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Charlotte Henry

Charlotte is a media junkie, covering how Apple is not just a revolutionary tech firm, but a revolutionary media firm for TMO. She is based in London, and writes and broadcasts for various outlets.

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New Apple TV+ Ad Highlighting Big Name Originals

A new advert for Apple TV+ was  posted on YouTube on Friday. It highlighted the streaming service’s biggest original serious like The Morning ShowDefending Jacob, Ted Lasso, and Servant. It arrived on the same day that new shows Stillwater and Earth at Night in Color became available.

Discussing Accessibility Innovation at Apple

Apple’s Senior Director of Global Accessibility Policy & Initiatives, Sarah Herrlinger, and accessibility engineering lead for iOS, Chris Fleizach, recently joined TechCrunch editor Matthew Panzarino for a Sight Global Tech conversation. They outlined the company’s latest accessibility technology and discussed how Apple works to foster a culture of innovation, empowerment, and inclusion.

Patent For Dual Pro Display XDR Now Published

Apple has developed a Dual Pro Display XDR. A patent for the invention, published by the US Patent & Trademark Office, was spotted by Patently Apple.

Apple’s invention covers a support stand for multiple displays. In their patent background they note that when users use multiple displays in a workspace, the displays are generally supported by multiple different individual stands or by independently-movable arms that extend from a single support point. These individual stands or arms unnecessarily take up large spaces, are often aesthetically unpleasing, overcomplicated, and have inefficient redundant mechanisms. When multiple displays are used on independent arms, they can be difficult to align in a smooth and precise way due to inconsistent counterbalancing and arm lengths. When multiple displays are used on a single support, they cannot be effectively adjusted relative to each other about a vertical axis.

iPhone Game of The Year, ‘Genshin Impact’ Brings in Nearly $400 Million in Two Months

Apple named Genshin Impact its iPhone Game of the Year on Wednesday. The game has brought in a staggering $400 million across iOS and Android in two months – it only arrived on the App Store in September. That’s according to a report by Sensor Tower, seen by Cult of Mac.

That averages more than $6 million a day across both iOS and Android — with Apple’s platform accounting for the majority of that spending. The report notes that Genshin Impact experienced: “[A] quick start to life, accumulating $60 million in just its first week after release. By the end of its first month, it had grossed $245 million. In the month following, the blockbuster title continued to find success, picking up close to $148 million. During its first two months, Genshin Impact was the No. 2 revenue-generating mobile game worldwide, ranking behind Honor of Kings from Tencent at No. 1 and above PUBG Mobile from Tencent at No. 3.”

Labor Board Alleges Google Illegally Spied on Workers, Then Fired Them

A complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Thursday claims that Google violated U.S. labor laws. It alleges that the company spied on workers who were organizing employee protests before firing two of them, The Verge reported.

The complaint names two employees, Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers, both of whom were fired by the company in late 2019 in connection with employee activism. Berland was organizing against Google’s decision to work with IRI Consultants, a firm widely known for its anti-union efforts, when he was let go for reviewing other employees’ calendars. Now, the NLRB has found Google’s policy against employees looking at certain coworkers’ calendars is unlawful. Several other employees were fired in the wake of the protests, but the NLRB found that only the terminations of Berland and Spiers violated labor laws.

Telegram Beta Supports Siri Announce Message Feature

Users of the latest beta of security-focusssesd messaging app Telegram can now access Siri’s ability to announce messages through AirPods, The 8-Bit reported. It is the first third-party aim to support this feature.

Those on the latest Telegram beta via Testflight will see an option to enable the feature Telegram in Settings – Notifications – Announce Messages With Siri. It’s worth noting that only Apple’s AirPods, AirPods Pro, Powerbeats, Powerbeats Pro, and Beats Solo Pro support this feature. Moreover, only iPhones and iPads running on iOS 13.2 and later are supported. The Announce Messages with Siri feature uses Siri to announce incoming messages out loud when a user’s headphones are connected to their iPhone or iPad, they are wearing them, and their device is locked, according to Apple. Upon the arrival of an incoming message, Siri plays a tone, announces a sender’s name, and then reads the message.

Salesforce Buying Slack for $27.7 Billion

Slack has become a major part of our work lives for many of us in 2020. Now cloud computing giant Salesforce is set to buy a workplace chat app for $27.7 billion, The Verge reported.

Slack has transformed from a fast-rising startup formed as a gaming company in 2009 into a major competitor of Microsoft with more than 12 million daily active users as of October of last year (and likely many more now, though the company has not disclosed concrete numbers) and a market value of close to $25 billion. The company, led by Flickr co-creator Butterfield, started primarily as an email alternative that pitched itself to startups, media companies, and other tech-savvy businesses to better manage interoffice communication. But Butterfield and his team grew Slack into a full productivity suite with video meeting features, file hosting, IT administration, and all manner of other features typically offered by large enterprise corporations.

The iPhone 12 Gets Sent to The Bottom of a Lake. Is it Water Resistant Enough Survive?

The iPhone 12 is meant to handle most spills and drips. However, CNet wanted to know how water resistant the device really is. So it sent one to the bottom of Lake Tahoe.

The iPhone 12’s IP68 rating means it can survive up to 19.6 feet (6 meters) of water for 30 minutes. This applies to all four iPhone 12 models: the iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. But we discovered that like its predecessor, Apple’s newest iPhone can handle a great deal more than that. Both of the iPhone 11 models far exceeded the official rating, surviving a 39-foot dive in salt water in Monterey Bay, California. This year we took a brand-new iPhone 12 for a swim in the frigid fresh water of Lake Tahoe, on the other side of the Golden State, to test it out. Teaming up with Mission Robotics, we mounted our iPhone 12 to the company’s underwater drone, Theseus. The drone can go as deep as 984 feet (300 meters) underwater, with the pilot able to see the view from Theseus’ camera, as well as depth and water temperature metrics from a computer on shore.