ByteDance Reconsidering TikTok Options

Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, is reconsidering its options for sale the video sharing app. Bloomberg News had details of the latest twist.

After China signaled it will get involved in any deal’s approval, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming is reconsidering his options and weighing the implications of Beijing’s involvement, according to people familiar with the matter. The company’s regulatory team and deal negotiators are huddling to discuss whether it’s still possible to craft a sale that can win approval from both governments, an acquirer, venture investors and ByteDance itself, said one of the people, asking not to be named because the matter is private. Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. have been deep in negotiations to buy TikTok U.S., submitting proposals while seeking reassurances from Washington that the Trump administration would bless their purchases. Microsoft is working on its bid with Walmart Inc., while Oracle has won support from venture backers such as Sequoia Capital.

Chadwick Boseman’s Films Top Apple Charts

Following his untimely passing this weekend, actor Chadwick Boseman’s films are dominating the charts on Apple and Amazon, CNN reported.

“42,” where Boseman plays baseball legend Jackie Robinson, is currently No. 3 on Apple’s iTunes chart. Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” comes in right after at No. 4. “Marshall,” a biographical film which has Boseman take on the role of former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall is No. 7 and “21 Bridges,” an action film starring Boseman, is just outside the top ten at No. 12. “21 Bridges” and “Black Panther” are also big sellers over on Amazon (AMZN). The films stand at No. 1 and No. 3 on the site’s Blu-Ray bestsellers, respectively. For Amazon’s digital video chart, “Black Panther” sits at No. 6.

Mophie Releases Two 15W Wireless Chargers

On Tuesday mophie announced the release of two 15W wireless chargers, including a pad and a stand. Each one is available on mophie.com today and will come to other retailers in the future. The wireless charging pad is US$49.95 and the wireless charging stand is US$59.95. Charlie Quong, vice president of product, power at ZAGG Brands:

Wireless charging adoption has picked up quickly in the last few years. It makes the process of topping off your smartphone battery throughout the day, like in your home or office, completely uncomplicated. mophie wireless charging accessories are designed to simplify power, particularly for those who dislike carrying numerous charging cables and adapters for different mobile devices.

FBI Worries That Doorbell Cameras Could Give Early Warning of Police Searches

A leaked FBI bulletin reveals that doorbell cameras like Ring are being used to alert people when police show up for searches. It’s a funny turn of events since law enforcement agencies actively encourage people to install these cameras.

Subjects likely use IoT devices to hinder LE [law enforcement] investigations and possibly monitor LE activity. If used during the execution of a search, potential subjects could learn of LE’s presence nearby, and LE personnel could have their images captured, thereby presenting a risk to their present and future safety.

First Trailer for 'Long Way Up' on Apple TV+ Lands

The first trailer for Apple TV+ show Long Way Up landed on Tuesday. The series features Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman riding electric motorbikes over 13,000 miles over 100 days. Their adventures started in the city of Ushuaia at the tip of South America and they eventually end up in LA, after going through 16 border crossings and 13 countries.  The first three episodes will air on September 18.

JuneCloud Prepares ‘Deliveries’ 9 With a Subscription

JuneCloud is preparing to deliver the ninth update to its Deliveries app, and like many developers it will move to a subscription model. Pricing will be announced in the future. Major features coming with Deliveries 9 include Dark Mode, full tracking history, faster ways to add shipments, archive/share multiple deliveries at once, drag a delivery to Files to save a copy of it, and more.

If you previously purchased Deliveries, you can continue using most features without a subscription. You’ll be able to add new Deliveries and sync with iCloud. You will need a subscription to sync with Junecloud, and we may add other features in the future that require a subscription. However, you’ll also receive a complimentary subscription based on your purchase date […]

26,800mAh 5-USB Port Power Bank: $89.99

We have a deal on the Zendure A8PD, a 26,800mAh 5-USB port power bank. This device allows you to power up to 5 devices including your MacBook and Nintendo Switch, and it has a built-in LED readout for seeing how much capacity is left. The ports include 4 USB ports, with the 5th being a USB-C port that is reversible and acts both as input and output. And, it supports passthrough charging so you can charge four devices even while charging up the power bank at the same time. It’s $89.99 through our deal.

Apple Watch Notes App ‘Watch Notes’ Goes Free

Watch Notes by Flicktype is an Apple Watch notes app and it recently went on sale. It used to be US$2.99 and now it’s free, although for an unknown time. The app lets you compose and manage your notes directly on your Apple Watch. Notes are stored in your iCloud and sync between your Apple Watch and iPhone. You can change the note color by long-pressing on the plus button. The popular FlickType Keyboard is built into the app and doesn’t require a separate purchase.

Amazon Prime Air Delivery Drones One Step Closer to Reality

The Federal Aviation Administration gave Amazon approval to operate a fleet of Prime Air Delivery drones on Monday, NBC News reported. It brings the company a step closer to its aim of providing 30-minute deliveries.

The approval will give Amazon broad privileges to “safely and efficiently deliver packages to customers,” the agency said. The certification comes under Part 135 of FAA regulations, which gives Amazon the ability to carry property on small drones “beyond the visual line of sight” of the operator. Amazon said it will use the FAA’s certification to begin testing customer deliveries. The company said it went through rigorous training and submitted detailed evidence that its drone delivery operations are safe, including demonstrating the technology for FAA inspectors.

ProtonDrive’s End-to-End Encryption Security Revealed

ProtonDrive (from the makers of ProtonMail and ProtonVPN) is in the final stages of development before it gets a beta launch later in 2020. The team revealed its end-to-end encryption security in a blog post.

Files and folders are arranged in a tree structure. Therefore, there is a recurring pattern where a file or folder’s asymmetric key is locked with a passphrase, which in turn is encrypted with the asymmetric key of their parent folder. All passphrases are signed with the address key of the user, without which a malicious server could forge the contents of the tree.

Researchers Find Critical Slack Bug

A critical bug found in Slack could allow an attacker access to users’ private channels and conversations. Threatpost broke down the details of the flaw in the popular messaging and collaboration app.

To exploit the bug, attackers would need to upload a file to their own HTTPS-enabled server with a payload; then, they could prepare a Slack post with an HTML injection containing the attack URL pointing to that payload (hidden in an image). After that, they need only to share that post with a public Slack channel or user. If a user clicks on the booby-trapped image, the code will be executed on the victim’s machine. As for accomplishing the HTML injection, the issue lies in the way Slack posts are created, according to the researcher. “[Creating a post] creates a new file on https://files.slack.com with [a specific] JSON structure,” according to the writeup. “It’s possible to directly edit this JSON structure, which can contain arbitrary HTML.”

Apple Silicon Might Mean Major Mac Mini Improvements

The first Apple Silicon devices are imminent, but we’re still waiting to really see what it all means in reality. Rene Ritchie at iMore thinks the Mac mini could benefit from the shift away from Intel. I certainly hope so!

My biggest hope with Apple Silicon is that we start getting Mac mini updates every 12-18 months, just like iPad Pro updates. Whatever the next-generation equivalent to the AX-Series for iPads is, put it in the Mac version of that. 14X, 15X, 16, and on. Other than that, I expect we’ll see the same type of improvements from Apple Silicon in the Mac mini they we’d see from Apple Silicon in the MacBook Air — way better performance, especially for graphics, and especially for anything and everything Apple includes custom accelerators for, like 4K and above video rendering, H.265 encode and decode, hypervisor acceleration for virtual machines, and a few other things to make developers and power users alike just smile just a little or a lot wider.