News+: Project Catalyst and the Future of the Mac

In the latest issue of Macworld, Jason Snell writes about Project Catalyst and how Apple struggles with the Mac’s future.

iOS app developers are Mac users—it’s the only platform available for iOS app development. They know what the Mac feels like. I think many of them will choose to do the right thing—but it’s a shame they won’t have exemplary Apple apps to inspire them.

This is part of Andrew’s News+ series, where he shares a magazine every Friday to help people discover good content in Apple News+.

WOM Adjustable Tabletop Standing Desk Converter: $115

We have a deal on the WOM Adjustable Tabletop Standing Desk Converter. This standing desk is designed to sit on your desk (or other table), and lifts with a single-handle height adjustment lever. It also has an integrated removable keyboard tray. It comes in black or white, and you can get it for $115 through our deal.

AI Tech Like Neuralink Could be 'Suicide For the Human Mind'

Some scientists are worried about technology like Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Cognitive psychologist Susan Schneider wrote an op-ed (paywall) that it could be “suicide for the human mind.”

The worry with a general merger with AI, in the more radical sense that Musk envisions, is the human brain is diminished or destroyed. Furthermore, the self may depend on the brain and if the self’s survival over time requires that there be some sort of continuity in our lives — a continuity of memory and personality traits — radical changes may break the needed continuity.

I’m no neuroscientist but I subscribe to emergentism, which is the idea that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain. An easy explanation is here, but basically it means that consciousness isn’t a property of the physical brain, but rather something that happens when you get enough neurons interconnected. This isn’t something that could be replicated with code.

Pokémon Masters Has 5 Million Pre-Orders Already

Forthcoming game Pokémon Masters had already been pre-order five million times across iOS and Android, Cult of Mac reported. The game is not set to be released for another two-weeks. Well, people just gotta catch ’em all I guess….

With two weeks to go until Pokémon Masters launches on iOS and Android, it has already racked up 5 million pre-orders. The game is developed by DeNA, the same company behind the majority of Nintendo’s mobile games. Pokémon Masters focuses on real-time Pokémon battles, with teams of Trainers taking part in 3-on-3 battles. The game takes place on an artificial island, where DeNA says, “the rules of battle are different.” You choose three pairs for your squad and then use them to battle your opponents.

Netflix Has an Overblown Reputation for Show Cancellations

Netflix has earned a reputation for butchery. Fans and showrunners alike have been left reeling as seeming popular shows are cancelled. But is the streaming service’s cancellation rate really worse than traditional TV networks? Bloomberg News investigated.

Competing networks order pilot episodes to determine a show’s potential. And they don’t churn out the same volume of shows as Netflix, so it’s easier to forget their cancellations. The same year HBO released “Game of Thrones,” it introduced a trio of programs that lasted only a couple seasons. Until a few years ago, Netflix had never made a TV series. Netflix bases its decisions on numbers just like most TV networks. But the metrics differ from the usual Nielsen data shared widely in the industry, according to Netflix employees, TV producers and executives who’ve worked with them. And unlike traditional broadcasters the company doesn’t provide much information about what drives decisions.

Kaspersky Antivirus Injected Unique Javascript Into Browsers

Back in 2015, Kaspersky antivirus added a feature that made it possible for users to be tracked across websites, even in incognito mode.

The identifier, as reported Thursday by c’t Magazine, was part of a blob of JavaScript Kaspersky products injected into every page a user visited. The JavaScript, presented below this paragraph, was designed to, among other things, present a green icon that corresponded to safe links returned in search results…Kaspersky stopped sending the identifier in June, after Eikenberg privately reported the behavior to the AV company.

Forget Foldable iPhones. How About Foldable MacBooks?

Dennis Sellers at AppleWorld.Today offers an intriguimg proposition.

We hear rumors about upcoming iPhones with foldable screen. But what about Macs with bendable displays. Imagine a MacBook Pro with a screen that measured 13-inches when you’re, for example, on an airplane. Get to your hotel room, however, and you can unfold it to 17 inches or bigger.

Author Sellers makes a good case.

Instagram from Facebook, Fake Story Views, and Russian Growth Hackers

Some Instagram from Facebook users have noticed views on their Story from accounts that don’t follow them and seemed to be Russian. Instagram said it’s aware of the issue.

It also said this inauthentic activity is not related to misinformation campaigns but is rather a new growth hacking tactic — which involves accounts paying third parties to try to boost their profile via the medium of fake likes, followers and comments (in this case by generating inauthentic activity by watching the Instagram Stories of people they have no real interest in in the hopes that’ll help them pass off as real and net them more followers).

