Telegram's 10th update of 2023 adds improved calls with a colourful new design that use less of your phone's battery, a new vaporize effect when you delete messages, the largest bot update in Telegram's history – and more.

The latest Telegram update "totally redesigned" calls with new animations and dynamic backgrounds that change depending on the current call status. Telegram says the new version requires fewer system resources for better energy efficiency and snappier performance, especially on older devices.

In addition to a fresh coat of paint, the update fixes multiple bugs and improves call quality. According to a blog post on the official Telegram website, customers can expect more improvements in 2024, namely in connection and audio quality.

Bots also received a big update in the latest Telegram version. These mini chat-based apps can now react to user messages, manage reactions, quotes, and links, send replies to other chats, and get information about boosts and giveaways. Telegram has a dedicated Bot API changelog, which you can check out on the official website.

Finally, the "Thanos Snap" effect is now available when manually deleting messages in Telegram on iOS and Android. It is a fancy message deletion effect that reduces your messages to atoms. Telegram pays a lot of attention to keeping its messenger energy efficient, and developers promise the new effect will not strain your device too much.

Telegram says its latest update contains even more features, which will be revealed this month. You can read more in a blog post.

Telegram Messenger is available on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can download it for free from the official website.

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Highlighted by GizmoChina, the meta-owned platform is no longer going to provide the free storage service on Google Drive to users. Previously, users were given the benefits of having end-to-end encrypted chat backups on Google Drive.

These backups did not take a toll on the users’ existing Google Drive storage. However, with the latest company policy changes in place the situation has changed.

Individuals who are currently using the default 15GB storage by Google Drive will now need to be careful about their storage. WhatsApp wrote in its Help Center post that once a user exceeds the given storage limit, they will have to make space for new content to resume the backups.

Here’s what the post mentions:

"In the coming months, if you choose to backup your WhatsApp chats on an Android device, your backup will start counting toward your Google Account storage limit.
If you go over the storage limit, you’ll need to free up space in your Google Account to resume backups."

The change is currently only for beta users of WhatsApp and began in December 2023. However, to remind all non-beta users, the changes will be applicable on all WhatsApp accounts in the first half of 2024.

Additionally, the app will show a notice notifying users of when the changes will begin. This will appear as a banner 30 days before the implementation of the policy when users go to Settings > Chats > Chat backup.

Lastly, it is important to note that users have the option not to store their chats on Google Drive. Instead, they can transfer their chats between Android devices via the WhatsApp Chat transfer capability.

This can be done by scanning a QR code and linking the device you want the chats to be transferred from and the device the chats will be transferred to. Individuals also have the choice to back up text data only removing any media files that could consume more storage.

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In addition to a new name, the browser's listing on the App Store and Google Play Store promotes new AI-powered features, such as the DALL-E 3 image generator, article summarization with Copilot, image recognition, and more. Also, the description highlights GPT-4 support, calling Microsoft Edge "your AI-powered browser."

Microsoft Edge, your AI-powered browser, with Copilot built in to enhance your browsing experience. Empowered by GPT-4, Copilot enables you to ask questions, refine searches, receive comprehensive summaries and create images with DALL-E 3. Microsoft Edge is a smarter way to browse, find, create and shop on the go.

The new name seems to be generating mixed reactions from customers. Some claim Microsoft has no right to call Edge an "AI browser," while others support the new naming scheme considering how many extra features you get by pressing the Copilot button on the toolbar (most of them are available on other browsers).

2023 showed that Microsoft is betting hard on artificial intelligence and its partnership with OpenAI that made Copilot possible. Therefore, it is no wonder the company is willing to integrate and promote Copilot everywhere. In 2024, Microsoft is only expected to push the pedal harder with the upcoming release of next-gen Windows and new Surface devices that should place a lot of emphasis on AI-powered experiences.

According to the latest data from Statcounter, Microsoft Edge on mobile has a puny 0.24% market share. Time will tell if adding "AI" to the name can do some magic and convert more people from Chrome, Safari, Samsung Internet, and other mobile browsers.

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As reported by The Verge, the official Copilot app for iOS is now available in the App Store for free. The owners of Apple devices didn’t have to wait much longer than their Android counterparts who got the app as a Christmas gift from Microsoft just a couple of days earlier.

The AI-powered assistant – or “your everyday AI companion” as Microsoft’s sales department prefers to say – allows you to ask anything (probably apart from election-related questions), quickly draft e-mails, compose stories or scripts, summarize complex texts, and much more.

Copilot’s best feature is probably the fact that it runs on OpenAI’s latest GPT-4, essentially giving you free access to its most robust large language model (LLM) normally hidden behind the paywall of ChatGPT.

The iOS app also serves as an image generator creating AI artworks right in your mobile device. For these, purposes the Copilot app utilizes OpenAI’s DALL·E 3.

“By combining the power of GPT-4 with the imaginative capabilities of DALL·E 3, Copilot not only enhances your design workflow, but can also bring your creativity to inspiring new heights,” claims Microsoft.

But if you don’t prefer the mobile experience, you can always run the standalone Copilot web service on a desktop or laptop – even outside the Edge browser.

Generally, the Redmond company is pushing for wider availability of Copilot and more use cases across its product portfolio. In just the past two weeks, Microsoft added Copilot to Dev Tools in Edge to help developers with troubleshooting, expanded its possibilities within the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, launched a standalone Android app, and made the Copilot Chat generally available on GitHub.

Copilot is undoubtedly a top priority for the company, as their representatives repeatedly compared its importance to the Start button in Windows and dubbed it “the entry point into this world of AI on the PC”.

