Apple disables News App in China

Apple seems to be taking a let’s not hurt our chances at earning tons from the cash cow that’s China but let’s also not let them take reigns of the content we share. The company is said to have disabled its News app in the country. China’s government has wide control over its information and the media so it looks like want to play to the hands of the Chinese government and at the same time not earn their wrath and have their access to the Chinese market cut off. Those in China who try to refresh the Apple News app only get an error message of “Can’t refresh right now. News isn’t supported in your current region.”

Some are expressing concern though about how Apple has disabled its app in the region. Larry Salibra, founder of Pay4Bugs, said in a post on Reddit: “They’re censoring news content that I downloaded and stored on my device purchased in the USA, before I even enter China just because my phone happens to connect to a Chinese signal floating over the border. On device censorship is much different than having your server blocked by the Great Firewall or not enabling a feature for customers with certain country iTunes account. That Apple has little choice doesn’t make it any less creepy or outrageous.”

Source: New York Times | Via: 9to5Mac

Layoffs might be in Twitter’s future

After assuming the post, Twitter’s returning CEO Jack Dorsey looks to be preparing for layoffs as early as October 13^th. The company won’t address these rumours but sources for both The New York Times and Recode say that there will be some people losing their jobs soon, as to how many these would be is yet to be determined.

Recode believes that these layoffs are part of an attempt to streamline a “bloated” engineering team. While the social network has been improving its bottom line, there’s supposedly a sense among insiders that the engineering team of the company is bigger than it should be when related to its growth. The company has doubled its workforce in the past couple of years even if they’ve added around 50 percent more users.

Source: Engadget

Pinterest localizes search for international users

Pinterest is hoping to get more non-English speaking users to use its site more. That’s why the company implemented increased localized search results as well as international autocomplete and spellcheck. It seems to have a positive effect though as more pinners in countries like Brazil, France, Germany, and Japan have discovered and saved twice the amount of localized pins using search.

The site also has a new language detection model and algorithm to show relevant and similar pins that also match localized descriptions and links without duplicating what’s in their users’ feed.

Source: Pinterest | Via: The Next Web

Overcast for iOS is now free

You used to have to pay for certain features in Overcast for iOS but this podcast app is now completely free. Yes, you read that right. You now have access to all its features. The latest update also brings with it new features like chapter support and streaming options. This time you can stream episodes instead of having to download them. Also, if you’ve been listening to long podcasts, the app now has chapters so you can skip through parts much more easily.

Source: Lifehacker | Download: iTunes App Store (Free)