Tech News - Mobile

Android 11 introduced several exciting updates for developers to integrate into their app experience including new device and media controls, enhanced support for foldables, and a lot more. In addition to new features there are also several privacy enhancements that developers need to integrate into their application when upgraded and re-targeting to Android 11. One of those enhancements is the introduction of package visibility that alters the ability to query installed applications and packages on a user’s device. When you want to open a browser or send an email then your application will have to launch and interact with another application on the device through an Intent. Before calling StartActivity it is best practice to QueryIntentActivities or ResolveActivity to ensure there is an application that can handle the request. If you are using Xamarin.Essentials, then you may not have seen these APIs because the library handles all of the logic for you automatically for Browser(External), Email, and SMS. Before Android 11 every app could easily query all installed applications and see if a specific Intent would open when StartActivity is called. That has all changed with Android 11 with the introduction of package visibility. You will now need to declare what intents and data schemes you want your app to be able to query when your app is targeting Android 11. Once you retarget to Android 11 and run your application on a device running Android 11 you will receive zero results if you use QueryIntentActivities. If you are using Xamarin.Essentials you will receive a FeatureNotSupportedException when you try to call one of the APIs that needs to query activities. Let’s say you are using the Email feature of Xamarin.Essentials. Your code may look like this: public async Task SendEmail(string subject, string body, List<string> recipients) { try { var message = new EmailMessage { Subject = subject, Body = body, To = recipients }; await Email.ComposeAsync(message); } catch (FeatureNotSupportedException fbsEx) { // Email is not supported on this device } catch (Exception ex) { // Some other exception occurred } } If your app targeted Android 10 and earlier, it would just work. With package visibility in Android 11 when you try to send an Email, Xamarin.Essentials will try to query for pacakges that support email and zero results will be return. This will result in a FeatureNotSupportedException to be thrown, which is not ideal. To enable your application to get visbility into the packages you will need to add a list of queries into your AndroidManifest.xml. <manifest package="com.mycompany.myapp"> <queries> <intent> <action android:name="android.intent.action.SENDTO" /> <data android:scheme="mailto" /> </intent> </queries> </manifest> If you need query multiple intents or use multiple APIs you will need to add them all into the list. <queries> <intent> <action android:name="android.intent.action.SENDTO" /> <data android:scheme="mailto" /> </intent> <intent> <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" /> <data android:scheme="http"/> </intent> <intent> <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" /> <data android:scheme="https"/> </intent> <intent> <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" /> <data android:scheme="smsto"/> </intent> </queries> And there you have it, with just a small amount of configuration you are app will continue to work flawless when you target Android 11. Learn More Be sure to browse through the official Android 11 documentation on package visibility, and of course the newly updated Xamarin.Essentials documentation. Finally, be sure to read through the Xamarin.Android 11 release notes. The post Query & Interact with Apps in Android 11 with Package Visibility appeared first on Xamarin Blog.

Xamarin.Essentials has been a staple for developers building iOS, Android, and Windows apps with Xamarin and .NET since it was first released last year. Now, we are introducing Xamarin.Essentials 1.6, which adds new APIs including MediaPicker, AppActions, Contacts, and more. Not to mention that this release also features official support for macOS! This means that Xamarin.Essentials now offers over 50 native integrations with support for 7 different operating systems. All from a single library that is optimized for performance, linker safe, and production ready. Here is a highlight reel of all the new features: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/xamarin/wp-content/uploads/sites/44/2020/09/Xamarin.Essentials-1.6.mp4 Welcome macOS Since the first release of Xamarin.Essentials the team and community have been continuously working to add more platforms to fit developer’s needs. After adding tvOS, watchOS, and Tizen support the next natural step was first class support for macOS to compliment the UWP desktop support. I am pleased to announce most APIs are now supported for macOS 10.12.6 (Sierra) and higher! Take a look at the update platform support page to see all of the APIs that you can leverage on your macOS apps. MediaPicker and FilePicker The time has finally come for brand new media capabilities in Xamarin.Essentials. These new APIs enable you to easily access device features such as picking a file from the system, selecting photos or videos, or having your user take a photo or video with the camera. async Task TakePhotoAsync() { try { var photo = await MediaPicker.CapturePhotoAsync(); await LoadPhotoAsync(photo); Console.WriteLine($"CapturePhotoAsync COMPLETED: {PhotoPath}"); } catch (Exception ex) { Console.WriteLine($"CapturePhotoAsync THREW: {ex.Message}"); } } App Actions App actions, shortcuts, and jump lists have all been simplified across iOS, Android, and UWP with this new API. You can now manually create and react to actions when the user selects them from the app icon. try { await AppActions.SetAsync( new AppAction("app_info", "App Info", icon: "app_info_action_icon"), new AppAction("battery_info", "Battery Info")); } catch (FeatureNotSupportedException ex) { Debug.WriteLine("App Actions not supported"); } Contacts Does your app need the ability to get contact information? The brand-new Contacts API has you covered with a single line of code to launch a contact picker to gather information: try { var contact = await Contacts.PickContactAsync(); if(contact == null) return; var name = contact.Name; var contactType = contact.ContactType; // Unknown, Personal, Work var numbers = contact.Numbers; // List of phone numbers var emails = contact.Emails; // List of email addresses } catch (Exception ex) { // Handle exception here. } So Much More That is just the start of brand-new features in Xamarin.Essentials 1.6. When you install the latest update, you will also find new APIs including Screenshot, Haptic Feedback, and an expanded Permissions API. Additionally, there has been tweaks and optimizations to existing features and of course some bug fixes. Built with the Community One of the most exciting parts of working on Xamarin.Essentials is seeing the amazing community contributions. The additions this month included exciting new large new APIs, small tweaks, and plenty of bug fixes. Thank you to everyone that has filed an issue, filed a feature request, reviewed code, or sent a full pull request down. sung-su.kim – Tizen FilePicker Andrea Galvani – UWP Authenticator Fixes, Pedro Jesus – Contacts, Color.ToHsv/FromHsva Dimov Dima – HapticFeedback API Dogukan Demir – Android O Fixes in Permissions Sreeraj P R – Audio fixes on Text-to-Speech Martin Kuckert – iOS Web Authenticator Fixes solomonfried – WebAuthenticator Email vividos – FilePicker API Janus Weil – Location class fixes, AltitudeReferenceSystem addition Ed Snider – App Actions Learn More Be sure to read the full release notes and the updated documentation to learn more about each of the new features. The post Xamarin.Essentials 1.6 preview: macOS, media, and more! appeared first on Xamarin Blog.