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We're ending the year with another crop of malicious Android apps you should delete from your phone ASAP.

The McAfee Mobile Research Team uncovered apps in Google Play and third-party app stores that are infected with malware it's dubbed Xamalicious because it's "implemented with Xamarin, an open-source framework that allows building Android and iOS apps with .NET and C#."

Once installed, a malicious app "tries to gain accessibility privileges with social engineering and then it communicates with the command-and-control server to evaluate whether or not to download a second-stage payload." If the second-stage payload is installed, it can take full control of your device, meaning "it has the potential to perform any type of activity like a spyware or banking trojan without user interaction," McAfee says.

The apps can also do things like install other apps or click on ads without your consent. The Cash Magnet app, for example, automatically clicks ads and installs apps to fraudulently generate revenue; users think they're earning points to be redeemable as a retail gift card.

"This means that the developers behind these threats are financially motivated and drive ad-fraud therefore this might be one of the main payloads of Xamalicious," McAfee says.

McAfee identified 25 apps that contain the threat, 13 of which were distributed on Google Play, some as far back as 2020. It notes that "the usage of the Xamarin framework allowed malware authors to stay active and without detection for a long time, taking advantage of the build process for APK files that worked as a packer to hide the malicious code.

"Malware authors also implemented different obfuscation techniques and custom encryption to exfiltrate data and communicate with the command-and-control server," McAfee adds.

McAfee estimates the apps have potentially compromised 327,000 devices from Google Play, in addition to any downloads that were made from third-party markets. Most Xamalicious activity was detected in the US, Brazil, and Argentina, though infections were also reported in the UK, Spain, and Germany. 

Google removed the apps from Google Play after McAfee reported them. But there’s a chance you might still have them installed on your device. If so, you should delete them immediately. Here’s the full list of apps (and their package names) that were once on Google Play and how many downloads they received.

• Essential Horoscope for Android (om.anomenforyou.essentialhoroscope) – 100,000 downloads

• 3D Skin Editor for PE Minecraft (com.littleray.skineditorforpeminecraft) – 100,000

• Logo Maker Pro (com.vyblystudio.dotslinkpuzzles) – 100,000

• Auto Click Repeater (com.autoclickrepeater.free) – 10,000

• Count Easy Calorie Calculator (com.lakhinstudio.counteasycaloriecalculator) – 10,000

• Sound Volume Extender (com.muranogames.easyworkoutsathome) – 5,000

• LetterLink (com.regaliusgames.llinkgame) – 1,000

• NUMEROLOGY: PERSONAL HOROSCOPE &NUMBER PREDICTIONS (com.Ushak.NPHOROSCOPENUMBER) – 1,000

• Step Keeper: Easy Pedometer (com.browgames.stepkeepereasymeter) – 500

• Track Your Sleep (com.shvetsStudio.trackYourSleep) – 500

• Sound Volume Booster (com.devapps.soundvolumebooster) – 100

• Astrological Navigator: Daily Horoscope & Tarot (com.Osinko.HoroscopeTaro) – 100

• Universal Calculator (com.Potap64.universalcalculator) – 100

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CNBC reports that the appeals court decision means that Apple can resume sales of the two Apple Watch models on its website and in its stores. Apple stopped selling the smartwatches on its website on December 21 and in its stores after December 24. As of this writing, Apple has yet to enable sales of the smartwatches on its site.

The ITC originally ruled back in October that the hardware and software of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 violated the patents of a company named Masimo, which had developed blood oxygen sensor technology. The Biden Administration had the power to overturn the ban after a 60-day review period that ended on Dec. 25. However, it ultimately decided not to overrule the ITC's decision.

Today's ruling by the appeals court is a major win for Apple as it continues to go through the process of appealing the ITC's full ruling. The company is currently asking for an even longer pause on the US import ban while the appeals court makes a more permanent decision on the actual patent infringement battle between Apple and Masimo.

This import ban pause also means that third-party retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and others can accept new units of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 to add to their inventory. Until the ITC's original ban, third-party retailers could continue to sell the smartphones, but once their inventory ran out, they would not be able to sell anymore.

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The tech giant also filed an emergency request on Tuesday for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to halt the ban.

It asked the Federal Circuit to pause the ban at least until U.S. Customs and Border Protection decides whether redesigned versions of its watches infringe Masimo's patents, and to put the ban on hold while the court considers Apple's request. The customs office is due to make its decision on Jan. 12, Apple said.

Masimo has accused Apple of hiring away its employees, stealing its pulse oximetry technology and incorporating it into the popular Apple Watch.

The U.S. International Trade Commission's (ITC) order bars imports and sales of Apple Watches that use technology for reading blood-oxygen levels. Apple has included the pulse oximeter feature in its smart watches starting with its Series 6 model in 2020.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai decided not to reverse the ban following careful consultations, and the ITC's decision became final on Dec. 26, the Trade Representative's office said on Tuesday.

"We strongly disagree with the USITC decision and resulting exclusion order, and are taking all measures to return Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 to customers in the U.S. as soon as possible," Apple said in a statement on Tuesday.

An Apple spokesperson confirmed that the company has appealed the ban to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington. The ITC last week rejected Apple's request to pause the ban during the appeal process.

Representatives for Masimo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

"Our litigation expert predicted that a potential Apple appeal would extend the 'final' ITC case verdict roughly another year," analysts at Stifel said in a note.

Apple has paused its sales of its Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches in the United States since last week, though the watches remain available from other retailers including Amazon (AMZN.O), Best Buy <BBY.N> and Walmart <WMT.N> as of Tuesday.

