Charlotte Henry

Mexico’s drug war is infamous the world over. The Verge reported on how a group of mothers in the country used drones to find victims’ graves.

When the members of family collectives like Solecito search for a mass grave in places like Colinas de Santa Fe, they go in groups. Often, dangerous people would prefer the bodies not be found. The sites are isolated, making the visits conspicuous, and it’s hard to say for sure whether the visitors are being watched. There is some safety in numbers. Drones have become a crucial part of the routine. The families sail them over the land to scan for signs of human presence, like a smoldering campfire or discarded cans of food — signals that they could come under attack because a criminal group is still there.

Facebook is developing its own payment system based on cryptocurrency. The Wall Street Journal reported that the social network is bringing in finance firms and online merchants to support its efforts.

The effort, should it succeed, threatens to upend the traditional, lucrative plumbing of e-commerce and would likely be the most mainstream application yet of cryptocurrency. It comes as the social-media giant is under intense pressure from regulators, users and shareholders to address privacy shortcomings. At the heart of the initiative, under way for more than a year and code-named Project Libra, is a digital coin that its users could send to each other and use to make purchases both on Facebook and across the internet, according to people familiar with the matter.

Warren Buffett was pleased with Apple’s latest earnings report. He told CNBC that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, ‘haven’t changed our [Apple] holdings.” It holds around $50 billion worth of Apple stock.

“I was pleased with what they reported,” Buffett said, while noting he never makes investment decisions based on a single quarterly report. “What they talked about and reported is consistent with the reason we own $50 billion-plus of Apple.” Berkshire owned more than $40 billion worth of the tech giant as of end of last year, according to its 2018 annual letter. The conglomerate decreased its stake in Apple by nearly 3 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2018, but Buffett said at the time that the selling wasn’t under his direction.

Lots of apps have camera functionality. It normally takes a couple of steps to use it though. M.G. Siegler is fed up with it and wants a solution.

What I really want in a mobile OS is the ability to fire up the camera, take a picture, and launch apps and/or services from there based on that picture. A good example: I’ve been using an app called Vivino to track the wine we’re drinking and/or buying. Why on Earth do I need to load Vivino, then hit the camera button inside the Vivino app to take the photo? This is slow. Beyond swiping and pecking for the app itself, it takes a few seconds to load.

The Great Firewall of China is well established, but Russia is set to take an equally censorious approach. A new law that will come into force on November 1 gives the country a “sovereign internet.” It could isolate Russia from the rest of the web, the Financial Times reported.

The bill, which goes into force on November 1, requires internet service providers to filter all traffic through special nodes under the control of Roscomnadzor, the Kremlin’s internet censor. The Kremlin will compel ISPs and other communications services to test the system at an unspecified time later this year. Though it remains largely unclear how — or even whether — the disconnect would work in practice, the move would theoretically make it easier for Roscomnadzor to enforce its highly inefficient blocks of banned websites, messaging app Telegram, and non-compliant VPN services.

Tech firms are increasingly focussed on being eco-friendly and reducing their contribution to climate change. Tim Cook has made it a key value of Apple’s. Wired looked at the progress that Apple and other tech firms are making in the fight against climate change, particularly in their data centers.

Apple breaks down the energy mix of its US data centers in its sustainability report, and that shows where real progress is being made. Its Newark, California data center pulls from the grid, but via that state’s Direct Access system Apple can buy directly from suppliers. There, it claims its energy is “mostly wind”, and takes that to mean there were no emissions. On the other hand, its Reno, Nevada data centre is 99 per cent powered by Apple’s own solar panels, with less than one per cent from purchase agreements — there’s no question where the power is coming from.

Speaking at Facebook’s F8 developer conference Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg laid out his company’s new privacy-focussed approached. Mike Isaac looked at the announcements and spoke to the CEO himself for the New York Times.

Mr. Zuckerberg is working to integrate and encrypt Facebook’s different messaging services, which include WhatsApp and Messenger. The company also plans to continue emphasizing its Stories product, which allows people to post updates that disappear after 24 hours. And it unveiled a spare, stark white look for Facebook, a departure from the site’s largely blue-tinted design. The features, when combined, “will end up creating a more trustworthy platform,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in an interview. “Everywhere you can see and connect with friends, you’ll be able to see and connect with groups; it’s going to be woven into the fabric of Facebook.”

Apple is no stranger to patent and legal tussles. However, one currently happening in Germany is a bit out of the ordinary. It thinks a German bike path’s logo is too similar, AppleInsider reported.

The logo for the “Apfelroute” — Apple Route — was registered with the German Patent and Trademark Office in 2018, and is already in use for tourism marketing in the Rhine-Voreifel region, said Westdeutscher Rundfunk. Lawyers for Apple have not only filed an appeal with the GPTO, but sent cease-and-desist letters to Rhine-Voreifel Tourism. Apple’s trademark objections revolve around the Apfelroute’s green leaf and “bitten” side.

The nastiness that frequently occurs on Twitter has been a hot topic of discussion for a while now. Consequently, it is a matter of concern for CEO Jack Dorsey and his team. Recode reported on Twitter’s efforts to become a healthier platform.

Everything the company seems to do — from cracking down on bots to building new conversation features — has been done in the name of a healthier Twitter. When the company’s user base started shrinking noticeably last year, Twitter said that its focus on health was at least partly to blame. Measuring the health of interactions is just one part of that broader effort, but it’s one of the more challenging and confusing parts. Removing bots and spam are technical problems. Truly understanding the health of a conversation requires things like understanding who is talking, what they’re talking about, or when someone is using sarcasm. Not all arguments, of course, are bad.

Foxconn is said to be developing micro-LED displays to be used in iPhones and maybe other Apple devices. 9to5Mac compiled stories emerging out of Asia and explained why the technology would be a significant step forward.

micro-LED is generally seen as a superior display panel to OLED displays, the latter is what Apple currently uses in the Apple Watch, iPhone X and iPhone XS. micro-LED screens need no backlight as the pixels themselves emit their own light, just like OLED screens. This means you can get the same rich colors and high-contrast appearance…Naturally, we would expect Apple to also want to bring the technology to its flagship iPhone line and this latest report about Foxconn’s interest corroborates that intent. Nevertheless, this technology is still firmly in the medium-term future. Do not expect micro-LED screens on mass volume products anytime soon.