Despite the introduction of GDPR last year, Ireland has yet to enforce those rules against Silicon Valley tech companies.
Andrew Orr
Since 2015 Andrew has been writing about Apple, privacy, security, and at one point even Android. You can find him most places online under the username @andrewornot.
Articles by Andrew Orr
YouTube Recommended Russian Site to Analyze Mueller Report
Watchdog group AlgoTransparency says YouTube algorithms recommended a Russian website to analyze the Mueller report over 400,000 times.
News+ How the Upcoming USB4 Tech Could Affect iOS Products
In the latest issue of Macworld, Jason Cross writes how USB4 could affect iOS products like the iPad.
Simply put, it makes it easier for its iOS devices, Apple TV, and every other product without an Intel chip inside to support all the features of Thunderbolt 3…a future iPad Pro’s USB-C port could be USB4-compatible and hook up to all sorts of monitors, including the Thunderbolt 3 monitor you may have.
This is part of Andrew’s News+ series, where he shares a magazine every Friday to help people discover good content in Apple News+.
Carriers Fight Bill That Would Stop Them Throttling Data of Public Safety
Carriers oppose a recently passed bill that would stop them from throttling the data of public safety—like firefighters—during emergencies.
Slack Warns it Could Become a Target of Nation State Hacking
Popular workplace app Slack is preparing to go public, and it warns investors it may become a target of nation state hacking.
Companies that are preparing to go public—such as Uber, Lyft, Pinterest, Snapchat, and PagerDuty—all have sections in their S-1 registrations that address the threat of “unauthorized access” to their software, systems, and technologies. However, none of these companies explicitly referred to “organized crime” or “nation-states,” as Slack did in its S-1 filing.
Ms. Haskins also reminds us that Slack doesn’t have end-to-end encryption, and in some cases your boss can download and read your entire Slack history without you knowing.
Two Saudi Sisters That Fled Their Country Plead With Apple, Google to Remove Tracking App
A controversial app called Absher made the news in February because it lets men monitor and control their female relatives’ travel. People like Senator Ron Wyden and others asked Apple and Google to remove the app. No action was taken by either company, although Tim Cook said he would “take a look at it.” Now two Saudi sisters who fled the country are reminding us that no, this app still exists.
Maha, 28 and Wafa, 25 fled Saudi Arabia to for Tbilisi, Georgia via Tuckey earlier this month. The pair had to steal their father’s phone and log onto his Absher account and give themselves permission to go to Istanbul…The al-Subaie sisters said they knew of dozens of other young women who were looking to escape abusive families.
Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.2 Changes Cookie Storage Duration
Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.2 is an update that changes the duration of certain cookies created under certain conditions.
Relentless Doppelgänger is an AI-Created Death Metal Livestream
Relentless Doppelgänger is a 24/7 YouTube livestream that features death metal created by AI.
The deep learning behind the YouTube channel is trained on samples of a real death metal band called Archspire, hailing from Canada. These real audio snippets are fed through the SampleRNN neural network to try and create realistic imitations…SampleRNN is smart enough to know when it’s produced an audio clip that’s good enough to pass for the genuine article – and as a result it knows which part of its neural network to tweak and strengthen.
I think it sounds pretty good. \m/
Peanuts In Space Coming to Apple TV Next Month
Peanuts In Space: Secrets of Apollo 10 is coming next month to the Apple TV. It’s a documentary that tries to answer a fundamental question.
Princeton IoT Inspector Tells You When Your Smart Speaker Spies on You
An app called Princeton IoT Inspector is a new app that can tell you if/when your smart speaker spies on you.
Clicker for Netflix Puts Netflix Controls on the Touch Bar
Clicker for Netflix is a cool Mac app that lets you control Netflix right from your Touch Bar. Launch Netflix right from the Dock, control it with the Touch Bar, use Picture-in-Picture to watch while multitasking, prevent trailers from auto-playing, auto-resume your last played video, automatically skip the video intro, automatically advance to the next episode, hide the “Who’s Watching?” popup, and remove the Netflix Originals row. The Touch Bar controls include play/pause, jump back 10 seconds, jump forward 10 seconds, go to the next episode, enable/disable closed captions, and launch Picture-in-Picture. It requires macOS 10.10 Yosemite or higher. Get the app for US$5.
New Zealand Man Gets a Surprise With New iPhone Purchase
Glen Cottle recently purchased a brand new iPhone for his partner. But upon opening the package, it might not be as brand new as he thought.