The ban does not affect Apple Watch SE, a less-expensive model, which will continue to be sold. Previously sold watches will not be affected by the ban.

A jury trial on Masimo's allegations in California federal court ended with a mistrial in May. Apple has separately sued Masimo for patent infringement in federal court in Delaware and has called Masimo's legal actions a "maneuver to clear a path" for its own competing smart watch.

A presidential administration has not vetoed an ITC ruling since 2013, when President Barack Obama's administration overturned an import ban on Apple's iPhones and iPads in the company's patent dispute with Samsung.

The Biden administration in February chose not to veto a separate import ban on Apple Watches based on a patent-infringement complaint from medical technology company AliveCor. The ITC has placed the ban on hold for other reasons.

Apple's wearables, home and accessory business, which includes the Apple Watch, AirPods earbuds and other products, brought in $8.28 billion in revenue during the third quarter of 2023, according to a company report.

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The new Copilot app for Android is not entirely a new thing. At first sight, it looks similar to the Bing Chat app, which still lets you access the same chat features. In addition, you can use Copilot within the Microsoft Edge browser for Android, SwiftKey, Skype, and more.

Copilot for Android supports plenty of features (you can also toggle between light and dark themes) that are already available on desktop. You can ask complex questions, generate images using DALL-E 3, draft documents or emails, or just have a casual conversation about anything. In addition, the app lets you turn off or on the recently added GPT-4.

Here is how Microsoft describes the new application:

Improve Your Productivity with Copilot–Your AI-Powered Chat Assistant
Copilot is a pioneering chat assistant from Microsoft powered by the latest OpenAI models, GPT-4 and DALL·E 3. These advanced AI technologies provide fast, complex, and precise responses, as well as the ability to create breathtaking visuals from simple text descriptions.

Chat and create all in one place—for free!

The Microsoft Copilot app is currently available only on Android. However, iOS users should not feel abandoned since the same capabilities are still accessible via the Bing app, which you can download from the App Store using this link. If an Android smartphone is your main device and you want to try the new Copilot app, get it from the Google Play Store for free.

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Televisions, a staple in American homes, are currently responsible for 30 percent of all tech-related incidents in the U.S., with the majority of injuries stemming from lifting heavy screens. Strains and sprains, particularly to the lower back, are the most common complaints.

One patient reported a strain after lifting a 70-inch television, illustrating the risks involved in moving these large devices. The takeaway is clear: lift from the knees or find someone to help you move!

Phones are not far behind, accounting for 23 percent of tech injuries across America. From tripping over cords to walking into objects while texting, mobile phones are causing an array of injuries. General pain, contusions (bruises), and even cuts to the face and head are common. One incident involved a person walking into a light pole while texting — so much for distracted driving, safety experts may have to add distracted walking to the list.

Computers and video game systems can also do their fair share of physical damage. The poll found that these devices contribute to various injuries, primarily causing pain in the upper trunk area, including the chest, back, and ribs.

This is often attributed to poor posture during prolonged gaming or computer use. For instance, one patient reported chest tightness that began while playing video games. Contusions to the foot from dropping laptops and strains to the lower back, neck, and wrist are also frequent among tech users, especially as remote working becomes more prevalent.

Interestingly, tech-related injuries have increased by 20 percent since 2020, with Millennials being the most prone to such incidents. This rise is partly attributed to the increased time at home during the pandemic, leading to more reliance on technology. While TV-related injuries have decreased, thanks to lighter models and professional installation services, phone-related incidents are on the rise.

Study methodology

All tech data was collected from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) for the past 10 years, and injuries were analyzed by gender, age, year, location, body part, diagnosis, and severity.

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The Unsubscribe button in Gmail for iOS is at the top of the email next to the sender's name, as spotted by Android Authority. This will save time for Gmail users who otherwise have to go to the bottom of the email content or click on the three-dot menu at the top to unsubscribe from mass emails.

The button isn't visible on the Android version of Gmail at the time of writing. However, Google has updated its support page with the new steps to unsubscribe from emails. The support page includes new steps for the Android version as well, suggesting it might not take long for the Unsubscribe button to arrive.

The ability to unsubscribe emails has existed since 2009, but initially, users had to make several clicks before saying goodbye to unwanted emails. Its modern iteration was added to Gmail's web version back in 2014, which allows users to unsubscribe with just two clicks in most cases.

Speaking of which, some senders may need you to go to their website to unsubscribe from their emails. After you pull the plug on a sender, it might take a few days for the mailing list to stop sending you emails. Google says that "you may see a unique identifier for a mailing list or a list ID" instead of the sender's name after unsubscribing.

In addition to the manual option, Gmail also sends occasional tips for unsubscribing from bulk senders that you rarely read. On iOS, you can enable or disable this feature by going to Settings > Inbox Customizations > Inbox tips > turn off the "Unsubscribe tips" toggle button.

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Apple is about to pause direct US sales of the Apple Watch 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 as it handles a patent dispute – but even though sales will continue at other US retailers, don't expect staff in the Apple Store to tell you much about that.

As per Bloomberg, Apple employees are being instructed not to direct shoppers towards Best Buy, Target, or Walmart – other outlets in the United States where the smartwatches are going to remain on sale for the time being (while stocks last). Apple will continue selling the two smartwatches online until December 21 and in physical Apple Stores until December 24.

It's no doubt a case of Apple covering its back from a legal point of view, but it's not particularly helpful for consumers, who may trudge home disappointed that they couldn't pick up an Apple Watch deal over the holiday season.

"Unfortunately, due to the ongoing legal matter, I am not able to provide you with any information about where you can buy Apple Watch Series 9 or Ultra 2," Apple Store staff are being told to say, according to Bloomberg.