You may have heard about the Xamarin Community Toolkit by now. This toolkit will be an important part of the Xamarin.Forms ecosystem during the evolution to .NET 6. Now is the time to contribute since it is “Hacktoberfest” after all! What is the Xamarin Community Toolkit? Since Xamarin.Forms 5 will be the last major version of Forms before .NET 6, we wanted to have an intermediate library that can still add value for Forms in the meanwhile. However, why stop there? There is also a lot of converters, behaviors, effects, etc. that everyone is continually rewriting. To help avoid this, we consolidated all of those into the Xamarin Community Toolkit. This toolkit already has a lot of traction and support from our wonderful community, but there is always room for more! Lucky for us, that time of year which makes contributing extra special is upon us again. Hacktoberfest 2020 For Hacktoberfest we welcome you all to join us and plant that tree (new reward by Hacktoberfest!) or earn that t-shirt while giving some of your valuable time to our library. On top of that, we will offer some swag whenever you decide to contribute. When you do, we will reach out to you near the end of October and if your PRs are eligible to make sure we get your details. That means: no need to do anything special, just crush that code! How to Get Involved? Head over to the Xamarin Community Toolkit repository. Find an issue you want to work on and comment that you will be taking responsibility for that issue. It might be that your issue is not on there yet, please feel free to add it. Please await confirmation of your issue, which typically happens within 24 hours. Socialize your new issue on Twitter with the hashtag #XamarinCommunityToolkit A couple things to note: We appreciate any and all contributions. However, fixing typos, “README”s, or similar documents does NOT count towards a rewardable contribution. All pull-requests should be opened between October 2nd – November 1st, 2020. Have questions? Just ask! Feel free to contact us through the Discord server. You can also reach out directly on Twitter: @jfversluis. Additionally, you can open an issue. Quality Pull-Requests Anything that substantially improves the quality of the product. It should be more than fixing typos. Approved Items of Work Any open “bug” issue that has been verified, or enhancement spec that has some indication it is approved. If you have any question, please contact us. Since the Toolkit was launched recently, we apologize in advance if some of the issues are mislabeled. If you are unsure about anything, just comment and a member of our team will reach out with guidance. Get Started Thank you so much for your interest, we look forward to all of your great contributions this year! The post Join Hacktoberfest at the Xamarin Community Toolkit appeared first on Xamarin Blog.

Virtually tune-in to communities around the world through amazing online events, streams, and recordings this October. Stay connected to your developer communities through the upcoming .NET Conf 2020, virtual Meetups, community stand-ups, podcasts, and more! As well as discovering ways to get started with .NET tutorials and hosting your own virtual experiences. .NET Conf 2020 The .NET team and the .NET Foundation are excited to present .NET Conf 2020 – a free, 3-day, livestream event all about .NET development! This year is going to be extra special as .NET 5.0 launches on the 10-year anniversary of this virtual conference happening November 10-12th, 2020! Host a Virtual Event The .NET Foundation is supporting virtual events run by communities from around the world. Organize a virtual event or Meetup for your community between November 13, 2020 – January 31, 2021 to get the following support: Promotion of your event on the .NET Conf event site and through the .NET Virtual User Group. Technical content to present/promote to your local groups through an “Event in a Box”. Support with online streaming to the .NET Foundation’s YouTube channel, if needed. Digital SWAG and additional offers from our partners. How to Participate Fill out this form to let us know about your virtual event. Share your stories and events via the hashtag #dotnetconf on Twitter. Share our Facebook event with your friends to help spread the word! For questions, please email dotnetconf@dotnetfoundation.org Important note: Please be advised request of speakers and streaming support for virtual .NET Conf 2020 events resources are provided based on speaker and streaming support team availability, as well as a “first-come-first-served” basis. Join us on November 10th at 08:00 PST for the live keynote on www.dotnetconf.net. Share your stories, watch the stream, and have fun learning! Virtual User Group Events Around the World Discover events happening all over the globe and all throughout the month via the .NET Foundation Community Meetup site. Get assistance with supporting your own local user group by joining the .NET Foundation Meetup Pro account. Additionally, the .NET Foundation is helping .NET user groups go virtual through the .NET Virtual User Group program! .NET Foundation’s .NET Virtual User Group Program Let the .NET Foundation take care of all of the streaming so you can focus on enabling developers around the world to join into YOUR event. Submit your user group session, get scheduled, and get your event promoted! It is a great way to engage with the broader .NET community while keeping your user group active and maintaining social distance. Join the .NET Virtual User Groups right now! Find awesome upcoming user group sessions from around the world and right in your hometown. Watch the .NET Team Stream Discover new live community stand-ups every week! Catch the Xamarin community live-streaming on Twitch daily: Get the full list of .NET streamers throughout the week. Be sure to click that “Follow” button to stay up to date. Join a .NET Stand-up Multiple times a week, the .NET teams meet online to talk about the latest news across all .NET products. Find live, upcoming, and past episodes on the new .NET Community Stand-up website. Including the upcoming Xamarin Community Stand-up at 10/1/2020, 1:00:00 PM EST. Topic: Community member Theodora shows off her College Diary app Subscribe to the Xamarin Podcast Join your co-hosts, Matt Soucoup and James Montemagno, to catch up on the latest and greatest in Android, Xamarin, and cloud development. Get all the updates about Xamarin.Forms, recent features, and future releases in a jiffy. Subscribe to the Xamarin Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. Get Started with Xamarin and .NET Begin your journey of .NET Core with experts like Scott Hanselman, Kendra Havens, and many others that help walk you through the beginning stages of learning .NET. Such as how to get started with .NET, Xamarin, ASP.NET, NuGet, and even build your first app! Discover the exciting world of development with this Beginner series for .NET developers today. The post .NET Conf 2020 and Community Events this October appeared first on Xamarin Blog.

