Displaying items by tag: iOS

Apple has announced the delay of the implementation of its new anti-tracking feature, designed to ensure that apps and websites don’t track users without their consent.

This will mean that apps will need to ask users for their permission to access the ad-tracking ID on iPads and iPhones. However, this has been delayed as it was meant to be part of Apple’s latest iOS 14 update which was set to be released in autumn 2020.

Apple has disclosed that these changes have been postponed to the beginning of 2021 in order to give websites and app developers the chance to modify their services to fit this.

However, Facebook warned that the tech giant’s new privacy measure would make one of its advertising tools “ineffective” on iOS 14 and that “it may not make sense to offer it on iOS 14”. Apple has essentially forced Facebook to no longer collect ad-tracking IDs of its users on iOS 14.

The anti-tracking feature, which uses a truly unique code for every operating iPhone, makes it compulsory for users to grant permission to apps and websites to be able to access information on their data which is basically used to figure out their online behavior.

This comes at a terrible time for app developers who are already dealing with a COVID-induced recession. The revenue of free apps will be affected immensely as the opportunities for the tracking, collection and sharing of data will be limited to such a huge extent because users will most likely prefer to maintain their privacy.

Q2 growth for tablets and business smartphones was up slightly this year, as the market shows signs of a rebound, according to research by Strategy Analytics. Business smartphone shipments grew 14.8 percent year-on-year to reach 107.1 million units in Q2, up 6.1 percent sequentially from Q1. Tablets reached 17.3 million units in Q2, up 7.5 percent from Q1.  

While Q2 2017 showed signs of an increase on a slower first quarter, suggesting signs of an improvement for the remainder of the year, the outlook still remains volatile, according to Strategy Analytics, with longer replacement cycles and GDPR (general data protection regulation) likely to impact the market over the short to medium term.

“Overall, the business smartphone industry expanded steadily in the second quarter, Samsung saw positive shipment growth while Apple's shipments slipped by 11 percent,” said analyst Gina Luk. “Android and iOS are the two dominant operating systems in the market, as Windows 10 smartphone shipments continued to be squeezed out by the industry with close to zero market share.”

Through the first half of the year, the pace of business mobile devices shipments appears to be on trend with what the industry is accustomed to seeing with the current expansion – shipments registering disappointing first quarter growth performance to be followed with a stronger pace of growth in the second quarter, according to Strategy Analytics.

“The worldwide business tablet market remains volatile; it rebounded slightly to reach 17.3 million units in the second quarter, a 7.5 percent increase from Q1 2017, but year on year growth was flat at 0.7 percent on Q2 2016. The picture is still quite mixed,” said Andrew Brown, Executive Director of Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics.

“North American business tablet volumes were up 5.4 percent sequentially in Q2 2017, however shipments declined 4.2 percent year-on-year,” he added. “The story was similar in Central & Latin America, which grew 2.2 percent quarterly, but shrank by 6.1 percent from Q2 2016, although other regions are registering positive quarter-over-quarter growth.”

Accenture and Apple have partnered to help businesses transform how their people engage with customers through innovative business solutions for iOS. The partnership will take full advantage of the iOS platform, and Accenture’s capabilities as a leader in industry and digital transformation, to help companies unlock new revenue streams, increase productivity, improved customer experience and reduce costs.

Accenture will create a dedicated iOS practice within Accenture Digital Studios in select locations around the world. Experts from Apple will be co-located with this team. Working together, the two companies will launch a new set of tools and services that help enterprise clients transform how they engage with customers using iPhone and iPad. The experts will include visual and experience designers, programmers, data architects and scientists, and hardware and software designers.
 
“Starting 10 years ago with iPhone, and then with iPad, Apple has been transforming how work gets done, yet we believe that businesses have only just begun to scratch the surface of what they can do with our products,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Both Apple and Accenture are leaders in building incredible user experiences and together we can continue to truly modernize how businesses work through amazing solutions that take advantage of the incredible capabilities of Apple’s technologies.”
 
Pierre Nanterme, Accenture’s chairman and CEO, said, “Based on our experience in developing mobile apps, we believe that iOS is the superior mobile platform for businesses and are excited to be partnering with Apple. By combining Accenture’s vast digital capabilities and industry expertise with Apple’s market leadership in creating products that delight customers, we are in a perfect position to help our clients transform the way they work.”

The new iOS tools and services will take full advantage of the latest Apple technologies and tap into Accenture’s digital and analytics capabilities, including new ecosystem services to help clients address the full range of iOS integration requirements to connect to back-end systems, leveraging Accenture’s systems integration expertise and the unique iOS advantages built by Apple with key partners like SAP and Cisco.

