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Searing temperatures, forest fires and thunderstorm warnings tormented Europe on Saturday as the summer spell of extreme weather

A study commissioned by Apple has highlighted the work of its small developers, amid ongoing questions about the future and fairness of the App Store. The research showed that small developers have seen strong growth in their revenues, and that they have outpaced larger developers in finding new customers. Smaller developers – those that earn up to $1 million per year and get fewer than a million annual downloads – saw their revenue increase 71 per cent between 2020 and 2022, according to the research, conducted by Analysis Group. In Europe, revenues among those developers were up 64 per cent. Announcing the results of the study, Apple pointed to the work it has done to support those smaller developers. It highlighted initiatives such as its “Small Business Programme”. That gives those smaller developers a larger proportion of their revenues, with Apple taking less of a cut, in an attempt to encourage independent businesses on the store. Many of Apple’s initiatives come amid an increased focused by regulators on its behaviour in relation to the App Store. Larger companies have accused it of using its control over the iPhone to benefit itself, while smaller ones have complained about the difficulties of finding new customers given the vast number of apps that are available on the store. The new report looked to address that latter belief by pointing to the small developers who were able to flourish on the App Store. As well as seeing an increase in revenues, those smaller developers were going on to become large ones quickly, the study noted – 40 per cent of those earning more than $1 million in 2022 earned less than $10,000 five years ago or were not on the App Store at all. It also looked to show how the global reach of the App Store meant that developers were able to show their app to users in a variety of countries. In 2022, almost 80 per cent of small developers were active on multiple storefronts, and about 40 per cent of total app downloads for those small developers came from users outside of their home country, the research showed. Apple has commissioned a range of studies from the Analysis Group that have examined the nature of the App Store amid that increasing regulatory scrutiny. The latest comes amid particular pressure over the position of the App Store on the iPhone and iPad as the only way to download apps, with some arguing that Apple should allow “sideloading” so that new software can be installed from other sources. Rumours have suggested that Apple could be preparing to allow at least some version of that sideloading in future versions of its iOS operating system, at least partly in response to regulatory pressure in the US and Europe. The company will host its Worldwide Developer Conference early in June, and is expected to make a range of new announcements about the App Store and its software more generally. Ahead of that conference, Apple’s head of developer relations Susan Prescott hailed the importance of having apps “built by everyone” in an interview with The Independent last month. Read More Apple finally launches two professional apps on the iPad Apple announces shock results Tim Cook reveals his thoughts on AI – and Apple’s plans to use it

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will increase financial aid and outreach to applicants in lower-income

Google Bard, the tech giant’s generative AI platform, can now link with other Google services such as Gmail, Maps and YouTube in order to provide more in-depth responses to prompts from users. Launched earlier this year, Bard is part of the new wave of AI-based chatbots which offer detailed written replies to questions and queries. Google has now announced a major update to the program, called Bard Extensions, which will allow users to link other Google services to collaborate with Bard to provide a response to a prompt – for example, when asking Bard to help plan a holiday, users can ask Bard to get the dates that work for family members from Gmail, use Google Maps to get directions to the airport and find YouTube videos to watch about the best things to do at the destination. It said the update made Bard “the most capable” version of the program so far and would help more people use the app to collaborate. The tech giant said the update would have a strong focus on user privacy, with users required to actively give permission to Bard to access their Google services, and any content lifted would not be reviewable by a human unless the user specifically asked Bard to flag it for review. In a further expansion of the chatbot, Google said it would now also enable users to double-check the responses they receive from Bard using a new “Google it” button, which will check the response against linked Google search results and highlight passages it is confident about the validity of, as well as those where it found differing results. Some experts have raised concerns about the possible spread of misinformation within generative AI platforms, warning some information is being presented to users in an authoritative way when it may be based on inaccurate or outdated information used to train such chatbots. A report by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published on Monday which looked into the potential impact of the AI market noted that without proper guiding principles, people and businesses could be harmed through exposure to significant levels of misinformation and AI-enabled fraud. In a blog post on the updates to Bard, Google’s director for product management of Bard, Yury Pinsky, said: “One of the biggest benefits of Bard, an experiment to collaborate with generative AI, is that it can tailor its responses to exactly what you need. “For instance, you could ask Bard to start a trip planning doc for you and your friends, draft up your online marketplace listing, or help explain a science topic to your kids. And now Bard is getting even better at customising its responses so you can easily bring your ideas to life. “Today we’re launching Bard Extensions in English, a completely new way to interact and collaborate with Bard. With Extensions, Bard can find and show you relevant information from the Google tools you use every day — like Gmail, Docs, Drive, Maps, YouTube, and Google Flights and hotels — even when the information you need is across multiple apps and services.” Elsewhere in the update, Google also confirmed that when a link to a Bard conversation is shared online, others will be able to click on that link and continue the same conversation themselves. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

When archaeologists explored an underwater cavern in southern Mexico in 2014, they were shocked by what they found. The cavern is known as Sac Uayum, and is located in Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. It is technically a cenote – a natural pit that comes about after limestone bedrock collapses, exposing groundwater beneath. Local villagers were said to be terrified of the spot, because pits like this were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings. Archaeologist Bradley Russell, from College of St Rose, and a group of divers scaled down roughly 20 metres into the unknown. Inside the pit were two chambers with human bones and skulls scattered across the floors of each. The skulls were elongated, as part of an ancient practice that is thought to have involved flattening people’s heads during infancy. Archaeologists still don’t know why the ancient culture did this – but it ain't pretty. The cenote sits just outside the ruins of the ancient Maya city of Mayapán, and the researchers think this shows that, like the modern day locals, the ancient Mayans kept their distance too. Local legend says that Sac Uayum is guarded by a feathered, horse-headed serpent. Older residents of the nearby village of Telchaquillo tell stories of people seeing the serpent perching in a tree, leaping up, spinning around three times, and diving into the water. Russell explained to National Geographic that the sinkhole is said to be “evil”. “To this day, people do not get drinking water from that cenote, it is generally considered taboo. “It’s off-limits, people do not let their children plan near there and there’s a lot of beliefs around this cenote having evil forces or malevolent forces associated with it. “Cenotes are important because the main access to the water that you get is through these sinkholes. “They are also believed to be access to the Mayan underworld and the homes of Gods. “Mayapan is a large city, it’s incredibly dense, there’s nothing like it in the classic period, it’s incredibly dense for Maya history, there’s nothing quite like it.” He added that the location of Sac Uayum – south of Mayapan – is a clue as to what was going on. In Maya beliefs, south is the direction associated with the underworld. Alternatively, Russell also suggested they could have been plague victims. "You wouldn't want them near the rest of the population. And you wouldn't want to drink the water either.” How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

(Corrects to add dropped word "store" in headline and paragraph 1) By Supantha Mukherjee STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Amazon has more than

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AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 2023--

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