Apple today removed Group FaceTime from the latest iOS 12 and macOS Mojave betas, which were released this morning, and has instead decided to release the feature at a later date.
One of the key features of iOS 12 and macOS Mojave, Group FaceTime is designed to allow up to 32 people to chat together at one time via FaceTime audio or FaceTime video.
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In release notes for both macOS Mojave and iOS 12, Apple says the feature has been removed from the initial releases of macOS Mojave and iOS 12 and “will ship in a future software update later this fall.”
It’s disappointing that Group FaceTime will miss the 12.0 cut, but if the feature isn’t ready then it should, quite rightly, be held back. That said, looking back at the iOS 11 announcement at WWDC 2017, Apple Pay Cash, Messages in iCloud, and AirPlay 2 were also pulled from the retail release and shipped later. Perhaps it’s time we treat WWDC announcements as feature sets that will be made available throughout the lifecycle of a major iOS release, rather than with the initial retail release of the software.
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Banks in Singapore said they have responded with measures to assist victims after a series of fraudulent Apple iTunes transactions affected dozens of account holders.
The victims reported that hundreds to thousands of dollars were wiped from their debit accounts and charged to their credit cards from banks including Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), DBS and HSBC.
Even though the focus of the fraudulent transactions appears to be iTunes, at least one person has reported that they didn’t even have a credit card linked to their iTunes account:
“The shocking thing is, I don’t even have any credit or debit card details saved on my own iTunes account,” said Mr Lim. “Apple/iTunes was not even aware of the fraudulent transactions (in my account) until I informed them.”
It’s a worrying breach of credit card security for multiple banks in Singapore, at the same time.
The European Commission’s ruling on Google’s antitrust behaviour with regards to Android (via The Guardian):
Google has prevented device manufacturers from using any alternative version of Android that was not approved by Google (Android forks).
In order to be able to pre-install on their devices Google’s proprietary apps, including the Play Store and Google Search, manufacturers had to commit not to develop or sell even a single device running on an Android fork.
The Commission found that this conduct was abusive as of 2011, which is the date Google became dominant in the market for app stores for the Android mobile operating system.
The fine, €4.34bn, is sizeable1. What interests me the most, however, is the impact this will have on the Android ecosystem. If bigger handset manufacturers create multiple forks of Android it’ll fragment the ecosystem even more than it is now. That wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing for consumers.