Uber and Lift Drivers Heading Across California Protesting

A protest caravan of Uber and Lyft drivers is preparing to make its way across California, Techcrunch reported. It will launch in SoCal Monday, August 26, before finishing in Sacramento on August 28.

Yesterday, California-based advocacy organizations Gig Workers Rising and Mobile Workers Alliance announced that a caravan of Uber and Lyft drivers will drive from SoCal through San Francisco to Sacramento, next Monday, August 26 through Wednesday, August 28th. Over 200 drivers in more than 75 cars plan to drive south to north, with more drivers joining along the way, to take dramatic action in advocating for California State Legislature bill AB5, and for a drivers union. With AB5 almost certain to pass the CA Senate, this coming week presents a crucial moment in the history of gig work and tech more broadly: an opportunity for drivers to demonstrate the efficacy of 21st century labor modes of organizing, even as Uber and Lyft continue ramping up efforts to kill AB5, drop pay rates, and generally mistreat drivers.

 

5G Could Revolutionize Home Broadband

Most of use are excited about what 5G will enable us to do on a smartphone, and how fast it will enable to us to do it. However, as CNET noted, the effect could be just as significant in the home broadband space.

Consumers often see prices rise in areas where there’s only one provider, yet many Americans continue to lack competitive home internet options. Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint have all hyped up home broadband as one of the many uses of 5G to solve this problem by offering a viable and speedy alternative. Verizon’s first 5G network rollout focused on the home, while T-Mobile CEO John Legere railed against “big cable” while pitching regulators on his company’s $26.5 billion merger with Sprint.

Apple Blocks Spying Kazakhstan Root Certificate

The Kazakhstan government is trying to spy on citizens with a government-issued root certificate for websites. Apple, Google, and Mozilla are blocking it in their browsers.

The root certificate in question, labeled as “trusted certificate” or “national security certificate,” if installed, allows ISPs to intercept, monitor, and decrypt users’ encrypted HTTPS and TLS connections, helping the government spy on its 18 million people and censor content.

Once installed, the certificate allowed the Kazakh government to decrypt and read anything a user visiting popular sites—Facebook, Twitter, and Google, among others—types or posts, including intercepting their account information and passwords.

The Demise of Apple Music Connect And What Might Have Been

In June 2015 Apple unveiled its music social network, to great fanfare. However, it killed-off the service in December 2018. Music Business Worldwide looked at what might have been.

In a world where every streaming service is desperate to differentiate itself, Apple had something really unique. Connect could have been hugely influential… At its core, Apple Music Connect was a social media platform embedded into the Apple Music ecosystem. Artists could use it to share lyrics, exclusive photos, videos or even release their latest song directly to fan followers from their iPhone. As such, Connect was sort of an Instagram-SoundCloud-Facebook-Twitter-YouTube hybrid. This is why Jimmy Iovine, Apple’s former Head of Music Operations, described Connect at the time as one of Apple Music’s three key differentiating elements, alongside human-curated music streaming and the 24-hour Beats 1 radio station.

And Now For the Downside of the Apple Card

There have been some rave reviews of the Apple Card. But, in the end, it’s a credit card with the usual, attendant downsides. Michael Simon at Macworld brings us back to earth.

While the Apple Card might be filled with the delightful little details that we’ve come to expect from Apple—beautiful spending trackers, an animated digital card that reflects light as if you were holding it, privacy and security at the forefront—at its core, Apple Card is still a credit card backed by a bank that will charge you interest if you don’t pay on time….

With Apple Card, Apple may be selling you something that could end up costing you way more than an iPhone—or a Mac Pro for that matter.

Driving App Waze Adds YouTube Music Integration

Driving app Waze is adding YouTube Music integration for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscribers.

Rolling out from today and soon available to all 50 markets where both YouTube Music and Waze are accessible, subscribers can now easily play music as they drive safely. Check out these YouTube Music playlists to queue up while on the road, and happy cruising!

You'll Be Able to Convert Your Logins to Sign In With Apple

Ryan Christoffel has been testing Sign In with Apple in some beta versions of apps this summer. Using it is as easy as Apple said it would be. And the feature that I hoped would be included will arrive too: Converting your existing logins to Sign In with Apple.

Although Sign In with Apple is mainly beneficial for new users who don’t yet have an account for a given app or service, with the system Apple has built, developers have the option of letting existing users convert their accounts to Sign In with Apple for its convenience and security benefits.

I hope there will be widespread adoption of this. Another thing I wondered: If some companies complain that iOS 13’s location feature is anti-competitive, what will they say about Sign In with Apple?

Apple Card Transforming Goldman Sachs into Consumer Powerhouse

Apple Card is a key part of Goldman Sach’s work to become a key player in the consumer market, its CEO said. David Solomon made the comments in an interview with CNBC.

