[MacRumors.com] - Skype this week launched a new screen sharing feature on iOS and Android devices, allowing users to share their smartphone screens with any of their Skype friends. Microsoft said that this should be useful for helping family members figure out their new smartphone, shopping online with a friend, and more.
Via: Macrumors.com
[Yahoo News] - June 4 (Reuters) - Apple Inc will ask developers to position a new "Sign on with Apple" button in iPhone and iPad apps above rival buttons from Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc, according to design guidelines released this week.
The move to give Apple prime placement is significant because users often select the default or top option on apps. And Apple will require apps to offer its button if they want to offer options to login with Facebook or Google.
Apple unveiled its login button on Monday, emphasizing users' privacy and also introducing a feature that randomly generates an email address to avoid revealing the person's true email.
Many consumers choose to sign in to independent apps using their accounts from Google or Facebook because it saves the trouble of having to create and remember separate user names and passwords for dozens of different apps.
But the login buttons can send some data back to their makers about the user's app habits. Apple's software chief Craig Federighi said during a keynote address on Monday that Apple was seeking to give users a more private option and developers a way to offer a fast one-step login without sending their user's data to another company.
Apple's guidelines do not appear to impose requirements on apps that have their own dedicated login system and do not use third-party buttons from Google or Facebook, such as apps from game maker Nintendo Co Ltd. Apple's button also works on websites. Its use will not be required because Apple does not hold review power over websites the way it does apps on its own store, but Apple's guidelines still ask it to be given top placement if it is used.
Apple declined to comment further beyond its executives' public remarks on Sign in with Apple. Facebook and Google declined to comment on the move, though Google said it does not require use of Google's login button for apps in its Play Store on Android devices.
Apple's guidelines to developers around login tools come as developers and rivals have alleged that some of its App Store practices, such as taking a commission of up to 30% of sales made through the store, are anticompetitive.
United States antitrust regulators are also laying the ground for a potential antitrust review of Apple and other major technology companies, Reuters reported Monday. In an interview with CBS News that aired on Tuesday, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said it was "fair" for regulators to scrutinize Apple given its size but said the company is not a monopoly in any of the markets it operates in.
Two app developers on Tuesday sued Apple Inc over its App Store practices, making claims similar to those in a lawsuit brought by consumers that the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed to proceed.
via NYT Business Day https://nyti.ms/2K2NWOb
[Yahoo News] -Â By Stephen Nellis
SAN JOSE, Calif., June 3 (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Monday launched a "Sign In With Apple" function to rival Facebook and Google web login accounts, drawing a contrast with rivals by stressing protection of users' information.
When users sign in with their Google or Facebook Inc profiles to third-party apps, the apps often share valuable data with Google and Facebook, a practice that Apple is looking to stop. Apple announced the move at its annual software developer conference in San Jose, California, where it also showed new features for its operating systems for iPhones, iPads and Macs and said it would retire the iTunes app after 18 years in favor of separate apps for music, movies and podcasts.
Privacy themes ran throughout the event, with Apple creating a system for its users to sign up for apps with a randomly generated email to avoid revealing their true address. The iPhone maker also tightened controls on location tracking, saying it would stop apps from scanning Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks to guess a user's location even when the user has disabled tracking.
Apple has emphasized privacy in effort to set itself from rivals such as Facebook and Google, both of whom use data to boost their advertising businesses and whose practices have come under scrutiny.
"Location-based tracking, for example, is much more nefarious than most people realize," said Bob O'Donnell, head of TECHnalysis Research. "You can find out more about someone from their location than things like what they're searching for."
Apple is unlikely to make any money directly off the new services, analysts said. Instead, features like the web sign-on are likely to drive brand loyalty by making it easier for users to log into apps without having to juggle multiple passwords, said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies.
But Apple, whose iPhone sales have started to fall after nearly a decade of sustained growth, is also working to persuade consumers that its hardware is worth its higher price in part because it protects their data. Bajarin said Apple appears to be working to "firewall" off its customers from data collection practices it disagrees with.
"You look at all these regulations that have come down...and the goal of them is to give consumers more control over their data. Apple is saying, if you guys aren't going to do it - and they're talking to the other big companies - we'll do it for our customers," Bajarin said.
Apple closed down 1% at $173.30. Earlier in the day, Reuters reported that the U.S. Justice Department has assumed jurisdiction for a potential probe of Apple as part of a broader review of whether technology giants are using their size to act in an anti-competitive manner.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Writing by Nick Zieminski Editing by Paul Simao and Lisa Shumaker)
