Meta execs have acknowledged that ads are coming to its newest social network. "We definitely plan to bring ads to Threads," Instagram Head Adam Mosseri, who also oversees Threads, said in April. "At the end of the day, we're a business, and Threads needs to make enough money to pay for the people and servers that it takes to run the service and provide it to people for free."
https://www.pcmag.com/news/brace-yourself-for-ads-on-threads-in-january
App developers now have a new way to promote their app launches, updates, and other new features on Apple’s App Store. First announced at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June, Apple this week introduced a “Featuring Nominations” option in App Store Connect, which is the service developers use to submit their apps, games, and updates to the App Store. Now, instead of waiting for Apple to recognize their work, developers can nominate their own apps to be featured. This will allow developers to inform Apple about three different types of updates: new content, app enhancements, or new app launches.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/13/apple-now-lets-app-developers-apply-to-be-featured-on-the-app-store/
The New York Times Tech Guild asked the publication's readers not to play its games, including Wordle and Connections, in solidarity when it announced that it was going on strike on November 4. Now, the guild has released its own versions of the The Times' games so that readers can still play without crossing its digital picket line. Of course, the workers' versions won't be able to keep your Wordle streak running, but they're pretty much the same games you've been playing on the publication's website.
https://www.engadget.com/general/nyt-tech-workers-on-strike-made-their-own-versions-of-wordle-and-connections-130047922.html?src=rss
An ongoing attack is uploading hundreds of malicious packages to the open source node package manager (NPM) repository in an attempt to infect the devices of developers who rely on code libraries there, researchers said. The malicious packages have names that are similar to legitimate ones for the Puppeteer and Bignum.js code libraries and for various libraries for working with cryptocurrency. The campaign, which was active at the time this post was going live on Ars, was reported by researchers from the security firm Phylum. The discovery comes on the heels of a similar campaign a few weeks ago targeting developers using forks of the Ethers.js library.
https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/11/javascript-developers-targeted-by-hundreds-of-malicious-code-libraries/
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The removal of the titles marks a disappointing conclusion to Netflix’s earliest efforts into interactive content. The company first launched the interactive titles in 2017 with Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale, and I remember being wowed (and horrified) by paths in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/4/24287857/netflix-removing-interactive-titles-games
Android developers will get a few more ways to seek your attention and then virtually tug at your sleeve as you browse Google’s Play Store for new Android apps. The most eye-catching change among those Google announced today will be full-screen playback of app portrait videos. In a blog post, Paul Feng, Google Play VP of product management, notes the non-trivial upsides among app developers who tested this format: “+7% increase in total watch time, a +9% increase in video completion count, and a +5% increase in conversions."
https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-announces-play-store-tweaks-to-entice-more-of-your-attention-and
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While we all wait for the reveal of Nintendo’s next console, the company has once again announced something very different. This time, it’s a mobile app called Nintendo Music, which lets users listen to classic gaming tunes from Nintendo games spanning the last few decades, including Splatoon, Animal Crossing, and The Legend of Zelda. It’s only available to Switch Online subscribers, and it’s launching today on both iOS and Android.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/30/24284073/nintendo-music-streaming-app-switch-online-subscribers