“Apple Card is big, but it’s also a beginning,” Solomon said Tuesday in an internal memo obtained by CNBC. “In the decades to come, I expect us to be a leader in our consumer business, just like we are in our institutional and corporate businesses, with customer-centricity at the core of everything we do.” The co-branded credit card rolled out Tuesday to all U.S. customers, featuring a cash-back policy of up to 3% as well as a titanium, laser-etched physical card. “Apple Card makes a typically frustrating application process easy; it provides an interface with more useful information for the customer; and it places greater importance on customer privacy and security,” Solomon said.

Apple's Privacy Rule for Kids Apps Delayed

At WWDC 2019, Apple announced stricter rules for kids apps. Developers of these apps aren’t allowed to use analytics within them. Ads would also be limited. Apple is now delaying the rule to give developers more time.

Apple says it is making the move in part to better protect users’ privacy by shielding children from data trackers, a move that has been lauded by some privacy advocates. But some developers say they fear that the new rules won’t protect kids — possibly exposing them to more adult apps — and could pointlessly reduce their businesses.

Maybe don’t make preying on kids your business model?

Student Studying Disinformation Has Twitter Account Suspended as Part of China Crackdown

On Monday, Twitter suspended over 900 accounts it said were involved in a Chinese disinformation campaign in Hong Kong. One of those people who had their account suspended, 24-year-old Luka Ivezic, told the BBC his account should not have bee amongst those flagged by the social media firm.

Mr Ivezic, who was born in Croatia and says he has never been to China, recently completed his thesis. The subject? “Disinformation, and how artificial intelligence can empower the tools that China and Russia have to misinform us.” “It is a bit ironic that something like this would happen to me,” he said after I contacted him about the list. According to documents released by Twitter on Monday, four of Mr Ivezic’s tweets were flagged, all of which discussed Artificial Intelligence, bitcoin and other related tech subjects. Tweets, which he says, he posted himself… “It doesn’t make any logical sense,” said Marin Ivezic, Luka’s father, a partner with consultancy firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, working on cybersecurity.

YouTube is Embracing Philosophy, Science, History

YouTube creators are known for makeup tips and stunts. But the i looked into how the platform is aiming to offer content looking at philosophy, science, and history, in partnerships involving its creators and influencers.

YouTube executive Luke Hyams describes the platform as “the biggest video library and resource in the history of civilisation”. It is also a media giant competing in an increasingly crowded video entertainment market. Whereas rival streaming services throw their budgets at star directors, scriptwriters and acting talent, YouTube’s content focus is on its own “YouTubers’”, the creators and influencers who have used the platform to build channels that attract millions of visitors each day. Hyams, who is head of YouTube Originals for Europe, Middle East and Africa, will look to harness this homegrown talent in making a series of ambitious UK-commissioned shows which he hopes will become global hits.

Plex Desktop Lets You Control Your Media From Your Mac

There’s a new Plex desktop app with the features of Plex Media Player and some offline capabilities. It will be available on macOS and Windows.

The desktop “side” of the (admittedly Janus-esque) Plex Media Player will live on in the form of the new desktop app. For the TV layout lovers out there, we want to be clear about this: the long-term plan is for the new desktop app to replace Plex Media Player as our only desktop solution. The new desktop app is notably lacking TV mode, which means that we’re going to stop supporting the traditional HTPC setup (using a desktop computer connected to your TV or home theater) with this app.

We Need a New Internet That Can Withstand Climate Change

The internet infrastructure is vulnerable to climate change. The fiber optic cables that ferry data can handle some water damage, but they weren’t meant to be permanently underwater.

…within the next 15 years, in a scenario that projects about a foot of sea level rise by then, 4,067 miles of fiber conduit cables are likely to be permanently underwater. In New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, the rising seas could drown roughly 20 percent of all metro fiber conduit. These are the lines that physically ferry our Internet traffic from place to place.

Another 1,101 “nodes”—the buildings or places where cables rise out of the ground, which often house computer servers, routers, and network switches to move our data around—are also expected to be swamped.

New Shazam Discovery Playlist for Apple Music

Today Apple Music launches the Shazam Discovery Top 50 playlist, which is a weekly global ranking of 50 trending artists.

The chart will be updated every Tuesday and is exclusively available to stream on Apple Music. Artists at the top of the first list include Ohana Bam, A$ton Wyld, Tones and I and Regard…The chart ranks songs that are trending in the U.S. and “over 10 countries”; artists from more countries will be featured soon.

Sounds cool but I hope it’s not filled with hip-hop, because that seems to be Apple Music’s focus.

180 CEOs With Tim Cook Want to Redefine a Corporation's Purpose

180 CEOs, including Tim Cook, signed a statement from Business Roundtable to reimagine what a corporation’s purpose is. Instead of (or alongside) maximizing profits for shareholders, there are other important qualities.

