Snap, the parent company of the popular iOS and Android social media app Snapchat, has announced its acquisition of video animation startup AI Factory for a reported price of $166 million. The Ukrainian AI Factory is the team behind Snapchat’s popular new Cameos selfie-based video feature, through which deepfake-like videos of the user are generated…
Apple and Transport for London (TfL) have announced the ability to use Apple’s Express Transit feature of Apple Pay with London’s entire transit network. With the Express Transit feature, Apple Pay users can now simply hold their iPhone or Apple Watch against one of TfL’s transit terminals to pay for their ride, without the need…
Adobe showed off a preview of its new AI-powered Photoshop Camera app at its Adobe Max conference in Los Angeles on Monday. The app is powered by Adobe’s Sensei artificial intelligence platform to allow users to apply powerful Photoshop image filters and effects to pictures taken with their smartphone camera. Sensei is able to recognize…
Some iPhone users have been having trouble logging into their various apps since the rollout of iOS 13. The in-app authentication request for bank accounts, password managers, and other apps simply won’t appear on phones that have been affected, seemingly barring users who are unable to perform the Touch ID or Face ID login needed…
“… YubiKey 5 NFC and Security Key NFC solutions can now be used with iPhone models 7 or later running on iOS 13.” Yubico’s NFC-enabled security keys can now be used for contactless authentication with newer iPhones. The change was announced alongside Apple’s big product launches last week, with the company opening up somewhat from…
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced that it will be extending support for the Mobile Passport Control (MPC) program to several ports of entry in Puerto Rico. The feature will be available at Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport on August 27th, before coming to the San Juan Pan-American Dock and San Juan Seaport…
Mezu is teaming up with Mastercard to release a digital debit card that will allow Mezu users to make purchases anywhere Mastercard is accepted. Mezu is a mobile payments app that does not share any personal information or transaction history with third parties and leverages biometric authentication for added security. The partnership with Mastercard will…
ID R&D has found a new customer for its Acoustic Event Detection technology, which will be integrated into Wavio’s SoundAI platform. First announced back in March, Acoustic Event Detection allows any device with a microphone to detect and identify a range of ambient sounds, including sirens, barking dogs, breaking glass, and calls for help. …
Apple’s HomePod is getting a voice recognition update that will allow it to identify different individuals. The multi-user feature will enable the smart speaker to recognize multiple voices, which will in turn allow it to offer personalized notifications, reminders, and media recommendations based on the on the preferences of the person doing the talking. The…
Yubico is expanding the Partner Preview Program for its forthcoming security key solution designed for lightning ports on Apple’s mobile devices. The solution was first announced last August. Formerly called “YubiKey for Lightning”, the now-rebranded “YubiKey 5Ci” is aimed at enabling YubiKey security key support on Apple’s mobile devices thanks to its use of the…
iPad users can now sign into their Google accounts using an Android smartphone for second-factor authentication. It’s a development building on Google’s FIDO2 certification for Android 7+, which enabled any devices running on the mobile operating system to act as FIDO2 security keys back in April. This meant that signing into Google on a laptop…
Yubico unveiled a new product in its security key lineup at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, and offered a sneak peak at another. First things first: Security Key NFC, the latest offering, is available now. It features a USB-A interface, and, as the name, suggests, it also supports contactless operation over NFC. That means users…
Yubico has announced a new mobile SDK that enables Lightning support on iOS. It’s a workaround to Apple’s notorious unwillingness to open its NFC technology to third party developers, and the lack of USB ports on mobile devices in general. These factors have thus far prevented Yubico from establishing connectivity between Apple devices and its…
Just a few years ago, biometric authentication was something of a novelty for consumers. Now, it’s in more consumer tech products than ever, and its upwards trajectory remains solidly in place – particularly in the mobile sector. Nevertheless, mobile biometrics tech is also at a turning point, with conventional fingerprint scanning starting to look just…
As is its wont, Apple previewed the next version of its iOS mobile operating system during this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and while it offers a number of new features and capabilities, a few in particular reflect broader trends in the mobile industry. Enhanced Augmented Reality The most eye-catching of those is probably its refined…
In what is sure to be looked back on a s a portent warning of the eventual apocalypse, Apple is slated to release its first ever Android app in the form of a new streaming music service. According to Mark Gurman on 9to5Mac, the service stems from Apple’s relatively recent acquisition of Beats Music (a…
