Technology

Apple has opened enrollment in its new small business program that will allow eligible app developers to receive 15 percent more from App Store sales, the company announced on Thursday. Apple says “the vast majority of developers on the App Store who sell digital goods and services are eligible” and all developers need to do to qualify is complete the company’s enrollment form available online. Apple announced the new program last month, marking a significant change in how the App Store is structured. Under the new terms of the program, eligible developers making under $1 million per year in App Store sales and in-app purchase revenue are eligible for the reduced commission rate of 15 percent for the following year. Apple typically takes 30 percent of all App Store revenue on digital items...

Some of the best deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, but with the holidays just around the corner, there are still a ton of deals readily available at various retailers. If you are looking to gift a Nintendo Switch this holiday season, Walmart has one of the best deals right now, which includes the console, a carrying case, and 12 months of Nintendo Switch Online (individual membership) for $299. It’s a unique deal for a few reasons: the Nintendo Switch alone costs $300, and 12 months of Nintendo’s online service costs $20. Carrying cases vary in price but can cost anywhere between $13 to $33. Nintendo Switch Online is a great service if you plan to purchase games that take advantage of the online feature like Animal Crossing New Horizons, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, an...

Since 2016, ComplexCon has been a place where streetwear enthusiasts can gather in one place to buy exclusive gear, listen to amazing live music, and gorge at high-end food trucks. As with most live shows, though, the event isn’t taking place in 2020 — at least, not in the traditional way. In lieu of an in-person festival in Long Beach, Complex has built a video game where users can shop, watch talks and performances, and, yes, order from local restaurants. It’s not a sprawling virtual world where millions can gather in one place, but rather a single-player experience designed to mimic the feeling of being at a live show. ComplexLand is a video game where the main activity is shopping, and you chase after sneaker drops like a hero in the latest open-world blockbuster. ComplexLand will take...

Android users who are bored of their usual wallpapers are in luck: an update to Google Photos now allows users to set their wallpaper as a random, rotating cast of saved photos. Version 5.22 of Google Photos automatically includes the update, so if you go to your phone’s wallpaper selector and look at the live wallpapers, you should see the option for one called “Memories.” Once selected, your phone will start pulling photos from the Memories section of Google Photos to cycle between as a background. You’ll then be able to preview what you’ll see as a wallpaper before confirming. The main catch here is that Google defines what counts as a memory based on its machine learning algorithms, so you won’t be able to really decide what shows up. Photos could range from gorgeous vistas to a photo ...

Samsung is starting to roll out updates to Android 11 and One UI 3.0, its customized interface, to some of its latest phones. The first up are Galaxy S20 series devices in the US, Korea, and most of Europe, which will start receiving updates today. Updates for the Note 20, last year’s Note 10 and S10, and the Z Fold, Z Fold 2, and Z Flip are planned to arrive in the “coming weeks.” Updates for the Galaxy A series will arrive in the first half of 2021. The updates come three months after the launch of Android 11. Samsung has historically been slow to deliver Android updates even to its latest phones. Three months isn’t a huge wait (it maintains the same pace as last year), but a number of other phone manufacturers, including OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Oppo, managed to deliver Android 11 on day on...

Remember the first folding phone? No, not Samsung’s ill-fated original Galaxy Fold — the one that beat it to market. In hindsight, and honestly in foresight back then as well, Royole’s FlexPai was a hurried attention grab that existed solely to attain world-first status. But it’s not like it came out of nowhere; Royole had been set up several years earlier solely to develop flexible screen technology, so it’s understandable that the company would want to get ahead of Samsung to show off what it could do. A flex, if you will. Unfortunately, the FlexPai was bad. But now there’s a FlexPai 2, and it’s surprisingly pretty good. I’ve been using a Chinese model for a while and can report that it’s a big improvement over the original, with some neat refinements to the design. Samsung won’t have mu...