The story so far

A company called Masimo has taken legal action over the blood oxygen sensor in the Apple Watch, claiming it infringes on its patents. Apple has therefore been told to halt sales by the International Trade Commission (ITC), pending a full investigation.

Assuming there's no presidential intervention between then and now, the two latest Apple Watch models won't be sold by Apple in the US from December 21 (online) and December 24 (in store). However, the Apple Watch ban doesn't apply to other countries, or third-party retailers.

It might do eventually though, if this drags on: the ITC has also told Apple it can no longer import Apple Watch stock into the US either, so stores such as Best Buy aren't going to be able to keep refilling their shelves indefinitely.

Apple is of course appealing the ITC ruling and exploring the option of a software fix, but for now, it's missing out on a lot of revenue – and can't even direct potential smartwatch buyers elsewhere, it would seem.

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There is no information on what exactly iOS 17.2.1 is supposed to fix on your iPhone. The update comes with a vague and generic description:

This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for all users.

 

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please viit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

iOS 17.2.1 requires roughly 200MB of free space on your iPhone if you update from iOS 17.2. Getting to version 17.2.1 from older releases will ask for more free space and bits to download.

It is also worth noting that iOS 17.2.1 is only available on iPhones—the most recent iPadOS is still version 17.2. If you are upgrading from iOS 16 or older, check out our posts detailing what is new in iOS 17.2, iOS 17.1, and iOS 17.0. iOS 17.3, iPadOS 17.3, and other updates are expected in early 2024.

There is nothing else to say about iOS 17.2.1, so here is a recap of supported devices:

• iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 11, Phone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone Xr, iPhone Xs, and iPhone Xs Max
• iPhone SE 2nd and 3rd generation

iOS 17 does not support iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, but iOS 16 still gets periodic security updates to keep users of older devices safe.

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The firm recorded a median global 5G download speed of 203.04 Mbps in Q3 2023 and saw a substantial increase when compared to 168.27 Mbps in Q3 2022. In addition, users who witnessed the top 10% of 5G download speeds globally saw an increase of 9%, rising from 525.54 Mbps (Q3 2022) to 573.12 Mbps (Q3 2023).

However, this time, the top spot shifted from South Korea to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with Malaysia, India, and the Dominican Republic making "significant strides," the firm noted. The top 10 list also includes Malaysia, Qatar, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Kuwait, Macau, Singapore, and India.

The current leader UAE witnessed a 14% increase in its median 5G download speed. Its numbers jumped from 511.68 Mbps in Q3 2022 to 592.01 Mbps in Q3 2023. Meanwhile, the second spot holder South Korea reached 507.59 Mbps in median 5G download speeds in the third quarter.

Ookla says one of the key contributors to UAE's success is the "fierce market competition driven by Etisalat and du," which resulted in improved 5G coverage across the nation. This growing competition was one of the reasons UAE bagged the top spot in the second quarter of 2023 as well, with median download speed reaching 557.63 Mbps.

The firm noted that half of the top 10 countries in 2022 were from the Middle East, and now, the Asia Pacific region represents the same proportion. While 5G is capable of delivering peak data rates of up to 20 Gbps, its real-world "speeds have not yet reached Gigabit levels, primarily because of network economics."

"For instance, symmetrical download, upload speeds, and ultra-low latency haven’t been realized, partially because the vast majority of 5G networks are not ‘true 5G’ as they have been deployed in Non-Standalone (NSA) mode, meaning they rely on a 4G LTE network core," Ookla said.

On the flip side, the median 5G upload speed saw a minimal 1% rise when put against last year's data. The report also talks about performance gains on wired fixed connections globally. Fixed broadband connections, although lesser in magnitude compared to 5G, saw a similar jump.

Delivering a 19% increase, fixed networks reached a global median speed of 83.95 Mbps in Q3 2023, up from 70.30 Mbps in Q3 2022. United Arab Emirates is taking the lead here as well with a median download speed of 247.63 Mbps. Ookla said that despite developments in the underlying broadband technologies, WiFi often acts as a bottleneck that reduces customer experience.

Our research has shown that Wi-Fi performance can lag behind ethernet in markets where advanced cable and fibre connections are replacing legacy broadband technology (such as DSL or coax cable). Wi-Fi speeds typically range from 30-40% of ethernet, indicating a need to accelerate the adoption of more advanced Wi-Fi technologies and optimize the home network environment.

Source: Ookla

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Apple is scrambling to make software updates to Apple Watch algorithms that measure blood oxygen levels to avoid an impending ban on the smartwatch in the US over a patent dispute, Bloomberg reported. Changing how the Watch measures oxygen saturation, Apple believes, could help keep the Watch on shelves during the busy holiday shopping season.

The blood oxygen sensor, which was first introduced with the Apple Watch 6 in 2020, is at the heart of a patent dispute between Apple and Masimo, another California-based company that sued Apple in 2021. Masimo claimed that Apple’s sensor violated two patents related to light-based blood-oxygen monitoring that it owned. In October, the International Trade Commission (ITC) upheld a ruling, stating that Apple did, in fact, violate Masimo’s patents.

The case then went to the White House for a 60-day Presidential Review period, which ends next week. If President Biden doesn’t veto the ITC’s decision, Apple will be banned from selling the Apple Watch 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, which include blood oxygen sensing. Apple is complying preemptively with the ban and will stop selling both Apple Watch models on its website on December 21 and in retail stores on December 24 in case the veto doesn’t happen.

