Facebook EU Antitrust Filing Accuses Apple of Anticompetitive Behavior

Facebook accused Apple of anticompetitive behavior, in a document filed with the EU this week, AppleInsider reported. CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed a similar view in a recent interview.

The document, provided by the EU’s competition watchdog, asks businesses if they have been subjected to anticompetitive behavior on large online platforms. Facebook took the opportunity to highlight its grievances with Apple. The complaints were lodged in two areas: Facebook Gaming and Apple’s upcoming plan to require a user’s consent before a company could place ad trackers on their device. Facebook alleges that the Facebook Gaming app has been “affected by unfair contractual terms and unfair practices imposed by Apple with respect to the App Store and on iOS more broadly.” Facebook Gaming was rolled out to iOS users in August after restructuring the app to comply with the App Store terms and conditions. Facebook was required to remove gameplay functionality as Apple does not allow third-party gaming platforms.

Fight For The Future Launches ‘Save Online Free Speech’ Campaign

Digital rights group Fight for the Future has launched a new campaign to save online free speech. The goal is to stop an executive order that would “gut Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, put the FCC and FTC in charge of policing online speech, and open the floodgates for widespread Internet censorship.”

The page allows visitors to easily submit a comment to the FCC opposing the executive order and similarly misguided proposals to gut Section 230, by filling out a form and selecting from a dropdown menu of humorous adjectives describing the order, such as “ass-backwards,” “despicable,” and “legally unsound.”

Update: Andrew Orr discussed this article on Security Friday.

The Day Steve Jobs Returned to The Stage After a Liver Transplant

September 9 is another big day in Apple history. As Cult of Mac reflected, it was the day in 2009 that Steve Jobs returned to the Apple keynote stage following his liver transplant.

“I wouldn’t be here without such generosity,” Jobs told the audience, referring to the organ donor whose liver he received. “I hope all of us can be as generous and elect to become organ donors.” Before revealing Apple’s new line of iPad nanos, Jobs said, “I’m vertical, I’m back at Apple, and I’m loving every day of it.” A decade later, we now know far more about Jobs’ return than we did in 2009. First and foremost, of course, we know that while Jobs’ liver operation succeeded, pancreatic cancer ultimately resulted in the Apple CEO’s death a little over two years later. Members of Jobs’ inner circle knew about the cancer at the time, but nobody discussed it.

Numi Power Mat Wireless Charging Mouse Pad: $32.99

We have a deal on the Numi Power Mat, a mouse pad with a built-in Qi wireless charger for your iPhone or Android device. The idea is to reduce desk clutter by combining these two surface-occupying devices. The surface is made from a smooth polyester designed to work with all mice. The Numi Power Mat is $32.99 through our deal.

Colorado Signs up to Apple COVID-19 Exposure Notifications Express

The state of Colorado has adopted the recently announced COVID-19 Exposure Notifications Express system recently announced by Apple and Google. The system is currently available on iOS 13.7 and will be released on Android in the near future.

Following the recent updated release of an Exposure Notifications Express system from Apple and Google, Colorado has announced that it will be adopting the technology. The state’s Governor says it will be available ahead of a September 27 Denver Broncos game. It’s part of what Governor Jared Polis called+ a return to “quote-unquote normalcy,” assuming that Coloradans use the technology and keep up social distancing. “”These are really the ways we can get back to enjoying the things we love,” he said.

Adobe Spark Adds Animations for Web Tools, New Asset Management

Adobe Spark introduced a couple of new updates. First, Animations is coming to Spark web tools, previously only available in the iOS and Android apps. It also gains new asset management features to its integration with Creative Cloud Libraries.

The trick to capturing attention on social media (and keeping it) is to add sensory, evocative triggers to your content, in the first two seconds that your viewer scrolls past your post. Second best to being able to scratch and sniff pixels, motion is one of those triggers that has the power to capture attention and make your audience feel something. When you evoke emotion in your audience, you’re that much closer to getting them to pay attention, swipe up, buy, or take some other desired action.

TMO Contributor Kelly Guimont (#13) - BGM Interview

Kelly Guimont is a long-time podcaster, Contributing Editor for The Mac Observer, the host of the Mac Observer’s Daily Observations podcast, and a tech support guru.

In her 13th appearance, Kelly and I chat about our favorite movies and TV shows of late. I open segment #1 with a rave review of the series Warrior Nun (Netflix). Kelly has seen all 10 episodes too, and also gives it a thumbs up. John then reviews the documentary series Still Standing. (Amazon). Kelly tells us, with enthusiasm, about Bill and Ted Face the Music (iTunes) and Lovecraft Country (HBO). In turn, John delves into a critical review of Upload (Netflix). And there’s bonus material. Join us as we explore together what’s great (and not so great) about these shows.

‘Data Jar’ is the Perfect App for Shortcut Dictionaries

Data Jar is a great app I discovered a while back and weirdly haven’t written about yet. This app helped me unlock my automations that require dictionaries. Data Jar lets you store key-value pairs and let them persist outside of Shortcuts. While I was trying to build a dictionary into my Shortcuts, I found that they couldn’t be updated using native actions; the data had to be stored elsewhere. The app lets you store text, numbers, Booleans, lists, dictionaries, and files. It’s free with an optional tip jar to support the developer Simon B. Støvring.