Month: August 2022

Adobe today updated its Lightroom apps for Mac and iOS, bringing a set of new image editing features as well as the ability to edit video for the first time.

With the release of version 5.4 for Mac and 7.4 for iOS, Lightroom now enables you to edit videos using the same controls that are used for photos. You can trim videos, adjust color and exposure, and apply presets optimized for video.

Meanwhile, Adobe has added a new class of AI-powered adaptive presets that allow you to perform one-click edits to the sky or subject in photos, while a new Preset Amount Slider gives you the ability to control the intensity of a preset.

Elsewhere, there’s a new Red Eye Removal feature that automatically finds and removes red eyes with a single click, and a new Compare view lets you compare photos side-by-side.

There are also more than 50 new, handcrafted premium presets designed for videos, portraits, and live concert photos, and the community-based Discover section is now searchable, allowing you to more easily find topics of interest as well as photographers you’d like to follow.

Also new in this version is a new Invert Mask option that lets you invert masks at both the group and component levels, and you can also now choose to Duplicate & Invert masks.

In addition, the Select Sky and Select Subject AI masks can now be copied and pasted to other photos and they will be recomputed automatically, so there’s no need to manually apply the new masks to each photo.

Lightroom for Mac is available through Adobe’s Creative Cloud 1TB Lightroom plan for $9.99 per month, or through its 20GB and 1TB Photography plans, which bundle Photoshop and Lightroom together and cost $9.99 and $19.99 per month, respectively.

Lightroom for iPhone and iPad can be downloaded from the App Store for free and include several in-app premium storage subscription options starting from $1.99 per month for 40GB.

This article, "Adobe Lightroom 5.4 Update Adds Ability to Edit Video, New Adaptive Presets and Mask Options" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Mozilla today announced that it is rolling out Total Cookie Protection by default to all Firefox users worldwide, expanding on prior releases that included the Total Cookie Protection feature on an opt-in basis.

To use Total Cookie Protection prior to now, Firefox users could opt in to the Strict Tracking Protection feature, but it was not turned on for all users as a default setting. Mozilla has been testing Total Cookie Protection in Firefox for months with the opt-in functionality prior to rolling it out for everyone.

Total Cookie Protection is designed to prevent trackers from using cookies to track user browsing history across different websites.

According to Mozilla, the feature "builds a fence around cookies," and limits them to the site that you’re browsing, preventing cross-site tracking. Firefox says that the Total Cookie Protection feature leaves "Chrome and Edge in the dust," and that it would like to see Google and Microsoft follow its lead to offer better protection for users. Apple’s Safari browser has similar anti-tracking features that prevent cross-site tracking and hide a user’s IP address.

Firefox can be downloaded from the Mozilla website for free.

This article, "Firefox’s Total Cookie Protection Now Available to All Users by Default" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple’s revenue from its music and gaming subscription services is expected to jump 36% to $8.2 billion annually by 2025, according to JP Morgan (via Reuters).

The U.S. investment bank’s analyst Samik Chatterjee on Monday said Apple Music and Apple Arcade are likely to have a combined subscriber base of about 180 million by 2025, with 110 million users paying for the company’s music services and 70 million for gaming.

Launched in 2015 and now the second biggest music streaming service after Spotify, ‌Apple Music‌ is expected to account for $7 billion revenue by 2025. ‌Apple Arcade‌, which launched in 2019, is estimated to pull in $1.2 billion.

Apple doesn’t break down sales in its Services category, but the company reported $19.82 billion for the March quarter. Apple’s Services segment includes the App Store, Apple TV+, Arcade and ‌Apple Music‌.

This article, "Apple Music and Apple Arcade to Earn $8.2 Billion Annual Revenue by 2025, Says JP Morgan Analyst" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, the Bundeskartellamt, has initiated proceedings against Apple to investigate whether its tracking rules and anti-tracking technology are anti-competitive and self-serving, according to a press release.

The proceeding announced today will review under competition law Apple’s tracking rules and specifically its App Tracking Transparency Framework (ATT) in order to ascertain whether they are self-preferencing Apple or being an impediment to third-party apps. Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt, said of the proceeding:

"We welcome business models which use data carefully and give users choice as to how their data are used. A corporation like Apple which is in a position to unilaterally set rules for its ecosystem, in particular for its app store, should make pro-competitive rules. We have reason to doubt that this is the case when we see that Apple’s rules apply to third parties, but not to Apple itself. This would allow Apple to preference its own offers or impede other companies. Our proceeding is largely based on the new competencies we received as part of the stricter abuse control rules regarding large digital companies which were introduced last year (Section 19a German Competition Act – GWB). On this basis, we are conducting or have already concluded proceedings against Google/Alphabet, Meta/Facebook and Amazon.

Introduced in April 2021 with the release of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Framework requires that all apps on ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ ask for the user’s consent before tracking their activity across other apps. Apps that wish to track a user based on their device’s unique advertising identifier can only do so if the user allows it when prompted.

Apple said the feature was designed to protect users and not to advantage the company. However, the Bundeskartellamt’s preliminary findings indicate that while users can also restrict Apple from using their data for personalized advertising, Apple "is not subject to the new and additional rules of the App Tracking Transparency Framework."

The German competition regulator’s proceeding is subsequent to an earlier proceeding initiated against Apple in June 2021 that was set up to look into claims of anti-competitive behavior related to the App Store, its products, and other services.

"In this context," said the regulator, "the possibilities for Apple itself to combine data across services and users’ options regarding the processing of their data by Apple can be relevant, just like the question whether these rules may lead to a reduction of users’ choice of apps financed through advertising."

Many advertisers have been impacted by ATT, but Facebook has been the most vocal and critical of the new change. Ever since Apple began to beta test the framework, Facebook accused Apple of impacting small businesses who rely on advertising as a means of keeping their doors open. Facebook also claimed that the framework was anti-competitive because it gives Apple an upper hand for running its own mobile advertising business on iOS devices.

An October 2021 report by the Financial Times claimed that ATT had resulted in a "windfall" for Apple’s advertising business since its introduction. The report asserted that Apple’s share of the mobile app advertising market tripled in the six months after the feature was introduced.

Apple has disputed suggestions that its ATT framework has unfairly benefitted the company to the detriment of third-parties. Earlier this year it commissioned a study into the impact of ATT that was conducted by Columbia Business School’s Marketing Division. The study concluded that Apple was unlikely to have seen a significant financial benefit since the privacy feature launched, and that claims to the contrary were speculative and lacked supporting evidence.

This article, "Apple Faces German Antitrust Probe Into App Tracking Transparency" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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