One way Apple could keep selling the watch is to settle with Masimo, but the company’s last-minute race to make software changes to the Watch suggests that it doesn’t plan to do so. The company told Bloomberg that it plans to submit its software workaround to the ITC for approval. Masimo’s CEO Joe Kiani, told Bloomberg that he would be open to settling with Apple, but the company hasn’t called him yet. “It takes two to tango,” he said.

He also doesn’t think that a software update to the Apple Watch would resolve the situation. “I don’t think that could work — it shouldn’t — because our patents are not about the software,” Kiani said. “They are about the hardware with the software.”

Overhauling Apple Watch hardware would, of course, be a lot more challenging for Apple than tweaking its software. Even if the ITC approves any potential hardware changes, manufacturing and shipping modified versions of the two Watch models could take upwards of three months, a person familiar with how Apple operates told the publication.

Apple and Masimo have a complicated history. Apple reportedly discussed acquiring the company in 2013 and hiring Kiani to work on the medical features on its smartwatch. That deal never went through. Instead, Kiani claimed that Apple hired more than 20 Masimo engineers, doubled some of their salaries, and made them develop the same kind of medical technology they were working on at Masimo at Apple. “This is not an accidental infringement — this is a deliberate taking of our intellectual property,” Kiani told Bloomberg.

Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment on Kiani’s statements. The company has previously called the ITC’s ruling “erroneous” and plans to appeal the decision to the Federal Circuit.

It’s not clear whether Apple will get immediate relief. The silver lining for the company is that the ban only applies to Apple Watch sales through the company’s own channels — its website and its retail stores — in the US. You should still be able to buy the Apple Watch through other retailers like Best Buy, Walmart and Target.

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In a blog post, Google stated that $630 million of that payment will be put "into a settlement fund to be distributed for the benefit of consumers according to a Court-approved plan". The other $70 million will be placed in another fund to be used by the states.

In addition to the money, Google also agreed to make some changes in its Play Store policies. One concerns the sideloading of apps on Android devices. Google stated it will make the process of sideloading apps simpler for consumers. It will also offer info to Android "users about these potential risks of downloading apps directly from the web for the first time."

Google also announced it will allow Android app developers and publishers to create an "alternative billing option alongside Google Play’s billing system for their U.S. users". In addition, Android developers will also be "able to show different pricing options within the app when a user makes a digital purchase."

Google added:

This settlement builds on Android's choice and flexibility, maintains strong security protections, and retains Google’s ability to compete with other OS makers, and invest in the Android ecosystem for users and developers. We're pleased to resolve our case with the states and move forward on a settlement.

These new changes, and the settlement money, still need to be approved by the Courts before they officially go into effect.

The public reveal of this settlement between Google and the US state attorney generals comes just a few days after a jury ruled against Google in a similar case with developer Epic Games. The jury agreed with Epic's view that Google was operating an illegal monopoly with its Play Store on Android devices. Google has stated it will appeal the jury's decision.

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Up until now, information about these places was saved in the Google Cloud. Soon, the information is stored on the user's device on Android and iOS instead to improve privacy and give users more control over the feature.

Timeline allows users to revisit places they have been to in the past. This may help them rediscover places as well as routes and trips taken in Maps. Location History is a broader feature that helps users "get better results and recommendations" according to Google. You could use it to locate a missing phone among other things.

Google users may check out Timeline in any web browser by visiting this page. The page offers a timeline view of activities, provided that location history is on and that the user is signed in to a Google account.

One positive effect of the change, at least in the United States, is that Google won't be able to provide law enforcement with this location data. So-called geofence warrants allow law enforcement in the United States to gain access to location data from companies like Google for specific area.

In other words. If you happen to be inside an area with a geofence warrant, your location data may be shared with law enforcement by Google.

Google Map's Timeline feature requires user activation. On Android, users find the setting under Settings > Personal Content > Location Settings. The page reveals if location and location history are on or off.

There are also options to delete a range of location history or configure automatic deletion rules.

Speaking of which, the default automatic deletion rule is 18 months currently. Location data is deleted after 18 months under this rule. Going forward, Google is going to change this default value to 3 months.

Users who require the longer retention may change it to 18 months or even turn off automatic deletions entirely.

Google Maps users who use the Timeline feature may back up the data to the Google Cloud to access it on all their devices. Backups are end-to-end encrypted to Google and the data won't affect storage quotas of the account.

Google will also introduce an option to delete the activity related to specific places and locations directly from Google Maps. The feature, which will roll out in the coming weeks, allows users to remove traces from Maps.

A new "delete" button next to visits removes the place from history. Useful if you want the place to disappear from your activity.

Access to location controls is being added directly to Google Maps as well. A tap on the blue dot on Google Maps, which highlights the current location, displays location history and timeline settings next to the usual options to get directions or pin the location. This option improves the visibility of the feature on Google Maps.

Google announced the change on its The Keyword blog and plans to roll it out over the course of 2024 to Android and iOS devices. Users will receive notifications when the feature becomes available.

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It is worth mentioning that you can switch to the desktop view when browsing the add-ons repo, and download any extension on your Android phone, even if the add-on is not compatible with mobile devices. But what about those that are not available on Mozilla's add-ons repository, aka the AMO? This is when the new feature might come in handy. You may also find it useful, if the official add-ons repo is banned (due to censorship) in your region, you can just download the extension's XPI from the developer's website, or a trusted third-party store and use the add-on. Here is a related discussion on the Firefox subreddit.

Remember when Bypass Paywalls Clean was delisted from the AMO, after being hit by a DMCA? Well, the add-on is still maintained, i.e. updated by the author. As a matter of fact, this is a signed add-on, it is still the only catch is that you need to install it from a file. So let's use that as an example in the following tutorial.

