Weekly Digest - 2020.49

Weekly Digest - 2020.49

Salesforce buys Slack

Saleforce, a cloud computing giant will acquire the Chat service - Slack - for $27.7 billion. Slack is one of the most popular communicator in the computer industry.

It is still unknown what are Salesforce's plans for the application, but it is quite possible they will be related with enterprise customers.

Apple announced the most downloaded apps and games from the App Store in the 2020.

The top 3 free apps:

  1. Zoom
  2. TikTok
  3. Disney+

Top 3 paid apps:

  1. TouchRetouch
  2. Procreate Pocket
  3. FaceTune

Top 3 free games:

  1. Among Us
  2. Call of Duty Mobile
  3. Roblox

Top 3 paid games:

  1. Minecraft
  2. Plague Inc.
  3. Heads Up! Best Charades game

Apple's Best App of 2020

Apple also announced the best apps of 2020:

  • iPhone App of the Year: Wakeout!
  • ‌iPhone‌ Game of the Year: Genshin Impact
  • iPad App of the Year: Zoom,
  • iPad‌ Game of the Year: Legends of Runeterra
  • Mac Game of the Year: Disco Elysium
  • Mac App of the Year: Fantastical
  • ‌Apple TV‌ App of the Year:  Disney+
  • ‌Apple TV‌ Game of the Year: Dandara Trials of Fear
  • Apple Watch App of the Year: Endel
  • Apple Arcade Game of the Year: Sneaky Sasquatch

Also, winners will get a physical trophy.

Image credits: Slack

Weekly Digest - 2020.05

Weekly Digest - 2020.05

One connector to rule them all

EU lawmakers voted overwhelmingly (540-40) in favor for rules that would establish a common charger standard for mobile devices. It has not been decided which connector is the chosen one, but proposed charging ports include Micro-USB, USB-C and the Lightning connector. Looking at the already wide adoption of the USB-C, it's rather safe to say that it will be chosen. Fortunately, we won't have to wait long for the decision, the European Commission should adopt new rules by July.

Apple wants to make SMS one-time codes safer

Apple's WebKit team published a proposal to change the format of SMS one-time passcodes. The idea is to make the two-factor authentication process more secure. The proposal describes two ideas to achieve that:

  1. SMS one-time passcodes would be associated with a URL. It would be achieved by simply adding the website's URL to the SMS itself,
  2. Standardized format of two-factor authentication SMS code would allow applications to detect passcodes; automatically extract them, and complete the login process without further user interaction.

Here is an example of such SMS message:

011970 is your Brain Archives authentication code.
@brainarchives․com #011970

So far Apple and Google have backed the proposal.

iOS 14 to support the same iPhones as iOS 13

According to French website iPhonesoft, iOS 14 will be compatible with all iPhones supported by iOS 13,  including:

  • iPhone 11,  11 Pro & 11 Pro Max,
  • iPhone XS & XS Max,
  • iPhone XR,
  • iPhone X,
  • iPhone 8 & 8 Plus,
  • iPhone 7 & 7 Plus,
  • iPhone 6S & 6S Plus,
  • iPhone SE,
  • iPod touch (7th generation).

As for the iPads, iPhonesoft informs that iOS14 will drop support for the iPad mini 4, and will support following devices:

  • 12.9-inch iPad Pro,
  • 11-inch iPad Pro,
  • 10.5-inch iPad Pro,
  • 9.7-inch iPad Pro,
  • iPad 7th, 6th & 5th   generation,
  • iPad mini (5th generation),
  • iPad Air (3rd generation).

iPad turned 10

This week is the 10th anniversary of the original iPad announcement. iPad supposed to become the "post PC" device that would replace personal computers. 10 years later, we know it hasn't done that yet, but current generation of iPads and iPadOS is closer than ever. Although, tablets hasn't become as popular as smartphones, iPad helped Apple take over this market.

Google's new business communicator

According to report from The Information Google is working on a new communicator for workplaces, that will combine the part of GSuite functionality, like Gmail Google Drive & Hangouts.

Image credits: Lucian Alexe