Apple plans to bring iOS apps to MacOS later this year

Despite reportedly pushing some iOS features down the road, it looks like Mac users might see some cross-compatible iOS apps show up in the Mac App Store before long. According to MacRumors, the framework which would allow iOS apps to run on MacOS is in the works for release later this year.

There is no word on how exactly it would work, which apps would be available cross-platform, or if it would be a universal framework that would work with any iOS app, but we do have a few clues as to how it could. Currently, as MacRumors reports, MacOS uses a framework called UXKit which is similar in function to Apple’s UIKit, which is used to create user interfaces for iOS apps. That means there is already a bit of overlap between these behind-the-scenes tools, making a closer integration between iOS and MacOS a shorter leap than it might appear.

MacRumors speculates that the public announcement could come at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, with a beta test following in the summer and a public release likely coming in September or October. The plans were reportedly announced to Apple employees in a meeting with software engineering head Craig Federighi in January.

“Apple’s move to delay some features was announced to employees at a meeting earlier this month by software chief Craig Federighi. The company is looking to address criticisms that it has put new products and features ahead of ensuring quality,” Axios reports.

Bringing iOS apps to MacOS would put Apple’s flagship operating system in direct competition with Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform — a similar framework designed to allow apps to run on various platforms seamlessly. With both operating system giants moving toward their own solutions to unify their respective desktop and mobile environments, it will be easier than ever for developers to create platform agnostic applications that work in a variety of environments.

In Apple’s case, it’s an intriguing move considering iOS is a much more mature and robust platform than Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile ever was. Bringing iOS apps to MacOS would open the doors to a large existing ecosystem, provided the implementation works seamlessly. Otherwise, it could just mean your Mac has access to a bunch of new apps you will never use.

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Samsung confirms it’s working on chips for cryptocurrency mining

Just like everyone else on the planet, it looks like Samsung is getting in on the cryptocurrency business, by manufacturing ASIC chips designed specifically for mining those precious bitcoins. Or litecoins, or NEM tokens, or dogecoins, take your pick. Point is, one of the world’s largest chip manufacturers is muscling into the cryptocurrency mining industry.

“Samsung’s foundry business is currently engaged in the manufacturing of cryptocurrency mining chips. However we are unable to disclose further details regarding our customers,” a Samsung spokesperson told TechCrunch.

According to TechCrunch, the move comes as part of a collaboration with a distribution partner in China. Other than that, there is not much to go on here, Samsung has remained tight-lipped about who it’s making the chips for, and to what end — other than their purpose as crypto-mining tools.

To clarify, Samsung isn’t making CPUs or GPUs for bitcoin mining, instead it is making application-specific integrated circuit or ASIC chips. Think of these as processors designed for one specific purpose, rather than the kind of general use processor inside your computer or smartphone. ASIC chips are made with particular uses in mind, and optimized to perform a single task very well and very efficiently. That’s why ASIC chips built for cryptocurrency mining are in such high demand. They get the job done because it’s the only job they’re built for.

Samsung getting in on this part of the cryptocurrency craze makes sense, since its a massive company with its snaking tendrils in hundreds of different businesses. Manufacturing ASIC chips for crypto mining isn’t much of a stretch for Samsung’s enormous manufacturing infrastructure. It is, however, big news for other ASIC chip manufacturers.

As TechCrunch points out, it’s not clear exactly where Samsung is going to fit into the cryptocurrency chip manufacturing business, but at the very least it’s putting itself in direct competition with some big players in chip manufacturing — namely, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC.

As the world’s largest chip manufacturer, TSMC has made a comfortable niche in the cryptocurrency-facing ASIC chip market. We will have to wait and see what happens now that Samsung is jumping in with both feet — either way, it’s sure to make some waves.

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Xerox becomes Fuji Xerox in cost-cutting move with Fujifilm

Fujifilm and Xerox are taking existing industry collaboration to a new level. On Wednesday, January 31, Fujifilm and Xerox announced a move to combine efforts in the document solutions industry. Fujifilm will be a majority stakeholder in a newly combined company called Fuji Xerox. The move will allow the companies to reduce costs while expanding options through the merger of two different research and development teams.

Understanding just how the companies are working together is a bit of a brain teaser. Fuji Xerox Co. Ltd. (not to be confused with the new Fuji Xerox) is a joint venture by Fujifilm and Xerox created over 50 years ago. Fujifilm owns a 75 percent stake in that joint venture and Xerox, the remaining 25 percent. That Fujifilm Xerox Co. (not Fujifilm itself) is combining with the existing Xerox company, which will be renamed into Fuji Xerox. With all the Fuji Xeroxes being tossed around, the group is temporarily referring to the new venture as New Fuji Xerox.

