Apple fixed a bug that crashed iPhones configured in certain ways whenever they typed the word "Taiwan." The glitch was discovered by Patrick Wardle, chief research officer at Digita Security and outlined on his blog.
The details: China is touchy about representations of Taiwan as an independent nation, so Apple removes the Taiwan emoji from phones set for the Chinese region. But in certain situations, it also incompletely removed it from phones set for other regions. When those phones tried to access the Taiwan emoji that was suggested any time a user typed Taiwan, the phone crashed.
Apple opened its App Store on July 10, 2008, with 500 apps.
Why it matters: The resulting explosion of phone apps — there are now more than 2 million for the iPhone alone — has changed daily life for billions of people around the world.
Self-driving cars may be still be years away from taking over our roads, but parking garages can be ready to house them with today’s technology, says Mark Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of parking app SpotHero.
Why it matters: While some believe that self-driving cars will eventually be in constant motion, eliminating the need for parking lots, it’s more likely that we’ll still need to store these cars some of the time — at the very least, until we reach full self-driving car utopia.
Political players on both the right and the left are trying to use criticism of Silicon Valley as a new fundraising lever.
Why it matters: When both liberal and conservative operatives believe that beating up on tech companies will get supporters to open their wallets, big tech's already tarnished public image may be in for more bruising.
Microsoft just announced the Surface Go, an entry-level model in its tablet/laptop combo line.
The bottom line: At $399, it is the company's cheapest model yet, and one that Microsoft hopes will take it further into the important education market.
Democratic Federal Trade Commission member Rohit Chopra said Monday he'd hired lawyer Lina Khan to serve in his office as a fellow for "the next few months."
Why it matters: Khan is the author of an influential law review note building the antitrust case against Amazon. She is teaming up with one of the FTC's minority commissioners as the agency takes a closer look at questions about tech platforms.
Twitter's chief financial officer says that most of the more than 70 million accounts the platform suspended in May and June are already excluded from its reported metrics, "as they have not been active on the platform for 30 days or more, or we catch them at sign up and they are never counted."
Why it matters: The news of mass account suspensions, first reported by The Washington Post, sparked rumors that Twitter would see a decline in monthly users for the second quarter. This is Twitter's way of reassuring investors that its user numbers will not plummet.
Comcast is lining up buyers for 21st Century Fox's regional sports networks (RSNs) in order to ease Fox shareholders' concerns about whether the telecom giant would get the necessary regulatory approval to acquire Fox's entertainment assets, Reuters reports.
Why it matters: It's likely that Comcast is looking to increase its $65 billion bid for Fox's properties to beat Disney's $71 billion counter-offer. Disney has already struck a deal with the Justice Department to divest Fox's RSNs, which earned approval a few weeks ago.
Samsung has opened the “world’s largest mobile factory” in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India on Monday, veering away from Chinese investment, the company announced in a press release Monday.
The details: The South Korean giant will nearly double capacity for cell phones from 68 million a year to 120 million. Expansion is expected to be completed by 2020.
HBO was the prize horse in the stable of media properties AT&T acquired in its recent purchase of Time Warner. Now, according to audio leaked to the New York Times, AT&T wants its thoroughbred to run faster and harder, all in the name of making even more money.
Why it matters: For all the wrangling over the government's antitrust suit that tried to block the AT&T/Time Warner merger, it's still a big open question whether a buttoned-up telecom company can take the reins of a legendary content producer like HBO without squandering its cultural cachet.