Businesses play a vital role in the economy by creating jobs, fostering innovation and providing essential goods and services. Businesses make and sell consumer products; manufacture equipment and vehicles; support the national defense; grow and produce food; provide health care; generate and deliver energy; and offer financial, communications and other services that underpin economic growth.

It’s a nice sentiment, and i hope that these are more than just good PR words.

Chicago Music Summit Coming to Apple Store Michigan Avenue

The Apple Store on Michigan Avenue will host the second Chicago Music Summit it emerged Monday. 9to5Mac outlined some of the details of the event, which which will run for the second time this September. Details of the first two weeks of sessions also appeared as part of the Today at Apple program.

Apple describes the Chicago Music Industry Summit as a time to “connect with others and tap into creative resources to help further your career in music and the arts.” The month-long event collection is a collaboration with Apple Music and organized under the umbrella of Today at Apple, the program of daily creative sessions held in every Apple Store. Like all Today at Apple sessions, Chicago Music Industry Summit events are free to attend and generally take the form of hands-on labs, discussions, and live performances.

Meet the Professor Behind Netflix's 'The Great Hack'

David Carroll sued Cambridge Analytica after news broke that it used Facebook user data for targeted political advertising. Netflix’s The Great Hack tells his story, and Business Insider interviewed him.

My pursuit is a highly individualized narrative, which obscures the reality that it’s a story about all of us. Quitting your Facebook account doesn’t do anything. You can try to do the work of going through all your settings and being really hygienic about your data, but it’s only going to reduce the scope of data leaking all over the place. It’s certainly not going to have a total effect that people might want.

I’m putting this on my list to watch.

Some Companies Don't Like iOS 13 Location Privacy Feature

App developers wrote a letter to Apple saying how much they don’t like iOS 13 location privacy rules, accusing the company of anti-competitive behavior.

We understand that there were certain developers, specifically messaging apps, that were using this as a backdoor to collect user data. While we agree loopholes like this should be closed, the current Apple plan to remove [access to the internet voice feature] will have unintended consequences: it will effectively shut down apps that have a valid need for real-time location.

The letter was signed by Tile CEO CJ Prober; Arity (Allstate) president Gary Hallgren; CEO of Life360, Chris Hullsan; CEO of dating app Happn, Didier Rappaport; CEO of Zenly (Snap), Antoine Martin; CEO of Zendrive, Jonathan Matus; and chief strategy officer of social networking app Twenty, Jared Allgood.

A helpful list of all the apps I’ll never download. I hope Apple does more when it comes to privacy.

Facebook Moderator Counselors Under Pressure to Disclose Details of Confidential Sessions

In recent times, reports emerged about the toll being a Facebook moderator took on people. The company introduced access to on-site counselling for staff. However, The Intercept found that some therapists were put under pressure to disclose what was discussed in those confidential sessions.

Access to on-site counseling is one of the few bright points for this workforce. But now even this grim perk has been undermined by corporate prying, according to a letter drafted by a group of about a dozen Austin moderators who work across Facebook and Instagram. The letter alleges that, starting in early July, Accenture managers attempted to pressure multiple on-site counselors to share information relating to topics discussed in employee trauma sessions. This information was understood by both counselors and Accenture employees to be confidential, said several Accenture sources interviewed by The Intercept. It is not clear what specific information related to the sessions was sought by the managers.

Donate to U.S. National Parks Using Apple Pay

From August 17 to August 25, the first 100,000 transactions at Apple retail stores, the online store, or the Apple Store app will donate US$10 to U.S. national parks.

We’re celebrating our national parks with a $10 donation for each Apple Pay purchase at an Apple Store, on apple.com, or through the Apple Store app in the U.S. from August 17 through 25. Limited to the first 100,000 transactions. Subject to $10 minimum purchase.

I think this is great. U.S. national parks could soon get a big US$1 million donation.

The First Woman in Apollo Mission Control

We’ve just finished marking the 50th anniversary of the first man on the moon. Of course, there were a number of Apollo missions before that. National Geographic told the story of Poppy Northcutt.  Aged 25, she became the first woman inside Apollo mission control.

“The whole society discouraged me” from a career in engineering, she recalls. Nevertheless, when she graduated early from what was then the University of Texas with a degree in mathematics, she knew she wanted to work in the space program, and in 1965 she got a job crunching numbers for NASA through TRW, one of the space agency’s contractors. “My job title was ‘computress’—a gendered computer,” she recalls. Computresses were subordinate to all-male teams of engineers… “Interesting little bugs kept showing up,” Northcutt recalls. “A small or inconsequential error could be fatal.” That lesson was driven home during the disastrous Apollo 13 mission, when Northcutt and team had to troubleshoot their return-to-Earth program to get those astronauts home safely.

 

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+.

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.

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