Yesterday, the project manager of Homebrew, Mike McQuaid, announced the release of Homebrew 2.2. This is the third release of Homebrew this year. Some of the major highlights of this new version include support to macOS Catalina, faster implementations of  HOMEBREW_AUTO_UPDATE_SECS and brew upgrade’s post-install dependent checking, and more. Read More: After Red Hat, Homebrew removes MongoDB from core formulas due to its Server Side Public License adoption New key features in Homebrew 2.2 Homebrew will now support macOS Catalina (10.15), support to macOS Sierra (10.12) and older are unsupported The speed of the no-op case for HOMEBREW_AUTO_UPDATE_SECS has become extremely fast and defaults to 5 minutes instead of 1 The brew upgrade will no longer give an unsuccessful error code if the formula is up-to-date. Homebrew upgrade’s post-install dependent checking is now exceedingly faster and reliable. Homebrew on Linux has updated and raised its minimum requirements. Starting from Homebrew 2.2, the software package management system will use OpenSSL 1.1. The Homebrew team has disabled the brew tap-pin since it was buggy and not much used by Homebrew maintainers. It will stop supporting Python 2.7 by the end of 2019 as it will reach EOL. Read More: Apple’s MacOS Catalina in major turmoil as it kills iTunes and drops support for 32 bit applications Many users are excited about this release and have appreciated the maintainers of Homebrew for their efforts. https://twitter.com/DVJones89/status/1199710865160843265 https://twitter.com/dirksteins/status/1199944492868161538 A user on Hacker News comments, “While Homebrew is perhaps technically crude and somewhat inflexible compared to other and older package managers, I think it deserves real credit for being so easy to add packages to. I contributed Homebrew packages after a few weeks of using macOS, while I didn't contribute a single package in the ten years I ran Debian. I'm also impressed by the focus of the maintainers and their willingness for saying no and cutting features. We need more of that in the programming field. Homebrew is unashamedly solely for running the standard configuration of the newest version of well-behaved programs, which covers at least 90% of my use cases. I use Nix when I want something complicated or nonstandard.” To know about the features in detail, head over to Hombrew’s official page. Announcing Homebrew 2.0.0! Homebrew 1.9.0 released with periodic brew cleanup, beta support for Linux, Windows and much more! Homebrew’s Github repo got hacked in 30 mins. How can open source projects fight supply chain attacks? ActiveState adds thousands of curated Python packages to its platform Firefox Preview 3.0 released with Enhanced Tracking Protection, Open links in Private tab by default and more

Yesterday, Valve Corporation, the popular American video game developer, announced the Half-Life: Alyx, the first new game in the popular Half-Life series in over a decade. The company tweeted that it will unveil the first look on Thursday, 21st November 2019, at 10 am Pacific Time. https://twitter.com/valvesoftware/status/1196566870360387584 Half-Life: Alyx, a brand-new game in the Half-Life universe, is designed exclusively for PC virtual reality systems (Valve Index, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality). Talking about Valve’s history in PC games, it has created some of the most influential and critically games ever made. However, “Valve has famously never finished either of its Half-Life supposed trilogies of games. After Half-Life and Half-Life 2, the company created Half-Life: Episode 1 and Half-Life: Episode 2, but no third game in the series,” the Verge reports. Ars Technica reveals, “The game's name confirms what has been loudly rumored for months: that you will play this game from the perspective of Alyx Vance, a character introduced in 2004's Half-Life 2. Instead of stepping forward in time, HLA will rewind to the period between the first two mainline Half-Life games.” “A data leak from Valve's Source 2 game engine, as uncovered in September by Valve News Network, pointed to a new control system labeled as the "Grabbity Gloves" in its codebase. Multiple sources have confirmed that this is indeed a major control system in HLA,” Ars Technica claims. These Grabbity gloves can also be described as ‘Magnet gloves’, which allow pointing out and attracting distant objects to your hands. Valve has already announced plans to support all major VR PC systems for its next VR game, and these new gloves seem like the right system to scale to whatever controllers that would come to VR. Many gamers are excited to check out this Half-life version and are also looking forward to whether the company really stands up to what it says. A user on Hacker News commented, “Wonder what Valve is doubling down with this title? It seems like the previous games were all ground-breaking narratives, but with most of the storytellers having left in the last few years, I'd be curious to see what makes this different than your standard VR games.” Another user on Hacker News commented, “From the tech side it was the heavy, and smart, use of scripting that made HL1 stand out. With HL2 it was the added physics engine trough the change to Source, back then that used to be a big deal and whole gameplay mechanics revolve around that (gravity gun). In that context, I do not really consider it that surprising for the next HL project to focus on VR because even early demos of that combination looked already very promising 5 years ago” We will update this space after the Half-Life: Alyx is unveiled on Thursday. To know more about the announcement in detail, read Ars Technica’s complete coverage. Valve reveals new Index VR Kit with detail specs and costs upto $999 Why does Oculus CTO John Carmack prefer 2D VR interfaces over 3D Virtual Reality interfaces? Oculus Rift S: A new VR with inside-out tracking, improved resolution and more!

