Bustle: How To Curate Your iPhone’s Home Screen With The New Widget Tool. “On Sept. 16, Apple released the iPhone’s latest operating system, iOS 14. The upgrade has a few features that make life easier, like direct replies in group chats and a new translation app, but one upgrade will make your life harder in the best possible way — the newly customizable Home Screen with widgets, graphic icons that offer a summary of an app at a glance.”
iOS
Google Blog: Easier access to Search, Chrome and Gmail in iOS 14
Google Blog: Easier access to Search, Chrome and Gmail in iOS 14. “iOS 14 has launched, and with it comes new features that make it easier to access some of the Google apps you use most often. Starting today, you can add a Google Search Widget to your Home Screen to let you find information even faster. You can also set Chrome as your default browser app on your iPhone or iPad, and in the coming days, you’ll be able to set Gmail as your default email app.”
Engadget: Google is releasing a free phone backup tool for iOS
Engadget: Google is releasing a free phone backup tool for iOS. “Last year, Google added automatic Android phone backups to Google One, the company’s ‘membership’ program that includes Drive storage, family sharing and a handful of other perks. It made sense for Google to bake that feature right into Android, but today the company announced it’ll soon do the same for iPhone users as well.”
TechCrunch: Facebook code change caused outage for Spotify, Pinterest and Waze apps
TechCrunch: Facebook code change caused outage for Spotify, Pinterest and Waze apps. “If you’re an iPhone user, odds are fairly good you spent a frustrating portion of the morning attempting to reopen apps. I know my morning walk was dampened by the inability to fire up Spotify. Plenty of other users reported similar issues with a number of apps, including Pinterest and Waze. The issue has since been resolved, with Facebook noting that the problem rests firmly on its shoulders.”
The Next Web: Facebook f*ck-up is crashing tons of iOS apps, including Spotify and Tinder
The Next Web: Facebook f*ck-up is crashing tons of iOS apps, including Spotify and Tinder. Blame me for the asterisk. “A swathe of popular services, including Spotify, Pinterest, Twitter, Viber, Venmo, Tinder, and even Apple’s App Store, are experiencing technical difficulties. The exact number of affected users is unclear at present, but over 15,000 people have collectively reported unable to access Spotify, Pinterest, and Waze, according to Down Detector.”
Engadget: Reddit and LinkedIn will fix clipboard snooping in their iOS apps
Engadget: Reddit and LinkedIn will fix clipboard snooping in their iOS apps. “The clipboard privacy feature in iOS 14 is prompting more major developers to tone down their apps’ nosy behavior. To start, Reddit told The Verge in a statement that it would fix code in its iOS app that copies clipboard data with virtually every keystroke, as Urspace.io co-founder Don Morton discovered.”
ThreatPost: TikTok To Stop Clipboard Snooping After Apple Privacy Feature Exposes Behavior
ThreatPost: TikTok To Stop Clipboard Snooping After Apple Privacy Feature Exposes Behavior. “App will stop reading users’ device cut-and-paste data after a new banner alert in an Apple update uncovered the activity. A new privacy feature in Apple iOS 14 sheds light on TikTok’s practice of reading iPhone users’ cut-and-paste data, even though the company said in March it would stop.”
CNET: 3D photos on iOS or Android are now a thing, thanks to this new, free app
CNET: 3D photos on iOS or Android are now a thing, thanks to this new, free app. “After being in beta for months, the 3D photo app LucidPix is now available to iOS and Android users. Whether you have a newer phone like the iPhone 11 or Samsung Galaxy Z Flip or an older one like a Motorola Moto G6 or iPhone 6S, you can use the app take 3D photos. Best of all, you don’t need a special accessory or multiple rear cameras. Instead, LucidPix uses artificial intelligence to render 3D photos that will move as you tilt and pan your phone.”
BetaNews: Security researcher discovers vulnerabilities in iOS and macOS that could be exploited to hack webcams
BetaNews: Security researcher discovers vulnerabilities in iOS and macOS that could be exploited to hack webcams. “Ryan Pickren, a former Amazon Web Services (AWS) security engineer, found a series of security flaws in Apple’s web browser, some of which could be exploited to hijack the camera of a Mac or iPhone to spy on users. The webcam hacking technique combined a total of three zero-day bugs.”
The Register: Apple bans COVID-19 games and restricts virus-related apps to authoritative sources
The Register: Apple bans COVID-19 games and restricts virus-related apps to authoritative souces. “Apple has proclaimed it won’t let COVID-19-related games into its app store, because it’s the responsible thing to do. Cupertino’s new guidance issued to developers late last week said ‘Communities around the world are depending on apps to be credible news sources — helping users understand the latest health innovations, find out where they can get help if needed or provide assistance to their neighbors.'”
Lifehacker: Record Two iPhone Cameras at Once With This Free iOS App
Lifehacker: Record Two iPhone Cameras at Once With This Free iOS App. “All you need to create interesting, high-quality video content these days is a smartphone. With the right apps, what used to require extra gear and software can mostly all be done on a single iPhone—including recording multiple shots simultaneously.”
Hongkiat: 5 Best Apps to Monitor Mobile Data Usage
Hongkiat: 5 Best Apps to Monitor Mobile Data Usage. “It’s always a good idea to keep track of your mobile data usage so you can avoid exceeding your data usage quota. Among the two main mobile operating systems, Android natively provides you an interface to keep track and monitor mobile data usage; iOS on the other hand, doesn’t offer much information. So in this post, I am going to discuss some useful apps (both iOS and Android) that you can download to keep track of mobile data usage, starting with the one I’m current using.”
How-To Geek: How to Create and Use Memoji and Animoji on an iPhone
How-To Geek: How to Create and Use Memoji and Animoji on an iPhone. “When you think of playful camera filters, Snapchat is probably the first app that comes to mind. But did you know that you can create your own interactive avatars using your iPhone or iPad? You can use Memoji and Animoji to send fun stickers to friends or disguise yourself during a FaceTime call. Thanks to iOS 13, Memoji are now available on all iPhones and iPads running the latest software, even if they don’t have a Face ID camera. Here’s how it works.”
ZDNet: Apple opens public bug bounty program, publishes official rules
ZDNet: Apple opens public bug bounty program, publishes official rules. “Apple has formally opened its bug bounty program today to all security researchers, after announcing the move earlier this year in August at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. Until today, Apple ran an invitation-based bug bounty program for selected security researchers only and was accepting only iOS security bugs.”
The Verge: Infinite text adventure AI Dungeon is now available on iOS and Android
The Verge: Infinite text adventure AI Dungeon is now available on iOS and Android. “Earlier this month we told you about AI Dungeon, an AI-powered text adventure with near infinite possibilities. You can type what you want into the game, and the AI will generate a response on the fly, creating a freewheeling experience that encourages cooperation and imagination. Now, AI Dungeon is available on iOS and Android as well, making it much easier to explore fantasy and sci-fi realms with an AI game master.”