Apple is expanding iPhone 14’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature to more countries. The feature is now available to iPhone 14 owners in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Ireland starting today.
Emergency SOS was only available in the United States and Canada so far. Apple previously confirmed the feature would expand to more countries in December.
The German government is looking into whether Apple’s App Tracking Transparency system is designed to give Apple an unfair advantage in advertising.
The Bundeskartellamt doesn’t object to the iPhone-maker blocking tracking. But the agency points out that ATT doesn’t block Apple’s own advertising tracking system.
Future Apple devices could be powered by chipsets manufactured in Germany, with the company’s primary silicon supplier in talks over a new production facility in western Europe, according to a new report.
Negotiations are said to be in the early stages for now, so it’s far from a done deal. TSMC SVP Lora Ho said a number of factors will play a part in its decisions, including government subsidies and the availability of local talent.
Germany’s antitrust watchdog said Monday it is launching an antitrust investigation to see whether Apple has a “paramount significance across markets.”
According to Reuters, the probe by Germany’s Federal Cartel Office was partly prompted by advertising and media industry complaints over Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature.
“Based on this first proceeding, the (FCO) intends to assess in more detail specific practices of Apple in a possible further proceeding,” notes the investigatory paperwork. “In this regard, the authority has received various complaints relating to potentially anti-competitive practices.”
Apple says it looks forward to “discussing our approach with the FCO and having an open dialogue about any of their concerns.”
One of the leading countries in the European Union, Germany previously announced investigations into Facebook, Amazon and Google over different complaints. And given how much scrutiny the EU has placed Apple under, it’s no surprise to hear Germany begin its own investigation.
The European Union is already probing Apple’s control of the App Store. Another EU investigation is looking into Apple Pay. Another is eyeing Apple’s potential to be a “gatekeeper” in the smart home industry.
Source: Reuters
Apple on Thursday confirmed plans to expand its renewable energy footprint in Europe. Cupertino will invest in the world’s largest onshore wind turbines in Denmark and in new clean energy efforts in Germany.
The moves are part of Apple’s plan, announced last month, to become carbon neutral across its entire business and supply chain.
As Apple reopens its retail stores throughout Germany, regulators are considering investigating whether temperature checks of customers to ensure the safety of visitors and employees is a violation of European Union privacy laws.
Apple plans to reopen all its 15 retail stores in Germany on May 11, according to a published report.
Germany will become only the second country in Europe to resume Apple Store operations since the majority of locations closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic almost two months ago.
Germany has reportedly changed its mind over whether or not to embrace the decentralized approach to contact-tracing technology supported by Apple and Google.
As recently as the end of last week, Germany was backing a centralized standard technology called PEPP-PT. This stands for called Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing. It has now seemingly switched its support to a “strongly decentralized” approach. This is the approach backed by Apple and Google.
The Disney+ mobile app is off to a roaring start in Europe and the UK just days after it launched earlier this week.
Third-party app analytics firm App Annie revealed that the Disney+ app has been downloaded over 5 million times on launch day, possibly thanks to millions of residents having to shelter-in-place due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Call it the Streisand effect if you want, but the book written by a former App Store manager that Apple attempted to ban has risen to the number one spot on Amazon’s book charts in the writer’s native country.
Apple lawyers have tried to lean on the publishers to destroy all copies of the book. They claim that it contains inside secrets.
Unsurprisingly, this has sparked a whole lot of interest in a book that — by its own admission — shares only publicly available details about how Apple approves third-party apps in Germany.
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A new German law forces Apple to allow other mobile payment services to use NFC on iPhone.
Apple has allowed only Apple Pay to take advantage of the technology until now. But Germany has decided that it won’t stand for that anymore — despite Apple’s concerns.
Apple Music subscribers in Germany can now stream their favorite tracks on Amazon Echo speakers. You’ll need to add the Apple Music skill via the Alexa app to get started.
Apple’s iWork platform has been banned from German schools alongside Microsoft Office 365 and Google Docs.
