Last night, Apple took a massive tiny step toward allowing developers to include links to their sites in the apps — but this is just for ‘reader’ apps. This isn’t a surprise, though. The firm announced this change last year to close the Japan Fair Trade Commission’s (JFTC) investigation that looked into the antimonopoly practices of Apple. The Cupertino-based company considers any app that provides digital content a reader app. Think of magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, or video. So Ne
President Joe Biden is thinking about invoking the 1950 Defense Production Act (DPA) to boost US production of critical EV battery minerals. The act grants the president emergency powers to alter domestic manufacturing policy in times of crisis. According to sources familiar with the matter and the Intercept, which first reported the draft of the executive order, the White House is considering adding minerals such as lithium, nickel, graphite, cobalt, and manganese to the list of items covered b
This article was originally published on Built In by Jamie De Langhe. History, art, English, the humanities: These are the backgrounds of approximately half the people I’ve worked with at both Etsy and Slack. My co-workers have been creators, analytical thinkers and researchers. They look at complex problems and find novel solutions, taking products to a whole new level. Even Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s founder, was a philosophy major with aspirations to one day become a professor. But somethin
If you’re looking for technology with a fast time to market, you can exclude most vehicles and mobility tech. And if you’re waiting for a ride in a hyperloop? Don’t hold your breath. I’ve been writing about hyperloop tech for nearly ten years. Much of the innovation is happening behind the scenes. It’s partnerships and pathways, rules and regulations, and in the case of tech — it’s most often R&D in stealth mode. Every so often, a company will send over illustrations or videos made in CGI of w
WhatsApp voice notes are useful when you want to send some explanation or rant about a bad date to a friend, and you’re too tired to type all of that. But creating and listening to these notes has been a sucky experience — until now, at least Last night, WhatsApp said that it’s going to roll out a bunch of features over the next few weeks that can turn voice notes into a pleasant experience. There are two things I’m most excited about: out-of-chat playback and remember playback. Here’s how it wo
The financial sector has not been seen as synonymous with any sort of institutional change — in fact, it’s largely been the opposite. Hidden behind heavy bank vaults, the opaque world of finance has remained relatively unchanged for the past couple hundred years, gate kept by a select few at the very top, and largely immune to an increasingly demanding and tech-savvy customer base. But that’s all changing now thanks to a swarm of new fintechs who are armed with the latest in disruptive technolog
I was recently reading comments on a post related to COVID-19, and saw a reply I would classify as misinformation, bordering on conspiracy. I couldn’t help but ask the commenter for evidence. Their response came with some web links and “do your own research”. I then asked about their research methodology, which turned out to be searching for specific terms on Google. As an academic, I was intrigued. Academic research aims to establish the truth of a phenomenon based on evidence, analysis , and p
Apple‘s AirTags are really good at finding misplaced items, but that same ability makes them an alarmingly effective stalking tool in the wrong hands. And while the company has implemented numerous ways of alerting iOS users about nefarious AirTags use, Android users remain at risk unless they download and pro-actively check Apple’s Tracker Detect app (or third-party alternatives). Google might now be working on a native solution to protect against stalking by AirTags and similar tracking device
Not to be melodramatic, today might be one of the most important days in PC gaming history. Intel is launching its first batch of Arc GPUs today, adding a third major competitor to a market that’s been dominated by Nvidia and AMD (or ATI, back in the day) for as long as many gamers and creators can remember. Now the question is just whether Intel’s discrete GPUs are any good. I’ll go ahead and warn you right away that Intel didn’t provide any hard comparisons with its competitors; we’ll have to
As manufacturers introduce new models of electric vehicles, demand for them is growing steadily. New EV sales in the U.S. roughly doubled in 2021 and could double again in 2022, from 600,000 to 1.2 million. Auto industry leaders expect that EVs could account for at least half of all new U.S. car sales by the end of the decade. EVs appeal to different customers in different ways. Many buyers want to help protect the environment; others want to save money on gasoline or try out the latest, coolest