This was nearly a “Disney News Roundup” considering Disney dominated the internet yesterday, but there were still a few other stories I found interesting.
Disney Announces Everything at Once
Disney had a 4 hour investor call on December 10. Usually those are boring, but Disney took the opportunity to announce 52 new things. 52. There’s new Star Wars, new Marvel, new Pixar, and everything under the sun.
One notable thing for markets outside of the United States is that Disney is adding a collection called “Star” to Dinsey+ in Canada and several European markets. Star will serve as a catch all for Disney owned content that usually makes its way to Hulu in the United States, a service not available in Canada. Series from ABC, FX, 20th Century Studios and more will be part of this “Star” collection in Disney+, which is available at no additional charge.
Speaking of the “additional charge” Disney did announce a price increase of $1/month in the US for Disney Plus coming in early 2021. It is unclear if that price increase will make its way to Canada, but it seems likely.
Adobe Issues Final Update to Flash Player
This has been something Adobe has been planning for 3 years, but the day is finally upon us. Adobe has issued the final update to the standalone Flash Player app, with the primary change being that before a flash element plays, users will be warned that Flash will stop working as of January 12, 2021. As of that date, Flash content will no longer play. The warning asks users to uninstall Flash before that date.
For most users who use Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or Microsoft Edge, Flash is built into the browser and is already configured to stop working on January 12. It is likely that the next version updates for those browsers after January 12th will remove the plugin all together.
Flash was once the dominant media player on the web. From the early 2000’s until around 2016 it is likely that all of the video you watched, or every web based game you played ran on Flash. But Flash is slow, heavy, and has been a constant vector of security vulnerabilities. With modern web standards like HTML5 being able to replicate Flash’s functionality, and in a better way, Flash has largely become unnecessary.
Come January 13th, you may find the odd website or video that breaks, or older things that don’t work properly. There are very, very few websites left with Flash elements left, as they’ve literally had years to migrate.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/adobe-to-block-flash-content-from-running-on-january-12-2021/
Apple and Google Ban Apps From Including Code that Shares and Sells Location Data
Application developers, companies, and governments alike are still grappling with what data applications can and should gather from users. Today’s example is in the form of Google and Apple both banning apps from include code from a company called “X-Mode Social.” Apparently, Applications with code from this company gathered user location data, where X-Mode Social would then sell. This is an obvious bad example of data collection, and it is likely that most reputable apps you use do not include this. However there are likely thousands of smaller apps that take advantage of this. X-Mode Social pays application developers to put this code in their apps and collect that data.
Now both Apple and Google are warning that within a couple weeks any app that includes the X-Mode Social location gathering code risks being pulled from the app store, and new apps with that code will not be approved. This is a win, and we are likely to see more restrictions like this over time as more awareness of what kind of and how much data collection is done on our devices.
It is worth noting that the only way for X-Mode’s system to actually collect data, a user had to specifically approve location access for an app. Most apps that request location data do need it. Think a maps app or even something like Netflix or Crave needing to know where you are actually located to play the correct content. There are many reasons an app may need location access. But some apps don’t, and that is likely where a company like X-Mode exploits users. Hopefully that is coming to an end.