung, as 26% of Galaxy smartphone users plan to switch to another platform. And most of these switchers have their eye on an iPhone.
Google promises improvements to the Chrome browser to keep “your Mac cooler and those fans quiet.” The latest version of the browser uses less memory and achieves lower Apple Energy Impact scores.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is gathering data for a report on whether Google and Apple abuse their ability to pick default web browsers and search engines in their operating systems to squeeze out smaller competitors.
And Australia is just one of many countries probing the business practices of big tech companies. These investigations might eventually be followed by lawsuits or legislation that forces Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. to change the way they do business.
Apple now makes it easy to copy the pictures and videos you have stored in iCloud Photos over to Google Photos. The process is straightforward, but there are a few hoops to jump through.
Here’s what you need to know.
It’s now possible to watch Apple’s streaming service on the Chromecast with Google TV, a redesigned model of this video dongle that debuted in 2020. A version of the free Apple TV application launched Thursday for this accessory. It brings access to series like Ted Lasso and movies like Wolfwalkers.
According to new figures by IDC, 2020 is the first year in which Google’s Chrome OS was found on more new computers sold than macOS.
That’s due to the success of Chromebooks made by the likes of Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. While no figures are given, it seems likely that these now outsell Macs.
Google and Facebook are rivals of Apple, but they also rely on it a whole lot — as a new report by app analytics platform Sensor Tower makes clear. It highlights how Google and Facebook were two of the top three publishers on the iOS App Store in January, with Google holding the top spot.
It’s the perfect illustration of the “coopetition” relationship that exists between the tech giants.
Google’s iOS applications will comply with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency policy, according to a blog post from the company on Wednesday. That means these applications won‘t have to specifically ask users to permit the app to track them online.
Apple’s ATT policy hasn’t gone into effect yet, but it’ll give iPhone and iPad users more privacy. And it’s expected to cost advertisers billions.
Apple followed though on its warning to remove Parler from the App Store this weekend. Google already banned the social-networking app from the Android software store, and Amazon is cutting off Parler’s cloud-hosting service.
The bans follow accusations that rioters used Parler to plan the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week.
Google followed through with a promise to make its Stadia cloud-gaming service available for iPhone and iPad. On Wednesday, the company starting the process of giving Apple mobile devices access to console-quality games, including Cyberpunk 2077.
But don’t look to the Stadia application in the App Store — the subscription service must be played through a web app.
Google has rolled out new updates for Docs, Sheets, and Slides on iOS that add support for Microsoft Office files. A bunch of different Office formats are supported without the need for file conversion.
A fresh update to Google Chrome for iPad lets users open multiple browser windows side-by-side. This long-overdue feature enables tablet users see two web pages simultaneously.
Google also released Gmail and Google Drive Home screen widgets.
Add Google Stadia to the list of cloud-gaming services that’ll soon be available for iOS and iPadOS. But all the action won’t be in the App Store — iPhone users will access Stadia though a web browser.
This is the same route other online-gaming services are also having to take because of Apple rules restricting cloud gaming.