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Apple Allegedly Shutting Down Surveys by Employees on Pay Equity

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple has allegedly shut down a number of surveys regarding pay equity started by employees. Lawyers told The Verge this could be illegal.

“Apple cannot bar its employees from discussing pay equity as it relates to protected classes,” says Vincent P. White, a labor lawyer with White, Hilferty & Albanese. “If they were, they could tell people not to talk about pronouns. The logical outgrowth of that doesn’t even track. I view their effort to shut this down as an act of retaliation.” The first known survey began in the spring and asked people to volunteer salary information in addition to how they identify in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and disability. After about 100 responses, Apple’s people team — the company’s name for what is commonly called human resources — asked employees to take the survey down, saying the demographic questions constituted personally identifying information, or PII. Last week, employees tried to start another pay equity survey but were again told to take it down because it included a question on gender. When they created a new survey without the gender question, the Apple people team allegedly said it had to be shut down because it was hosted on the company’s corporate Box account.

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Arlo Update Fixes Apple HomeKit Issue

Charlotte Henry ·

Arlo confirmed to AppleInsider that it has fixed a bug that prevented users adding its smart home devices to Apple Homekit. The fix came was included in the latest version of its iOS app – version 3.5.1

That version, which has a release date of August 6, is currently available from the App Store. “Arlo appreciates the patience of our loyal customers, and is excited to share that an iOS app release with a remedy to the HomeKit issue is now available,” the company said. Earlier in August, AppleInsider began receiving reports from users about issues adding new Arlo devices to HomeKit. The problem appeared to affect HomeKit tokens, which caused users to get stuck on the “Requesting HomeKit info” screen when adding devices to the Apple smart home platform.

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The Apple TV Box is Pointless

Charlotte Henry ·

The Apple TV, even the recently updated model, is pointless in its current form and price. That’s the view of Bloomberg News‘s Mark Gurman in his latest newsletter. I find it hard to disagree.

Apple, known for its closed ecosystem, is even embracing the shift by offering many services on smart TVs and boxes made by competitors. Those services include iTunes movie and TV rentals, the Apple TV app, Apple TV+, Apple Music and AirPlay. Of course, that was intentional on the part of Apple, which sought new revenue sources when iPhone sales slowed around 2018. That made the Apple TV a mostly pointless accessory, and consumers seem to agree: 2020 data from Strategy Analytics found that the Apple TV holds 2% of the streaming device market. The product isn’t without its benefits, though, for the Apple ecosystem’s most loyal users. Integration with HomeKit, Fitness+, AirPods and the iOS remote app is useful. The new remote control and faster chip in this year’s version are definite improvements, and the box is getting SharePlay and Spatial Audio support later this year. Still, I don’t see these enhancements moving the needle for most people. For further reading, check out how to set up your Apple TV 4K.

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Man Says Apple Watch Fall Alert Saved His Life

Charlotte Henry ·

Over the years, we’ve heard various stories about how the Apple Watch has helped save people in danger – sometimes it’s been about heart rate alerts, other times the ability to contact people, even when separated from the paired iPhone. In a new story, one man told People how the device’s fall alert system helped him be found quickly after collapsing in a hospital toilet.

At one point during his visit, Schneider said he asked to use the restroom — but the events that followed are a complete blur to him. “While I was in the bathroom I went unconscious and fell to the ground, where I apparently slammed my head, fracturing my skull and suffering an emergent brain bleed,” he explained. Luckily, Schneider was wearing an Apple Watch at the time — a smart device he believes was part of the reason that he survived. “I was only found unconscious so soon after the fall because my Apple Watch detected a hard fall, calling 911 and sent an emergency notification to my emergency contacts after I failed to respond to the prompt on my watch,” he wrote in the post.

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EFF Shares Statement on Apple Scanning for Illegal Content

Andrew Orr ·

This week we discovered that Apple plans to localize its scanning efforts to detect child sexual abuse material. The move has been widely criticized and the Electronic Frontier Foundation has shared its statement on the matter.

All it would take to widen the narrow backdoor that Apple is building is an expansion of the machine learning parameters to look for additional types of content, or a tweak of the configuration flags to scan, not just children’s, but anyone’s accounts. That’s not a slippery slope; that’s a fully built system just waiting for external pressure to make the slightest change.