Does the Apple Card Count as a Mastercard World Elite?

Redditor u/mdhardeman did some digging into the Apple Card. After running a test transaction they found that the card was listed as a Mastercard World Elite.

The Mastercard World Elite consumer credit cards are significantly more expensive to accept than a plain Mastercard credit card or basic rewards card. In exchange, the theory goes, Mastercard ensures that those cards only make it into the hands of premium consumers who, on average, spend more on many purchases and have a larger amount of disposable income. In exchange, Mastercard demands the higher reimbursement for the card issuers to be able to fund a benefits package that will attract heavy spenders to their World Elite card products.

The Price Users Put on Their Data

How much is your personal data worth to you? According to one survey reported on by MediaPost, for nearly 50 percent of respondents it is less than $10.

They place more value on their personal data and the importance of keeping their information secure. In fact, their willingness to share a home address dropped 10 percentage points, while willingness to share their spouse’s first and last name dropped 8 percentage points; sharing their personal email address, 7 percentage points; and sharing first and last names, 6 percentage points. The report also examines how consumers value their data, revealing that they don’t put a high price on the data they will share. More than one-third said they would give it away and nearly half would sell it for less than $10, while about 13% would sell for between $11 and $20, and about 4% would want more than $20 for each piece of data

Tesla Support for Spotify in U.S is 'Coming'

U.S. Tesla drivers will soon be able to access Spotify directly from their vehicle’s software. Currently, the service is only accessible via Bluetooth. That’s according to a tweet from CEO Elon Musk, spotted by Business Insider.

That’s right: Musk says Spotify is “coming” to Tesla cars soon…While Tesla drivers in Europe have enjoyed Spotify support for years now, Tesla has a deal with the internet-radio service Slacker in North America, so drivers in the US and Canada must contend with that service instead.

Pandora for Podcasters Launches for Creators

Pandora for Podcasters, as the name suggests, is a new platform that lets people submit their podcasts to Pandora. All you have to do is submit your RSS feed URL, answer a few questions, and your episodes will be added.

Podcasts on Pandora is powered by the Podcast Genome Project, which helps listeners cut through the overwhelming clutter of available podcasts to simply, easily find the podcasts they love…Starting today, creators who are new to the platform can submit their shows via Pandora for Podcasters here and start connecting with listeners ASAP.

Tumblr and WordPress Might be Able to Challenge Facebook

WordPress owner Automattic bought Tumblr earlier this week, in a potentially significant move in the blogging world. Over on the Colombia Journalism Review, Mathew Ingram wondered if they could provide a viable alternative to Facebook.

As Twitter and Facebook rose in popularity, blogging—which took more time and effort—declined, to the point where you could count the number of independent bloggers on one hand. Tumblr continued for a time, powered in part by porn. Verizon banned pornographic content after it acquired Yahoo, a decision which many believe killed the service. But Mullenweg told The Verge that Tumblr still has a significant number of loyal users, and that he’s hoping to offer them monetization features and other services. Whether WordPress + Tumblr can create something that goes head-to-head with Facebook and Twitter—and whether independent journalists would take to such a thing as an alternative to social networks—remains to be seen.

App Store Today Stories Now on the Web

App Store Today editorials from Apple are now available on the web, with full imagery, app lists, and text.

To find a link for an App Store story, open the App Store on your iOS device or Mac. Open a story article in the Today view and scroll to the bottom. There will be a ‘Share Story’ button which lets you copy the URL or send it on using the share sheet.

Robotics Video: Evan Rachael Wood Meets Sophia

Mashable writes about an upcoming short film featuring two famous robots, one of whom is an actress and one is real.

Unless you live under a rock, you might know of the world’s most famous real-life humanoid, Sophia, the robot…

An enticing trailer for has recently come out for a short film called SophiaWorld starring HBO’s Westworld actress Evan Rachael Wood…

Television’s most famous Robot, actress Evan Rachel Wood, and arguably the world’s most famous real-life humanoid, Sophia the Robot, have a chance encounter in a swanky NY hotel bar…

The short film will premiere on September 4 on Futurism.com.

AT&T, T-Mobile Rolling Out Call Authentication

AT&T and T-Mobile are starting to roll out the call authentication feature based on T-Mobile’s SHAKEN/STIR technology.