On Tuesday, Atila Neves the Deputy leader for D programming language posted about his vision for D and what he would like to do with D lang in the near future. Make D programming language default for web dev and mobile applications D’s static reflection and code generation capabilities make it an ideal candidate to implement a codebase that needs to be called from several different languages and environments (e.g. Python, Java, R). Traditionally this is done by specifying data structures and RPC calls in an Interface Definition Language (IDL) then translating that to the supported languages, with a wire protocol to go along with it. With D, none of that is necessary. One can write the production code in D and have libraries automatically making the code callable from other languages. Hence it will be easy to write D code that runs as fast or faster than the alternatives, and it will be a win on all fronts. Memory Safety for D lang Atila believes that D is a systems programming language with value types and pointers, it isn’t memory safe. He says that DIP1000 is in the right direction, but it still needs to be memory safe unless programmers opt-out via @trusted block or function. The DIP1000 proposal includes a scope mechanism that will know when the lifetime of a reference is over by providing a mechanism to guarantee that a reference cannot escape lexical scope. Thus it can safely implement memory management schemes rather than tracing the garbage collection. Safe and easy concurrency in D programming language As per Atila safe and easy concurrency in D is mostly achieved through actor models, but they still need to finalize shards and make everything @safe as well. Centralizing all reflection needs with an API Atila says instead of disparate ways of getting things done with fragmented APIs like (__traits, std.traits, custom code), he would like there to be a library that centralizes all reflection needs with a great API. Easy interoperability for C++ developers C++ has been successful so far in making the transition from C virtually seamless. Atila wants current C++ programmers with legacy codebases to just as easily be able to start writing D code. Faster development times D needs a fast interpreter so that developers can skip machine code generation and linking. This should be the default way of running unittest blocks for faster feedback, with programmers only compiling their code for runtime performance and/or to ship binaries to final users. String interpolation in D programming language Code generation is one of D’s greatest strengths, and token strings enable visually pleasing blocks of code that are actually “just strings”. Hence, String interpolation would make it vastly easier to use. To know more about D programming language, check out the official post by Atila Neves. “Rust is the future of systems programming, C is the new Assembly”: Intel principal engineer, Josh Triplett The V programming language is now open source – is it too good to be true? Rust’s original creator, Graydon Hoare on the current state of system programming and safety

Yesterday, Apple released MacOS Catalina, its latest update for Macs and MacBooks. The new operating system can be installed from the homepage of its App Store. Catalina brings a host of new features, including the option to use apps from the iPad as well as turn the tablet into an additional display for computers. But this new update kills iTunes and faces some major issues. Apple has confirmed that there are some serious issues in MacOS Catalina, and affected consumers should refrain from updating the OS until these issues are addressed. Catalina is finally the download that kills iTunes, which is nowhere to be found in the new update. Instead, Apple has moved the features of iTunes into their own separate Music app, the new update also includes separate apps for Podcasts and TV. MacOS Catalina update is a big problem for DJs who rely on iTunes The Mac platform is especially popular with DJs, who cart around MacBook Pro machines jam-packed with music, playlists, mixes and specialist software to allow them to perform every evening. These have been tied to iTunes’ underlying XML database. But after nearly 2 decades, iTunes are discontinued in macOS Catalina, and the XML file no longer exists to index a local music collection. This has broken popular and niche music tools alike, including some of the major titles such as Traktor and Rekordbox. The Verge reports that Apple has confirmed that this issue is down to its removal of the XML file, but is handing responsibility to the third-party developers behind each app. Unfortunately, for Apple’s reputation, those developers have been expecting the ability for the new standalone Music app to explore an XML file, a feature Apple suggested would be available until they could code around the lack of XML. Fact Mag also reported, “this news contradicts Apple’s earlier assertion that there would be a way to manually export the XML file from the new Music app, though Catalina’s launch yesterday now proves this isn’t the case at all.” Apple advice DJs that, if you rely on a software that needs this XML file to function, then do not update to Catalina until individual developers have issued compatibility updates for the new operating system. Catalina drops support for 32-bit applications and faces other issues as well Catalina also drops support for 32-bit applications. The 32-bit applications will simply not run under the new system, this version of macOS is a 64-bit only. If you are a Mac user that is reliant on a 32-bit app, then you have just a single dialog on installation that warns of the loss of support. And with these there are other questions which a user will need answers to like, you would need to know which of your apps are 32-bit and which are 64-bit? And if they are mission-critical in your role and is a 64-bit alternative available? It's not just this, a number of creative tools, including Apple Aperture, Microsoft Office 2011 and Adobe CS6 are also experiencing issues with Catalina. Additionally, there are issues with font in MacOS Catalina, as per the Chromium blog, the macOS system font appears "off" -- too light / tight kerning. It is clear that Apple wants to push forward with its platforms, but it needs to remember that the hardware has to work in the real world today. Apple should be consistent in what features it offers, it should provide clear and accurate information to developers and users, and it should ensure the very least that its own store is in order. TextMate 2.0, the text editor for macOS releases MacOS terminal emulator, iTerm2 3.3.0 is here with new Python scripting API, a scriptable status bar, Minimal theme, and more Apple previews macOS Catalina 10.15 beta, featuring Apple music, TV apps, security, zsh shell, driverKit, and much more! WWDC 2019 highlights: Apple introduces SwiftUI, new privacy-focused sign in, updates to iOS, macOS, and iPad and more Apple plans to make notarization a default requirement in all future macOS updates