It will also include Internet-of-Things (IoT) services featuring new tools templates and predesigned code to help clients take greater advantage of the data from IoT platforms in their iOS apps, putting more power into the hands of workers.

Apple will release its new iOS 11 software update later this year and it will not be available for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C. Features of the new operating system were showcased at Apple’s recent WWDC event in California, where it was confirmed that older iPhone models and iPads would not be supported by the iOS 11.

The operating system will not work on iPhone 5 (released in 2012) or the iPhone 5C (2013), nor will it support fourth-generation iPads (2012). These devices will still be able to function with iOS 10 but security updates might not be available. In addition, some apps on iOS 10 won’t work anymore as they will need to be optimized for iOS 11.

Even though the move will be inconvenient for users who still want to use an iPhone 5, etc., the reason for it, according to Apple, has to do with the processors in devices. The iOS 11 update will only work with newer iPhone models that have a 64-bit processor which allows the system to use larger amounts of memory. Older models, such as the iPhone 5, only have a 32-bit processor.

The move could also be challenging for app developers, because if their apps are optimized for 64-bit devices, then they won’t work on older iPhones. Even though the iPhone 5 was released five years ago, it is still a popular device to purchase, according to e-commerce site Trade Me. There are currently 300 for sale on the site along with a similar number of iPhone 5Cs.

The most affordable iPhone model available on the market today is the SE which sells for around $750 and is a similar size to the iPhone 5. Apple will release new iPhone models later this year, one of which could be an update to the SE. iOS 11 is expected to be available as a free update for supported iPhones and iPads in September.

Apple recently launched a new app development curriculum designed for students who want to pursue careers in the fast-growing app economy. The curriculum is available as a free download from Apple’s iBooks Store.

App Development with Swift is a full-year course designed by Apple engineers and educators to teach students elements of app design using Swift, one of the world’s most popular programming languages. Students will learn to code and design fully functional apps, gaining critical job skills in software development and information technology.

Starting this fall, six community college systems serving nearly 500,000 students across the United States will be among the first to offer the innovative curriculum. At many campuses, local businesses will also offer students mentoring and internships.

“We’ve seen firsthand the impact that coding has on individuals and the US economy as a whole. The app economy and software development are among the fastest-growing job sectors in America and we’re thrilled to be providing educators and students with the tools to learn coding,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

“Community colleges play a critical role in helping students achieve their dreams, and we hope these courses will open doors for people of all ages and backgrounds to pursue what they love.”

The curriculum will be offered by the Alabama Community College System, Columbus State Community College, Harrisburg Area Community College, Houston Community College, Mesa Community College and San Mateo Community College District, among others. Select high schools across the country will also be teaching the App Development with Swift curriculum starting this fall. Houston Community College is opening an iOS Coding and Design School that will teach Apple’s new curriculum.

“The world calls Houston a knowledge capital because of the incredible concentration of ideas and innovation in our great city,” said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. “Apple’s investment in our community with the launch of the app development curriculum will tap into the creativity of our students, inspire new possibilities and foster our culture of technological transformation.”

“We are focused on preparing our students for life in a global and technological society, and in 2017 that means making sure our students have access to a state-of-the-art coding curriculum,” said Houston Community College Chancellor Cesar Maldonado.

“We are thrilled Apple is offering this incredible opportunity to advance student learning, which will especially help us bridge the gap in computer science training for minorities and women. We can’t wait to see what these students will do and already have local businesses offering mentoring and internship opportunities.”

App Development with Swift is an extension of Apple’s existing K-12 Everyone Can Code curricula which offer everyone the power to learn, write and teach coding. Swift is Apple’s powerful and intuitive programming language that gives developers the freedom and capabilities they need to create the next generation of cutting-edge software.

Popular apps including Airbnb, KAYAK, TripAdvisor, Venmo and Yelp are all created with Swift. In addition to over 1 million downloads of Swift Playgrounds, there have been over 430,000 downloads of the additional Everyone Can Code materials and over 1,000 schools across the US plan to teach with Everyone Can Code materials in the fall.

Earlier in the month, Apple announced the creation of the Advanced Manufacturing Fund focused on creating jobs in the US throughout our supply chain, with an initial investment of $1 billion. The new Swift coding curriculum is another example of Apple’s commitment to economic development and will help create even more career opportunities for students across the country. Apple now supports 2 million jobs across all 50 states, including more than 1.5 million jobs attributable to Apple’s app economy.

