Apple Korea posted a YouTube video showing off some creative AirPods cases and skins that customers are using.
창의성 충만한 여러분의 손길을 거쳐 변신한 개성만점 각양각색 AirPods. 여기 저마다의 매력을 뽐냅니다.
A variety of unique AirPods transformed through your hands full of creativity. Here’s their charm.
The U.S. is a long way behind when it comes to mobile payments. A report by CNBC found that Apple Pay made up just 9% of payments in the U.S.
“The U.S. is not a leader when it comes to mobile payments — at best, it’s the middle of the pack compared to other countries,” said Gerard du Toit, partner and head of the banking and payments sector of Bain’s financial services practice in North America. It seems odd considering the ubiquity of iPhones and Androids in the United States. More than 81% of Americans own a smartphone, up from 35% just eight years ago, according to Pew Research Center. While experts say mobile payments in the U.S. will eventually close the gap, they see legacy financial systems, a lack of a need for other options, and rewards cards as major headwinds.
We are only starting to understand the full extent of the iOS hack revealed Friday by Google researchers. At Wired, Andy Greenberg and Lily Hay Newman argued it changes everything we know about iPhone hacking.
The attack is notable not just for its breadth, but the depth of information it could glean from a victim iPhone. Once installed, it could monitor live location data, or be used to grab photos, contacts, and even passwords and other sensitive information from the iOS Keychain. With such deep system access, the attackers could also potentially read or listen to communications sent through encrypted messaging services, like WhatsApp, iMessage, or Signal. The malware doesn’t break the underlying encryption, but these programs still decrypt data on the sender and receiver’s devices. Attackers may have even grabbed access tokens that can be used to log into services like social media and communication accounts. Reed says that victim iPhone users would probably have had no indication that their devices were infected
Two of techs’ biggest names, Elon Musk and Jack Ma, had a head-to-head debate at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. Bloomberg News laid out some of the highlights from the billionaires’ discussion.
Musk: People underestimate the capability of AI. They sort of think like it’s a smart human. (But it’s going to be) much smarter than the smartest human you will ever know.
Ma: I never in my life say human beings will be controlled by machines, it’s impossible…Human beings can never create another thing that is smarter than human beings.
Musk: I very much disagree with that. The biggest mistake I see people making is to assume they’re smart.
Ma: My view is that computers might be more clever, human beings are much smarter.
ars technica has posted at terrific story by Richard Jensen on the origins of the Unix operating system back in the late 1960s.
Maybe its pervasiveness has long obscured its origins. But Unix, the operating system that in one derivative or another powers nearly all smartphones sold worldwide, was born 50 years ago from the failure of an ambitious project that involved titans like Bell Labs, GE, and MIT.
A derivative of the original Unix OS, in the family tree of BSD, is the basis for macOS, iOS, and is even running in your Apple Watch.
Apple announced a feature at WWDC 2019 that would let devices running iOS 13 and macOS Catalina to broadcast their location even when offline. The same technology is rumored to show up in a Bluetooth tracking device similar to Tile.
This small beacon device could be attached to personal items such as keys, purses or wallets so that the owner could find them even when out of range of the items. An ARKit “star” image discovered in the Find My app bundle hints at the possibility of using augmented reality to find lost devices or items, similar to Pixie Tracker.
As part of a new proposal, India said that single-brand retail companies like Apple can open online stores before they set up physical stores in the country.
This would allow Apple, which has yet to set up retail stores in the country, to start selling a range of products through its own online store. Currently, Apple sells its products in India through partnered third-party offline retailers and e-commerce platforms such as Amazon India, Flipkart and Paytm Mall.
India is Apple’s next—and perhaps last—country for big potential growth in the electronics market. Keep a close eye on this relationship in the future. I expect Apple to build data centers and other resources in the country, if they don’t have such things already.
Annapurna Interactive will release what they call an “interactive novel” game in 2020. It’s called If Found... and will launch on PC, macOS, and iOS.
In the game, players enter the mind of Kasio, a young, rebellious and creative soul who is destroying her diary on New Year’s Eve. To discover her story and uncover her secrets, players must erase her words and her memories. In this vivid and honest depiction of the West of Ireland in the early 1990s, players explore Kasio’s world through her torn up memories, like moving into an abandoned mansion, hanging out with the band, going to a punk show, breaking into Kasio’s own house, destroying the universe, and finding out who Kasio can be.
Check out the YouTube trailer below.
