Judge rejects Apple’s bid to dismiss lawsuit by Cydia’s creator

California District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has denied Apple’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the company by Cydia’s creator.

Cydia was a third-party app store which, as you will be well aware, is officially a no-no in Apple’s books. The store was popular among the “jailbreak” community and even pre-dates the official App Store.

The creator of Cydia, Jay Freeman (AKA ‘Saurik’), ended up shutting his app store down in...

30 May 2022 | App Stores

Web3: Ethereum leads in developers, falling behind in activity

According to a16z’s 2022 State of Crypto report, Ethereum is maintaining its lead in web3 developers but rivals are overtaking in activity.

The report opens with some history of the various web eras and why web3 has many people excited:

Web1 (~1990-2005) – Based on open protocols, decentralised, and community-governed. However, relatively basic in terms of functionality.Web2 (~2005-present) – Siloed, centralised services with value and content ownership granted to a...

18 May 2022 | Blockchain

As demand for enterprise apps booms, agility can be found in low-code solutions

For the modern business, the ability to adapt to rapidly shifting changes within your industry, supply chain and workforce is crucial to long-term success. How quickly a business can pivot to make the most of trends and adapt to changing circumstances is made easier by embracing digital transformation and seeking out tools to make your business more flexible and scalable and therefore more effective, sustainable and profitable. 

As Gartner predicts that low-code will account...

5 May 2022 | Platforms

AWS Amplify Studio helps developers quickly build web apps

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that its Amplify Studio visual development environment for web apps is now generally available.

Amplify Studio helps developers to build fully-customisable web apps on AWS with minimal coding. Until now, the solution has been in preview.

“Developers tell us that they want tools that help make them more productive when building on AWS without sacrificing the precision they need to deliver tailored experiences to their...

22 April 2022 | Cloud

Apple letter urges lawmakers to reject sideloading bill

Apple has written a letter urging lawmakers to reject a bill that would force the company to allow any apps to be installed on its mobile operating systems.

The letter, addressed to Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin and Republican Chuck Grassley, claims the proposed bill will hurt user privacy and security if passed.

In question is the S. 2710 bill that would allow software downloaded from the web or other sources to be “sideloaded” on iOS.

“Sideloading...

4 February 2022 | App Stores

GitHub incentivises open-source investments with sponsor-only repos

GitHub is launching private repositories that only sponsors have access to, helping to incentivise open-source investments.

Open-source mostly relies on developers voluntarily giving up their time to build and improve projects. Priority is naturally given to work that helps to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table—meaning that open-source projects can be underdeveloped at best or be left with devastating vulnerabilities at worst.

A growing number of...

3 February 2022 | Git

WearOS rocketed from ~4% of the smartwatch market to 17% in Q3 2021

WearOS got the booster shot it needed from the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4.

Google’s smartwatch operating system has struggled for years to gain traction against not only the might of Apple’s WatchOS but also rival platforms from the likes of Huawei, Fitbit, Amazfit, Garmin, and even Samsung.

Samsung was an early supporter of WearOS but eventually gave up on the platform and switched to its own Tizen-based alternative. Earlier this year, a surprise joint...

22 November 2021 | Platforms

Nintendo denies handing out 4K Switch development kits

Nintendo has been forced to refute a Bloomberg report that it provided 4K-capable Switch development kits to select gaming studios.

This week, Bloomberg reported that at least 11 developers – including Zynga – were given kits to develop 4K resolution games for unannounced Switch hardware.

Following the report, Nintendo tweeted:

https://twitter.com/NintendoCoLtd/status/1443366440183074819

It’s a rare denial that has probably been issued out of concern...

30 September 2021 | Gaming

Cardano tops blockchain dev activity for second year, Avalanche witnesses explosive growth

Outlier Ventures has released its blockchain development trends report for Q2 2020/21 and it highlights growing interest around the “Ethereum killers”.

Ethereum is the original smart contract platform and, to this day, hosts the largest number of decentralised applications. With a market cap of $408.3 billion, it’s the second-largest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin ($893.5 billion).

However, Ethereum continues to be plagued by slow transaction speeds and high fees....

17 September 2021 | Blockchain

Nintendo announces Switch OLED with minor improvements

Nintendo has finally announced its long-awaited new Switch model but without many of the rumoured upgrades.

The new Switch OLED, as its name suggests, boasts a new display that should improve some of the complaints about previous models having poor contrast and brightness. However, the rumoured bump to 1080p hasn’t materialised and the screen is still just 720p.

Nintendo has increased the screen size from 6.2-inch to 7-inch so a boosted resolution would have been even...

6 July 2021 | Gaming