Apple has quietly agreed to hire employees and license intellectual property from Animato, a small California-based company that developed software to create virtual avatars used in video chats and tutoring, according to a European Commission filing spotted by Woozad. The acquisition was filed under the EU Digital Markets Act in January 2026 and appears to be what is known as a “structured acquisition”. In other words, Apple is able to make job offers to certain Animato employees and receive a non-exclusive license to the company’s intellectual property, as well as acquire its patent applications. Apple Inc. (“Apple”) will have the…
Author: Alexander Price
It targets football fans ahead of this summer’s tournament. Apple Apple Sports today announced a big expansion, bringing the program to more than 90 additional countries and regions. This free app collects real-time scores, statistics and results across all sporting disciplines, allowing individuals to keep tabs on what’s happening for all their favorite teams. Especially with so many leagues increasingly splitting their broadcast rights across cable networks and streaming platforms, the app ensures you know what’s going on even if you can’t watch a game live. With the World Cup approaching, the timing of this global…
Google held its annual Google I/O event today, launching new AI products and giving us a glimpse of what to expect in the near future. Google I/O is Google’s equivalent of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and Google’s announcements provide a glimpse of what Apple will be competing with in the coming months. We’ve rounded up everything Google announced at I/O across its product lineup. Gemini Gemini Omni – Gemini Omni is a new model that can create anything from any input, and better simulates gravity and kinetic energy. It combines Gemini intelligence with generative models like Nano Banana and Veo.…
Milton Rodney Buzon/Getty Images The Samsung S Pen is a stylus built into all current Galaxy Ultra phones. It’s useful for note-taking, and there are even useful S Pen features that streamline the way you launch or control certain apps. But have you ever noticed a strange smell coming from your S Pen? Galaxy Ultra owners have reported a “burning smell” since the S Pen was added as a feature to the Galaxy S22 Ultra phone. The problem is so widespread that virtually everyone who has owned a Galaxy Ultra…
lilgraphe/Shutterstock If you’re the type of person who’s sitting at 95% or more of your phone’s storage capacity, your phone probably feels like a nag at this point, constantly reminding you that you’re reaching breaking point and need to do some spring cleaning. Your immediate impulse might be to dive into the weeds of your media and start deleting some of those precious memories, but there’s often a more common and subtle culprit at work: an overabundance of apps and their (sometimes massive) caches. It’s the most common sin on…
Fortnite is returning to the App Store in every country except Australia, Epic Games announced today, as the company said it was entering the “final battle” of its long-running legal dispute with Apple. Epic said the decision to push Fortnite back to iOS globally was driven by Apple’s own words to the U.S. Supreme Court, in which Apple acknowledged that “regulators around the world are monitoring this case to determine the commission rate Apple can charge on purchases covered in huge markets outside the United States.” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called the move a strategic provocation, writing on X that…
Apple is previewing new accessibility features, including updates based on Apple Intelligence, such as natural language voice typing, as well as a new Vision Pro app that allows visual control of motorized wheelchairs. The updates, revealed just before Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) on May 21, will arrive later this year. “With Apple Intelligence, we are bringing powerful new capabilities to our accessibility features while maintaining our fundamental commitment to privacy by design,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO. VoiceOver’s Image Browser now uses Apple Intelligence to give more detailed descriptions of system-wide images, including photos (which often lack detailed alternative…
An Indian court has ruled that Apple must cooperate with a government investigation into its App Store practices, rejecting the company’s attempt to stay the case (via Reuters). The Delhi High Court’s decision keeps alive an investigation by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which concluded in 2024 that Apple had abused its dominant position in the iPhone apps market. The CCI wants Apple’s financial data to be used to calculate potential sanctions, but Apple has refused to release it until now. Apple’s argument is largely procedural; it is separately challenging the legality of India’s sanctions framework in court and…
Framesira/Shutterstock The Galaxy S26 series launched in the first quarter of 2026, but the high-end model in the series was not Samsung’s best-selling phone during the period. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is the most feature-rich flagship model in the Galaxy S26 series, featuring an S Pen and an exclusive Privacy View feature, but it’s also the most expensive, starting at $1,299.99. According to Counterpoint Research’s market analysis for the first quarter of 2026, Samsung’s cheapest Galaxy A phones outsold the Galaxy S26 Ultra during the period. The Galaxy S26 Ultra…
Apple today launched a new promotion offering new Apple Card members the chance to recoup the cost of AirPods Pro 3 through monthly cash back discounts, but there is a recurring spending requirement attached. Customers who open a new Apple Card account and purchase AirPods Pro 3 directly from Apple before June 15 will be eligible. Starting July 1 and running through April 30, 2027, cardholders can earn $25 in daily cash bonuses each month, up to $250 total, but only in months they make ten or more purchases with the card. Each qualifying purchase must be at least $0.01,…