iPhone app sideloading coming to EU users, 80% of COD hardware sales on Playstation
iPhone users in the EU next year will be able to download apps hosted outside of Apple’s official App Store to comply with European regulations, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman. Otherwise known as sideloading, the change coming sometime in the first half of 2024 will allow customers to download apps without needing to use the App Store, which will mean developers won’t need to pay Apple’s 15 to 30 percent fees. Writing in the latest subscriber edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman said Apple will introduce a “highly controlled system” that lets EU users install apps hosted elsewhere. Mac Rumors
The future of the British brand Zapp looked promising as its top team gathered around one of its electric mopeds and stared up at a billboard bearing its logo close to Times Square, New York, in May. They threw their arms aloft as they marked the six-year-old company’s listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange, in a deal valuing it at $573m (£467m). Another billboard declared: “Simply Electric. No compromise.” On social media, Zapp wrote: “All excited and ready for the next chapter! Live life unplugged.” Six months on, the stock has hit the skids, and now has a market cap of $12.5m, according to the Nasdaq. The Guardian
A contractual obligation means Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation for at least ten years, despite Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. But if numbers continue to trend like this, we could foresee the series remaining on Sony’s consoles for a lot longer: an enormous 80 per cent of Modern Warfare 3’s physical copies were purchased on PS5 and PS4 during launch week in the UK. It’s worth noting that the game was included in a PS5 hardware bundle, and that contributes to these numbers. It should also be reiterated that this only includes boxed copies, so digital data may skew the results in a different way. PushSquare
NASA astronauts accidentally dropped their toolbox during a walk around the International Space Station – and the floating kit could be visible from Earth. Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara spent six hours and 42 minutes outside the ISS as they carried out maintenance work. But a satchel-sized bag floated away and is now orbiting the Earth, several minutes ahead of the space station.
Last seen by @Astro_Satoshi while floating over Mount Fuji 🗻 the ‘Orbital Police’ can confirm that the lost EVA gear is being tracked 🫡 https://t.co/wz4MITmAfM pic.twitter.com/eksfu9fPFw
— Dr Meganne Christian (@astro_meganne) November 5, 2023
Out of adversity comes opportunity, so the saying goes. For Whitney Wolfe Herd, that meant taking a difficult exit from online dating app firm Tinder – which she sued for sexual harassment – and setting up Bumble, her own rival company with a focus very much on women. Nearly a decade and a billion dollar fortune later, Ms Wolfe Herd announced this week that she is stepping down as Bumble’s boss. But it is a bittersweet moment. In an interview with the BBC before she made her announcement, Ms Wolfe Herd lamented that, as a group of young women who came up in tech in the 2010s, not many are left. BBC
