Charlotte Henry

2019 was a big year for Today at Apple sessions. 9to5Mac had a look back at the year that was.

Apple refocused its session offerings around three categories: Skills, Walks, and Labs. Skills sessions introduce essential knowledge in an approachable way for anyone. Walks extend beyond the store and invite customers to explore their surroundings. Labs are deep dives into a specific creative technique. Emphasis moved from rudimentary tutorials to more immersive content. Apple said that Walks were its most popular type of session because they offer experiences you can’t get online. To celebrate the session launches, Apple commissioned artwork for its stores around the world and updated the Apple Store app’s Sessions tab. Sessions were made more accessible to everyone, with iPhones and iPads readily available for customers without their own devices. In summer, the need to have an Apple ID to sign up for a session was dropped, and session passes in the Wallet app arrived in fall. For the iPhone 11 launch, Quick Tips sessions began offering brief, easy to understand skills without the need to sign up at all.

Netflix released a total of 371 new TV shows and movies in the U.S. during 2019, Variety reported. That averages one new one every day.

The streaming giant released 371 new TV shows and movies on the service in the U.S. this year, according to data from Variety Insight. This is an increase of 54.6% over the 240 shows and movies Netflix released in 2018. For context, this figure is greater than the number of original series that the entire U.S. TV industry released in 2005 (the last year Netflix managed to exceed the TV industry’s total). That includes broadcast networks, cable networks and premium cable networks.

Security firm CheckPoint revealed a flaw in WhatsApp. It could repeatedly crash the messaging service and permanently delete group chats and associated media, ZDNET reported.

In order to launch the application-crashing attack, the attacker first of all needs to gain entry to the WhatsApp group they intend to target – although given that the chat app allows up to 256 users per group, this might not prove too difficult. An attacker would need to have some hacking skills in order to carry out the attack, with the ability to browse WhatsApp Web and open Chrome’s DevTools, as well as gaining access to the secret parameters used by the application as part of how group chats operate.

Disney+ is off to a very good start. According to a report by Apptopia, picked up by Marketwatch, it has been downloaded on 22 million devices.

The streaming service, which made its debut Nov. 12, has been downloaded 22 million times to mobile devices in what is probably the most successful launch in the nascent industry’s history, according to app-tracking firm Apptopia. The report says the app has averaged 9.5 million daily active mobile users, landing the top spot on Apple Inc.’s and Alphabet Inc.’s Google’s app stores. “I can’t imagine anyone topping this start,” Adam Blocker, who wrote the report, told MarketWatch. He says the combination of Disney+’s inexpensive price ($6.99 a month), the allure of a $12.99-per-month bundle with ESPN+ and Hulu, and the marketing muscle of Walt Disney Co. preordained its success.