Apple Moves to Trademark 'Slofie'

Apple wants to trademark ‘slofie’, it’s term for slow-motion video clips you can now take with iPhone 11.

Apple has applied to the USPTO for a trademark on the term “Slofie” in terms of “downloadable computer software for use in capturing and recording video.” Don’t worry, it’s not trying to own the cultural landscape — rather, this is largely to prevent app developers and phone makers from ‘borrowing’ the term for their own features.

At least Apple isn’t trying to pull an Ohio State University, which was recently denied its effort to trademark the word “the.”

California Governor Signs AB5 Bill Into Law Protecting Gig Workers

AB5 is a bill that could one day give full employee status to gig workers from companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash. Today, California’s governor signed it into law.

While a major victory for the organized labor movement in California and in the U.S. broadly, the passing of AB5 is by no means a guarantee drivers in the state will become employees. Drivers or individual cities will need to challenge these businesses in court to apply the aforementioned ABC test, and Uber has already adopted an offensive posture in that regard, claiming that drivers are not core to the company’s business model—one of the stipulations of the ABC test.

Drivers in a ride-sharing company are not core to Uber’s business model. Wow.

Facebook Launches New Surveillance Devices For Your Home

Today Facebook launched Portal video chatting devices that definitely won’t be used to spy on you and your loved ones. They will let Facebook users watch television together over a video call. Andrew Bosworth, VP of AR/VR at Facebook, said:

I think that in a couple years’ time, if you have a smart streaming device that doesn’t have a camera allowing you to video call people, you’re not going to have a competitive product. I think this is the killer feature for a device like this.

Bosworth also touted privacy protections like local processing of smart features on the devices, which means most user data will not be sent back to Facebook servers.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Amazon Has a Mole in the California State Assembly

Perhaps using the word “mole” is hyperbole. But it’s deeply concerning that California Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin is actively trying to kill California’s privacy act that would impede companies like Amazon Ring, when her husband is the COO for Ring.

Like other companies that collect vast amounts of consumer data, Ring — and its parent company, Amazon — has a financial stake in the details of California’s groundbreaking data-privacy law. Industry groups, including those representing Amazon, have been scrambling to change the law before it takes effect Jan. 1.

“We can talk about this later,”Jacqui Irwin said, side-stepping questions about a potential conflict outside her office last week. “It’s a little bit offensive there.”

Steam Gets Long-Awaited Library Overhaul

Steam’s library view got an upgrade in the latest public Beta. Eurogramer looked at what’s new.

Once you’ve opted in to the beta (which merely requires selecting the appropriate drop-down option from Steam’s settings menu), the first thing you’ll likely notice is your new library’s aesthetic overhaul. That immediately comes into play on the new library landing page, which offers a snapshot of recently played titles, as well as recent activity for select games in your collection – seemingly pulled from developer-created news posts. There’s also an overview of recent friend activity, and the ability to display games organised into user-created collections. Steam’s library update (which, incidentally, isn’t reflected across its Big Picture mode at present) also brings with it new-look pages for individual games. Select a title in your library at random, and you’ll be presented with a broad selection of information pertaining to that game, now organised in a manner which doesn’t appear to have tumbled out of the 90s.

Why The iPhone 11 Pro Has 3 Cameras

Just what are the two cameras on the iPhone 11 doing? What’s different about the three cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro? TechCrunch explains.

On the back of the iPhone 11 Pro can be found three cameras. Why? Because the more light you collect, the better your picture can be. And we pretty much reached the limit of what one camera can do a little while back. Two, three, even a dozen cameras can be put to work creating a single photo — the only limitation is the code that makes them work.

Your X-Ray Images and Medical Data Are Available on the Internet

ProPublica investigation revealed that medical images and health data are often stored in insecure servers that are easily accessible to anyone with a bit of computer knowledge.

We identified 187 servers — computers that are used to store and retrieve medical data — in the U.S. that were unprotected by passwords or basic security precautions. The computer systems, from Florida to California, are used in doctors’ offices, medical-imaging centers and mobile X-ray services.

All told, medical data from more than 16 million scans worldwide was available online, including names, birthdates and, in some cases, Social Security numbers.

The United States Sues Edward Snowden Over Book

Edward Snowden recently published a book called Permanent Record. The United States filed a civil lawsuit against him and his publisher, saying that he violated nondisclosure agreements because he didn’t submit the book to the CIA and NSA for pre-publication review.

The United States’ lawsuit does not seek to stop or restrict the publication or distribution of Permanent Record. Rather, under well-established Supreme Court precedent, Snepp v. United States, the government seeks to recover all proceeds earned by Snowden because of his failure to submit his publication for pre-publication review in violation of his alleged contractual and fiduciary obligations.

Amazon Music HD Adds Tracks for Audiophiles

Amazon Music HD is a new service that provides high quality streaming for audiophiles. New subscribers to Amazon Music Unlimited get a three month free trial.