Call verification won’t eradicate the issue, but it’ll give subscribers the choice not to answer potentially illegal calls, which could be scams or attempts to steal their identity…An AT&T spokesperson also told us that the carrier is testing a way for the SHAKEN/STIR protocol to work for everyone at no extra cost. To be precise, the company is developing a way to make the protocol work with AT&T Call Protect, which can block fraudulent calls for free.

It better be free. Security shouldn’t be an optional purchase.

Using Two-Factor Authentication on Old Apple Devices

Glenn Fleishman has a good tip on how to use Apple’s two-factor authentication on older devices that don’t support it.

But 2FA and outdated versions of Apple TV, iOS, and macOS don’t mix. You try to log in on those devices with your Apple ID and popups with codes may appear on other devices, but there’s no way to enter it on the piece of equipment from which you’re trying to log in. Fortunately, there’s a simple workaround.

I always forget about the manual method.

Darwin Mail Pro Lite Plan 1-Year Subscription: $9.99

We have a deal on a 1-year subscription to Darwin Mail Pro Lite, a secure inbox tool designed to help you be more productive when dealing with emails and to-dos. You can organize and sort your inbox by category, sender, or subject, and it has a Reminders feature for tasks so you don’t forget them. 1-year of this service is $9.99 through our deal.

Edit Button Not a Priority For Twitter, Says Exec

In news likely to disappoint lots of users, a Twitter executive admitted Tuesday that an edit button is not a priority for the social network. The company also said it would allow users to follow topics, not just people, Techcrunch reported.

At a press event in San Francisco, Twitter Product Lead Kayvon Beykpour talked about a number of product changes coming to the company’s service, he also addressed the oft-memed user request for an edit button. Long story, short, you shouldn’t expect to see the button anytime soon. “Honestly, it’s a feature that I think we should build at some point, but it’s not anywhere near the top of our priorities,” Beykpour said. “That’s the honest answer.”

Researchers Expose Breach in Biometrics System Used by UK Police

Israeli security researchers discovered that a company used by the UK Metropolitan police, defense contractors and banks left millions of records unprotected. Data included biometric information. Noam Rotem and Ran Locar handed their research to the Guardian. The loophole had reportedly been closed by the time of this writing.

In a search last week, the researchers found Biostar 2’s database was unprotected and mostly unencrypted. They were able to search the database by manipulating the URL search criteria in Elasticsearch to gain access to data. The researchers had access to over 27.8m records, and 23 gigabytes-worth of data including admin panels, dashboards, fingerprint data, facial recognition data, face photos of users, unencrypted usernames and passwords, logs of facility access, security levels and clearance, and personal details of staff. Much of the usernames and passwords were not encrypted, Rotem told the Guardian. “We were able to find plain-text passwords of administrator accounts,” he said.

Apple Customers Get Weird Email About Apple Card

Last night, Apple sent the next wave of invitations for Apple Card, but there seems to be a goof in the system. The email said that the early invitation is waiting, but the email address Apple has on file is wrong. You can click a link in the email to supply the correct one.

There are multiple reports on Reddit of people receiving the email who are 100 percent sure they signed up with the correct Apple ID email address…Several users have contacted Apple Support, who are apparently aware of the issue and it has been forwarded to the Apple Card engineering team. Still, it’s worth noting that some users may have also received the email for the right reason – because they didn’t use the email address associated with their Apple account.

I too got the email last night, but since it arrived at an address no longer associated with my Apple ID, my email was probably legitimate in that I didn’t sign up with the correct one.

Facebook's Digital Currency, Libra, in Trouble

The pushback against Libra is increasing. BBC News writes:

Financial bigwigs are upset because Facebook, a corporation, appears to want to take on a government-like role, creating a currency and perhaps even setting monetary policy.

Big Money is power. Facebook is trying to seize power at a governmental level. Sparks are gonna fly.

CBS and Viacom Merge to Become ViacomCBS

ViacomCBS is the name of a merged corporation between CBS and Viacom. It will create a joint media library including over 140,000 TV episodes and 3,600 movies.

In their announcement, the companies note that the merger creates a joint content library that includes more than 140,000 TV episodes and 3,600 films, and “reunites fan-favorite franchises such as Star Trek and Mission: Impossible” (which were previously split between Paramount on the film side and CBS on the TV side). They also say that this will allow them to “accelerate” their direct-to-consumer strategy, which includes offerings like CBS All Access, Showtime and Pluto TV. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2019.