Yesterday, reports from 9to5 Google says that as per the updated Google Mobile Services (GMS) agreement. Per the new terms, OEMs who utilize their own gesture navigation systems cannot have those available in the device's initial setup if it ships with Android 10. Google has struggled to devise a new navigation system for Android over the last few releases. The two-button design from Pie is not liked much in the market, and the new full-gesture setup in Android 10 also has its critics. However, with the new agreement, you will see a lot of Google's gestures in the upcoming new Android 10 devices. At this year’s Google I/O 2019, the company announced that it would support the new gestures and the three-button navbar going forward. It didn't rule out OEMs having their own custom gesture navigation and will indeed let them keep those, but there will be some restrictions. Notably, devices shipping with Android 10 will need to have either classic three-button nav or Google's gesture navigation enabled out of the box. This makes it sound like the two-button "pill" setup will be effectively dead. Android 10 devices will not offer custom navigation in the initial setup Phones often let users choose their navigation options during setup, but Android 10 will not offer custom gesture navigation as an option in the setup wizard at all. So, you'll probably be able to turn on Google's gestures, but something like Samsung's swipe-up targets (see below image) will only be available if you dig into the settings. Source: 9to5 Google Hence, the updated Google Mobile Services agreement puts into perspective what Google really wants for Android users. Manufacturers can still include their own navigation solutions, but those solutions aren’t to be immediately available to the users during the setup wizard. Users must go into the device settings to toggle alternative navigation systems after the initial setup. Not only are OEM-specific navigation systems not allowed during setup, but manufacturers can’t even prompt users to use them in any way. No notifications. No pop-ups or any other way. Also, Google also requires OEMs to hide their custom navigation systems deeper into the settings. Manufacturers can put these settings under new sections like “advanced” or something similar, not easily accessible to the user. This isn’t necessarily a bad call by Google. More uniformity throughout the Android ecosystem can only be a good thing. The gestures will mature quicker, apps will be forced to adhere to the new navigation systems, and users will get used to it more easily. Google Mobile Services requires new Android devices compatible with Type-C ports The new Google Mobile Services agreement also outlines the technical requirements that smartphone device makers must meet in order to preload Google Mobile Services. Nearly every Android smartphone or tablet sold internationally have met these requirements because having access to Google apps is critical for sales outside of China. A subsection 13.6 of this document is titled “USB Type-C Compatibility” which states: “New DEVICES launching from 2019 onwards, with a USB Type-C port MUST ensure full interoperability with chargers that are compliant with the USB specifications and have the USB Type-C plug.” On Reddit, this news has got significant traction and Android users are discussing that this move by Google is good only if the gesture usage works well. Here are some of the comments, “Im sure people will hate this, but im for easier usage for the general public.” Another user responds, “Sure. As long as the gesture usage works really, really well. If it doesn't, this is a bad move.” Google Project Zero discloses a zero-day Android exploit in Pixel, Huawei, Xiaomi and Samsung devices Google’s DNS over HTTPS encryption plan faces scrutiny from ISPs and the Congress Google Chrome Keystone update can render your Mac system unbootable Google’s V8 JavaScript engine adds support for top-level await Google announces two new attribute links, Sponsored and UGC and updates “nofollow”

Apple released macOS Catalina today as the next major update to the company’s Mac operating system. With macOS Catalina, iTunes is now broken into separate apps for Apple Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV. Catalina also features Apple Arcade game subscription service and Sidecar, which extends Mac desktops to a second display. For developers, Catalina has Mac Catalyst to build versions of iPad apps compatible with Mac. macOS Catalina was officially revealed in June at the WWDC 2019 and the public beta was released later in June. What’s new in macOS Catalina Sidecar Sidecar basically extends your Mac workspace by using an iPad as a second display-  both wirelessly and when plugged in. Sidecar also supports the Apple Pencil, letting you work on any Mac app or third-party Mac app that supports stylus input. According to an Apple white paper, the only laptops that Sidecar works on are: MacBooks from 2016 or later, MacBook Airs from 2018 or later, and MacBook Pros from 2016 or later. All of them use Apple’s butterfly keyboard. Addition of Apple Arcade Apple Arcade game subscription service is available at $4.99 per month to play games on Mac. Apple Arcade subscribers get the full version of every game including all updates and expansions, without any ads or additional in-game purchases. The service is launching with a 30-day free trial and a single subscription includes access for up to six family members with Family Sharing. iTunes replaced with new entertainment apps iTunes saw it’s long-awaited death and was replaced by three new apps, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV. Music app features over 50 million songs, playlists, and music videos. Apple Podcasts offers more than 700,000 shows in its catalog. Apple TV+, Apple’s video subscription service, will be available in the Apple TV app for Mac starting November 1 Removal of iTunes, however, is a problem for DJs who rely on XML files to sort through file libraries and quickly find tracks while performing. According to Apple, along with Catalina’s removal of iTunes, users are also losing XML file support as all native music playback on Macs moves over to the official Music app, which has a new library format. https://twitter.com/danideahl/status/1181342504949633025 Additional features You also have Screen Time on macOS and stricter privacy protections. Apps will have to ask for permission to access the desktop, documents, iCloud Drive, and external storage. With activation lock, any Macs that have a T2 security chip cannot be erased and reactivated without Apple ID password. ‘Find My App’ combines ‘Find My iPhone’ and ‘Find My Friends’ into a single, easy-to-use app on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Mail in macOS Catalina adds the ability to block email from a specified sender, mute an overly active thread and unsubscribe from commercial mailing lists. The macOS Catalina update is a free download, and it can be installed by clicking on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your screen, choosing system preferences, and then selecting software update. Apple bans HKmap.live, a Hong Kong protest safety app from the iOS Store as it makes people ‘evade law enforcement’. Apple iPadOS now available for download with Slide Over and Split View, Home Screen updates, and more. Apple’s September 2019 Event: iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, Watch Series 5, Apple TV+ and more