Privacy regulators say that using the cloud-based services “exposes personal information about students and teachers.” They also suggest that the data might be accessed by U.S. authorities.
A Team Rocket hot air balloon flown over Dortmund, Germany, this week all but confirms the evil gang’s imminent arrival in Pokémon Go.
Emblazoned with a Team Rocket logo, the balloon appeared on day one of Europe’s first ever Pokémon Go Fest. It’s the latest in a number of teasers Niantic has put out to signal Team Rocket’s introduction.
But what will it mean for Pokémon Go?
iPhone users will be able to scan German ID cards, passports, and more when iOS 13 rolls out this fall, according to local authorities.
The functionality will allow digital versions of those documents to be carried on an iOS device so that they are always accessible. Recent reports have confirmed users in Japan will be able to do the same with national ID cards.
You can now order Apple’s new Powerbeats Pro wireless headphones in the U.K., France, and Germany.
They’re only available in black for now, with other color options coming this summer, and it seems that stock is limited. You can expect delivery around June 6 if you’re fast enough.
The ECG feature on the Apple Watch Series 4 gets the lion’s share of headlines about potentially life-saving incidents. However, it’s the wearable’s fall-detecting ability which is the hero of the latest story of this kind.
In Munich, Germany, an 80-year-old woman fell in her apartment. Fortunately, her Apple Watch recognized what had happened and called emergency services.
The electrocardiogram (ECG) feature of the Apple Watch was only turned on last week in Europe there’s already a report of it discovering a serious heart condition in a German man.
This is exactly what it’s intended to do: find heart problems for which there are no obvious symptoms.
Apple has seemingly reached a compromise in its battle with Qualcomm in Germany. It will resume selling older iPhone models in Apple Stores in Germany, after previously withdrawing them following a court decision. However, it will sell iPhones only with Qualcomm chips inside.
This means not selling iPhone 7 and 8 models which contain Intel chips. Apple began phasing in Intel modem chips back in 2016. Last year, it dropped Qualcomm entirely in favor of Intel.
Qualcomm is revving up its legal battle with Apple. In a new court filing in Munich, Qualcomm demanded “significant fines” be put on the iPhone-maker for not complying with a previous court order.
Apple was barred from selling some iPhones in Germany at the end of 2018. The company pulled the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 at its retail stores, but Qualcomm is crying foul that other third-party shops still had units in stock.
The recent court-appointed sales ban on certain iPhone models in Germany could be at risk. That’s thanks to a decision by a German court on Tuesday, who ruled against Qualcomm in its patent case against Apple.
The regional court in the city of Mannheim threw out the Qualcomm suit, claiming that the patent was not being violated due to Apple’s use of Qualcomm chips in its older iPhones. Qualcomm has said it plans to appeal.
Qualcomm has posted a bond of 1.34 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to enforce a German court order halting several iPhone models from selling in the country.
Apple is appealing the court’s December 20, 2018 ruling, although it declined to comment on Qualcomm’s latest move.
Apple will be barred from selling certain iPhone models in Germany, after a court ruled that Apple was infringing on a Qualcomm patent. While the ban isn’t immediate, provided that Apple appeals it, Apple has said that it will stop selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 in Apple Stores until the matter is resolved.
The decision against Apple comes shortly after Qualcomm scored a similar victory in a court in China. It will not affect the iPhone XR, XS, or XS Max.
China isn’t the only place where Apple is trying to ward off a possible legal challenge from Qualcomm. According to a new report, it has introduced a change to iOS that affects only users in Germany.
It comes before a hearing, scheduled for later today, in which a German court will hear that Apple allegedly violated Qualcomm’s patents.
Apple Pay has made its official debut in Germany. The country marks the 32nd market to receive Apple’s mobile payment service after it went live in Belgium and Kazakhstan last month.
Apple Pay is supported by 15 banks and financial institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank unit Comdirect, Hypovereinsbank, Wirecard, Hanseatic Bank, and others.
