Charlotte Henry

Both Twitter and Facebook have announced new measures to fight misinformation, Reuters reported. The moves from the social media giant’s come in the run-up to the U.S. election.

Twitter’s move will involve coming up with new policies “that emphasize accurate information about all available options to vote, including by mail and early voting.” “We’re focused on empowering every eligible person to register and vote through partnerships, tools and new policies,” Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, Twitter’s vice president for public policy in the Americas, told Reuters in an email. Facebook, meanwhile, launched a Voting Information Center to help users with accurate and easy-to-find information about voting wherever they live.

Steve Jobs was not exactly known for his calm and understanding demeanor. Photographer Doug Menuez encountered this first hand when photographing the Apple co-founder. (A signed copy of the cover shot that day was recently auctioned for over $16,000.) However, he found a way to answer back and win the row. He told Cult of Mac how.

“He took one look at my setup and announced, ‘This is just stupid. We are not doing this,’” Menuez recalled. Jobs then got in Menuez’s face and yelled, “This is the stupidest fucking idea I’ve ever seen!” By this point, everyone else had vanished from the room… “I was absolutely terrified,” Menuez said. “Despite having been shot at, kidnapped, and threatened at knifepoint during my news career I felt as if I was ten years old.” But he kept repeating quietly that he thought it was a good idea and that, having short six covers for Fortune before, Jobs could trust him. Finally, Jobs spat out, “You just want to sell magazines.” Menuez looked at him and said, “And you just want to sell computers.” Jobs laughed and then said, “OK, great. Where do you want me?”

Much international travel is hugely restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s not stopping some keen Japanese travellers though, Reuters reports. They are seeing the world with the help of virtual reality.

Inoue, 56, and his wife “flew” as clients of Tokyo entertainment company First Airlines, which is tapping into a growing virtual reality travel market for Japanese holidaymakers grounded by coronavirus restrictions. “I often go overseas on business, but I haven’t been to Italy,” he told Reuters. “My impression was rather good because I got a sense of actually seeing things there.” Grounded travelers sit in first or business class seats in a mock airline cabin where they are served in-flight meals and drinks, with flat panel screens displaying aircraft exterior views including passing clouds. Virtual reality goggles provide immersive tours at destinations including – as well as Italy’s cities of culture – Paris, New York, Rome and Hawaii.

The latest version of Android includes a new worldwide earthquake detection system. Meanwhile, in California, Google is United States Geological Survey (USGS) and California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), to provide earthquake alerts, reported Techcrunch. 

The highlight of today’s release is surely Google’s new worldwide earthquake detection system and the new earthquake alerting feature it is launching for California. With this, Google is essentially turning your Android phone into a seismometer to create what the company says is “the world’s largest earthquake detection network.” The company argues that smartphone accelerometers are sensitive enough to measure the P-waves that are the first waves to arrive after an earthquake. Whenever the phone thinks it has detected an earthquake, it will send that info to a central server which then determines whether this was really an earthquake. For now, Google will only use this data to show information when somebody then searches for ‘earthquake’ or a similar keyword. Over time, though, it expects to be able to send out alerts based on these phone-based systems.

A mother and her son were found guilty of a major iPhone scam exploiting the AppleCare+ warranty system, Securing Industry reported. The Chinese citizens committed  the crimes in Switzerland, where they were sentenced.

Apple claims it lost more than CHF 1m ($1.1m) as a result of the scam, which mirrors a notorious case in the US last year, which also resulted in a three-year jail term for the main perpetrator. The court heard that the main defendant earned just CHF 10,000 from the fraud, and was a small but important part of a network which prosecutors believe is based in Hong Kong. The mother and son sent the genuine handsets they received from Apple to Hong Kong, getting just CHF 10 as commission on each device. They claimed they were unaware that the iPhones they exchanged were fake.

iFixit, which regularly provides readers with hugely helpful teardowns, has praised Apple for making available (deliberately or otherwise) repair manuals for the 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs released in 2019. It even upgraded the repairability score for the devices. This is interesting, given it recently emerged that flash storage cannot be removed from the logic board in the latest 27-inch iMac, surely reducing its repairability.

But with publicly available repair manuals, however painful the actual procedures can be, this device offers a greater sense of long-term service potential. It’s a tricky thing, providing this recognition to Apple. The company puts a significant amount of effort into lobbying against Right to Repair bills that would, among other things, make all such internal manuals available to the public. And we know, by way of emails provided to Congress, that the release of the iMac repair manuals was an aberration. Since then, Apple has simultaneously produced its most repair-friendly device in many years, the Mac Pro, and chosen not to release any more manuals for its other devices. Still, this tiny revelation feels like the first signs of spring after a long winter. Apple published service manuals and the world didn’t end.

Camera lenses set for the iPhone 12 have encountered problems, according to a note from analyst Ming Chi Kuo, seen by 9to5 Mac. However, it could save Apple some money.

The problem was spotted during a high-temperature, high-humidity test designed to ensure that the cameras can cope with use in tropical climates… The issues occurred with the camera modules destined for the non-Pro 5.4-inch and 6.1-inch models, with units made by Yujingguang. It’s not yet known whether the company will be able to fix the problem in time for the launch. While Apple will undoubtedly not be impressed by the failure in the iPhone 12 camera lenses, there may be an upside to it. Kuo believes that the lens supplier will be forced to offer Apple a substantial discount on the agreed price in order to win back the business.