Microsoft to take down SwiftKey on iOS devices from October 5
Top on the news this week is an announcement made by Microsoft about the discontinuation of the SwiftKey predictive keyboard for iOS devices starting on Oct. 5.
According to the Director of Product Management at SwiftKey, he said;
“As of October 5, support for SwiftKey iOS will end and it will be delisted from the Apple App Store. Microsoft will continue support for SwiftKey Android as well as the underlying technology that powers the Windows touch keyboard. For those customers who have SwiftKey installed on iOS, it will continue to work until it is manually uninstalled or a user gets a new device.”
Although explicit reasons for this haven’t been given, assumptions going about are hinged on the several user complaints that have been received over the past few months. The users complained that Microsoft hasn’t updated the SwiftKey app on iOS in over a year.
Microsoft acquired the SwiftKey platform, which was already one of the most popular keyboard apps on iOS and Android, for reportedly $250 million in 2016.
The SwiftKey for iOS predictive keyboard will be delisted from the Apple App Store as of October 5.
Adobe promises to continue offering Figma’s free plan after the buyout is approved
In an interview with Bloomberg, Adobe Chief Product Officer, Scott Belsky reassured worried Figma users that the online collaborative design platform’s acquisition would not change its pricing model and ease of use.
Since the announcement that Adobe had plans to purchase Figma for roughly $20 billion in cash and shares a couple of weeks ago, users have raised concerns about the merger. This is understandable, as Adobe’s programs are known to be quite expensive, and the same was envisaged for Figma.
However, Belsky has assured users that Figma will remain a “freemium” offering with a basic tier that’s available at no cost. Also, Figma co-founder Dylan Field added that Adobe isn’t planning any price increase and that the platform will remain free for education.
Adobe does have changes planned for the platform, of course, including integrating features from its software portfolio, as well as its library of fonts and stock images.
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Google to Make Search and Maps More ‘Immersive’
Google adds new search features to try to give users the ‘vibe’ of a city or neighborhood.
The company is launching “immersive views” and “vibes” for some locations, adding more details in visual form so that users will be able to explore locations before they visit, Google said at its third annual Search On event this week.
When people look up vacation destinations, for example, they will see what Google calls “visual forward” search results — organized tiles of photographs presented much like Stories on Snapchat or Instagram, along with a map and images from travel sites that link to guides.
GitHub restores Tornado Cash’s Code, but only for view
GitHub recently restored Tornado Cash’s code repositories for viewing, after the US Treasury levied sanctions on the crypto mixing platform Tornado Cash.
Tornado Cash was accused of supporting money laundering schemes and scam artists to carry out their operations. As a result, American citizens were banned from interacting with the application, which combines transactions to obscure the origin of the transactions.
GitHub and other platforms removed Tornado Cash from their sites to comply with the new US regulation. However, Tornado Cash’s return to GitHub does not really mean that the development on the coin mixer will continue as usual.
AWS announces general availability of AWS IoT FleetWise
Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of AWS IoT FleetWise, a new service that makes it easier for automotive companies to collect, transform, and transfer vehicle data to the cloud in real time.
Automakers, suppliers, fleet operators, and technology solution vendors in the automotive industry can use AWS IoT FleetWise to collect and organize vehicle data more easily and to store the data in a standardized way for data analysis in the cloud. AWS IoT FleetWise helps automotive companies efficiently transfer data to the cloud in near real time.
Kixie earns HubSpot Platinum Solutions Partner status
Kixie is proud to announce that it has achieved the status of HubSpot Platinum Solutions Partner. Earning this distinction means Kixie has demonstrated expertise in delivering superior sales engineering to businesses using HubSpot and Kixie to power their customer-facing teams.
This accomplishment underscores their commitment to providing the best possible experience for their customers in helping to grow their businesses. Kixie, a leading provider of cloud-based business phone systems and VoIP services, joins an exclusive group of partners worldwide who have met the highest standards for delivering value and results to HubSpot customers.
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Oracle fined by SEC for bribing Indian officials
Tech giant, Oracle has agreed to pay $23 million in settlement charges for allegedly bribing foreign officials, including those from India, between 2016 and 2019.
Oracle will pay the amount to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for purportedly violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This is the second time Oracle has been reprimanded for violating norms by its Indian subsidiary.
The US agency made a statement that, “the SEC announced settled charges requiring Oracle Corporation to pay more than $23 Mn to resolve charges that it violated provisions of the FCPA when subsidiaries in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and India created and used slush funds to bribe foreign officials in return for business between 2016 and 2019.”
Microsoft is developing a new PowerToys utility called ‘File Locksmith’
In yet another news from Microsoft for this week, Microsoft is working on a new and very useful PowerToys utility called File Locksmith.
PowerToys is a freeware collection of system utilities designed for power users of Windows. The collection has been around since the days of Windows 95, but in 2019 it was updated for Windows 10 and has been expanding its range of tools ever since as well as embracing Windows 11.
As Neowin reports, File Locksmith is still a work in progress, but Clint Rutkas, Lead for developer experiences on Windows and Microsoft PowerToys, teased its functionality in a tweet.
The File Locksmith utility will allow users to protect their files from being overwritten or deleted by other programs. It will work by creating a ‘lock file’ for each file that the user wants to protect. Once a lock file has been created, any attempt to delete or overwrite the protected file will be blocked.