Tag: pay

This hilarious game mimics all the insane ways companies trick you into giving up your data

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Yes or no: Do you agree to the terms and conditions of this website? Would you like to not receive our newsletter? If you don’t want to receive our newsletter, would you rather have bad breath and no friends? Those are a few of the easier questions in “ Terms & Conditions Apply ,” a new online quiz game that spoofs the modern web’s dark patterns . Too often, the act of rejecting cookies or dismissing newsletter sign-up prompts can feel like a video game, with hidden buttons to press and cryptic menus to decipher. So Jonathan Plackett, a creative technologist at the ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, teamed up with The Guardian puzzle columnist Alex Bellos to build an actual puzzle game out of it. [Image: Wieden + Kennedy] The game’s goal is to reject all notification prompts, cookies, and terms of service agreements, and while its 29 questions start out simple enough, they quickly take a turn toward the farcical. One question pays homage to the “ two-door riddle ” from Labyrinth , while several others involve buttons that move around when you try to click them. [Image: Wieden + Kennedy] In reality, websites employ much subtler tricks to secure the outcomes they want. Last year, a group of university researchers found that when a site made users click onto a secondary menu page to opt out of data collection, consent rates increased by 22% . Another study, by Deloitte , found that 43% of websites tried to “nudge” users toward accepting cookies through “strategic use of font size, color, and level of complexity” in their prompts. The good news is that workarounds exist. Browser extensions such as I Don’t Care About Cookies for desktop and Hush for iOS will automatically hide the prompts that ask you to allow tracking or sign up for newsletters. In other words, you can opt out of playing the game entirely. Give Terms & Conditions Apply a try by visiting the site in your browser . The creators promise they won’t track you. Read More …

In Epic case, Apple might win the battle and lose the war

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No matter who prevails in the Epic Games v. Apple app store antitrust trial, history may see it as just one skirmish in a wider war. Apple has a good chance of winning. Current antitrust laws—which are ancient—as well as decades of jurisprudence in U.S. courts make it very hard for plaintiffs to win antitrust cases. But Congress is now considering reigning in the monopoly power of companies like Apple through changes to antitrust laws or even through direct regulation of app marketplaces. Indeed, my sources in Congress say lawmakers are watching Epic v. Apple , which is expected to wrap up this week in a federal court in Oakland, California, with great interest. Both the House antitrust subcommittee (led by Democratic Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island) and the Senate antitrust subcommittee (led by Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota), have held hearings on app distribution through Apple’s App Store and Google Play. During those hearings, app developers complained about the strict rules they must abide by in order to be listed in the App Store, which is virtually the only way developers can access the huge worldwide market of iOS device users. In the U.S., more than half of all mobile devices run iOS, and studies show iOS users spend far more money on apps and in-app purchases than other mobile users. Apple requires that apps use the App Store’s in-house payment system to sell goods or services within their apps, and it charges developers a commission of up to 30%. App developers are prohibited from selling their apps and many forms of digital services to iOS users any other way. Here’s the language from Apple’s own developer guidelines document: “Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, etc. Apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.” Apple, of course, makes its own apps, such as Apple Music, and can give them better visibility within the App Store than competing apps from third-party developers. (Search for “Music” in the App Store, and Apple Music, not Spotify, is the top result.) Developers are urging Congress to pass a law that limits the “gatekeeper” power of companies running app stores. Epic complained of all of these things in the courtroom in Oakland but, at least in light of past court decisions, Apple has a compelling defense. Read More …

How Sears and Standard Oil paved the way for the age of Amazon

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Despite Amazon’s undisputed centrality in the contemporary digital economy, a close look at its core business model reveals it to be surprisingly conventional. Before the invention of e-commerce, mail-order catalog companies such as Sears, Roebuck had accustomed American consumers to purchasing goods sight unseen from vendors with whom they communicated solely via information technology. Like Amazon, Sears, Roebuck neither manufactured goods nor owned inventory but functioned solely as information intermediary. Read More …

Here’s what’s new in Android 12, from big changes to subtle tweaks

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With a personalized color scheme on the outside and a reinforced app-privacy structure on the inside, the next version of Android should at least avoid a common fate of some previous Android updates: being mistaken for one of its predecessors. Android 12 , previewed in detail on Tuesday at Google’s I/O developer conference, leads off with those changes to form and function. But the next edition of its mobile operating system bundles many less obvious—but still notable—changes, including some that didn’t get mentioned during the two-hour keynote that opened the online event. Material You While many operating systems have offered personalization features, Google’s concept aims to make customization an automatic feature, not a distraction for interface nerds. Android 12 will derive highlight and contrast colors for its interface by analyzing your screen wallpaper. If your own screen decor already matches the current Android palette, you should still notice how many onscreen elements will be less rectilinear. For example, Google has already advised developers of onscreen widgets to get ready for rounded corners . [Photo: courtesy of Google] New visual effects will extend to animations to convey more clearly what’s going on. For instance, scrolling to the end of an onscreen list will cause it to stretch up and down the screen, and pressing the power button to wake the screen will send light rippling across the display. Quick Settings The set of toggles for such functions as airplane mode (remember that?) that you can invoke by swiping deeply down from the top of the screen should look a lot different in Android 12. The tiles you see today will be replaced by larger panes that show more detail about the state of each function. Android 12’s Quick Settings will also fold in new features. Read More …

New iPad Pro: Amazing hardware in search of equally amazing software

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There’s a long-standing urban myth that Apple designs products with planned obsolescence in mind—intentionally engineering them so that you’ll grow dissatisfied over time and want to replace them with something newer and shinier. Don’t you believe it. The company actually has a pretty impressive track record of building products that remain useful for the long haul, even well after they’ve been discontinued and replaced. One of the best recent examples is the iPad Pro that arrived back in November 2018 . Now theoretically two generations out of date, it belies its age by feeling just about as fast, fresh, stylish, and capable as it did on day one. It’s even compatible with Apple’s Magic Keyboard, which shipped 16 months later and took the iPad Pro to new heights as a laptop replacement. That 2018 iPad Pro was so good, in fact, that it hasn’t cried out for reinvention. Last year’s iPad Pro  acknowledged that by focusing on improvements to the rear camera system, including some aimed at making augmented-reality apps work better. For most iPad Pro users, it was the kind of update you could sensibly skip, biding your time to see what came next. That time has arrived. Apple is about to release  another new iPad Pro that, like last year’s model, retains the industrial design and basic feature set of the 2018 version. (It officially arrives in stores on Friday, though it’s already in enough demand that Apple is quoting availability dates for new preorders in late June and July.) I’ve spent more than a week with a prerelease 12.9-inch unit provided by Apple, along with a Magic Keyboard case and Pencil stylus. (The keyboard is the new white version , which looks mighty sharp—and, unlike any previous iPad keyboard, is color-coordinated with the Pencil.) Finally, an iPad keyboard case that matches Apple’s Pencil. [Photo: Harry McCracken] In terms of sheer technical excellence, this new iPad Pro is a good-size leap beyond its 2018 and 2020 predecessors. Read More …