Tech tidbits from around the web.
10/17/2016 4:50:57 PM
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Amazon is removing its Kindle app from the Windows Store
Another day, another loss of a Windows Store app that was never being updated anyway. Windows Central reports:
Amazon will eliminate their Windows 8-era Kindle app from the Windows Store … to focus efforts on their existing Kindle for PC app.
LOL. I think it’s fair to say that UWP hasn’t taken off in any meaningful way, but Win32 is even worse. Worse still, that Kindle app is terrible too. Anyway, here’s a bit from the email to an Amazon customer that touched off this bad news.
For the past few years Amazon has supported two separate Kindle apps for Windows PCs. In order to provide our Windows customers with the best Kindle reading experience, we are simplifying our approach and focusing our efforts on the Kindle for PC app.
If you are currently using our other Windows app (Kindle for Windows 8) on one or more of your PCs, we recommend that you upgrade to the Kindle for PC app to get the best reading experience and latest Kindle features. We are regularly updating the Kindle for PC app, including recent features like multi-color highlighting, improved search performance, and support for textbooks.
We will remove the Kindle for Windows 8 app from the Windows Store on October 27, 2016.
Report: Apple has given up on making its own car
Bloomberg has a blockbuster report: It says that Apple has abandoned efforts to build its own car.
Apple has drastically scaled back its automotive ambitions, leading to hundreds of job cuts and a new direction that, for now, no longer includes building its own car, according to people familiar with the project.
Hundreds of members of the car team, which comprises about 1,000 people, have been reassigned, let go, or have left of their own volition in recent months.
New leadership of the initiative, known internally as Project Titan, has re-focused on developing an autonomous driving system that gives Apple flexibility to either partner with existing carmakers, or return to designing its own vehicle in the future, the people also said. Apple has kept staff numbers in the team steady by hiring people to help with the new focus, according to another person.
So. The new plan is … CarPlay 2.0? Exciting.
8 products Google killed in 2016
PC World has compiled an interesting list of 8 products that Google has killed this year (so far). They are:
About the iPhone 7’s hidden home button
I’ve seen a number of reports about this, so here, randomly, is Fortune, explaining how Apple will handle things if your iPhone 7 home button breaks.
Apple’s iPhone 7 Home Button has a virtual alternative that turns on automatically if something goes wrong with the physical button.
A poster on the forums at Apple-tracking site MacRumors published an image of a virtual Home Button sitting at the bottom of the the iPhone 7’s screen. Above it, iOS displays a warning reading the “Home Button may need service,” adding that the “onscreen Home Button” could be used in the meantime.
Nice. Here it is.