Germany

Smartphone makers like Apple and Google should be required to provide security updates and spare parts for their mobile devices for at least seven years, according to new environmental responsibility proposals from the German government to the European Union (via Heise Online). The European Commission recently proposed that mobile device manufacturers should provide software updates and...

Member of the German parliament, Manuel Höferlin, who serves as the chairman of the Digital Agenda committee in Germany, has penned a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, pleading Apple to abandon its plan to scan iPhone users' photo libraries for CSAM (child sexual abuse material) images later this year. In the two-page letter (via iFun), Höferlin said that he first applauds Apple's efforts to...

Germany's Federal Cartel Office, the Bundeskartellamt, today initiated proceedings against Apple on the claims of anti-competitive behavior related to the App Store, its products, and other services, according to a press release. The proceeding against Apple announced today will determine whether the Cupertino tech giant holds a "paramount significance across markets" and whether, through...

Regulators in Germany are seeking to bar Facebook from collecting user data from its subsidiary, WhatsApp (via Bloomberg). The Hamburg regulator is looking to achieve an "immediately enforceable order" against Facebook by May 15, due to concerns that WhatsApp's privacy policy changes could lead to the unlawful use of user data for marketing and advertising purposes. Data Commissioner...

While the German cities of Cologne, Hamburg, Munich, and Frankfurt have more than one Apple Store, the capital Berlin has only one – Apple Kurfürstendamm, which opened in 2013. That looks set to change soon, however. Render of 43-45 Rosenthaler Straße by project developer Values Real Estate Speculation that Apple could settle in the eastern part of Germany's largest city has been around for...

Apple will make Munich its European Silicon Design Center, the company announced today. Work already being undertaken by Apple in Bavaria's capital is contributing to its custom Apple silicon designs, while the expansion, together with additional investment in R&D, will exceed 1 billion euros in the next three years. Apple says the new state-of-the-art facility will bring hundreds of new...

The Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE may give incorrect altitude readings in unusual weather conditions, as noted by iphone-ticker.de. The Apple Watch Series 6 and ‌Apple Watch SE‌ feature a next-generation always-on altimeter to provide real-time elevation information. Apple says that its updated altimeter cross-references information from GPS and nearby Wi-Fi networks to detect...

Germany's largest TV provider Vodafone has announced that its GigaTV service is now available bundled with an Apple TV 4K, which is on loan to customers for the duration of their contractual period (via Macerkopf.de). Both new and existing Vodafone Deutschland customers will receive the ‌Apple TV‌ 4K, and Apple's single sign-on process for GigaTV extends to iPhone and iPad, allowing users to ...

Apple and Amazon are set to face antitrust scrutiny in Germany over a policy that forbids independent sellers from retailing Apple products on Amazon, Bloomberg reports. Germany's antitrust regulator, the Federal Cartel Office, has launched a probe into Apple and Amazon over the policy of "brandgating." The policy allows the makers of branded products, such as the iPhone, to have...

Apple Pay support came to Sparkasse's Giro card in Germany today. First spotted by iphone-ticker.de, the debit card, known as the "Sparkassen-Card," can now be stored in Apple's digital Wallet app, just like the bank's credit cards. This means that savings account customers can use the "most popular card in Germany" with ‌Apple Pay‌. Für Birnen und für Eier. Und zwar für alle. Sparkasse ...

Apple has started reopening its retail stores worldwide, and is taking multiple measures to make sure customers and staff continue to stay safe during the global health crisis. One of these measures includes temperature checks for customers before they're allowed to enter one of Apple's stores using a non-contact forehead thermometer. A data protection agency in the German state of Hesse is...

Apple appears to have updated the speaking voice of Siri on devices in Germany, based on reports compiled by iphone-ticker.de (via ifun.de). According to the website, several readers have reported ‌Siri‌'s German speech comes across as more natural and melodic than before, especially on HomePod, although the changes are subtle, with better pronunciation and different inflection depending on...

Germany said on Sunday it will use Apple and Google's decentralized contact tracing API, reversing course on its original intention to use its own solution to track the spread of coronavirus. Last week, the German government said it would use its own home-grown technology for smartphone-based tracing of infections, based on a design that would hold personal data on a central server....

Apple has been offering certified refurbished 16-inch MacBook Pro models in the United States for a couple of weeks now, but today it started selling refurb 16-inch models through its international online stores for the first time since the notebook was released in November 2019. All of the refurbished configurations are discounted by 15 percent compared to the equivalent brand new models....

Apple Pay came to two additional big banks in Germany today, bringing the digital payment platform to millions more people in the country just over a year since it launched there. As of this morning, customers of both Sparkasse and Commerzbank can add their Visa and Mastercard credit cards to the Wallet app. The Sparkassen-Karte Basis debit card is also compatible, but support for the...

A parliamentary committee in Germany on Wednesday passed an amendment to an anti-money laundering law that would force Apple to open up the NFC chip in iPhones to competing mobile payment providers, according to Reuters. The report claims the law is set to come into effect early next year. In a statement to Reuters, Apple said it was "surprised" about the sudden decision and expressed...

Apple CEO Tim Cook is in Europe this week, visiting local Apple employees and App Store developers and even attending an Oktoberfest celebration. Cook was in Munich on Sunday before traveling to Berlin, where he visited the offices of Blinkist, an app that distills non-fiction books into bitesize text and audio snippets, similar to CliffsNotes. Cook also sat down for an interview with...

Apple Music will be available to stream on German Echo devices via Alexa from today, reports regional tech blog ifun.de. We've not received official confirmation, but if Germany's Alexa rollout follows a similar pattern to other countries, it should mean ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers who own an Echo device, Amazon Fire TV, or Alexa-enabled Sonos speaker will soon be able to ask Alexa to play...

Apple started underlining its privacy stance earlier this year with a billboard marketing campaign that began in Las Vegas and later came to Canada, and this week the company has extended it to Europe. Brought to our attention by Macerkopf.de, the new billboards in both Hamburg and Berlin play on their location, while emphasizing how much importance Apple attaches to user privacy and data...

When iOS 13 arrives, iPhones will be able to read a wider range of Near Field Communication (NFC) tags, including the NFC tags often used in official documentation. Last week, The Verge reported that Japan had confirmed its national identity cards would support iPhone through a government-developed app, and now we're hearing that German authorities are also gearing up to make several forms of ID...