Google Maps is getting a new update that lets you create Street View photos using just a phone. Android users with ARCore-compatible devices can now capture imagery and publish it to Google Street View in certain areas. Google is allowing submissions initially in Toronto, New York, Austin, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Costa Rica. More regions will support this feature soon, and Google will use this user-generated content when it doesn’t have its own Street View imagery available. “While our own Street View trekkers and cars have collected more than 170 billion images from 10 million miles around the planet, there are still many unmapped parts of the world,” says Stafford Marquardt, product manager of Google Maps Street View. “Where people contribute connected photos, they will appear in the Str...

We are eight days away from the release of Cyberpunk 2077, but with all of the brand tie-ins for the upcoming roleplaying game, you could mistakenly think it was already out. Throughout the year, developer CD Projekt Red has teamed up with multiple companies to create a slew of cyberpunk-themed items from gaming mice to game controllers and, yes, even energy drinks. Cyberpunk 2077 $50 $60 17% off Prices taken at time of publishing. An upcoming action role-playing game from CD Projekt Red, the developers of The Witcher video games. The target audience: people who love both the color yellow and dystopian motifs so much that they’d be willing to look at them, wear them, and even drink them at all times. The good news for Cyberpunk 2077 fans is there are plenty of ways to show off your fandom,...

Zens has a new set of wireless chargers out called the Zens Modular. They are designed to fix the rigidity of most combination wireless chargers by letting users customize their own bespoke charging setup to suit their needs. The Zens Modular system is divided into two halves: main stations and extensions. The main station (as the name implies) is the primary hub for your wireless charging setup and is the only thing that you’ll have to plug into the wall. Zens has three different main station options: the €99,99 / $121.16 Modular Dual Wireless Charger, which is a flat pad that can charge two devices at once at up to 15W each; the €69,99 / $84.81 Modular Stand Wireless Charger, a single charger that offers a stand form factor and can charge at 15W; and the €59,99 / $72.69 Modular Single Wi...

Amazon is updating Alexa to allow it to automatically switch between more languages. The update comes after a flurry of small Alexa additions over the course of November, increasing functionality and making Alexa more useful. Alexa first gained the ability to automatically respond to requests in English and other languages in 2019. However, you were limited to only two languages at a time. That hasn’t changed, but now users can enable a few more languages in the Alexa app. Alexa can speak German, French, Canadian-French, Japanese, Spanish, US-Spanish, and Hindi — all paired with English. Additionally, users can switch languages without pulling up the app by saying “Alexa, speak Spanish” to set a new primary language or “Alexa, speak Spanish and English” to set up a pair to switch between. ...

When Apple released iOS 14.2 last month, it didn’t mention that FaceTime calls would now be in 1080p for older iPhones. As MacMagazine notes, Apple has updated the product comparison pages of the iPhones 8, X, XR, XS, SE, and 11 (including the Max and Pro versions) to show that they now support FaceTime at 1080p over Wi-Fi, as opposed to before when they only supported 720p. Calls made over cellular will still be at the lower resolution, but if you’re FaceTiming over Wi-Fi you may notice increased clarity after the update. That is, unless both callers had the iPhone 12, which has had 1080p FaceTime calls from the start (including over cellular if you’re on 5G). My sister has an iPhone 8 with the update, so I called her up on FaceTime. I had her take a screenshot when we were calling over W...

Verizon revealed this morning that Samsung’s Galaxy S20 lineup will be the first Samsung phones to receive Android 11 and Samsung’s One UI 3.0 in the US, and now the software has already started trickling out to customers, according to Droid Life. One UI 3.0 has been in public beta for the last two months, but this marks the official release of the final software. One UI 3.0 has the messaging, notifications and security features of Android 11, along with some add-ons specific to One UI. Samsung has added easier ways to access widgets, take screenshots, and double-tap the screen to put your phone to sleep, to name a few, but if you want a more exhaustive list of all of the One UI 3.0 changes, you can check out this roundup at Android Police. An example of the new lock screen and notificatio...