Fujifilm isn’t spending any actual cash on the change either — Fujifilm is selling all of its shares in that 75 percent of the existing Fuji Xerox and using that to buy a 50.1 percent share in the New Fuji Xerox.

While it may be a bit hard to follow how the transaction is happening — with multiple parts under the same Fuji Xerox name — the merger’s impact on consumers is a bit easier to make out. With the combination, the companies combined revenue, as they sit currently, makes the New Fuji Xerox a world leader out of all the document solution companies. The merger will also bring together their resources and technology, which Fujifilm says will help expand offerings from Fuji Xerox. That opens up possibilities for the new Fuji Xerox outside of the typical office, including industrial printing and commercial printing.

The combination also comes as office document focused companies are struggling with decreasing revenues as expanding digital tools leave lower demand for printing. Through the merger, the previous Fuji Xerox and Xerox will be able to reduce their costs to the tune of $1.7 billion dollars by 2022, with a majority of those savings taking place over the next two years. Some of that structural reform is through cutting what amounts to about a fifth of the workforce from the existing Fuji Xerox, or around 10,000 employees in the Asia Pacific region, according to CNBC.

Xerox becoming Fuji Xerox doesn’t necessarily that Xerox name will disappear — according to the announcement, the newly formed company plans to continue using the Fuji Xerox and Xerox brands in their current regions, with Fuji Xerox primarily in Asia and Xerox the more common name in the United States and Europe.

The deal is expected to be finalized this summer.

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Elon Musk sells all 20,000 $500 Boring Company flamethrowers

Just a few days after opening pre-orders for $500 Boring Company-branded flamethrowers, Elon Musk has announced that all 20,000 have been sold. That’s $10 million in sales for a product that will ship in spring (hopefully) on a website that admits it’s overpriced and said: “You can definitely buy one for less elsewhere.” At least, according to Musk, each order will come with a complimentary fire extinguisher.

If you missed out and absolutely must have a flamethrower ASAP, there are others available. USA Today points out the XM42-M from Ion Productions Team that’s a bit more expensive at $899, but promises a range of over 30 feet. If it absolutely must be Musk, however, don’t despair — he tweeted that a “snowthrower” would be fun.

Flamethrowers sold out

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 1, 2018

All flamethrowers will ship with a complimentary boring fire extinguisher

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 1, 2018

Source: Boring Company

Uber’s Siri and Apple Maps Integrations Have Disappeared

Uber’s latest app update appears to have removed several important iOS integrations, with the service now unavailable to both Siri and Apple Maps.

If you ask Siri to get you an Uber, a feature that has been available since the launch of iOS 10, Siri will say that Uber hasn’t activated that feature. In the “Siri & Search” section of the Uber options in the Settings app, there’s also no longer a “Use with Siri” toggle.

Similarly, in Apple Maps, you can no longer select Uber as an option when choosing “Ride” when getting directions. This is also a feature that debuted in iOS 10.

Both Siri and Apple Maps integrations are still available for other ride sharing apps like Lyft, so the problem seems to be with the Uber app rather than with Apple’s services.

The removal of both features was noticed by MacRumors readers and reddit users starting last week. It is not clear if Uber has deliberately removed these features or if it’s a bug, and the company did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by MacRumors earlier this afternoon. We have also contacted Apple and will update this post when we hear back.

Uber integration with Siri, enabled through the SiriKit API, was a much touted feature when iOS 10 first launched, as was Apple Maps integration. Both Apple and Uber heavily promoted the two options when iOS 10 rolled out.

Tags: Siri, Apple Maps, Uber
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eBay will soon replace PayPal as its main payment option

eBay and PayPal remained tight even after the two headed to splitsville in 2015. That’s bound to change in the near future now that the auction site has decided to offer an integrated payment system built by Amsterdam-based company Adyen. The move will give way to a more seamless payment experience — no need to log into another website to pay — since Adyen’s product (already used by Netflix and Uber) is purely a back-end payment service.

You might encounter the new payment system as soon as the second half of 2018, when the e-commerce giant deploys it (on a small scale) in North America. Its availability will expand in 2019 and the year after, until all sellers have been transitioned to the new system by 2021. eBay has an existing contract to continue offering PayPal as a payment option until July 2023, but neither company has announced if they have plans to extend that partnership beyond that point.