Before we proceed, you will need to enable a Secret Settings menu in the app. Why is that? Well, the option to install add-ons from files, is not available by default. Mozilla has hidden it, you will need to unlock the Secret Settings menu to access the feature. To do this, open Firefox Nightly on your Android phone. Tap on the Firefox Nightly logo 5 times, and it will display a message that says "Debug menu enabled". Now you have access to the Secret Settings menu and the new feature.

How to install add-ons from file on Firefox Nightly for Android

1. Download the .XPI file for any Firefox add-on. Let's use Bypass Paywalls Clean, which you can download from this page.

2. Tap on the Menu button in Firefox Nightly and select Settings.

3. Now, tap on the option that says "Install add-on from file". The file picker should open.

4. Select the XPI file that you downloaded, and it will be installed in Firefox Nightly.

5. You can access the extension from the browser's menu > add-ons.

You will probably have to update the add-on manually, on the bright side, at least you can use them now.

The ability to install add-ons from files is pretty cool, but you should be aware that you can't use it to install unsigned add-ons. Mozilla believes they are security risks, which is kind of restrictive, but that's a different issue. Anyway, extensions that are not signed are kind of rare, I mean most developers who have created a Firefox add-on will publish it on the AMO. Not doing so, is a waste of their efforts.

Mozilla will be looking to gather feedback from users in the Nightly channel and implement bug fixes, before bringing the feature to users in the Beta group. So, it may take a few months before Mozilla officially enables the option to install add-ons from files to the stable version of Firefox for Android.

Do you use Firefox add-ons that are not available on the AMO?

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While Firefox has supported extensions on Android devices for a long time, the experience has thus far been somewhat underwhelming, because it only allowed you to choose from among 2 dozen add-ons. Basically, this was a curated experience of add-ons hand-picked by Mozilla. There was a workaround for the Nightly and Beta channel versions of Firefox, you could create a custom add-on collection, which would allow you to install any extension that you liked. But the steps were a bit complicated, and also required a Mozilla account, which many users may not be comfortable with. Users had been requesting the browser maker to open up its ecosystem to support more extensions, which is exactly what it has done.

Open Extensions, as Mozilla terms them in its announcement, have been available in Firefox for Android Nightly and Beta channels for a while. Now, the extensions are available in the stable version of Firefox for Android.

In order to install the extensions on your mobile phone, update Firefox for Android to the latest version from the Google Play Store or get the APK for Firefox 120.1.1 from Mozilla's servers.

Once you have updated the app, you can browse the official Firefox for Android add-ons repository at this page.

Note: Tap on "see more trending extensions" to browse the full catalog of extensions.

It currently supports 491 extensions for mobile devices, and the list will likely grow larger in the future. Get an ad blocker like uBlock Origin, Sponsorblock and you will be able to watch videos on YouTube without being bothered by ads, or Google's anti-ad block prompts. Want to translate web pages quickly? You may find Simple Translate useful. Here are some notable add-ons that you can install now: I still don't care about cookies, OneTab, Old Reddit Redirect, SteamDB, Group Speed Dial, etc.

You can tell whether an add-on will work with the mobile browser, if the extension's page has a label that says "Available on Firefox for Android". One Reddit user pointed out that not all extensions that have been marked as available for Firefox for Android, are actually showing up on the mobile add-ons repository. They quoted Consent-O-Matic as an example, though it's worth noting that the add-on has not been updated since February.

Another user mentioned that you can actually install add-ons that are not yet marked as compatible with Android. In this case, you will need to visit an extension's page, tap on the browser's menu and switch to the desktop page view. This will let you install the extension on Firefox for Android. But, it is possible that such extensions may not work properly because they were not designed for the mobile browser, YMMV.

Adding support for hundreds of extensions could convince users to switch over from other browsers to Firefox for Android. It's a shame that Firefox on iOS won't get support add-ons, but you can thank Apple and its ridiculous walled-garden for that, because it forces browser makers to make their app using WebKit, instead of custom browser engines such as Google Chromium's Blink or Mozilla Firefox's Gecko. This could change in the future.

What are your favorite add-ons on Firefox for Android?

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TikTok is sharing the stage with Candy Crush Saga ($12B), Honor of Kings ($11B), Monster Strike ($10.6B), and Clash of Clans ($10.2B). The social video app crunched $3.8 billion (year-to-date) in 2023, about 15% higher than in 2022 when the in-app purchases (IAP) amounted to $3.3B.

It's interesting to note that it took 79 months for TikTok to reach its first $1 billion mark, while other gaming apps did it in 20 months or less. On the flip side, TikTok only took 22 months to go from $1 billion to $5 billion, and 15 months to jump from $5 billion to $10 billion, whereas, other apps moved at a slower pace.

Source: Data.ai

Talking about other non-gaming apps, YouTube and Tinder are the ones following TikTok's footsteps. Data.ai says both apps generated around $7.5 billion each in in-app purchases, trailing TikTok by between $2 to $3 billion.

China and the US have been money-making machines for TikTok, each generating about 30% in IAP revenue. The two markets comprise $6 billion (60%) of the app's total consumer spend, followed by Saudi Arabia, Germany, United Kingdom, and Japan.

While TikTok doesn't offer a premium access tier like Snapchat, one of the ways it makes money is through TikTok Coins. Users can buy this virtual currency and spend it on virtual gifts to support their favorite creators during live streams.