This 90-day free trial offer is a limited time offer. This offer applies only to the Amazon Music HD Individual Plan and the Amazon Music HD Family Plan and is available only to new subscribers to Amazon Music Unlimited. After the 90-day trial, your subscription to the Amazon Music HD Individual Plan or the Amazon Music HD Family Plan, as applicable, will automatically continue at the monthly price of $14.99 ($12.99 for Prime members) plus applicable tax (if you selected the Amazon Music HD Individual Plan) or $19.99 plus applicable tax (if you selected the Amazon Music HD Family Plan) until you cancel.

Why Apple's EU Tax Case Matters

Apple’s appeal against the EU’s demand for €13 billion in taxes allegedly owed from its Irish business will be heard in the coming days. The Irish Times had a really good explainer on Friday explaining why the case is so important.

Apple has always insisted that it is absolutely not true that it did not pay all the taxes due. Apple says it is committed to respecting all tax laws as they stand, and that it pays huge amounts of tax on its profits – some $37 billion to the US treasury alone in respect of its international operations. It is now, the company boasts, the world’s and Ireland’s largest taxpayer. And the 6,000 workers it employs in Ireland pay a huge part of the State’s income tax, it notes

ImageNet Roulette Shows How ML Classifies You

ImageNet Roulette is part of an art and technology exhibit called Training Humans. Upload a photo and the algorithm will give you a classification. Some of the labels are funny, others are racist.

ImageNet Roulette is meant in part to demonstrate how various kinds of politics propagate through technical systems, often without the creators of those systems even being aware of them.

We did not make the underlying training data responsible for these classifications. We imported the categories and training images from a popular data set called ImageNet, which was created at Princeton and Stanford University and which is a standard benchmark used in image classification and object detection.

I uploaded a photo of me and the label I received was “beard.” Accurate.

How Apple Arcade Became Tempting For a Hardcore Android User

Apple and Google are soon to expand their rivalry into the realm of gaming services. Apple Arcade and Google Stadia are both compelling products. However, Apple Arcade seems to be getting interest from some unlikely people. On CNet, hardcore Android user Shelby Brown explained why she is paying attention to Apple’s offering.

Stadia still feels like it’s aimed solely at console gamers. On Twitter, Stadia business development manager Ray Bautista touted that the service offers 4K gameplay, no patches, no updates, no installs, no downloads and no console. But, the average person, a casual gamer or a family looking for a game to play on a Friday night probably isn’t too concerned about frames per second. While Stadia still has games to add, Apple Arcade has established itself as a lifestyle gaming service from day one.

The Most Memorable Apple Ads Over the Years 1984-2019

Business Insider has collected in one place all the most memorable Apple ads over the years.

  • We looked at the ads that have aired in the years since [1984] and highlighted the most memorable one each year, from dancing iPod silhouettes to the “Get a Mac” ad campaign.

This trip down memory lane is great to mull over as we’ve watched Apple grow and change.

Netflix Buys Streaming Rights to Seinfeld Starting 2021

Netflix has bought global streaming rights for Seinfeld. It will begin in 2021, when Hulu’s contract for streaming it expires.

This is the first time Seinfeld will be available on Netflix and the first time that all 180 episodes will be on one service globally and in 4K. Seinfeldmade its streaming debut with the Hulu deal. Internationally, it is streaming on Amazon in a number of territories; that will all be consolidated on Netflix under the new deal.

I watched a couple of reruns of Seinfeld on TV when I was younger, and I never got into it. Maybe I’ll give it another go on Netflix.

HP Printers Send a Ton of Data Analytics Back Home

Software engineer Robert Heaton found disturbing evidence that HP printers request a lot of analytics permissions to send back to the company.

In summary, HP wants its printer to collect all kinds of data that a reasonable person would never expect it to. This includes metadata about your devices, as well as information about all the documents that you print, including timestamps, number of pages, and the application doing the printing (HP state that they do stop short of looking at the contents of your documents).

iPhone 11's U1 Chip Could Spark a Revolution

You wouldn’t know it because it wasn’t mentioned during the iPhone 11 keynote, but the new iPhones have a new chip. Called Ultra Wideband, or “U1” it’s a way for iPhones to figure out their position in 3D space relative to other U1 devices. Apple mentions the use-case of a person pointing their U1 iPhone at another U1 iPhone to send files over AirDrop. Jason Snell writes that this is just the beginning.

But the possible applications of UWB go way beyond AirDrop and tracking tags. Decawave’s Viot says potential applications include smart home tech, augmented reality, mobile payments, the aforementioned keyless car entry, and even indoor navigation. (And it’s not a power hog, either—Viot says that Decawave’s latest UWB chip uses one-third of the power of a Bluetooth LE chip when in beacon mode, as a tracking tile would be.)

Aggressive iPhone Pricing Might Not Be Enough

A number of Apple products got aggressive new price points at the “By Innovation Only” event. At Wired, Daphne Leprince-Ringuet wonders if it will be enough.