An unnamed iOS researcher that goes by the Twitter handle @axi0mX has released a new iOS exploit, checkm8 that affects all iOS devices running on A5 to A11 chipsets. This exploit explores vulnerabilities in Apple’s bootroom (secure boot ROM) which can give phone owners and hackers deep level access to their iOS devices. Once a hacker jailbreaks, Apple would be unable to block or patch out with a future software update. This iOS exploit can lead to a permanent, unblockable jailbreak on iPhones. Jailbreaking can allow hackers to get root access, enabling them to install software that is unavailable in the Apple App Store, run unsigned code, read and write to the root filesystem, and more. https://twitter.com/axi0mX/status/1178299323328499712 The researcher considers checkm8 possibly the biggest news in the iOS jailbreak community in years. This is because Bootrom jailbreaks are mostly permanent and cannot be patched. To fix it, you would need to apply physical modifications to device chipsets. This can only happen with callbacks or mass replacements.  It is also the first bootrom-level exploit publicly released for an iOS device since the iPhone 4, which was released almost a decade ago. axi0mX had also released another jailbreak-enabling exploit called alloc8 that was released in 2017. alloc8 exploits a powerful vulnerability in function malloc in the bootrom applicable to iPhone 3GS devices. However, checkm8 impacts devices starting with an iPhone 4S (A5 chip) through the iPhone 8 and iPhone X (A11 chip). The only exception being A12 processors that come in iPhone XS / XR and 11 / 11 Pro devices, for which Apple has patched the flaw. The full jailbreak with Cydia on latest iOS version is possible, but requires additional work. Explaining the reason behind this iOS exploit to be made public, @axi0mX said “a bootrom exploit for older devices makes iOS better for everyone. Jailbreakers and tweak developers will be able to jailbreak their phones on latest version, and they will not need to stay on older iOS versions waiting for a jailbreak. They will be safer.” The researcher adds, “I am releasing my exploit for free for the benefit of iOS jailbreak and security research community. Researchers and developers can use it to dump SecureROM, decrypt keybags with AES engine, and demote the device to enable JTAG. You still need additional hardware and software to use JTAG.” For now, the checkm8 exploit is released in beta and there is no actual jailbreak yet. You can’t simply download a tool, crack your device, and start downloading apps and modifications to iOS. Axi0mX's jailbreak is available on GitHub. The code isn't recommended for users without proper technical skills as it could easily result in bricked devices. Nonetheless, it is still an unpatchable issue and poses security risks for iOS users. Apple has not yet acknowledged the checkm8 iOS exploit. A number of people tweeted about this iOS exploit and tried it. https://twitter.com/FCE365/status/1177558724719853568 https://twitter.com/SparkZheng/status/1178492709863976960 https://twitter.com/dangoodin001/status/1177951602793046016 The past year saw a number of iOS exploits. Last month, Apple has accidentally reintroduced a bug in iOS 12.4 that was patched in iOS 12.3. A security researcher, who goes by the name Pwn20wnd on Twitter, released unc0ver v3.5.2, a jailbreaking tool that can jailbreak A7-A11 devices. In July, two members of the Google Project Zero team revealed about six “interactionless” security bugs that can affect iOS by exploiting the iMessage Client. Four of these bugs can execute malicious code on a remote iOS device, without any prior user interaction. Researchers release a study into Bug Bounty Programs and Responsible Disclosure for ethical hacking in IoT ‘Dropbox Paper’ leaks out email addresses and names on sharing document publicly DoorDash data breach leaks personal details of 4.9 million customers, workers, and merchants

Last week, the React team announced the release of React Native 0.61. This release comes with an overhauled reloading feature called Fast Refresh, a new hook named ‘useWindowDimensions’, and more. https://twitter.com/dan_abramov/status/1176597851822010375 Key updates in React Native 0.61 Fast Refresh for reliable hot reloading In December last year, the React Native team asked developers what they dislike about React Native. Developers listed the problems they face when creating a React Native application including clunky debugging, improved open-source contribution process, and more. Hot reloading refreshes the updated files without losing the app state. Previously, it did not work reliably with function components, often failed to update the screen, and wasn’t resilient to typos and mistakes, which was one of the major pain points. To address this issue, React Native 0.61 introduces Fast Refresh, which is a combination of live reloading with hot reloading. Dan Abramov, a core React Native developer, wrote in the announcement, “In React Native 0.61, we’re unifying the existing “live reloading” (reload on save) and “hot reloading” features into a single new feature called “Fast Refresh”.” Fast Refresh fully supports function components, hooks, recovers gracefully after typos and mistakes, and does not perform invasive code transformations. It is enabled by default, however, you can turn it off in the Dev Menu. The useWindowDimensions hook React Native 0.61 comes with a new hook called useWindowDimensions, which can be used as an alternative to the Dimensions API in most cases. This will automatically provide and subscribe to window dimension updates. Read also: React Conf 2018 highlights: Hooks, Concurrent React, and more Improved CocoaPods compatibility support is fixed In React Native 0.60, CocoaPods was integrated by default, which ended up breaking builds that used the use_frameworks! attribute. In React Native 0.61, this issue is fixed by making some updates in podspec, which describes a version of a Pod library. Read also: React Native development tools: Expo, React Native CLI, CocoaPods [Tutorial] Check out the official announcement to know more about React Native 0.61. 5 pitfalls of React Hooks you should avoid – Kent C. Dodds #Reactgate forces React leaders to confront community’s toxic culture head on Ionic React RC is now out! React Native VS Xamarin: Which is the better cross-platform mobile development framework? React Native community announce March updates, post sharing the roadmap for Q4