Californian tech giant Apple is set to launch an App Accelerator in Bangalore, India, to provide more support to Indian developers and assist them in transforming the design performance of their apps on Apple’s mobile operating system iOS.

Bangalore is the center of India’s technology startup scene, and it’s been said that the App Accelerator will inspire the next generation of Indian developers to get involved with tech. Apple experts will lead briefings each week to provide one-on-one app reviews for developers.

What’s more, the facility will cater for support and guidance on Swift, Apple’s programming language created to build apps for iOS, Apple TV and Apple Watch.

Apple said in a statement that India has “one of the most vibrant and exciting iOS develop communities in the world and already tens of thousands of developers in India make apps for iOS.” The company added: “The App Accelerator at Bangalore will help to further enrich the iOS app ecosystem.”

SAP announced at MWC 2017 plans to deliver SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS on March 30, giving developers the tools needed to build powerful enterprise apps for iPhone and iPad.

evelopers can now register for the SAP Academy for iOS to get the necessary training to create their own native apps. Additionally, early adopter customers have already seen improvements in their business with iOS built on SAP's platforms.

"As promised, SAP is delivering real-time enterprise software to iOS devices, transforming core work processes for companies of all sizes with powerful native apps built specifically for iPhone and iPad," said Bernd Leukert, member of the Executive Board, SAP SE, Products & Innovation. "Customers, partners and SAP can now quickly develop apps that deliver data with the cutting-edge capabilities of SAP Cloud Platform and SAP S/4HANA. The partnership comes at the right time for our customers as more and more companies build their mobile strategies around iOS."

Susan Prescott, vice president of Product Marketing, Apple, said: "When we set out on this partnership with SAP, we knew we had an incredible opportunity to transform how people around the world work by combining the innovation and security of iOS with SAP's leadership in enterprise software. We're already seeing the impact that the combination of iOS and SAP brings to businesses to enable better, more efficient and effective processes across industries. Now even more developers will be able to take advantage of the new SDK, and we can't wait to see how they transform their businesses."

SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS aims to give developers, designers, and businesses around the world the tools and scalability they need to quickly and efficiently build powerful enterprise-grade apps for iPhone and iPad, based on SAP Cloud Platform and built-in Swift, Apple's modern programming language. The software development kit (SDK) is also intended to provide a rich library of prebuilt user experience (UX) components and easier access to innovative device capabilities - such as Touch ID, location services and notifications - to accelerate app development and increase adoption.

The new SDK is designed to enable developers to leverage mobile services and other capabilities of SAP Cloud Platform, providing enterprise features like single sign-on, offline data synchronization and enhanced supportability to fulfill the complex requirements of today's digital enterprises. The SDK is intended to be complemented with innovative tools to identify available UX building blocks, existing enterprise services and application programming interfaces (APIs) to access SAP S/4HANA and other third-party systems, and to generate code snippets to reduce complexity and let the developers focus on creating apps that deliver incredible user experiences.

SAP Academy for iOS available to enable and expand the developer ecosystem
Engaging the power of the global developer community of 2.5 million SAP developers and 13 million Apple developers, SAP Academy for iOS is now available with initial training and workshops. A global rollout is planned for later this year.

To complement the new SDK and SAP Fiori for iOS design language, Apple and SAP have jointly developed the first set of offerings as part of the SAP Academy for iOS curriculum and courses. The courses aim to provide mobile developers and designers with knowledge, tools, education and training needed to build a new class of mobile apps that take full advantage of the new SDK, SAP Cloud Platform, SAP Fiori for iOS and the latest features of Apple hardware and software.

The learning journey for mobile developers within SAP Academy for iOS provides a suggested learning path along with related learning assets. It will be updated regularly as new offers and additional roles are added.

SAP developing native iOS apps for industries
SAP is currently building native iOS apps for industries ranging from manufacturing to retail, designed to transform core work processes. The first of these, the SAP Project Companion mobile app with versions for managers and for consultants, developed for professional services, is planned for release March 30 and aims to improve collaboration within project teams on iPhone and iPad.

The apps plan to integrate through SAP Cloud Platform into the SAP S/4HANA Professional Services Cloud solution, taking advantage of real-time data and dramatically simplifying the experience for consultants, project managers and other users who are typically on the go.

As a core asset of the partnership, SAP Fiori for iOS design language simplifies the user experience by combining a consumer-grade iOS experience with business user needs in the enterprise, and enables developers to build next-generation apps.

