Technology - Google News

iOS 12 for iPhone and iPad: Everything you need to know
Microsoft confirms it's acquiring GitHub for $7.5 billion
Facebook gave Apple, Samsung access to data about users -- and their friends

iOS 12 for iPhone and iPad: Everything you need to know

Posted: 03 Jun 2018 07:14 AM PDT

Apple is now just hours away from almost certainly presenting us with our first look at iOS 12 at its annual WWDC conference. This is the software that will define the experience of 2018's new iPhones, and also update current iPhones and iPads when it comes out to devices later this year.

Rumors suggest that Apple's plans for iOS 12 will make this refresh a bump, not a jump, a fine-tuning that fixes past problems and buffs up the quality of day-to-day use. Here's what we might see.

Read: How to watch Apple's WWDC keynote on June 4

Digital Health will help curb your phone addiction

One feature Apple may highlight is digital health, with the iPhone-maker talking up new tools to help you manage (and cut back on) how much time you spend on your phone, Bloomberg reported. Similar to Google's Android Dashboard, Apple's Digital Health tools would help combat phone "addiction" and give parents more granular tools to monitor their kids' phone use.

Now Playing: Watch this: iOS 12 preview and what we expect at WWDC 2018

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Playing games with friends in AR life

While AR gaming might not take center stage, Apple might package at least one key update into iOS 12, Bloomberg added.

ARKit 2.0 could contain a new mode that lets you and your friends play against each other in the same augmented reality world. Google takes it one step further with software that can bring Android and iPhone players in the same AR space using digital anchors. It's likely that Apple would use a similar technology in iOS 12 to bridge the reality gap.

Google demos how its AR software (ARCore) can play nice with Apple's ARKit in a virtual world. Here, a Pixel 2 and iPhone 8 Plus play the same AR game #io18 @CNET pic.twitter.com/CZogUImTxL
— Jessica Dolcourt (@jdolcourt) May 8, 2018

A more refined Face ID

Keep your ears cocked for Apple to refine Face ID, Apple's secure biometric face unlock tool that uses the 3D front-facing camera. Mac Otakara, a blog out of Japan, reports that Face ID could get support for landscape mode.

More animoji, please

Apple could also branch out with more animated emoji -- animoji -- and pave the way for both Face ID and animoji for future iPads. Building in software support for Apple's tablets would hint at future iPads getting a 3D depth-sensing camera like the iPhone X.

Other little things we could see in iOS 12

Minor tweaks could arrive, according to the same Bloomberg report, including features to:

Make Siri voice assistant more predictive
Snooze notifications
Monitor the stock market
Place video calls
Share animoji

Read: 12 things we want from iOS 12 at WWDC 2018

For iOS 12, Apple is working on Animoji FaceTime, merged iOS/MacOS apps, Do Not Disturb upgrade, new Stocks app, deeper Siri, ARKit 2.0. For iOS 13, bigger iPad OS update with in-app tabs, more. https://t.co/tqvLLpCxum
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) February 12, 2018

What we probably won't get

The alleged tighter focus on stability and bug fixes means that Apple is saving its bigger iPhone and iPad changes for later, including a redesigned home screen in iOS 12, an overhaul to Siri, Apple's voice assistant, or a heap of photography enhancements, according to Bloomberg.

While it's unlikely Apple will lavish attention on virtual reality, CNET was first to report that Apple is working on a standalone VR headset for 2020, with an 8K resolution for each eye, so it's possible we'll see a nod in this direction. Or rather, a wink.

We're also slashing all expectations of hardware, like the iPhone SE 2 or AirPower wireless charging pad that we've been so breathlessly awaiting.

Reminder: How to watch WWDC 2018

WWDC 2018: All the rumors on iOS 12, iPad Pro, new MacBooks and more

Editors' note: This story was originally published June 2, 2018 ad most recently updated June 4 at 7:15am PT.

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Microsoft confirms it's acquiring GitHub for $7.5 billion

Posted: 04 Jun 2018 06:44 AM PDT

Microsoft is acquiring GitHub. After reports emerged that the software giant was in talks to acquire GitHub, Microsoft is making it official today. This is Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's second big acquisition, following the $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn two years ago. GitHub was last valued at $2 billion back in 2015, and Microsoft is paying $7.5 billion in stock for the company in a deal that should close later this year.

GitHub is a large code repository that has become very popular with developers and companies hosting entire projects, documentation, and code. Apple, Amazon, Google, and many other big tech companies use GitHub. There are 85 million repositories hosted on GitHub, and 28 million developers contribute to them. GitHub will now be led by CEO Nat Friedman, the founder of Xamarin, who will report to Microsoft's Cloud and AI chief Scott Guthrie. GitHub CEO and co-founder Chris Wanstrath will now become a technical fellow at Microsoft, also reporting into Guthrie.

