British chip designer Imagination sees the possibility of a closer relationship with Apple, according to its interim CEO. Ray Bingham made the comments in an interview with

The company’s new licensing agreement with Apple “certainly opens the door for more engagement with that company,” interim Chief Executive Officer Ray Bingham said in an interview. They announced in January they’d signed a multi-year license deal giving the Silicon Valley company access to a wide-range of Imagination’s designs. Imagination isn’t allowed to discuss its relationship with Apple beyond saying the Cupertino, California-based company is a licensee, but news that the computer maker is planning to start making more of its own chips doesn’t affect “our relationship with Apple in any negative way,” Bingham said.

Spotify launched its Premium Duo option in the U.S., UK, and other countries on Wednesday. It means a couple or two flatmates can each have a premium account for a total of $12.99 per month. That’s a $2 a month reduction on the family bundle. As 9to5 Mac notes, Apple Music tends to not be so far behind in making such moves.

In addition to each getting individual premium accounts, Spotify says Duo also gives you a joint playlist selected by Spotify on the basis of your joint tastes…. The Duo Mix allows you to choose between Chill and Upbeat playlists, and you can also opt to filter out explicit songs. You can check whether your country is included by visiting spotify.com/duo. Historically, Apple Music and Spotify have mirrored each other’s membership types, so it is at least possible that Apple will choose to offer a similar account for couples.

Google spokesperson Katherine Williams confirmed to Reuters that the company will not reopen its U.S. offices as planned. The decision comes in the midst of a spike in COVID-19 cases in various states.

Williams confirmed a Bloomberg report that cited an internal memo to employees sent by a Google executive. “For all of you that are working from home, please continue to do so unless you are told otherwise by your manager,” Chris Rackow, Google’s vice president of global security, said in the memo. “We don’t expect this guidance to change until Monday, Sept. 7 (Labor Day) at the earliest,” Rackow wrote, adding that the recent rise in coronavirus cases in the United States demonstrates that “COVID-19 is still very much alive”.

Jamf, which makes software that allows organizations to manage Apple devices, filed for U.S IPO on Tuesday. The initial valuation of the firm was $100 million, Bloomberg News, reported, although this will likely change.

The company was aiming to be valued at about $3 billion in the listing, Bloomberg News reported in January. Jamf, founded in 2002, makes MDM — mobile device management — software that lets organizations manage large numbers of iPhones, Macs, Apple TVs, and iPads. One of its features allows a company to update the software on all of its Apple devices at the same time. Apple itself has been a customer since 2010, the filing shows. Jamf’s dependence on the $1.6 trillion tech giant also features prominently in the section of the filing that outlines potential risks to its business, along with the potential financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, Apple represented less than 1% of Jamf’s total revenue.

The iPhone 12 Pro could support 4K video shooting at 240fps. That’s according to new leaks and rumors emerging from the EverythingApplePro YouTube channel and reported on by CultofMac.

[Filip] Koroy reportedly found evidence of the new high resolution, slow-mo format in the iOS 14 beta code. Whether this is accurate remains to be seen. If it is, it would be far above what is available in other smartphone models right now. It would also make it likely that Apple will sell a shedload of high storage handsets this year — or way more iCloud subscriptions. The report also mentions that the iPhone 12 Pro could boast a ProMotion 120Hz high-refresh display, citing information from Apple leaker Max Weinbach. Apple introduced the 120Hz ProMotion iPad Pro back in 2017. Like the iPad Pro, which first debuted ProMotion, the iPhone 12 Pro could dynamically switch between 60Hz and 120Hz to save on battery. The regular iPhone 12, meanwhile, may stick with a regular 60Hz display. ProMotion for the iPhone 12 was first rumored at the end of 2019.

A new research paper from Disney Research and ETH Zurich offers a possible neural face swapping technique that will result in hi-resolution, photorealistic video. That means the technique could be applicable in TV and film, according to Techcrunch. There is also a video displaying the technology in action.

The researchers specifically intend this tech for use in replacing an existing actor’s performance with a substitute actor’s face, for instance when de-aging or increasing the age of someone, or potentially when portraying an actor who has passed away. They also suggest it could be used for replacing the faces of stunt doubles in cases where the conditions of a scene call for them to be used. This new method is unique from other approaches in a number of ways, including that any face used in the set can be swapped with any recorded performance, making it possible to relatively easily re-image the actors on demand. The other is that it kindles contrast- and light conditions in a compositing step to ensure the actor looks like they were actually present in the same conditions as the scene.

We have a deal on a Universal Mobile Phone Screen Magnifier. This device features an acrylic lens screen that zooms your phone screen 2 to 3 times to avoid visual fatigue and better viewing. It also features a built-in Bluetooth speaker. Check out the details on the full deal listing. This device is $21.99 through our deal.

Microsoft is to close all but four of retail locations, The Verge reported Friday, including the one in London that is just steps away from the city’s flagship Apple Store. The sites that remain will be turned into experience centers, but will not sell any products.

Those locations are New York City (Fifth Ave), London (Oxford Circus), Sydney (Westfield Sydney), and the Redmond campus location. The London store only just opened about a year ago. All other Microsoft Store locations across the United States and globally will be closing, and the company will concentrate on digital retail moving forward. Microsoft says Microsoft.com and the Xbox and Windows storefronts reach “up to 1.2 billion monthly customers in 190 markets.” The company tells The Verge that no layoffs will result from today’s decision. “Our commitment to growing and developing careers from this diverse talent pool is stronger than ever,” Microsoft Store VP David Porter said in a LinkedIn post on the move.

Apple and Google have had a major influence in how COVID-19 contact tracing has progressed, or hasn’t, in various countries. Writing for Businesss Insider, Tom Loosemore, a cofounder of the UK’s Government Digital Service, expressed concern at their unaccountable power.

I hope I am wrong, but I fear that Google and Apple’s approach will not prove particularly valuable in the messy real world of contact tracing. It is just too crude. Google and Apple have given governments an abacus in an era of machine learning. I’ll admit I was instinctively pleased when I heard of Google and Apple’s decision. Throughout my career, I’ve defended people’s privacy from your typical state’s propensity to collect ever more data about their citizens, often without reason. But in the weeks since April 10, I’ve reflected more on the nature of power. Who has power? And how is it held to account?