Technology

Welcome back to This Week inApps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all.

The app industry is as hot as ever, with arecord 204 billion downloads in 2019and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019, according to App Annierecently released &State of Mobile& annual report. People are now spending 3 hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren&t just a way to pass idle hours — they&re a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.

In this Extra Crunch series, we help you keep up with the latest news from the world of apps, delivered on a weekly basis.

This week, we&re looking at the further impact of the coronavirus on the app industry, which is now leading to more major event cancellations — including, as of this week, Google I/O and SXSW. That begs the question, will WWDC be next? And what will that mean for developers who rely on the annual event to make those invaluable face-to-face connections? We&re also looking at the revised App Store review guidelines and what that means for developers, as well as Walmartplan to dramatically change its app strategy, Robinhoodbad week, the launch of a new Spotify competitor from the makers of the worldmost viral app, TikTok and much more.

Headlines

Apple changes the rules

Apple this weekalerteddevelopers to a new set ofApp Store review guidelinesthat detail which apps will be accepted or rejected, and what apps are allowed to do. The changes to the guidelines impact reviews, push notifications, Sign in with Apple, data collection and storage, mobile device management and more, thecompany says. Some ofthe more high-profile changes include the ability for apps to now use notifications for ads, stricter rules for dating and fortune-telling apps and a new rule that allows Apple to reject apps that help users evade law enforcement, among other things.

CEO and founder of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, has declared that Epic is standing behind Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud streaming service, calling it “the most developer-friendly and publisher-friendly of the major streaming services”.

This support comes at a challenging time for Nvidia’s service; since leaving its beta period only a few weeks ago, G

Following on the heels of several major cancellations of events the past few days, including the SXSW conferencein Austin and the tech conference SaaStr, Stanford University, which is located in the heart of Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, California, announced late Friday that the school would cancel in-person classes for the final two weeks of the universitywinter quarter in response to the expanding outbreak of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.

In a statement posted by the university, Stanfordprovost Persis Drell announced that the university would cancel two weeks of classes leading up to the universitywinter quarter exams, and &to the extent feasible& migrate classes to online formats.

In addition, professors are being encouraged by the administration to find ways of delivering functionally equivalent course material through online formats, and all exams for winter quarter are expected to be delivered remotely. The policy takes effect immediately starting with classes this coming Monday, March 9.

Furthermore, the university is canceling its annual Admit Weekend, where newly-admitted prospective freshman visit the palm-lined campus and learn more about the school before making a final decision on where to head for their undergraduate degrees. Tours of the campus have also been canceled.

The university in a separate notetoday acknowledged that two students are in self-isolation after &possible exposure& to the novel coronavirus. The university emphasized that neither student has affirmatively tested positive for the infection at this time.

The San Francisco Bay Area has seen increasing numbers of potential exposures to the novel coronavirus. Stanford itself has been on the vanguard of responding to the global pandemic, announcing thedevelopment of its own test earlier this week to detect the infection.

Tonight's UFC 248 card features not one but two championship bouts, though the headline fight in Las Vegas is undoubtedly undefeated middleweight champ Israel Adesanya taking on title challenger Yoel Romero - read on to find out how you can live stream UFC 248 and watch Adesanya vs Romero online from anywhere in the world this Saturday.

Volt’s website gives you an indication of what to expect from its cool-looking new Infinity two-wheeler. "We don’t make e-bikes that look too electric" it says, as you pick over the fascinating history of this innovative British brand. It also gives you a great idea of what to expect from this latest addition to the growing range of Volt e-bikes.

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