Apple's new Safari feature removes distracting items from websites | TechCrunch
![apple's-new-safari-feature-removes-distracting-items-from-websites-|-techcrunch](https://zabollah.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/31131-apples-new-safari-feature-removes-distracting-items-from-websites-techcrunch.jpg)
Safari’s newest feature, Distraction Control, can remove distracting elements from a website. The feature follows Browser Company’s Arc Browse’s addition of Boosts last year, which similarly lets users remove features from a site and further customize its appearance.
Apple is rolling out the early version of the feature this week through new developer betas of iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia.
Users can access the Distraction Control tool from the Page Menu in the Smart Search field. They then select the item on the website they want to remove. Safari will remember to remove the elements the next time they visit the site. The choice doesn’t currently sync across hardware, however, so users will have to hide the elements on each new device.
Users can click on the blue Hide icon in the search field and select “Show hidden items” to unhide any of the web page’s elements.
Apple said that the feature won’t remove ads or sections that have frequently changing content. It’s not clear if this tool will be able to remove, for example, a section like “Who to follow” or “Explore” on X, as these elements appear in the same place on the home page, but the content within those boxes is dynamic.
Arc Browser’s Boost tool was able to remove these sections during our last testing last year.
With iOS 18, Apple also introduced a redesigned reader for better listening and font controls. It also launched Highlights, a feature that will surface important information from a page, including quick links for driving directions, call information and summaries of TV show reviews mentioned on a page.
Google has suffered a major court defeat in the U.S. that could alter the way it does business, should the decision stand. Judge Amit P. Mehta of U.S. District Court…
We’re so excited to announce that we’ve added a dedicated AI Stage presented by Google Cloud to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and Space as the other industry-focused…
A startup developing AI market research based on location data, and backed by a who’s who, has quietly raised, TechCrunch has learned.
Safari’s newest feature, Distraction Control, can remove distracting elements from a website. The feature follows Browser Company’s Arc Browse’s addition of Boosts last year, which similarly lets users remove features…
By collecting this data, OpenAI “profited significantly” from the creators’ work, the complaint alleges.
India’s fast-growing quick commerce market is getting a new deep-pocketed entrant: Walmart-owned Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce firm. Flipkart has started to roll out Flipkart Minutes, its quick commerce service, in…
The list includes Elon Musk’s xAI, which is already valued at a staggering $24 billion, as well as a good number of other AI startups.
When a company is the size of Amazon, a lot of bad actors will come after it and its customers, which makes defending the network a monster job. Over the…
The European Commission has closed a Digital Services Act (DSA) investigation of a rewards feature in TikTok Lite by accepting commitments from the social media giant to permanently withdraw the…
Groq, a startup developing chips to run generative AI models faster than conventional processors, said on Monday that it has raised $640 million in a new funding round led by…
COVID-19 pushed people to take up outdoor activities. Now, startups are helping companies and consumers keep up with demand.
Despite increasing demand for AI safety and accountability, today’s tests and benchmarks may fall short, according to a new report. Generative AI models — models that can analyze and output…
OpenAI has built a tool that could potentially catch students who cheat by asking ChatGPT to write their assignments — but according to The Wall Street Journal, the company is…
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway cut its Apple holding by around half, to $84.2 billion, according to an SEC filing. While Apple remains the firm’s largest stock holding by far, Buffett…
A fireside chat between Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg at SIGGRAPH 2024 took some unexpected turns. What started as a conversation about the capabilities of Nvidia GPUs and Zuckerberg’s vision…
We spoke to Harness CEO and founder Jyoti Bansal about his previous company, which Cisco bought for $3.7 billion in 2017.
Dojo is Tesla’s custom-built supercomputer that’s designed to train its “Full Self-Driving” neural networks.
Investors are assisting startup founders earlier than ever in an effort to help them bridge the first climate tech valley of death.
While both the DSA and DMA aim to achieve distinct things, they are best understood as a joint response to Big Tech’s market power.
Self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation was hoping to raise hundreds of millions in additional capital as it races toward a driverless commercial launch by the end of 2024. The company, which…
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department are suing TikTok and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, with violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The law requires digital…
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. This week we are looking at acquisitions of small startups, two new…
In a big move, Character.AI co-founder and CEO Noam Shazeer is returning to Google after leaving the company in October 2021 to found the a16z-backed chatbot startup. In his previous…