Why The iPhone is Key to Photographer Dimpy Bhalotia

For London-based photographer Dimpy Bhalotia, the iPhone has become a core part of producing beautiful art, including the picture in this piece. The iPhone Photography Awards winner explained why to Cult of Mac.

Bhalotia, a full-time fine art street photographer based out of London, told Cult of Mac she loves shooting with an iPhone so much that it’s become second nature. “It’s a lightweight butter slice always in my hand, which has the entire world in it,” she said. “It feels like I’m shooting with my palm.” In 2020, you don’t need an expensive DSLR camera and a darkroom to produce breathtaking imagery. The iPhone has truly democratized photography — and made it easier for anyone to capture the magic of everyday moments.

‘Greyhound’ Success Prompts Apple TV+ Rethink

It seems that the success of Tom Hanks moving Greyhound has prompted a shift in thinking at Apple TV+. While big-name series were clearly always fundamental, sources told Fast Company that blockbusters are going are to be a much bigger focus going forward.

One source says the streamer is discussing plans to release a dozen new movies a year on Apple TV Plus, roughly one a month. Two to four of those would be blockbuster-type titles such as Greyhound and Emancipation, the runaway-slave thriller starring Will Smith and directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) that Apple recently acquired for $120 million in a bidding war with Warner Bros., Universal, and other studios. Another source had fewer specifics but confirmed that Apple is telling Hollywood that it’s now in the market for more tentpole-like feature films. (Apple would not comment for this story.) Apple’s greater focus on big films marks a noticeable amplification on its movie front.

COVID-19 Contact Tracing App ‘Working in Ireland’

Ireland’s COVID-19 contact tracing app is a rare success story, according to BBC News. It is also one of the tools that has been released using that Apple-Google API.

And now people in Northern Ireland are about to get access to a similar contact tracing app made by Nearform, the company behind Ireland’s Covid Tracker. Northern Ireland health officials confirmed at a briefing today that the app, to be released next week, will collect some data to show how it is functioning. In the early days there will not be much to go on as only between 10 and 20 new cases of the virus are being reported each week, but if there is a second wave of infections in the autumn they hope to know more about what is going on. The officials also revealed their app will work across the border, as will Ireland’s Covid Tracker.

 

Sorry, Catnip Won’t Protect You Against the Meow Attack

Over 1,000 insecure databases have been completely erased, and the attackers leave no trace except the word “meow.”

Since then, Meow and a similar attack have destroyed more than 1,000 other databases. At the time this post went live, the Shodan computer search site showed that 987 ElasticSearch and 70 MongoDB instances had been nuked by Meow. A separate, less-malicious attack tagged an additional 616 ElasticSearch, MongoDB, and Cassandra files with the string “university_cybersec_experiment.” The attackers in this case seem to be demonstrating to the database maintainers that the files are vulnerable to being viewed or deleted.

Better erased than breached, right?

‘The Darwin Affair’ Latest Big Library Read

“The Darwin Affair” is the next book in Libby’s digital book club called Big Library Read.

London, June 1860: When an assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria, and a petty thief is gruesomely murdered moments later—and only a block away—Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field quickly surmises that these crimes are connected to an even more sinister plot. Was Victoria really the assassin’s target? Are those closest to the Crown hiding something? And who is the shadowy figure witnesses describe as having lifeless, coal-black eyes?

Bluetooth 5.0 Speaker, Wireless Charger, Clock: $56.99

We have a deal on the Gotek Wireless Charging Music Station. This device is a Bluetooth 5.0 speaker, , a wireless charger, and a clock, all in one. Accordingly, it tells time with a big LED display, and is capable of both streaming music and charging your Qi-enabled smartphone wirelessly. It’s $56.99 through our deal.

The Reasons Why Apple Should Buy TikTok

TikTok has been the focus of much political attention recently due its base in China and allegations (which it denies,) of data sharing with the Chinese state. The video-sharing app has said it will move its HQ, but it could even be bought by a U.S. firm. Music Business Worldwide offered a number of reasons why that company could, and maybe should, be Apple.

TikTok’s global addictive appeal is no accident. The app’s advanced artificial intelligence capabilities and powerful recommendation algorithms are key factors behind the 68 billion hours spent by its users in the app last year. Case in point: respected investor and tech industry commentator Connie Chan recently wrote a piece in which she called TikTok “the first mainstream consumer app where artificial intelligence is the product”… In an increasingly competitive music streaming market, with Apple Music’s primary rival Spotify known for excelling in content recommendation, TikTok’s AI baked into the the Apple Music ecosystem could be Spotify’s kryptonite.

Creating Beastie Boys Posters on iPad Pro

To celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the Beastie Boys releasing Hello Nasty, Apple released a new video in which artist Geoff McFetridge describes making five new posters related to the Apple TV+ series about the band. The eye-catching posters were made entirely on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil. They give some insight into the cultural and musical impact of the rap trio.

DNA Company ‘GEDmatch’ Hacked in Data Breach

First, over a million DNA profiles from GEDmatch were leaked. Then, email addresses from the breach were used in a phishing attack against users of genealogy website MyHeritage.

As a result of this breach, all user permissions were reset, making all profiles visible to all users. This was the case for approximately 3 hours. During this time, users who did not opt in for law enforcement matching were available for law enforcement matching and, conversely, all law enforcement profiles were made visible to GEDmatch users.

If GEDmatch sounds familiar, it was the DNA database used to identify the Golden State Killer.