Creators earn diamonds based on the value of their gifts, which they can convert into fiat money after reaching a minimum threshold. TikTok usually keeps about 50% of the payout amount. Data.ai says TikTok's $19.99 coin pack, which comes with 1,321 coins, was the most popular in-app purchase in 2023, enough that it accounted for about a quarter of the app's IAP revenue. The analytics firm predicts that TikTok will reach $15 billion in consumer spending in 2024.

Speaking of gaming, TikTok's owner is expected to lay off hundreds of workers in its gaming division. While the app was banned in Nepal last month, a US district court judge blocked the state of Montana's attempt to ban access to TikTok.

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The move comes as Google consolidates its streaming services under the YouTube brand. Earlier this year, Google shut down the Play Music app and migrated users to YouTube Music.

What does this mean for users?

If you have purchased movies or TV shows through Google Play, you can still access them after January 17, 2024. However, you will need to use a different platform to do so.

As mentioned by Google, For Android TV users, the Shop tab will now serve as a central hub for streaming your previously purchased titles and buying or renting new movies. Your purchased titles and active rentals can be found in the “Your Library” row on the Shop tab. 

If you’re using a cable box or set-top box with Android TV, the YouTube app will be your new go-to for streaming previously purchased titles and buying or renting new movies from Google. You can access all titles you’ve purchased from Google, including active rentals, on the YouTube app. 

For those using web browsers, the YouTube website will now be your central hub for streaming previously purchased titles and buying or renting new movies. You can access all titles you’ve purchased from Google, including active rentals, on the YouTube website.

Google has not provided a specific reason for shutting down the Google Play Movies & TV apps. It seems like the move is likely part of the company’s broader strategy to consolidate its streaming services under the YouTube brand.

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Folks over at the SpanDroid unearthed some flags and codes in the beta version of the Google Messages app, confirming that Google is working on the message editing functionality in Google Messages. Besides confirming that the editing feature is indeed being worked on, the flags don’t exactly reveal any specific details about how the feature will work in real-life usage. But it should be more or less similar to the message editing capability on other platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. 

bugle.enable_edit_ui
bugle.load_edit_history
bugle.process_outgoing_edits
bugle.process_incoming_edits

If you’re using WhatsApp, you may be aware of the fact that there is a 15-minute time limit to edit messages on Meta’s instant chat messaging platform. The flags and codes in Google Messages beta don’t reveal whether the app will have a time limit, beyond which RCS users won’t be able to edit their messages. Whether recipients will get notified every time the sender edits their messages isn’t clear, either. All these questions will be answered when Google rolls it out to users.

Google recently added support for Ultra HDR images in RCS chats in Google Messages. But it’s worth noting that the editing capability that Google found to be working on is for making amendments to the text messages, not multimedia ones. In other words, with this editing capability, you won’t be able to edit your pictures after sending them.

How many of our readers use RCS on Google Messages? If you’re using it, let us know if you’re excited about the upcoming editing feature in the app.

Source: TheSpanDroid

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Signals indicate that Apple will end its partnership with Qualcomm sometime in the next couple of years, once it has a capable modem chip of its own to use for the iPhone. While the company's current semiconductor efforts may be focused on 5G engineering, that doesn't mean planning for 6G isn't necessary. In fact, Apple's been hiring 6G engineers for a while.

The answer to this all lies in how the telecom business works.

Telecom's ten-year cycle, explained

Roughly speaking, the telecom industry plans generations of new technology in 10-year increments. That doesn't imply that cell service providers obsolete each new generation of phone technology in that span. But they've been rolling new generations of tech like this for decades.

Mobile networks are a huge global business. To make the tech work means hundreds of billions of dollars invested in physical infrastructure, from antenna towers to network operation centers, the staff to run and fix the machines that make it work.

That ecosystem goes from the networks to the handsets that operate on them, and the multitudes of other devices that connect to mobile networks — industrial machines, medical devices, vehicles, all manner of IoT gadgets.

Mobile networks have become essential infrastructure throughout the world and matters of national security for governments. And there is a lot more than just public commercial networks. There are private networks used by businesses, used by governments, used by military agencies.

So having some sort of overarching plan to deploy new tech gives all the industry's stakeholders common goals to work towards, as the technology continues to evolve and common targets to reach as they build out their networks.

Behind the curtain: the 3GPP

Today, the development of new generations of cell phone technology is coordinated through a standards body anachronistically called the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, or 3GPP. Formed at the end of the 90s, the group united seven disparate international telecom standards development organizations, with the goal of creating unified standards for deploying 3G mobile communications worldwide, and its momentum has carried it forward to today.

Today the 3GPP creates specifications that cover mobile technology soup to nuts - specs describe how core network operations should work and chips used in handsets, along with the Radio Access Networks that connect them together. The 3GPP maintains a roadmap for the development and deployment of these new features.

About once a decade, the 3GPP and other primary stakeholders in mobile communications introduce a new generation of tech. 3G networks, for example, first lit up in the early 2000s. 4G networks first appeared in 2009, and 5G networks began to light up in 2018.

Mobile network operators periodically "sunset" their networks, to reclaim radio frequency bandwidth that's allocated for newer systems. This happened in 2022 in the United States, as operators shut down their 3G networks to make way for improved 5G coverage.

So new generations of mobile service pop up every 10 years or so. And they stick around for a couple of decades. Eventually being replaced with tech that's already been deployed in the field.

Beyond 5G

5G's march of progress continues under the 3GPP's aegis. Since 2017, the standards group has introduced four major releases of new 5G specifications. We're up to Release 18 - known in telecom circles as 3GPP R18 - with R19 expected in 2024.