It's easy to imagine why Microsoft would want to acquire GitHub. Microsoft killed its own GitHub competitor, Codeplex, in December and is now the top contributor to GitHub, Microsoft now has more than 1,000 employees actively pushing code to GitHub repositories. Its popularity among developers could see Microsoft earn some much-needed trust and respect from developers. In bigger enterprises and slower moving businesses, the fact Microsoft has acquired GitHub will make it more trusted to use for projects and source control, simply because Microsoft is already trusted across many software and services by these companies. "We will accelerate enterprise developers' use of GitHub, with our direct sales and partner channels and access to Microsoft's global cloud infrastructure and services," says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Trust and respect won't be easy for Microsoft to win, though. Developers are already voicing their concerns about Microsoft's past abuses, and the company's botched acquisition of Skype and Nokia's phone business. GitHub itself hasn't scaled well and has faced its own issues over the years, and there are legitimate concerns that Microsoft will need to address. GitLab, a GitHub competitor, claims it has seen a 10x increase in the amount of developers moving their repositories over to its service, an early sign that there's some developer unrest.

Microsoft won't be able to address the general concern that important tools and internet services keep being consolidated into the hands of a few big tech companies. "When it comes to our commitment to open source, judge us by the actions we have taken in the recent past, our actions today, and in the future," says Nadella, in an attempt to ease concerns around Microsoft's acquisition.

For all the concerns, there are plenty of reasons to see this as a positive for Microsoft and GitHub users. Microsoft has been actively pushing open source technology, and the company has open sourced PowerShell, Visual Studio Code, and the Microsoft Edge JavaScript engine. Microsoft also partnered with Canonical to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10, and acquired Xamarin to assist with mobile app development. These are moves that have been met with surprise by developers initially, but that have earned respect. It's essential that Microsoft stewards the GitHub community forward to earn even more trust and developer love. The Microsoft old isn't the Microsoft of new, and this GitHub acquisition is a chance for Microsoft to prove that even further.

Microsoft has struggled with developer love for years, and it's a big part of the reasons Windows Phone failed and that its Universal Windows Apps platform hasn't taken off. Microsoft has spent recent years improving Windows 10 so it's a respectable development box, and tools like Visual Studio Code — which lets developers build and debug web and cloud applications — have soared in popularity with developers.

The question around this acquisition will be what Microsoft does with GitHub in the future. LinkedIn has largely remained separate, with some integrations into Microsoft's Office software. Microsoft's Minecraft acquisition has been managed equally well, and it's likely that GitHub will need to stay as separate as possible to maintain developer trust. However, we could start to see even closer integration between Microsoft's developer tools and the service. At Build last month, Microsoft continued its close work with GitHub by integrating the service into the company's App Center for developers.

Microsoft clearly knows it needs to treat this acquisition with care. "Most importantly, we recognize the responsibility we take on with this agreement," explains Nadella. "We are committed to being stewards of the GitHub community, which will retain its developer-first ethos, operate independently and remain an open platform. We will always listen to developer feedback and invest in both fundamentals and new capabilities."

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Facebook gave Apple, Samsung access to data about users -- and their friends

Posted: 04 Jun 2018 06:35 AM PDT

XINHUA PHOTO WEEKLY CHOICES (CN) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress in early April.
Xinhua News Agency/Getty

Facebook had agreements with at least 60 different device makers -- including companies like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and BlackBerry -- to provide access to large amounts of user data, according to the New York Times.

More significantly, the agreements provided access to data of the users' Facebook friends, raising compliance issues with a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission.

Sunday's report states that the data of users' friends was often made available without explicit consent.

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, Facebook's effort to clean up its app problems may be trickier than expected.

Facebook has under heavy fire since the revelation in March that consultancy Cambridge Analytica had misused Facebook user data in the lead up to the 2016 US presidential election. Since then, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has testified in front of Congress and the European Parliament to answer questions about Facebook's handling of user data.

In a test, a New York Times reporter logged into Facebook using a 2013 BlackBerry device, using an account with roughly 550 friends, monitoring the data requested and received. Through a BlackBerry app called The Hub, the device was able to acquire "identifying information" for up to 295,000 Facebook users. It's worth noting that a BlackBerry representative told the New York Times that more recent BlackBerry devices, running Android, don't use the same private channels.

Facebook responded to the New York Times article in a blog post later Sunday.

The post, written by Ime Archibong, vice president of product partnerships, said the data agreements were a matter of necessity:

In the early days of mobile, the demand for Facebook outpaced our ability to build versions of the product that worked on every phone or operating system. It's hard to remember now but back then there were no app stores. So companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter and YouTube had to work directly with operating system and device manufacturers to get their products into people's hands. This took a lot of time — and Facebook was not able to get to everyone.
To bridge this gap, we built a set of device-integrated APIs that allowed companies to recreate Facebook-like experiences for their individual devices or operating systems. Over the last decade, around 60 companies have used them — including many household names such as Amazon, Apple, Blackberry, HTC, Microsoft and Samsung.

According to Facebook's post, partners signed signed agreements preventing the data from being used for anything other than "Facebook-like experiences" on devices. Facebook said it was unaware of any misuse of the date shared using these agreements.

First published, June 3 at 9:34 p.m. PT.
Update, 11:13 p.m. PT: Adds comment from Facebook.

Cambridge Analytica: Everything you need to know about Facebook's data mining scandal.

Tech Enabled: CNET chronicles tech's role in providing new kinds of accessibility.

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