9to5Mac
Despite a public backlash, Ben Lovejoy at 9To5Mac doesn’t think Apple was in the wrong for throttling older iPhones. Yet, the fact that the tech titan only revealed the maneuver this week is troubling, according to Lovejoy. “The fact that Apple has been slowing down older devices plays right into the hands of [conspiracy theories],” he writes. “For years, we’ve all been reassuring iPhone owners that Apple doesn’t deliberately slow older devices, and now it turns out we were wrong: it has.”
Slash Gear
Amazon just bought wireless security camera Blink. “The deal was announced today, and for the moment will see Blink continue to operate as-is, with no changes to the company’s line-up,” SlashGear reports. “Blink first broke cover back in 2014, then the following year announced a crowdfunding campaign aiming to raise $200k for its entirely wire-free security camera.”
Re/code
After about a year, Jonathan Wegener is leaving Snap, Recode reports. Wegener worked on product at the struggling social giant. “People come and go at big tech companies all the time, but Snap tends to see execs come and go quicker than most,” Recode notes. “A number of well-known Silicon Valley techies have gone to work at Snap over the years, and many of them don’t make it more than 18 months.”
The Wall Street Journal
Spotify will receive approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to move forward with a listing of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, the Wall Street Journal reports. The paper calls the approval “a key step in the music-streaming service’s plan to avoid a traditional initial public offering.”
Reuters
White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert is crediting Facebook and Microsoft with disabling several recent North Korean cyber threats. “Bossert did not provide details on the actions by the two American tech heavyweights but said the U.S. government was calling on other companies to cooperate in cyber security defense,” Reuters reports.
Tubefilter
Among tvOS apps, Amazon’s Prime Video has fast become top dog, BestAppleTV reports, according to TubeFilter. “What is not known is how many times the app has been downloaded from the Apple TV App Store leading it to break the record or the app and its record that was broken,” it writes. “It is also not known if Apple provided record-breaking comparison numbers to Amazon.”
Android Police
Google just announced several policies intended to help make apps distributed through its Play Store better and more secure. “Over the next two years, developers will be required to target a recent SDK version in their app updates and provide 64-bit versions of native apps if they aren't already,” Android Police writes. “The Play Store will also begin adding some new metadata to APKs for verification purposes, but most developers shouldn't need to worry about this.”
Bloomberg
Apple reportedly plans to give consumers a way to use a single set of apps that work across iPhones, iPads and Macs. “Starting as early as next year, software developers will be able to design a single application that works with a touchscreen or mouse and trackpad depending on whether it’s running on the iPhone and iPad operating system or on Mac hardware,” Bloomberg reports, citing sources.
The New York Times
Microsoft has eliminated forced arbitration agreements with employees who make sexual harassment claims, and is supporting a proposed federal law that would widely ban such agreements, The New York Times reports. “The moves make Microsoft an early company -- and certainly the most prominent -- to take such steps to end legal agreements that have been criticized for helping to perpetuate sexual abuse in the workplace,” The Times writes.
Reuters
French authorities are threatening to fine WhatsApp if it doesn’t comply with an order to bring its sharing of user data with parent company Facebook into line with French privacy law, Reuters reports. “The French data protection authority - CNIL - said on Monday it had told WhatsApp to comply with the order within one month, and pay particular attention to obtaining users’ consent.”