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COVID-19 Pandemic Delays Opening of First Apple Store in India

Charlotte Henry ·

The opening of the first Apple Store in India has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian Express reported. The Mumbai location had been set to open this year to boost the company’s retail presence in the crucial market.

While Apple has a strong franchise retail network across India, it’s online store launched last September has been helping the company reach buyers beyond its retail network. This January, in an earnings call after announcing the company’s 2020 results, Cook said Apple had sold over a million devices in the country for the first time. “If you take India for example, we doubled our business last quarter compared to a year ago,” he told analysts while qualifying that Apple’s “absolute level of business there is still quite low relative to the size of the opportunity.”

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Apple Music Now Lets Artists Share Milestones

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple Music now allows artists to share various metrics and milestones with their fans, Macrumors reported. These include highs and all-time best number of  plays, number of Shazams, and whether tracks are feature in ‌curated playlists.

The ‌Apple Music‌ for Artists feature generates automatic milestones for artists of all sizes, which artists can highlight on social media networks. Milestones include new highs and all-time bests across Plays and Shazams, and inclusion in ‌Apple Music‌’s curated playlists. Artists will see images celebrating their milestones on their iOS overview page for ‌Apple Music‌ for Artists, and can tap the share icon to open up the share sheet. Users will also see relevant milestones on the song and country detail pages. Milestones can be shared to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and Instagram stories. Sharing milestones is a feature that’s limited to artists at the current time and the images can only be accessed through the ‌Apple Music‌ for Artists iOS app.

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Why Apple TV+ Film 'CODA' is a Crucial Moment For Deaf Representation

Charlotte Henry ·

The latest edition of The Hollywood Reporter is dedicated to CODA, which is set for release on Apple TV+ and in theaters on August 13. The film is about a family that is deaf except for one child, who has ambitions to sing but has to decide whether to stay and help her family or pursue her own dreams. In the piece, the cat and crew explain why the film is such a groundbreaking moment in onscreen representation and filmmaking.

On the set of CODA, gaffers learned to never backlight actors or stand them against windows so that the actors’ hands did not get lost in the shadows, and the director of photography reframed shots so the signing was clearly visible and the costume department stayed away from fringe and other clothing that could hinder signing. When not shooting, [Marlee] Matlin asked [Emilia] Jones, who is British, to speak with her onscreen American accent because it was easier to understand when it came to reading lips. And when the on-set ASL master, Anne Tomasetti, stepped into the Rossi family living room for the first time, she quickly pointed out that in a deaf household, the couch would be facing the front door. “Suddenly, we were moving furniture around and setting up the living room in a way that you would have sight lines to the entrances and exits,” since anyone who walks in through the door can’t be heard, recalls Heder. “It was like this ‘of course’ moment.” Adds Matlin, “That poor set decorator.”

 

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Here's What Apple's AirPower Charging Mat Actually Looked Like

Charlotte Henry ·

Remember AirPower, Apple’s wireless charging mat that never made it to release? Well, The Verge has was sent pictures of a prototype and took a closer look…

Giulio Zompetti, a 28-year-old from Italy, says he has been able to purchase a prototype AirPower unit from Chinese e-waste sources. “The unit lacks all of its exterior housing, and shows this beautiful and heavy stainless steel chassis,” says Zompetti. In photos supplied to The Verge, you can see the AirPower mat powering a prototype iPhone, with its 22 coils on the front-facing side and 22 controller circuits on the rear. In order for this AirPower prototype to work, it has to be paired with special prototype iPhone hardware to activate the coils. “It doesn’t work with production devices, because the coils are woken up by the device,” explains Zompetti, who says he’s been able to charge two prototype devices simultaneously so far. Zompetti says he received the unit in December and was able to interact with it initially through a serial lightning cable.

(Image Credit: Giulio Zompetti)

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Backup Tool ‘iMazing’ Updated to Detect Pegasus Spyware

Andrew Orr ·

The team behind iMazing has updated their tool to detect NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. You don’t have to buy an iMazing license to scan for it.

