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Disney+ Now Has 50 Million Subscribers

Charlotte Henry ·

Disney+ has hit the 50 million subscriber mark in just five months, The Guardian reports. While this figure is impressive, it has been boosted not only by lockdowns around the world but by a number of offers from telecoms firms.

Disney+, which launched in the UK and most major western European markets last month, with hits including the Star Wars live action spin-off The Mandalorian, has signed up 50m subscribers just five months after launch. It took its rival, Netflix, which has more than 160 million subscribers, seven years to reach the same milestone after moving from DVD rental by post to streaming in 2007. Disney, which launched in Europe with lower streaming speeds to help ease the burden on broadband networks as millions are confined to their homes, last reported subscriber numbers on 3 February. At that time, just as the coronavirus started its rapid spread in China and beyond, Disney+ had 28.6 million subscribers.

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A Look at Amazon and Apple's New Relationship

Charlotte Henry ·

Last week, Apple quietly allowed Amazon Prime Video to start offering in-app purchases in a seeming loosening of App Store restrictions. It’s a fascinating move, one that Ben Thompson provides in-depth analysis of on Stratechery.

Both [Apple and Amazon], given their desire to be a platform for over-the-top services, are on the same side when it comes to a potential Netflix-dominated future: neither want it to happen. Netflix dominating means that shows are sold directly to Netflix; channels are pointless. Apple and Amazon both, though, want channels to exist, if only so that they can sell subscriptions to them.

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Twitter Took Away Your Ability to Stop Sharing Data With Advertisers

Andrew Orr ·

Twitter had a feature that users could enable that stopped the company from sharing certain data with advertisers. That feature is now gone.

An option in Twitter’s privacy settings called “Share your data with Twitter’s business partners” used to let you disable sharing of this information. That setting still exists, but Twitter now says it has removed your control over “mobile app advertising measurements.” Disabling the setting can still prevent sharing of other information, such as your interests. Other Twitter privacy settings, like disabling web tracking, are still available. Twitter will not share your name, email address, phone number, or username.

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Google Helps Apple Progress With One-Time Passcode Proposal

Charlotte Henry ·

A Google staffer and an Apple staffer have come together to make progress on Apple’s work to introduce one-time passcodes delivered in an SMS. AppleInsider looked into the latest developments.

Announced in an updated GitHub explainer, an initial report of Apple’s “Origin-bound one-time codes delivered via SMS” project was published by the WICG on April 2. The draft was co-edited by Theresa O’Connor from Apple and Sam Goto from Google. First proposed by Apple WebKit engineers and backed by Google in January, the initiative seeks to simplify the OTP SMS mechanism commonly used by websites, businesses and other entities to confirm login credentials as part of two-step authentication systems.

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Photographer Using FaceTime to Take Portraits During Lockdown

Charlotte Henry ·

Lockdown is hard for everyone, including creative people used to being out and about playing music or creating art. One photographer, Tim Dunk, found a way to keep taking portraits – using FaceTime. He explained how on Peta Pixel.

I then had an idea to sustain myself creatively and socially, and threw it out to a few contacts — maybe with the use of some common apps and bits of tech, I could continue to make work. Using FaceTime, a MacBook Pro, and my subject using an iPhone under instruction, I was able to make portraits of people in isolation, distanced from the world and the people that make it up. I’ve been lucky enough that my FaceTime portraits have really caught folk’s attention, and I’ve been fielding a lot of questions from other photographers.

Apple’s Clips App Updated to Support Mice, Trackpads
Cool Stuff Found

Apple’s Clips App Updated to Support Mice, Trackpads

Andrew Orr ·

Apple updated Clips, its creative tool used to send quick, fun videos over social media. Version 2.1.1 appeared yesterday with the following features:Use Clips on iPad with a mouse, trackpad, or Bluetooth keyboard for new ways to create videos (requires iPadOS 13.4); Use the Duplicate button to instantly create a copy of a clip with all its effects; Tap the Split button to divide any clip in two; Make stickers pop on and off the screen—just split any clip and apply stickers to either of the two new sections; Give your video the look of an 80’s arcade game with updated 8-bit stickers and the new Game Over poster; Celebrate spring with the floral Springtime poster; Choose from 11 new Mickey and Minnie Mouse stickers, each with its own expressive animation; Performance and stability improvements. 

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Jack Dorsey Donates $1 Billion to COVID-19 Relief

Charlotte Henry ·

Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey announced Tuesday that he has moved $1 billion worth of Square equity into an LLC to fund COVID-19 relief, NBC News reported. This equates to around 28 percent of his total net-worth.

Dorsey’s investment in coronavirus relief is the most significant financial pledge by a private individual to date. Several other current and former tech executives, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, have each pledged $100 million. Unlike other donors, Dorsey also promised to keep a consistently updated public record of all the donations. Once the pandemic is over, Dorsey said, the rest of the $1 billion will be dedicated to “girl’s health and education, and UBI,” which is short for Universal Basic Income, a program that calls for each person to receive a certain amount of money from the government every month.

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Will Apple Kill Beats? Probably Not This Year

Andrew Orr ·

As shared by The Loop, there is some speculation on whether Apple will end the Beats brand. iMore says Apple should kill it, while 9to5Mac claims to have learned there is no plan to kill it. It started because of a separate rumor that Apple will release over-the-ear headphones under the AirPods brand. Quote from the iMore piece:

If Apple is truly planning to release over-the-ear noise-canceling pair of headphones similar to the Bose 700 has Jon Prosser suggests, it would be incredibly redundant to continue to release Beats as well. The Apple brand is just more valuable to Apple than the Beats brand — plain and simple.

My two cents is that Apple will probably phase out Beats, but not this year. It will be a gradual process over the next 10 years, like how the iPod touch still gets an occasional refresh but otherwise isn’t mentioned. You can’t kill a brand like Beats overnight. Once over-the-ear AirPods come out, and they will, phase one will be complete. There will be an AirPod for each Beats category, because you can’t leave customers hanging without alternatives, thank you very much.

TMO Deals

CleanMyMac X One-Time Purchase License: $67.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on CleanMyMac X, software that cleans the junk out of your Mac. I love CleanMyMac X, and I’ve been using it for while now—I’m delighted we’re offering a deal on it. Speaking of which, that deal is for the one-time purchase version of CleanMyMac X for one Mac. (MacPaw also offers a yearly subscription version). It’s $67.99 through our deal, more than $20 off the regular price. Our deal listing also has an option for the 2-Mac  version.