Smartphone Sales Soften; DuckDuckGo is Just Semi-Private; Apple WWDC OS Rumors

A new report from South Korea’s Maeil Business News has Samsung, the world’s leading smartphone maker, ramping production down by 30 million units for 2022. The news comes as sales are further hampered by the conflict in Ukraine. In March, the company followed fellow tech giants Microsoft and Apple by suspending sales in Russia.  Apple, too, has been feeling the pain. Recent Bloomberg reports noted that the iPhone maker is throttling plans to manufacture an additional 20 million phones in 2022. Bloomberg reports that smartphone sales in China are down about 30%. 

The one browser famous for protecting your privacy apparently has quietly sold you out. DuckDuckGo has touted their browser for years as the one that doesn’t track your every move and sell that information to others. So much for that. According to thenextweb.com, DuckDuckGo still blocks Facebook and Google trackers, but apparently makes an exception for some of Microsoft’s. The supposedly privacy conscious browser has been letting Bing and LinkedIn get your data. They blame it on their search syndication agreement with Microsoft. 

Some little nuggets from Mark Gurman ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference next week. Macrumors.com says the analyst sees an enhanced Lock Screen with iOS 16, as well as improved multitasking for iPadOS 16. MacOS 13 will pick up redesigned apps. The iOS Lock Screen will get wallpapers with widget-like capabilities. It won’t get always on, but Apple has apparently built in support for that in future OS editions and phones. The iPad will see major changes in windowing and multitasking….which it can certainly use! For all of the OS versions, the Messages app will get “more social network-like functionality, particularly around audio messages.” Not to be left out, Watch OS 9 will allegedly include “significant improvements to watchOS that affect day-to-day operating and navigation,” alongside refreshes for existing Apple Watch faces and a new Low Power Mode.