According to the auction site’s announcement, offering its own intermediate payment system will allow it to build a central console where sellers can track all their transactions easily. Plus, it’ll lower the payment processing charges sellers have to pay. Even with the lower charges, Recode says the move will boost eBay’s revenue by $2 billion, since it can now pocket those payment processing fees. At the moment, PayPal’s value is billions more than eBay — its shares fell after news of eBay’s decision was announced, but it remains to be seen if it will have a huge and permanent effect on the payment portal’s business.

Wenig: We have made the decision to intermediate payments on $eBay. We have already begun building this capability, and will move as quickly as we can under the terms of our operating agreement with PayPal. pic.twitter.com/qDp3mDmBVx

— eBay Newsroom (@eBayNewsroom) January 31, 2018

Via: Recode

Source: eBay, (Twitter)

SpaceX rocket survives an intentional water landing

Right now, SpaceX is only reusing rockets to a limited degree — it’s disposing of vehicles after a short while when they’re unlikely to survive their next flight. With its latest launch, though, it got lucky. Elon Musk has confirmed that the Falcon 9 first stage from the GovSat-1 launch survived its intentional water landing. It was only meant to test a “very high retrothrust landing” for the sake of protecting the drone ship and was expected to meet an untimely end, but it appeared to have survived largely intact.

Musk hoped the booster could be towed to shore, although there’s no mention of what happens if it comes back safely. We wouldn’t count on much happening, however. It doesn’t exactly look like it’s in a healthy state, and SpaceX isn’t about to preserve every rocket with a special story behind it.

As it is, the company’s eyes are elsewhere. SpaceX is poised to launch Falcon Heavy for the first time on February 6th, and the successful GovSat-1 effort makes sure the Heavy launch can go ahead without hiccups. The rocket recovery is really icing on the cake.

This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn’t hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived. We will try to tow it back to shore. pic.twitter.com/hipmgdnq16

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 31, 2018

Source: Elon Musk (Twitter)

Messaging giant Line catches cryptocurrency fever

Let’s say you run Line. Your messaging service, plus other forays like smart speakers and music, aren’t enough to avoid substantial losses. What do you do to turn things around? If you ask the company, finance is the answer. Line has created a new financial company that will offer cryptocurrency trading on top of staples like insurance and loans. It’s not saying what currencies will trade or when the virtual money service will be an option, but it plans to make all the services available within the Line chat app.

This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. Japan is one the largest cryptocurrency markets, and it still has a huge user base even when you don’t include its other products. Its existing payment service has about 40 million users, and this would be a logical extension. New financial services could give Line a healthy source of revenue and lock people in, whether they want to insure their apartment or buy a new car.

As it stands, Line isn’t betting solely on finance. It just struck a deal that gives wireless giant SoftBank a controlling 51 percent stake of its Line Mobile cellular service. It’s far from giant with a value of about $15 million, but this gives Line a boost while letting SoftBank wrap its fingers around yet another cell network. Don’t be surprised if Line Mobile grows beyond its fledgling roots, even if it’s unlikely to have a global presence.

Via: TechCrunch (1), (2)

Source: Line (1), (2)

Nintendo Switch Online will launch in September

We knew Nintendo’s new online service would launch this year, and now we know Switch owners will be waiting until September for it. The company tweeted that Nintendo Switch Online will launch then, but didn’t reveal much else, other than the fact that it will remain free to use until the official launch (which will come about a year after gamers were expecting it). Nintendo has revealed a few of the features (like access to archived titles) and that it will cost $20 per year, but that’s about it for now. A few games are already making use of its mobile apps for things like voice chat, but hopefully, we’ll find out more information soon. For now, Nintendo’s flooding the channel with news, including word of its Mario Kart Tour mobile game, and a Mario movie in development.

#NintendoSwitch Online will launch in September 2018! pic.twitter.com/h3Rpeyymsx

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 1, 2018

Source: Nintendo (Twitter)

Nintendo will bring ‘Mario Kart Tour’ to smartphones by March 2019

After Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing Pocket, the next Nintendo game to get a mobile version is Mario Kart. Following up on the company’s plan to release 2-3 games per year (there’s a Zelda game in development too) Mario Kart Tour is scheduled to arrive at some point before March 2019.

Developing…

The checkered flag has been raised and the finish line is near. A new mobile application is now in development: Mario Kart Tour! #MarioKartTour Releasing in the fiscal year ending in March 2019. pic.twitter.com/8GIyR7ZM4z

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 1, 2018

Source: Nintendo (Twitter)