We have a deal on Elmedia Player PRO, a video player for the Mac that lets you stream Ultra HD and 4K video to compatible devices, including Chromecast, Apple TV, Smart TV and other AirPlay and DLNA-approved devices. A lifetime subscription to Elmedia Player PRO is $14.99 through our deal but coupon code SAVE15TODAY brings it down to $12.74 at checkout.
When the new iPhone is released next month it will almost-certainly be powered by Apple’s A13 chip. As such, it will be the result of years of research into mobile silicon, not to mention customer dollars. Daniel Eran Dilger explained the development in an in-depth piece for AppleInsider.
In an interview with Ars Technica last year, Apple’s head of marketing Phil Schiller noted that the company’s silicon designers regularly meet with other groups to explore how their needs can be accommodated in future hardware designs… While Google got more sympathetic media coverage, Apple has been building an ISP into all of its iPhones for years now. It effectively works as part of the camera system, both for users and third-party apps. Every new iPhone delivers further advancements in the ISP, allowing every new generation to capture better photos, higher frame rates, improved exposure and a variety of other advancements that enhance imaging inside and outside the camera app.
While we may be cynical about much of what Google does, it is easy to imagine it being a fairly pleasant place to work. According to report on Business Insider, away from bright colours and free food, there is another, less pleasant, side to things. The sex and politics apparently resembles the goings of a popular HBO television show.
Google is a hotbed of sex and political infighting. And it always has been. A source who spent most of his career at Google put it this way: “Inside Google, it’s a Game of Thrones.” Game of Thrones is a series of novels and an HBO television show. The plot is wildly intricate, but the main story is about how several families from all over the Kingdom are competing to take over the throne. The show and books are full of violence, sex, and political intrigue. There is no violence at Google. But sex and politics? Oh, yes.
Popular news yesterday was about how DARPA, a military research agency, put out a request for giant underground tunnels by August 30. The media made it seem like it was some mysterious, scary thing, saying that DARPA didn’t give reasons. But they actually did, and it’s called the DARPA Subterranean Challenge (SubT).
The SubT Challenge is organized into two competitions (Systems and Virtual), each with two tracks (DARPA-funded and self-funded). Teams in the Systems tracks will develop and demonstrate physical systems to compete in live competitions on physical, representative subterranean courses, and focus on advancing and evaluating novel physical solutions in realistic field environments. Teams in the Virtual tracks will develop software and algorithms using virtual models of systems, environments, and terrain to compete in simulation-based events, and explore larger-scale runs in simulated environments that explore significantly expanded scenario sizes and durations.
If we read between the lines, I think a safe assumption is that this is about developing and improving autonomous systems. Think laser mapping, self-driving vehicles, and indoor combat drones.
TechRepublic writes:
With just four months to go until support ends for Python 2, there are still some developers and projects that haven’t made the switch to Python 3….
The pressure to make the move is growing, with the Python 2 interpreter and bundled libraries due to cease receiving bug fixes from January 1st 2020.
This article describes the impact of the Jan 1st cutoff and steps to take for a successful migration to Python 3.
For more information about scripting language support in macOS Catalina, see: “macOS 10.15 Catalina Deprecates UNIX Scripting Languages.“
After confusing people yesterday with the release of iOS 13.1 developer beta, today iOS 13.1 public beta 1 is available.
Beta 1 of iOS 13.1 and iPadOS 13.1 include a handful of features that were removed from earlier iOS 13 and ipadOS 13 betas, most notably enhanced automation with Shortcuts. The testing of beta versions of iOS 13.1 and iPadOS 13.1 may suggest that iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 have been finalized.
Once the public betas wind down, I like to delete my public beta profile so I can get the official iOS release. If you’d like to do the same, instead of waiting for the official iOS 13.1 release, I suggest you delete the profile in Settings > General > Profiles.
Ring, the Amazon-owned surveillance company that sells doorbell cameras, is partnering with 400 more police forces across the U.S.
The partnerships let police automatically request the video recorded by homeowners’ cameras within a specific time and area, helping officers see footage from the company’s millions of Internet-connected cameras installed nationwide, the company said. Officers don’t receive ongoing or live-video access, and homeowners can decline the requests, which Ring sends via email thanking them for “making your neighborhood a safer place.”
Facebook announced additional requirements for political advertisers Wednesday, The Verge reported. Those who want to run political ads will have to provide more information such as government-issued identification numbers.
Today’s changes mark an evolution in the political ad disclosure requirements that Facebook introduced last year. Beginning last spring, the company began to require anyone buying political advertising to verify their identity and location. Now they will have to go a step further, offering proof they’re part of the organization they say they represent. For commercial businesses, nonprofits, and nongovernmental organizations, that will mean providing a tax-registered organization identification number. Government and military advertisers will have to provide a web domain and email address that ends in .gov or .mil. Political action committees and parties will need to provide their Federal Election Commission identification numbers.
