Tech Digest daily roundup: Apple agrees to App Store concessions
Independent developers will be allowed to tell iPhone users about ways of avoiding the “Apple Tax” on their apps for the first time, as part of an out-of-court settlement concluding a class-action lawsuit against the company. The agreement, which is accompanied by a $100m payout from Apple to be distributed among App Store developers who have earned less than $1m over the past six years, represents a small but significant concession from the company, whose iron grip over the App Store has earned it billions in profit alongside accusations of unlawful monopolistic behaviour….Other provisions in the wide-ranging agreement include a guarantee that Apple will maintain its “small business programme”, which cuts the App Store commission from 30% to 15% for developers who earn less than $1m a year, for a further three years minimum, and a promise to offer more flexibility on pricing within the App Store. Guardian
Tim Cook, the boss of Apple, has been paid a bonus of more than $750m (£547m) after spending 10 years at the technology giant. The chief executive of the world’s most valuable public company was awarded five million shares for presiding over a massive 191.83% rise in Apple’s share price in the last three years, according to a recent regulatory filing. Mr Cook has sold almost all of those shares now for a quarter of a billion dollars, the filing said. Apple’s share price has exploded in recent years, outperforming much of the stock market and making Apple the first trillion-dollar listed company. The California-based business is now valued at $2.5trn.When he took over as CEO from Steve Jobs in 2011, Mr Cook agreed to a long-term incentive plan that would see him awarded shares each year if Apple hit certain targets. Sky News
A 12-year-old boy from London has made about £290,000 during the school holidays, after creating a series of pixelated artworks called Weird Whales and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs). With NFTs, artwork can be “tokenised” to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold. They do not generally give the buyer the actual artwork or its copyright. Benyamin Ahmed is keeping his earnings in the form of Ethereum – the crypto-currency in which they were sold. This means they could go up or down in value and there is no back-up from the authorities if the digital wallet in which he is holding them is hacked or compromised. BBC
Banks will start rolling out the new 100 pound ($137) spending limit for contactless payments from Oct. 15, Britain’s banking industry body UK Finance said on Friday. Contactless payments surged during the pandemic, with some shops refusing to take cash to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. “Given the number of terminals which will need to be updated to accept the new limit, it will take some time to be introduced across all retailers,” UK Finance said in a statement. Contactless payments accounted for 49% of all credit card and 65% of all debit card transactions in May, UK Finance said. Reuters
Driven by strong shipments from homegrown brands in earwear and watches, India’s wearables (smartwatches, wrist bands and earwear) market grew 118.2% year-over-year (YoY) in 2Q21 (April-June). It is in continuation of the good show in the previous quarter. The second wave of Covid-19 had a marginal impact as the overall wearable shipments declined by 1.3% sequentially in 2Q21. Overall, it shipped 11.2 million units, according to International Data Corporation’s (IDC’s) India Monthly Wearable Device Tracker. Tech Radar
