Vratislav Holub In this regular column, every day we look at the most interesting news that revolves around the California company Apple. Here we focus exclusively on the main events and selected (interesting) speculations. So if you are interested in current events and want to be informed about the apple world, definitely spend a few minutes on the following paragraphs.
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Amaya Toman YouTube has started testing the Picture-in-Picture feature
In June, the Californian giant presented us with its upcoming operating systems during the opening keynote for the WWDC developer conference. Of course, the spotlight fell mainly on the expected iOS 14, which brings with it a number of advantages, led by widgets, the Application Library, a pop-up window during an incoming call and the Picture in Picture function. So far, only owners of Apple tablets can enjoy picture-in-picture, where the gadget arrived already in iOS 9.
iOS 14 also changed Siri:
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Many applications support this feature. For example, we can cite the native Safari browser, in which we can play a video, then switch to the desktop or another application, but still continue watching. But YouTube, on the other hand, never supported picture-in-picture and thus simply did not allow its users to play videos when they were outside the app. Fortunately, that could become a thing of the past. According to the latest information, this video portal is already testing the function.
Picture in Picture working on iPadOS with the YouTube app.
(But only worked with this live stream, there must be some trickery codec happening behind the scenes for certain playback scenarios). pic.twitter.com/75vG7Ai4ln
- Daniel Yount (@dyountmusic) August 27
This news was also confirmed by the renowned magazine 9to5Mac. According to him, YouTube is currently testing the function with a smaller group of people. Of course, it won't be just like that, and the Picture in Picture support has quite a major catch. For now, it looks like the function will be limited only to subscribers of the YouTube Premium service, which costs 179 crowns per month.
PUBG is winning the dispute between Apple and Epic Games
In recent weeks, we have been regularly informing you on our magazine about the ongoing dispute between Apple and Epic Games. The second-named company developing Fortnite added the option to buy virtual currency to the game at a lower price, when it referred players to its own website and directly bypassed Apple's payment gateway. This, of course, violated the terms of the contract, to which the Californian giant responded by pulling the title from its App Store.
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The dispute even got to the point where Apple threatened to remove the company's developer account, which would not only affect Fortnite. After all, Epic Games would not have the opportunity to work on its Unreal Engine, on which a number of different games are based. In this direction, the court decided clearly. Fortnite will return to the App Store only when there is no option to purchase in-game currency in the game without using the Apple payment gateway, and at the same time Apple must not completely cancel the company's developer account associated with the aforementioned Unreal Engine. As it turned out today, rival title PUBG Mobile can benefit from the dispute in particular.
If we open the App Store, a link to this game as an editor's choice will immediately appear on the first page. So, because of the whole situation, Apple decided to promote the competition. But the significance of this visibility is probably even deeper than it might seem at first glance. Regarding the developer account, Apple said that it will be canceled on Friday, August 28. And exactly on this day, after the opening of the apple store, the main rival of the Fortnite game will look out at us.
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Pavel Jelic Apple reminded developers of add-ons for Safari
The Californian giant reminded developers via its website that they can create add-ons for Safari 14 through the same WebExtensions API that browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge use. Creation can take place through the beta version of Xcode 12. This allows you to port an already existing add-on, which you can then publish to the Apple Mac App Store.
Developers have practically two options. They either convert an existing add-on through the tool, or build it completely from scratch. Fortunately, in the case of the second option, they are in luck. The Xcode developer interface offers several ready-made templates that can significantly shorten the programming process itself.
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That's a lie - the judge didn't order Epic's developer account to be canceled.
The first trial took place four days ago. At the time, Epic Games sought an injunction to stop Apple from suspending their developer account. The court responded to this and specifically prevented Apple from deleting the account associated with Unreal Engine.
OK, it's not about canceling the developer account - they can continue to develop, but it's about canceling their App Store account, meaning they can't publish their creations on the App Store. Is that right?
"As previously warned by Apple, Epic's App Store account has now been terminated due to the Fortnite developer knowingly violating App Store policy. Epic Games still had a few apps available for iOS aside from Fortnite, and they were all removed today.”
– Apple probably wouldn't do this against the court's decision