For a company that is famous for premium pricing, Apple’s sudden shift to more affordable devices (even if it is its older line-up) comes as a surprise. A look at its sales performance last year might explain the change of heart: in 2018, Apple’s best-selling device was the $649 iPhone XR, meaning that its entry-level device out-performed the more advanced XS and XS Max. In other words, phone buyers are unwilling to shell out the extra dosh to get their hands on Apple’s best smartphones. Last year in China, the tech giant even cut prices for some of its iPhones, iPads, Macs and AirPods by nearly six per cent – partly in response to “lower than anticipated” iPhone sales in the country… By cutting its prices on phones and watches, therefore, Apple is hoping to supplement its iOS customer base and lure in new customers who might purchase other services within its ecosystem.

'Carpool Karaoke' Wins Creative Arts Emmy

Apple’s Carpool Karaoke emerged victorious at the Creative Arts Emmy awards Sunday, AppleInsider reported. It was named Short Form Variety Series at  the ceremony which was held, somewhat ironically, at the Microsoft Theater.

The streaming show is a long-form version of the popular segment from CBS’ “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” with the talk show host praising both his show and the spinoff. “We just want to be a place people go to have a really nice time before, or let’s be honest, while they fall asleep,” Corden told Variety. The Creative Arts Emmy Awards honor outstanding artistic and technical achievement in various TV and program genres. While the Primetime Emmy Awards are better known and are the main awards, the Creative Arts version recognizes other elements of show production and types of content not served under the Primetime accolades.

 

WhatsApp's 'Delete For Everyone' Feature Doesn't Work With iPhones

WhatsApp from Facebook has a feature called Delete for Everyone that lets people unsend messages, photos, and videos from an individual’s phone, or everyone in a group. But it doesn’t delete them from iPhones.

According to Shitesh Sachan, an application security consultant, who found this privacy issue and shared his findings exclusively with The Hacker News, the feature for WhatsApp for iOS has not been designed to delete received media files saved in the iPhone’s Camera Roll.

Apple Joins Academy Software Foundation as Premier Member

The Academy Software Foundation advocates for greater open source software development in the motion picture and media industries. Apple has joined as a Premier member.

To support the continued growth of open source software across our industry, we have the privilege of providing developers with tools that make it easier to contribute code and participate in the community…With Apple as a new member, we hope to work with them to improve support for Apple platforms, which will continue to democratize open source software development.

Spotify Wants to Track Your Location so Friends Don't Use a Family Plan

In more location tracking news today, Spotify wants to track yours because non-family members sometimes use Family Plans *gasp!*.

“The changes to the policy allow Spotify to arbitrarily use the location of an individual to ascertain if they continue to reside at the same address when using a family account, and it’s unclear how often Spotify will query users’ devices for this information,” said Christopher Weatherhead, technology lead for UK watchdog group Privacy International, adding that there are “worrying privacy implications.”

iOS 13 Forced Facebook to Admit it Collects Your Location Data

Yes, I know how shocked you are folks. As it turns out, Facebook lied about yet another thing: It totally collects your location data, and admitted that fact itself in a blog post.

For years the antisocial media giant has claimed it doesn’t track your location, insisting to suspicious reporters and privacy advocates that its addicts “have full control over their data,” and that it does not gather or sell that data unless those users agree to it.

Then, late on Monday, Facebook emitted a blog post in which it kindly offered to help users “understand updates” to their “device’s location settings.”

You may have missed the critical part amid the glowing testimony so we’ll repeat it: “… use precise location even when you’re not using the app…”

Quote from a TMO reader: “Hoping that FB will somehow become secure is as much magical thinking as expecting a wild pig to perform the role Juliet for Bolshoi.”

Netflix should worry about Apple TV+

None of Apple TV+ contented revealed so far looks particularly revolutionary. However, argues Oliva Ovenden at Esquire, Netflix should still be worried.

As Apple will know from watching its soon-to-be competitors win awards for their success stories, having one tentpole series can be enough for users to stay. Both Hulu and Amazon Prime Video have earned multiple Emmy Awards for The Handmaid’s Tale and The Marvellous Mrs Maisel respectively, off-setting series which have been received less favourably. Apple TV+ only need one huge hit to make people’s Netflix subscription feel less worthwhile, and they’ve got enough money to keep trying until they get one. Getting in on the streaming game is a shrewd move given how many of Apple’s customers are currently watching Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime on Apple’s phones, laptops and tablets.

New Exploit Shows We Should Just Skip to iOS 13.1

A contacts exploit was discovered in iOS 13 that lets a person bypass Face ID / Touch ID to see an iPhone’s contacts.

Relatively little is at stake with this exploit. Beyond the inherent danger of an assailant having your iPhone, this method only allows someone to view the contacts within the target iPhone, provided that they have physical access to the target phone and can complete the VoiceOver exploit.

Little is at stake, but there have been so my iOS exploits in the news lately that we might as well go straight to iOS 13.1.

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