These latest specs are called "5G Advanced," with improvements to service continuity, reliability, speed and reduced latency all on the table. Many of these changes seek to improve the quality of existing 5G service, but they're the groundwork for what's to come with 6G as well — with an eye towards speeds up to 100 times faster than 5G.

The round trip time between from specpublication to implementation is measured in years. A practical example you might be familiar with is the iPhone 14's "Emergency SOS via Satellite" feature.

Apple helped GlobalStar build out its worldwide network of ground stations

The roots of this technology first coalesced with the publication of a 3GPP spec in early 2020, approving the use of band n53 for satellite-to-phone communication. It'd take another year before Qualcomm announced chips that supported the spec, and another year and a half before Apple introduced the iPhone 14.

A lot of work was done in the interim, including loads of engineering from Apple and the company's considerable investment and cooperation with satellite comms company GlobalStar, to build out a worldwide relay network.

But with that almost three-year timeline in mind, it's understandable why Apple would be hiring now for 6G talent, even though the 6G spec is still a work in progress. The conversation around 6G has already been going on in the telecom business for years, and the circle of life continues.

In fact, Apple joined that conversation almost as soon as 5G was out the door as a founding member of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), alongside Google, VMWare, Cisco and others.

Nothing happens overnight in a business like telecom. Apple is wisely beefing up its engineering presence to make full use of the tech by the time it gets here.

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Beeper Mini's promises of "Blue bubbles" on Android have been halted, at least temporarily, by Apple's countermeasures.

Beeper

 

Beeper Mini, the Android app born from a reverse-engineering of Apple's iMessage service, is currently broken, after Apple took measures to block it.

 

Beeper desktop users received a message from co-founder Eric Migicovsky late on Friday afternoon, noting an "iMessage outage" and that "messages are failing to send and receive." Reports had started piling up on Reddit around 2:30 pm Eastern. As of 5:30 pm, both Beeper Cloud on desktop and the Beeper Mini app were reporting errors in sending and receiving messages, with "Failed to lookup on sever: lookup request timed out."

 

Migicovsky suggested to The Verge and TechCrunch Friday that Beeper's data indicated action on Apple's side to block the service. Late on Saturday, Apple offered a statement to The Verge stating that it had indeed done so. Apple "took steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage," the statement read. Citing "metadata exposure and enabling unwanted messages, spam, and phishing attacks," Apple stated it would "continue to make updates in the future to protect our users." (Ars has reached out to Apple for comment on the specifics of this message and will update this post with new information).

 

Migicovsky, reached by phone Sunday, took exception to Apple's statement, particularly the claims of security concerns. "In fact, [Beeper Mini] has increased security and decreased exposure for Apple's users," Migicovsky said, especially compared to standard SMS. Migicovsky said Beeper did not allow for unwelcome messages, spam, or phishing, and also said that Beeper does not use "fake credentials." Migicovsky said that Beeper's core iMessage technology has its source code available on GitHub, and that, with escrow provided by a third-party research firm, his company would offer its Android source code to Apple or other involved parties.

 

Migicovsky also questioned why Apple, which typically provides few public statements about such matters to the press or public, would seem to go out of its way to comment on its attempts to counteract Beeper.

 

Beeper Cloud, the multi-service desktop chat app which recently switched to use the same tools as Beeper Mini for iMessage service, was working as of Sunday morning. Migicovsky said that work continued Sunday to bring Beeper Mini for Android back online.

 

Responding to a post on X (formerly Twitter) Saturday asking if restoring Beeper Mini's function would be an "endless cat and mouse game," Migicovsky wrote: "Beeper Cloud and Mini are apps that need to exist. We have built it. We will keep it working. We will share it widely." He added that such an attitude, "especially from people in the tech world," surprised him. "Why do hard things at all? Why keep working on anything that doesn't work the first time?"

 

Beeper's ability to send encrypted iMessages from Android phones grew from a teenager's reverse-engineering of the iMessage protocol, as Ars detailed at launch. The app could not read message contents (nor could Apple), kept encryption keys and contacts on your device, and did not require an Apple ID to authenticate.

 

The app did, however, send a text message from a device to an Apple server, and the response was used to generate an encryption key pair, one for Apple and one for your device. A Beeper service kept itself connected to Apple's servers to notify it and you about new messages. Reddit user moptop and others suggested that Beeper's service used encryption algorithms whose keys were spoofed to look like they came from a Mac Mini running OS X Mountain Lion, perhaps providing Apple a means of pinpointing and block them. Beeper employees have stated on Reddit and elsewhere that an explanation of what was blocked, and how it was worked around, should be forthcoming.

 

Beeper Mini's iMessage capabilities, for which the company was planning to charge $1.99 per month after a seven-day trial, were more than a feature. The company had planned to build additional secure messaging into Beeper Mini, including Signal and WhatsApp messaging, and make it the primary focus of its efforts. Its prior app Beeper, temporarily renamed Beeper Cloud, was marked to be deprecated at some point in favor of the new iMessage-touting Mini app.

 

This post was updated at 12:50 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 9, to reflect restored function to Beeper Cloud (desktop), and Migicovsky's social media response after the outage. It was updated again at 12:35 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10, with Apple's statement on its efforts to counteract Beeper, and Migicovsky's comment on the same.

 

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At CES in 2021, 5G was just about everywhere you looked. It was the future of mobile communications that would propel autonomous vehicles, remote surgery, and AR into reality. The low latency! The capacity! It’ll change everything, we were told. Verizon and AT&T wrote massive checks for new spectrum licenses, and T-Mobile swallowed another network whole because it was very important to make the 5G future happen as quickly as possible and win the race.

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