Alphabet Inc. subsidiary Google is set to appoint manufacturing and policy veteran Sreenivasa Reddy as its top government affairs executive in India to tackle legal challenges and expand hardware assembly to the country. Sankalp Phartiyal for Bloomberg News: Reddy, currently a senior engineering executive at Microsoft Corp., is likely to join Google toward the end of this year, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. He previously worked in senior positions at Apple Inc.’s India regulatory team and headed government relations at the local unit of Swedish telecom-gear maker Ericsson AB, helping to drive domestic manufacturing at both companies. Reddy’s experience will come in handy at Google, which is scouting for…

Now in its third round, Apple has issued the third developer beta build of tvOS 17 to members of its testing program.Developers taking part in the beta can download the latest builds via the Apple Developer Center, or by updating hardware already running the beta operating systems. Public beta versions of milestone releases are usually provided a short while after the developer counterparts, and the public can try them out via the Apple Beta Software Program when they become available.The third beta replaces the second, which Apple seeded on June 21, and the first from June 5. The third build is number 21J5303f, taking over from build two, 21J5293g. Read more...

Macworld Mozilla celebrated the Fourth of July with the release of Firefox 115.0, which includes a number of new features and security fixes. Of note is that this is the final version that supports macOS Mojave 10.14, macOS High Sierra 10.13, and macOS 10.12 Sierra. Users of those operating systems will update to the Extended Support Release (ESR) version of Firefox 115. ESR versions are basically maintenance releases; they get security updates and stability fixes, but Mozilla does not provide new features. If you’re using a version of macOS older than Sierra, then you’ve already been switched to an ESR Firefox release. Here is a list of the new features, according to the release notes. Migrating from another browser? Now…

Macworld The long-running legal dispute between Apple and Epic Games finally reached a verdict two years ago. But the battle, which began when Epic bypassed Apple’s 30 percent cut for in-app purchases and Apple responded by booting Fortnite out of the App Store, is far from over. And now it’s headed to the highest court in the land. Given that Apple hailed Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ 2021 ruling as “a huge win,” it was no surprise when Epic filed an appeal. Less predictably, Apple appealed too. In a filing this week, Apple attorneys argued that the court overreached in issuing a broad nationwide injunction applying to all developers, rather than just Epic. Maybe it wasn’t such a huge win after…

Macworld Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too. The only way is upsell One of the quirkier stories we covered last week centered on a simple Velcro strap. Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro headset, you see, is rather heavy, and the company seems to have addressed possible issues with comfort by adding on an extra strap that goes over the top of the user’s head. But this strap is…

Macworld Apple’s two-factor authentication system deflects access to your Apple ID account by requiring that in addition to your password you also have to provide a code that arrives either through a trusted device (an iPhone, iPad, or Mac) or a trusted phone number—one that’s been verified after having been added. Trusted devices are an easier set to manage, because they represent all devices logged into the same Apple ID for use with iCloud. Trusted numbers are a different matter. I’ve long recommended adding not just your own cellular or other phone numbers as trusted numbers, but also that of someone trustworthy who is close to you, like a life partner or family member. That gives you a backup in…