It would therefore be possible to relatively quickly re-implement MVT’s methodology in our toolkit, and integrate a user-friendly ‘wizard’ in iMazing’s user interface. And because iMazing can already perform iOS backups and decrypt backup files, the tool we envisaged had the potential to dramatically reduce the technical barrier of entry whilst enhancing performance and promoting backup encryption.

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WhatsApp One Time View Photos and Videos

Charlotte Henry ·

WhatsApp began rolling out photos and videos that can only be used on Wednesday. It will become available to all users, according to a blogpost from the Facebook-owned messenger.

On many phones, simply taking a photo means it will take up space in your camera roll forever. That’s why today we’re rolling out new View Once photos and videos that disappear from the chat after they’ve been opened, giving users even more control over their privacy. For example, you might send a View Once photo of some new clothes you’re trying on at a store, a quick reaction to a moment in time, or something sensitive like a Wi-Fi password. As with all the personal messages you send on WhatsApp, View Once media is protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot see them. They will also be clearly marked with a new “one-time” icon.

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Facebook Bans Accounts of Researchers Investigating its Disinformation Problem

Andrew Orr ·

Facebook has banned the accounts of researchers who were studying the platform’s political ads and disinformation.

The tools were the subject of a long-running standoff between the social network, which claimed scraping violates its terms of service, and the researchers, who argued that more digital advertising transparency is essential to understanding and protecting elections.

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Two Years of Apple Arcade

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple Arcade is fast approaching its second birthday. AppleInsider has a nice overview of where the gaming service sits in the marketplace, how it’s changed, and what some of its hits are.

There are multiple competing viewpoints around how to address gaming on mobile devices like iPhone and iPad. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have all moved in the exact opposite direction of Apple Arcade by offering console-quality titles on mobile. These companies use game streaming as a distribution method rather than on-device downloads. This ensures games will work the same regardless of device performance. Only Netflix seems to be taking the mobile-first route in its gaming service. It plans on launching mobile games that subscribers can play as long as they have an active Netflix subscription. So far, the fledgling streaming services appear to have captured a particular market of gamers. However, Apple Arcade and its mobile-first platform have a much broader market appeal, lower entry price, and a constantly growing library. Apple’s approach also accounts for those who don’t have high-bandwidth internet at their disposal. Rather than needing the internet to play games, Apple Arcade games can be downloaded all at once and played offline.

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Malware Dubbed ‘Raccoon Stealer’ Targets Crypto Wallets

Andrew Orr ·

Researchers at Sophos have been tracking a piece of malware called Raccoon Stealer. A recent update means it can target cryptocurrency wallets.

Raccoon can collect passwords, cookies, and the “autofill” text for websites, including credit card data and other personal identifying information that may be stored by the browser. Thanks to a recent “clipper” update, Raccoon Stealer also now targets cryptocurrency wallets, and can retrieve or drop files on infected systems.

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Apple TV+: Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ Adds Brendan Fraser to Cast

Charlotte Henry ·

Brendan Fraser (No Sudden Move) has joined the cast of Killers of the Flower Moon, reported Deadline. The Martin Scorsese-directed picture, which we got a first look at back in May, is set for release on Apple TV+.

The former title from Apple TV + and Paramount Pictures is a crime drama, based on the bestselling book of the same name by David Grann. It’s set in 1920s Oklahoma and will examine the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation—a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. Fraser will appear in Killers alongside Oscar winners Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, Emmy nominated Jesse Plemons, and more. We hear that he will play lawyer WS Hamilton.

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Photo Service ‘Mimeo Photos’ Surpasses 1 Million Downloads on macOS

Andrew Orr ·

Mimeo Photos announced on Tuesday that it surpassed one million app downloads in the Mac App Store. Sean Doherty, General Manager of Mimeo Photos:

We are beyond thrilled to have achieved one million downloads in the Mac App Store. From the inception of Mimeo Photos, we have been available to Apple Photo users who want to create beautiful photobooks, cards and calendars directly from their Mac computer. It’s always been our top priority to allow our customers to create superior photo products no matter where they are or what device they’re using, and this achievement is a testament to that goal we continually set for ourselves.

I think it’s a great photography service and I’m glad to see a milestone like this.