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News Showcase: Google's $1 Billion Investment in Publishing Partnerships

Charlotte Henry ·

Google is to invest $1 billion into partnerships with news publishers, CEO Sundar Pichai announced in a blog post on Thursday. The product is called News Showcase, and will start rolling out in Germany and Brazil today, before expanding into other countries.

News Showcase is made up of story panels that will appear initially in Google News on Android. The product will launch soon on Google News on iOS, and will come to Google Discover and Search in the future. These panels give participating publishers the ability to package the stories that appear within Google’s news products, providing deeper storytelling and more context through features like timelines, bullets and related articles. Other components like video, audio and daily briefings will come next… We’ve signed partnerships for News Showcase with nearly 200 leading publications across Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, the U.K. and Australia. The publications include award-winning national titles like Der Spiegel, Stern, Die Zeit, Folha de S.Paulo,Band and Infobae alongside regionally and locally significant publications such as El Litoral, GZH, WAZ and SooToday. The number of news publications will grow as we work to expand News Showcase to other countries including India, Belgium and the Netherlands.

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Here’s How to Replace the iOS 13 Favorites Widget on iOS 14

Andrew Orr ·

We all know how much I like shortcuts, and Juli Clover came up with a clever way to replace the iOS 13 Favorites widget that was removed in iOS 14.

Why the Favorites widget was removed is a mystery and it could be a simple oversight with Apple planning to reintroduce it later, but for now, those who relied on the widget can recreate its functionality with Shortcuts. It takes some effort, but it may be worth the time investment if you often relied on your Favorites.

As my image above suggests, it’s only the widget that was removed. You can still add favorites in the Phone and Contacts apps.

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Some COVID-19 App Users in the UK are Getting Alerts from Apple, Not The NHS

Charlotte Henry ·

Some users of the England and Wales COVID-19 exposure notification app are mistakenly being sent messages that tell them to self-isolate. Sky News reported that they are test messages sent by Apple and Google, and this can be checked by trying to open the message to self-isolate.

The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed it was a “default message” sent by Google and Apple – the makers of the app’s technology – but it had already caused confusion… A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson confirmed that default messages from Google and Apple would disappear or not be able to be clicked on. An official Test and Trace instruction to self-isolate would produce a message inside the app which said: “Please stay at home and self-isolate to keep yourself and others safe.” Apple or Google notifications, the spokesperson said, could be called “COVID-19 EXPOSURE LOGGING” or “COVID-19 Exposure Notifications”. It is not currently possible to turn off default messages

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Belgium Releases COVID-19 Exposure Notification App

Charlotte Henry ·

Belgium released its COVID-19 app on Wednesday, AppleInsider reported. The tool is based on the API designed by Apple and Google.

Belgium’s new “Coronalert” COVID-19 contact detection and tracing app is available to download starting on Wednesday. Like many others in circulation, the app utilizes the Apple-Google framework for exposure notifications and is available for both Apple and Android phones. The app was developed by Belgian companies DevSide and Ixor, and audited for security by NVISO. The app itself is based on the Corona-Warn-App that Germany uses, as well as the European open standard DP3T (Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing.) Like many countries, Belgium uses the app to help alert users to high-risk exposures to those who have tested positive for COVID-19.

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Apple, Epic Games, And The Row Over Sign In With Apple

Charlotte Henry ·

The battle between Apple and Epic Games is heating up. Reporting from John Gruber at Daring Fireball shed an interesting light on one element of the row regarding Sign In With Apple (SIWA). Epic claimed it had been told that Fortnite players would access to the service on September 11, 2020.

Worth noting: Apple publicly stated that it was not doing anything to stop SIWA from working for Epic… I spent a few hours back on September 9 digging into this SIWA story, and multiple sources at Apple told me Epic’s claims were simply false. There was never a September 11 deadline for their SIWA support to stop working, and in fact, Apple’s SIWA team performed work to make sure SIWA continued working for Fortnite users despite the fact that Epic Games’s developer account had been revoked. There was no “extension” because Apple was never going to revoke Epic’s SIWA access.

MindNode Update Supports iOS 14 Scribble With Apple Pencil
Cool Stuff Found

MindNode Update Supports iOS 14 Scribble With Apple Pencil

Andrew Orr ·

MindNode issued an update on Wednesday that adds support for the iOS 14 Scribble feature with Apple Pencil. Users can try the new image picker to add photos, trigger actions with the new context menu, and use their Apple Pencil to hand write in nodes. Other improvements: Added support for opening URLs in third party browsers; Fixed opening of documents on Apple Watch that are outside MindNode’s iCloud container; Fixed image loading on Apple Watch of single file format documents and documents outside MindNode’s iCloud container; Improved support for third-party fonts by adopting the system font picker; Fixed an issue with opening documents that are outside MindNode’s iCloud container.

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Apple’s T2 Security Chip Jailbroken by Checkra1n

Andrew Orr ·

The latest update of checkra1n adds support for bridgeOS, which runs on the T-series of chips. These are responsible for the Touch Bar, managing encrypted data in its Secure Element, and controlling Mac camera access.

The ability to exploit the T2 processor could also allow you to bypass the anti-repair mechanism built into the Touch Bar. Further, it may allow hackers to get rid of the password or unlock MDM-locked systems.

As far as the OS goes, we could also add secure boot certificates like Microsoft’s secure boot signing or a self-signed Linux certificate.

‘Smart Tasks’ Reminder App Syncs Calendar Events
Cool Stuff Found

‘Smart Tasks’ Reminder App Syncs Calendar Events

Andrew Orr ·

Smart Tasks is an app that combines reminders and your calendar to see what tasks you have one week at a time. Features include: Drag and drop to quickly add, reorder, delete, and import tasks; Swipe on any tasks, category, or date to access quick actions to get things done quicker; Sync across devices; Categories; Dark mode support; Multiple reminders in tasks; Notes in tasks; Choose between 28 modern colors for category labels; Calendar; Import reminders from the Apple Reminders app; Today Widget; Export and Import Tasks and Categories; Drag multiple tasks; Routines; Routine reminders; Add, edit, delete, and view calendar events; Handoff. Smart Tasks has a limited amount of features for free, and has a subscription costing US$1.99/month or US$11.99/year.

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Cloudflare Web Analytics is a Private Alternative to Google Analytics

Andrew Orr ·

Cloudflare announced on Tuesday the introduction of Cloudflare Web Analytics as a  free, private analytics service competing with Google Analytics.

Cloudflare does not track where visitors are going online, and can help web owners get clear and accurate information about how their sites are performing without the need to profile users. Cloudflare already processes the requests for sites on its network and can collect analytics at the edge without adding third-party analytics scripts to a website.

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Deliveries 9 From JuneCloud Arrives September 30

Andrew Orr ·

Deliveries 9 from JuneCloud arrives Wednesday, September 30 for Apple devices. It will be a subscription-based app that costs US$0.99/month or US$4.99/year.

If you previously purchased the app, you’ll get a complimentary subscription for up to 18 months from the date you purchased it. If you bought the app more than 18 months ago, your complimentary subscription will end February 1, 2021. You’ll continue to have access to most features of the app even after your complimentary subscription ends.

On their support page it looks like the app will be useless without a subscription. If you want to add new deliveries and sync with iCloud then you’ll have to pay up.