Google Assistant Can Read Your Kids a Bedtime Story
If you have Google Assistant and the latest version of Google Play Books on your iOS device, it can now read your kids a bedtime story.
Ahead of National Tell a Story Day taking place on Saturday, youngsters now have more ways to hear a bedtime tale. As of today, the feature will be available on iOS and Android phones in English in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and India.
Sounds like a great feature. When I asked Siri to read me a bedtime story, she said: “Next you’ll be asking me for a glass of milk. And a dark matter cookie.” Damnit Siri, that doesn’t even make sense.
Podcasters are Having Problems With New Service Luminary
Luminary is a new podcast service without ads. Instead it’s subscription-based. But it sounds like the company is stealing podcasts.
It Turns Out That Science Petition Wasn’t Warning About AirPods
Remember that science petition going around that 250 scientists signed, warning about AirPods and cancer? Turns out it had nothing to do with AirPods.
So rather than finding any link between cancer or other issues in levels of EMF at or below the current, accepted regulations, the scientists involved here were simply asking for more research into to area and suggested that it was probably a good idea to limit human exposure.
Various bloggers picked up the subject and worked to associate it with Apple’s AirPods…without regard for the fact that nothing in the petition even suggested concern about in-ear headphones, Bluetooth, or AirPods.
iOS Mouse Support Could Come This Year
Federico Vittici and Steve Troughton-Smith are saying that iOS mouse support could be coming this year as an accessibility feature of iOS 13. Mr. Vittici mentioned it on the Connected podcast, while Mr. Smith confirmed the rumor via Twitter.
https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/1120447708215554049?s=21
I personally don’t see the need for a mouse on a touch-oriented device. But I’m glad it will be optional, instead of a required component of iOS. Edit: 20190425: I take that back. I didn’t think of the scenario where many people can hook up an external monitor to their iPad. In that case, mouse support is perfect.
Bumble’s New Tool Can Block Nudes in Chat
Starting in June, people that use dating app Bumble will find themselves protected against unwanted nudes using an AI tool called Private Detector.
Google Fit for iOS is Here
Google announced today that its Google Fit app that launched on Android in 2014 is now available for iOS.
You Could Get a TurboTax Refund if you Make Under $34,000
If you make less than US$34,000 per year, you could get a TurboTax refund if the company made you pay them when you filed your taxes.
If you are one of the millions of Americans who made under $34,000 last year, you should have been able to use a free version of TurboTax. If TurboTax directed you to a paid version, it’s worth giving the company a call.
“I called today and they are issuing a refund on my credit card,” one reader said. “I just had to mention ProPublica.”
Thanks to lobbying by corporations like TurboTax, the IRS doesn’t do our taxes for us like other countries.
Mark Zuckerberg Sweats as Regulators Hungrily Eye Him Up
After the latest Facebook privacy fiasco which involved Instagram passwords, regulators are looking even more closely at Mark Zuckerberg.
iPhone Users 2x as Likely to Text and Drive
In a new study (n=2,000) 51% of iPhone users said they text and drive, compared to 35% for Android users.
16% of iPhone users said they never get distracted while driving (vs. 23% of Android users and 38% of users of other mobile operating systems).
iPhone users are more than twice as likely than Android users to video-chat, use Instagram, stream shows on Netflix or Hulu, and take photos and videos while driving.
10% of iPhone users admitted watching videos on YouTube while driving, while 4% of Android users admitted to doing the same.
Jack Dorsey Will Talk to President Trump About Twitter
Jack Dorsey and other Twitter executives will have a 30 minute meeting with President Trump about “The health of the public conversation on Twitter.”
“As you know, I believe that conversation, not silence, bridges gaps and drives towards solutions,” Dorsey wrote. “I have met with every world leader who has extended an invitation to me, and I believe the discussions have been productive, and the outcomes meaningful.”
Jack: “Mr. President, please stop threatening people on Twitter.”
Apple Finally Serious About MacBook Keyboard Problems
Apple is now serious about MacBook keyboard problems some people may have, and repairs at Apple Stores promise next-day turnaround.
Most keyboard-related repairs will be required to be completed in store until further notice. Additional service parts have been shipped to stores to support the increased volume.
These repairs should be prioritized to provide next-day turnaround time. When completing the repair, have the appropriate service guide open and carefully follow all repair steps.
Apple Pay Austria Possibly Launching Tomorrow
Rumor has it that Apple Pay Austria is supposed to launch tomorrow, although we’re not sure which banks will support it at launch.