Various businesses around the world are participating in the early adopter program for the SDK and are already realizing benefits. The collaboration between Apple and SAP makes it simpler for users to build transformative mobile apps to consume and use their most critical data on iPhone and iPad devices and digitally transform their processes with enterprise mobility.

By redefining the customer experience, Apple and SAP are enabling businesses to access real-time information from anywhere and helping companies like Burberry provide an improved user experience for their own customers. Burberry, a long-standing partner of Apple and SAP, has used iPad and iPhones as in-store devices since 2012, enabling it to quickly and easily anticipate and respond to customer needs in real time.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia (KAUST) is both an academic campus and a city. Students, staff and faculty all live in the community with their families. To serve the diverse needs of this community, the strategy was to create a series of apps to support and improve all aspects of life and work.

"The iOS SDK will help us compete with other universities by providing the best experience for both our students and professors in addition to a top-notch education," said Abdulmajeed Serajuddin, the manager of IT enterprise applications at KAUST. "Innovapptive, an SAP partner, is working with us through all the critical steps of implementation."

FunderMax is one of Europe's leading suppliers of derived timber products and decorative laminates. The company has three production facilities in Austria, with more than 1,050 dedicated employees passionate about quality. FunderMax is committed to using digital technologies to transform its sales processes as well as how it collaborates with its channel partners such as architects and retailers.

"We are transforming the way construction materials providers work with architects," said Hartwig Schwarzlmüller, vice president of FunderMax. "At FunderMax, we strive for the perfect user experience, and Apple and SAP are enabling us to do just that with the help of our strategic partner Atos."

Google recently launched a new simple video-calling service available for Android and iOS called Google Duo. It’s the second app announced by Google this year - along with the upcoming messaging app Allo - at its I/O conference, and reportedly one of four that the company plans to introduce. It didn’t take long for comparisons to emerge calling Duo Google’s answer to Apple’s FaceTime.

What notably stands out about Google Duo is the way it makes one-to-one video calling between Android phones and from Android to iPhone, very simple. Apple’s FaceTime still holds an advantage over the new app since FaceTime doesn’t have to be downloaded as an app since it comes embedded in compatible iPhones. But Duo’s simplicity is what is winning Android users over.

Google is known for often mirroring Apple and offering its services to Apple customers such as Google Maps, Google Photos and Google Docs, which were compelling alternatives to Apple’s proprietary apps such as Apple Maps, Photos and Notes. Google made things simpler for users by making its services available for a wider variety of devices, including Macs, Window PCSs, Android and iPhones.

In a blog post by Google, the company made a subtle reference to Apple’s tendency to make its services exclusive, saying: “You shouldn’t have to worry about whether your call will connect, or if your friend is using the same type of device as you are.” It feeds into Google’s strategy to attract iPhone users over to Android. “It’s no wonder that nearly half of us never make video calls on mobile,” the blog reads. “Today, we’re releasing Google Duo – a simple 1-to-1 video calling app for Android and iOS. Duo takes the complexity out of video calling, so that you can be together in the moment wherever you are.”

The app has been praised for its simplicity, which sounds great, but what does that really mean? According to the blog post, “Duo is simple from start to finish.” The app uses your phone number and connects you to the contacts listed in your phone’s contact list. What’s great about the app is that you don’t need a separate contact list, like you do for an app like Snapchat. Once Duo has your contact list, you can begin video calling your contacts as long as they have also downloaded the app.

Google claims that its new app is “fast and reliable” playing to the notion that we “all know how it feels when a call fails to connect or when video gets choppy”. Duo is designed to operate fast and reliably, even when it’s being used on a slower network. If you’re calling a friend on a weak network, the call quality will adjust to changing network conditions to make sure the call doesn’t disconnect when bandwidth is limited. In doing so, the resolution of the call will reduce, but the call will keep going. The app can also switch seamlessly between Wi-Fi and cellular data, making it easy to talk to someone on the go.

Arguably Duo’s most innovative feature is called Knock Knock. It addresses an issue we can all relate to, when someone is calling you, and you ignore the call because you don’t know what the person calling wants. “To make calls feel more like an invitation rather than an interruption, we created a feature in Duo called Knock Knock which lets you see live video of your caller before you answer, giving you a sense of what they’re up to and why they want to chat,” the blog post explains.

Adding a bit of controversy into the mix, Google also built Duo with an “emphasis on privacy and security” by promising that all calls made over the app are end-to-end encrypted. In recent news, France is trying to crackdown on instant encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp and Telegram because they are popularly used by terrorists to plan attacks. But from a user’s perspective, with Duo’s end-to-end encryption, as well as its simple template and reliability, the app is sure to be a hit.