Forthcoming Apple TV+ show Dickinson will headline the Tribeca TV Festival in September, Deadline reported. A trailer for the show landed Tuesday.
The premiere of Apple TV+’s fall comedy series Dickinson starring Hailee Steinfeld will headline the New York fest, which takes place September 12-15. The half-hour series will screen ahead of its September 14 TV premiere and will be followed by a discussion with Oscar-nominated actress Steinfeld, who plays the titular writer; Jane Krakowski; and series creator, showrunner and executive producer Alena Smith (The Affair, The Newsroom). Toby Huss, Anna Baryshnikov, Ella Hunt and Adrian Blake Enscoe also star. Dickinson isn’t a normal historical series with bonnets, corsets and proper ladies. The comedy subverts all of that as it audaciously explores the constraints of society, gender and family from the perspective of the rebellious young poet, Emily Dickinson. Set in the 19th century, Dickinson is a coming-of-age story that finds the author to be an unexpected hero for our millennial era.
We have a deal on the Owlee Scroll Wireless Bluetooth Speaker. This portable speaker comes with a leather “scroll” wrap cover, supports Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC sound, has a built-in microphone for audio calls, and 9 hours of battery life. It’s $79.99 through our deal, but coupon code SAVE15SOUND takes another 15% off for a checkout price of $67.99. There are also separate deals for the company’s Aviary speaker and Artus headphones, and the coupon code works on those, too.
Back in May I wrote about an app called Artpaper for macOS. It gives you over a thousand 5K art wallpapers on your Mac, from different museums and galleries around the world. Today, Artpaper is now available for iOS devices, too.
All wallpapers available in the app are the works from some top-tier galleries and museums all over the world. Featuring Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Fuji Tokyo, Uffizi, Art Institute Chicago, East Side Gallery Berlin, Fide, Amon Carter Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin, and many more.
You can follow the link below to find the Mac app, and click the link here for the iOS app.
Strava is a hugely popular activity monitoring app. Under the leadership of CEO James Quarles, it has grown significantly. He told Wired, he now wants to expand the app’s social network-like functionality.
The third, and possibly most important change, is deeply rooted in Quarles’ background with Facebook and Instagram. He has invested heavily in the social media elements of Strava. “We really made Strava about the photos and the social feed and the routes that people discover,” he says. “I think that’s had a huge role in increasing not just people coming to the app when they upload, but also when they want to download, meaning to look at what their friends are doing, to find great places and be inspired.” Quarles emphasises his drive to cultivate Strava’s athletic community. “I think that people have a more intense connection with their Strava usage on the community than they do with the brand that’s on their T-shirt or trainers,” he says. Strava users are always encouraging each other, providing, he adds, “that extra boost to come back and keep doing it.”
Nextdoor is a social network that lets you see things that are going on in your local neighborhood. Dutch police have issued warnings about the app recently, saying that the company sent letters on users’ behalf.
We talked to a woman whom we’ll refer to as W.H., as she wishes to remain anonymous. Letters in her neighborhood were delivered with her as the sender. The letters were asking the receivers to install the app and join the community. W.H. did not send those letters, but she was a user of the Nextdoor app. And she remembered receiving an email from Nextdoor asking whether she would like to invite the people in her neighborhood.
Ugh. Possible lawsuit?
In Google’s Ask a Techspert series, senior software engineer Rosie Buchanan explains machine learning for non-experts.
Today, when we hear about “machine learning,” we’re actually talking about how Google teaches computers to use existing information to answer questions like: Where is the ice cream? Or, can you tell me if my package has arrived on my doorstep? For this edition of Ask a Techspert, I spoke with Rosie Buchanan, who is a senior software engineer working on Machine Perception within Google Nest.
This is a cool blog post explaining it, and I hope to see more explanations like this.
Some Apple users are seeing smarter web answers when they use iOS Spotlight Search and Siri.
The new web answers appear to be a further expansion of this technology. If the statistics are not readily available from the knowledge database, it seems Apple is now using algorithms to crawl websites and find possible responses to questions.
I think this is great, and it might be the first front-facing results we’re seeing from Apple’s hiring of John Giannandrea.
We have a deal on the Azio MK Mac USB Keyboard, a backlit mechanical keyboard designed exclusively for Mac. It has a bead-blasted aluminum finish and a snap-on palm rest, and you can get this keyboard for $79 through our deal.