iPadOS was first announced at Apple’s WWDC 2019 conference as a new operating system for Apple’s iPad which used iOS. Basically, iPadOS builds on the same foundation as iOS, adding intuitive features specific to the large display of iPad. Now, Apple iPadOS is available for iPad Air 2 and later and iPad mini 4 and later. iPadOS has a new Home screen layout with icons arranged in a tighter grid to give you more room for apps and information. What’s new in iPadOS Split View and Slide Over Split View allows you to work on multiple files and documents simultaneously while using the same app for multiple purposes. With Slide Over, you can quickly move between apps by swiping along the bottom. You can also swipe up to see all the apps in Slide Over and make it full screen by dragging it to the top. You can also open a window from the same app in multiple spaces so you can work on different projects across your iPad. The updated App Switcher shows all spaces and windows for all apps along with title windows and the App Exposé allows you to see all the open windows for an app by tapping its icon in the Dock. Updates to Apple Pencil Apple Pencil integration now brings more natural customizations to iPadOS. The latency has been reduced to 9 milliseconds and tool palette has been redesigned. You can drag it to either side of the screen, or minimize it in the corner so you have more room for your content. Apple Pencil also has a pixel eraser and a ruler.  You can also quickly take a screenshot using Apple Pencil by dragging it from either bottom corner. Improvements in the Files app The Files app gets a major improvement and iCloud Drive support for folder sharing. You can now access files on a USB drive, SD card, or hard drive. You can also share folders with friends, family, and colleagues in iCloud Drive. You can also easily browse files deep in nested folders in the new Column View. Quick Actions makes it easy to rotate, mark up, or create a PDF in the Files app. Improved Text Editing Text editing on the iPad receives a major update with iPadOS. With Scroll bar scrubbing, you can instantly navigate long documents, web pages, and conversations. You can also select text just by tapping and swiping. You can double-tap to quickly select addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and more. With a simple three‑finger swipe to the left, you can undo gestures or redo by swiping three fingers to the right. You can also quickly select email messages, files, and folders by tapping with two fingers and dragging. Other updates in iPadOS You can use your iPad as a second display for additional screen space. New Dark Mode option for low-light environments New Photos tab lets you browse your photo library with different levels of curation Apps launch is up to 2x faster and unlocking the iPad Pro is up to 30 percent faster Support for Apple Arcade, a game subscription service with over 100 amazing new games, all with no ads or additional purchases. Bug in iPadOS grants third-party keyboards full access Apple has warned its users that a bug has been found in iOS and iPadOS that can result in keyboard extensions being granted full access even if you haven't approved this access. This issue does not impact Apple’s built-in keyboards. It also doesn't impact third-party keyboards that don't make use of full access. Apple says that the issue will be fixed soon in an upcoming software update. These are a select few updates. For more information read the detailed coverage on Apple iPadOS. Apple’s September 2019 Event: iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, Watch Series 5, Apple TV+, new iPad and more. Apple releases Safari 13 with opt-in dark mode support, FIDO2-compliant USB security keys support and more!. Apple accidentally unpatches a fixed bug in iOS 12.4 that enables its jailbreaking

Last week, the team behind Flutter made an announcement at Google Developer Days about the stable release of Flutter 1.9. Flutter 1.9 has received more than 1,500 PRs (Pull Requests) from more than 100 contributors. It comes with support for macOS Catalina and iOS 13, improved tooling support, new Dart language features, new Material widgets and much more. The team also announced the successful integration of Flutter’s web support into the main Flutter repository that will allow developers to write for desktop, mobile as well as web with the same codebase. Tencent, the well-known internet brand also uses Flutter in their mobile apps. https://twitter.com/Appinventiv/status/1171689785733173248 https://twitter.com/ZoeyFan723/status/1171566234892210176   What’s new in Flutter 1.9 Support for macOS Catalina and iOS 13 Since Apple is planning to release Catalina, the latest version of macOS, the team  at Flutter has updated the end-to-end tooling experience so that it works properly with Catalina and Xcode 11. Support has been added for the new Xcode build system that enables 64-bit support throughout the toolchain and simplifies platform dependencies. This release also includes an implementation of the iOS 13 draggable toolbar, along with support for vibration feedback, long-press and drag-from-right. The team is also working on iOS dark mode that has a number of pull requests already merged. Flutter users can now turn on experimental support for Bitcode that is Apple’s platform-independent intermediate representation of a compiled program. Material components in Flutter 1.9 The Material design components and features have been updated in Flutter 1.9. This release comes with new widgets that include ToggleButtons and ColorFiltered. Dart 2.5  As a part of the Flutter 1.9 release, the team is also releasing Dart 2.5 that includes support for pre-release of Foreign Function Interface (FFI). New projects default to Swift and Kotlin in Flutter 1.9 With this release, new projects default to Swift and Kotlin instead of Objective-C and Java for iOS and Android respectively. Since a lot of packages are written in Swift, making it as a default language would remove the manual work for adding those packages. Flutter on the web The team also announced that the flutter_web repository has been deprecated and web support has been merged into the main flutter repository. It seems users are quite excited about this news. https://twitter.com/max_myracle/status/1171530782340304899 https://twitter.com/annnoo96/status/1171442355875938304 To know more about this news, check out the official post. Other interesting news in mobile Apple Music is now available on your web browser Android 10 releases with gesture navigation, dark theme, smart reply, live captioning, privacy improvements and updates to security Is Apple’s ‘Independent Repair Provider Program’ a bid to avoid the ‘Right To Repair’ bill?  

