Apple said Thursday it has paid out more than $70 billion to app developers since opening its App Store in 2008, and that the ecosystem is still growing.

"People everywhere love apps and our customers are downloading them in record numbers," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, in a statement ahead of next week's annual developer conference by the iPhone maker.

"Seventy billion dollars earned by developers is simply mind-blowing. We are amazed at all of the great new apps our developers create and can't wait to see them again next week at our Worldwide Developers Conference."

Apple said downloads have grown over 70 percent over the past 12 months, fueled by hit games like Pokemon Go and Super Mario Run.

Apple, which faces a growing challenge in the mobile space from the dominant Google Android system, has been tweaking its business model as part of an effort to keep developers in its ecosystem.

In addition to payment for downloads, Apple allows developers to use a subscription model across all 25 app categories. The company said active paid subscriptions are up 58 percent year over year.

"Customers are enjoying subscriptions across a wide variety of services including longtime favorites such as Netflix and Hulu, as well as newcomers like Tastemade, the modern, mobile-first cooking network, and photo editing apps like Over and Enlight," an Apple statement said.

Apple has more than two million paid and free apps for the iPhone, iPad and other devices.

Apple readying Siri-powered home assistant: report
San Francisco (AFP) June 1, 2017 - Apple is preparing to launch a connected speaker to serve as a smart home assistant in a challenge to Amazon Echo and Google Home, a news report said Thursday.

The speaker powered by Apple's digital assistant Siri may be unveiled at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference next week in Silicon Valley, Bloomberg News reported.

The new device -- speculation about which has been swirling for months -- could entice software makers to tailor applications or services for a broader array of Apple hardware.

Like Echo and Home devices gaining traction in the market, an Apple home assistant could let people control lights or appliances and interact with the internet using voice commands.

Apple did not reply to an AFP request for comment on the report.

Amazon recently unveiled the latest member of its family of devices powered by its Alexa digital assistant -- this one with a touchscreen.

Amazon has dominated the category of connected speakers since 2014 when it introduced its first Echo, which responds to voice commands and allows users to order goods or rides and control connected appliances.

A survey released last month by research firm eMarketer found Echo speakers held 70.6 percent of the US market, compared with 23.8 percent for Google Home and 5.6 percent for others including Lenovo, LG, Harmon Kardon and Mattel.

Samsung-owned Harman Kardon meanwhile recently announced the release of an Invoke speaker powered by Microsoft's digital assistant Cortana and integrating Skype for making calls using the device.

At its annual developers gathering in May, Google announced an array of new partnerships and capabilities for Home smart speakers.

Meanwhile, Apple has been under pressure to wow the world with a new creation as its culture-changing iPhone is about to turn 10 years old.

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Computer scientists have been working for decades on automatic navigation systems to aid the visually impaired, but it's been difficult to come up with anything as reliable and easy to use as the white cane, the type of metal-tipped cane that visually impaired people frequently use to identify clear walking paths. White canes have a few drawbacks, however. One is that the obstacles they co ... read more

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