Posts Tagged: expand

iPhone 14’s satellite feature may expand a lot sooner than we thought

Rumor has it that we’ll be hearing about Apple’s plans to expand its emergency satellite feature to new countries earlier than expected.
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Apple reportedly tested search ads in Maps in bid to expand advertising business

Apple may be planning to bring ads to more of its first-party apps. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company has conducted internal tests of a version of Maps that features search ads. Apple already employs similar advertisements within the App Store.

Developers can pay the company to get their software to show up at the top of the search results page when you input specific terms. Gurman suggests search ads in Maps would work in much the same way. For instance, a Japanese restaurant could pay Apple for their business to show up higher in local listings when people use search terms like “sushi.” Gurman believes Apple could implement similar ads in its Podcasts and Books apps. He says the company could begin offering an ad-supported tier through Apple TV+.

Gurman attributes the potential push to Todd Teresi, the vice president in charge of the company’s advertising division. Teresi recently began reporting directly to services chief Eddy Cue and has reportedly talked of greatly expanding his team’s impact. The division generates about $ 4 billion in annual revenue. Teresi’s ambition is to increase that number to the double digits. That would require a significant expansion of Apple’s current advertising efforts.

A wider advertising push would be an about-face for a company that has, at least externally, positioned itself as a champion of user privacy. With the release of iOS 14.5, Apple introduced a feature called App Tracking Transparency. The prompt allows you to prevent apps from logging your activity across other apps and websites. In 2022, it’s estimated the policy will cost Facebook parent company Meta approximately $ 13 billion in lost revenue. When Apple announced ATT at WWDC 2020, the company publicly said it designed the feature to protect user privacy. A recent report from The Wall Street Journal, which said the company pursued a revenue-sharing agreement with Facebook, suggests its motivations with ATT may have not been so altruistic.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Google will expand the usefulness of voice commands beyond Android phones

Google has helped app creators make better use of Assistant voice commands over time, but its longstanding Conversational Actions framework for those commands has had its limits. It's primarily meant for conventional Android mobile devices, and it's voice-only — the technology won't help much on your smartwatch, or when you need some on-screen interaction. The company is taking steps to make voice control more useful across all its platforms, though. It's expanding the App Actions framework to be more helpful for the entire Android ecosystem, and it's phasing out the old system in the process.

The company is in the midst of integrating App Actions across all Android-based platforms, including automotive platforms and wearables. Assistant can now point you to the relevant apps for a given command even when you don't mention an app's name, or when you're looking for the right software in "All Apps" on a Pixel 6. And if you don't have the app necessary for a command, you'll be taken to the appropriate Play Store page. These will help developers by boosting demand for their apps, of course, but they'll also help you focus on accomplishing tasks rather than crafting the exact phrase you need.

Developers will have a strong incentive to embrace the newer technology. Google is sunsetting Conversational Actions in June 2023, and plans to "turn down" features like console analytics at that point. The extra year will give app producers the time to learn App Actions and otherwise transition away from the earlier approach.

You might have seen this shift coming. Conversational Actions was introduced five years ago, only to be supplemented by App Actions (in an initially limited form) in 2019 — Google has been priming itself for a handover like this for a while. And with Google committing to major expansions of platforms like Android Auto and Wear OS, upgraded voice functionality is that much more important for the company.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Amazon Pharmacy may expand to the UK, Canada and Australia

Amazon may be expanding its prescription drug delivery business to other countries. The e-commerce titan has applied for a trademark on the name "Amazon Pharmacy" in Canada, the UK and Australia, according to CNBC. Amazon reportedly filed its applica…
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Deliveroo will expand its network with restaurants’ own riders

Deliveroo has taken leaf out of Just Eat's book and will allow partner restaurants to use their own riders. That means it can now team up with establishments that have their own fleet. The British food delivery app will launch a new service called "M…
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Samsung Pay continues to expand, this time to Italy

Samsung Pay is an integral part of the Galaxy experience, and they’ve been toiling away trying to bring it to more and more markets. The latest addition to the company’s mobile payment system will now allow it to be used in Italy, bringing Samsung Pay to a total of 21 locations around the world.  Samsung […]

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EyeForce is an affordable, ultra-widescreen VR headset will expand your horizons

New Kickstarter project EyeForce wants to beat the established giants of virtual reality by doubling the field of vision offered by headsets from Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Can it do it? Its creator sounds confident.

The post EyeForce is an affordable, ultra-widescreen VR headset will expand your horizons appeared first on Digital Trends.

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