Yesterday was a big day for Apple. Apple’s September event featured a number of new replacements of Apple’s already popular products including the new iPhone 11 (with triple cameras), Watch Series 5, Apple TV+ and a new iPad. In case you missed seeing the live update, we’ve got you covered with everything Apple announced at the Apple event for September 2019. Apple is releasing iOS 13 on September 19 as a software update for iPhone 6s models and later. Apple also said additional features will be available on September 30 with iOS 13.1, including improvements to AirDrop. iPhone 11 succeeds iPhone XR;  iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max comes with triple cameras No doubt the most anticipated launch of the event, iPhone 11 was portrayed as the successor of iPhone XR. iPhone 11 comes with iOS 13 integration and two high-definition cameras and Night mode for photos. The dual-camera system lets users easily zoom between each camera while Audio Zoom matches the audio to the video framing for more dynamic sound. Users can easily record videos without switching out of Photo mode with QuickTake by simply holding the shutter button to start recording. It is powered by the A13 Bionic chip with all-day battery life. A12. The A13 Bionic is built for machine learning, with a faster Neural Engine for real-time photo and video analysis, and new Machine Learning Accelerators that allow the CPU to deliver more than 1 trillion operations per second. It has a 6.1-inch all-screen Liquid Retina display. iPhone 11 is water-resistant and comes in six colors including red, black, white, yellow, green and purple. iPhone 11 will get an update for Deep Fusion, coming later this fall, which is a new image processing system enabled by the Neural Engine of A13 Bionic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4p6njjPV_o iPhone 11 will be available for pre-order beginning Friday, September 13 and in stores beginning Friday, September 20, starting at $699 in the US, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and more than 30 other countries and regions. The iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max come with a triple-camera system which provides a pro-level camera experience with an Ultra-Wide, Wide and Telephoto camera. The triple-camera system enables Portrait mode with a wider field of view, great for taking portraits of multiple people. The Telephoto camera features a larger ƒ/2.0 aperture to capture 40 percent more light compared to iPhone Xs for better photos and videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVEemOmHw9Y However, not many are impressed with the aesthetics of the camera placement. https://twitter.com/9GAG/status/1171623152562200576 https://twitter.com/lytearr_/status/1171608034105155585 https://twitter.com/shrekpepeboii/status/1171629182901600256 The iPhone 11 Pro has a 5.8-inch OLED, and the Pro Max has a 6.5-inch OLED. They have a Super Retina XDR display, a custom-designed OLED with up to 1,200 nits brightness. It also comes with the A13 Bionic chip with iPhone 11 Pro offering up to four more hours of battery life in a day than iPhone XS, and iPhone 11 Pro Max offering up to five hours more than iPhone XS Max. iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max will be available in 64GB, 256GB and 512GB models in midnight green, space gray, silver, and gold starting at $999 and $1,099, respectively. Apple is also launching a new line of iPhone cases that come in a wide range of colors. Apple Watch Series 5 now works just like… your normal watch The new series of Apple Watch supports looks much like last year’s model, except that it supports the always-on display function. The series 5 dims the brightness, but it retains all of the same visuals you’d normally see while using it. This is different from how most smartwatches turn off the display to extend battery life. Though it has the same 18-hour battery life as the Series 4. You also have international emergency calling for added personal safety. New health features include Cycle Tracking, Noise app, and Activity Trends. The Apple Watch Series 5, has the Compass app to see the heading, incline, latitude, longitude, and current elevation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bvcyIV4yzo In addition, Apple is launching three new health studies: one for women’s health, one for hearing, and one for heart health. It’s partnering with major research institutions on each, and Apple Watch users can enroll through a forthcoming Apple Research app. Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS) starts at $399 and Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS + Cellular) starts at $499. This is the first Apple Watch to release with ceramic and titanium finishes. Sales start beginning Friday, September 20 in the US, Puerto Rico and 20 other countries and regions. You can order it from apple.com and in the Apple Store app. New 7th-Gen iPad now has a 10.2-inch display Apple’s new 7th-gen iPad is now upgraded from standard 9.7-inch display size to 10.2 inches. It also features the A10 Bionic processor and a new Smart Connector. It also provides support for Apple Pencil and the full-size Smart Keyboard. iPad starts at $329 for the Wi-Fi model and $459 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Apple Arcade game subscription service Apple’s game subscription service, Apple Arcade will finally launch on September 30 on iPadOS and tvOS 13 and in October on macOS Catalina. The service will initially feature over 100 new, exclusive games, all playable across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and Apple TV. To give users maximum flexibility when playing, some games will support controllers, including Xbox Wireless Controllers with Bluetooth, PlayStation DualShock 4 and MFi game controllers, in addition to touch controls and Siri Remote. Apple TV+ launches November 1 at $4.99 per month Apple’s flagship all-original video subscription service, Apple TV+ will be available at $4.99 per month, starting November 1.  This puts Apple in direct competition with Disney, whose subscription service Disney+ is available for $7 a month. Apple TV+ will offer a lineup of shows, movies, and documentaries, focusing on original content produced exclusively for the service. Apple will also include a year-long subscription to Apple TV Plus for free if you buy a new Apple product, including new iPads, iPhones, laptops, or desktops. If you are in a hurry here’s a 2 min video of the Apple Event: https://youtu.be/ZA3MV2V--TU Keep checking this space for more Apple coverage More news for Apple Apple Music is now available on your web browser Is Apple’s ‘Independent Repair Provider Program’ a bid to avoid the ‘Right To Repair’ bill Apple announces ‘WebKit Tracking Prevention Policy’ that considers web tracking as a security vulnerability