Facebook is celebrating the sweet taste of success, after announcing that one billion people are now using its instant messaging app Facebook Messenger every month, making it the second-most popular iOS app of all time, second only to its big brother, the Facebook app.

“We are announcing that more than one billion people now use Facebook Messenger every month, making messenger one of only a handful of apps worldwide that touch so many lives,” Facebook said in a post. “We are grateful for all the people who are sending billions of messages every day and we hope to send one billion thank you in the form of a new floating balloon emoji that everyone can use to celebrate.”

Almost 10 percent of all VoIP (Voice-over-IP) calls around the world are now made through Facebook Messenger. What’s more, since the messaging platform first launched, over 18,000 bots have launched on Facebook Messenger and over 23,000 developers have signed up for Wit.ai’s Bot Engine. 17 billion photos are being sent through the app every month, and on average, more than 22 million GIFs are sent every day – that’s 254 GIFs per second.

The app has been downloaded over a billon times on Android and people using Facebook Messenger have played an average of 1.2 billion games of basketball. In addition, there are over 250 sticker packs available in the app with more than 4,000 stickers. Over 380 million stickers are sent via the app every day.

“As part of this journey to one billion, we focused on creating the best possible experience in modern day communications,” said David Marcus, vice president, Facebook Messenger. “We remain focused on helping connect to the people and businesses who matter most.”

It’s no secret that Apple wants to get more of its products into the commercial realm. To do so, Apple recently announced a partnership with SAP aiming to bring iOS to SAP’s enterprise customer base. The broad partnership comes almost two years after Apple signed a similar deal with IBM, the multinational technology and consulting company.

Undoubtedly there are similarities between the two deals that Apple has signed with both IBM and SAP. While it’s natural to notice the similarity between the deals says Steve Lucas, president for SAP’s Digital Enterprise Platform, he also feels that it’s important to highlight the differences which make the two deals separate and unique.

Regarding the deal between Apple and SAP, Lucas says SAP is predominantly a software enterprise company which has built a cloud platform to access all of the software it has developed, whether its core ERP product, SuccessFactors or Concur. SAP having this core, according to Lucas, is what differentiates the two companies (SAP and IBM) and the subsequent deals with Apple.

However, the similarities between the two deals are intriguing.  For instance, both IBM and SAP have worked closely with Apple to bring its unique design-sense to its projects. According to Lucas, the main objective of both partnerships is to “revolutionize” the way people can work on their iPad or iPhone. A partnership with SAP could help Apple to achieve its goal of grasping a greater hold of the enterprise market, helping Apple to solidify its enterprise position and drive the company’s hardware sales inside companies that traditionally rely on Microsoft and PCs.

The popularity of premium Apple devices such as the iPhone and iPad means that Apple devices are continuously entering the workplace, which has forced many companies to accommodate Apple requirements including building custom apps for them. Combining this with digital transformation initiatives within large organizations means that these companies need a deeper understanding of iOS devices and how to use it to drive the transformation. That is where SAP steps in.

The company has reportedly announced several programs that will help to push iOS to its customers beginning with a new set of apps for the iPad and iPhone which take advantage of data stored in SAP tools. SAP is also providing an iOS SDK for SAP HANA (memory database product) which will allow for companies to use apps that SAP is building, while also giving them the opportunity to build their own custom apps sourcing data stored in HANA.

“We are approaching the building out of these apps entirely differently, largely due to the way Apple thinks about app design,” said Mr. Lucas in an interview with Tech Crunch. “I believe firmly they will fulfil the mission of revolutionizing work on iPad and on iPhone.”

Similar to Apple’s deal with IBM, SAP is providing an educational component to its relationship with Apple, offering SAP Academy for iOS as training ground for SAP programmers to learn how to use HANA iOS SDK. Mr. Lucas said that his company is very committed to the educational effort as part of the partnership – an aspect that the company hopes to continue to develop into the future.

All in all, it’s an optimistic partnership between Apple and SAP. The two companies coming together might seem strange at first, but so did the partnership between Apple and IBM back in 2014, which by the end of last year, had seen the creation of 100 apps – a number that is increasing steadily. This is what SAP hopes to gain from its partnership with Apple: more apps. The apps and the SDK are not yet available, but they should be available later this year, according to Tech Crunch. Mr. Lucas said many of the apps are still in progress, but not ready to be implemented yet.