Link

Meditation App ‘Headspace’ Offers Free Year of Premium Content

Andrew Orr ·

Headspace is offering Americans a free year of premium access of the full library of guided meditations and courses.

“The current state of unemployment in the US has become an alarming crisis,” the company website said. “To help those affected, we’re offering a full year of Headspace Plus for free. Discover meditation and mindfulness tools to help you feel less stressed, more resilient, and kinder to yourself.”

Nice move. Self-care is important.

Link

Crusader Kings III Release Date on Macs Set for September 1

Andrew Orr ·

Paradox Development Studio announced the Crusader Kings III release date today. It comes to Mac, Linux, and Windows on September 1.

The new title focuses more on your ruling family’s personality, complete with character lifestyles and traits (acting against them can lead to stress or even breakdowns), earning Renown to boost your reputation and inducing Dread to keep people in line. Dynasties can split into individual houses, blackmail is an option, skilled fighters can become knights, and you can set Tenets and Doctrines for religions that deviate from the original.

Link

Zerodium Pauses Purchases of iOS Exploits

Andrew Orr ·

Zerodium is temporarily suspending its purchasing of iOS exploits due to a high number of submissions, with the CEO saying ”iOS security is f**ked.”

Zerodium is an exploit acquisition platform that pays researchers for zero-day security vulnerabilities and then sells them to institutional customers like government organizations and law enforcement agencies. The company focuses on high-risk vulnerabilities, normally offering between $100,000 and $2 million per fully functional iOS exploit.

Link

How an Apple Watch Could Help Track COVID-19

Charlotte Henry ·

Stanford is looking for participants for its Wearables Data Study, which working to establish if devices like Apple Watch can help detect COVID-19. Gizmodo looked into how it all works.

Once enough people have opted-in via Stanford’s site and their data’s been collected, the second phase involves building a personal dashboard that can tell people when they’re getting sick. And while the original Stanford study’s algorithm was developed using a Basis watch and a few other discontinued devices, this new study aims to be device-agnostic. Fitbits, Apple Watches, and Oura Rings are just some of the wearables included. “We’re getting a tonne of people enrolling who have a smartwatch and have been ill,” Snyder says. “There’s lots of smartwatch wearers out there. There’s 30 million active users from Fitbit, millions from Apple Watch. We’re talking tens of millions of people, all with these smartwatches that could be health protectors for infectious diseases like covid-19.”

Link

A Great Way to Get out of Another Zoom Meeting

Charlotte Henry ·

Everyone is fed up of Zoom meetings now, right? Well, LifeHacker found one smart kid who came up with an ingenious way to get out of them.

Reddit). If you want to skip out on a Zoom meeting, or at least give the impression that connection difficulties are making it impossible for you to attend, do two things. First, get your fingers positioned over the ALT + V and ALT + A keys to turn off your webcam and audio, respectively. (Command + Shift + V and Command + Shift + A on your Mac.) Then, right-click on yourself and select “Rename,” if it’s available. Once you’re ready to “depart” the meeting, replace your name with “Reconnecting…” but don’t click OK just yet. Hit ALT + V and then ALT + A to drop your video and audio, and then click on OK to change your name. With luck, it’ll all appear pretty seamless—your mic and webcam suddenly cut out, and you’re now struggling to “reconnect” with great difficulty.

Podcast

Apple Product Releases, Digital WWDC, and What-We-Wish-Apple-Made, with Charlotte Henry - ACM 529

Bryan Chaffin · · 1 Comment

Bryan Chaffin and Charlotte Henry discuss what seems like a blistering pace of new Apple products, even in the midst of a pandemic. Charlotte explains why she is so excited about the digital version of Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) coming in June, and they both look at the product they wish Apple would make.

Link

Senate Vote Lets FBI View Your Browsing History Without Warrant

Andrew Orr ·

As part of a reauthorization of the Patriot Act, the Senate voted to let the FBI access Americans’ web browsing history without a warrant. I could say a lot of bad things about this, but this is the part that disappoints me the most:

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT) attempted to remove the expanded powers from the bill with a bipartisan amendment.

But in a shock upset, the privacy-preserving amendment fell short by a single vote after several senators who would have voted “Yes” failed to show up to the session, including Bernie Sanders. 9 Democratic senators also voted “No,” causing the amendment to fall short of the 60-vote threshold it needed to pass.

Just one vote.

Link

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun Caught Using iPhone

Andrew Orr ·

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun was caught using an iPhone after he posted a message on Weibo using the device.

In all fairness, Lei Jun is reported to have stated in the past that officials and staffs of Xiaomi are not banned from using competing brands. But some hold the opinion that it is distasteful and disrespectful to fans for the Xiaomi founder to use an iPhone. Guess we don’t have to wonder anymore why the MIUI interface looks so much like iOS.

Reminds me of the multiple occasions where an Android manufacturer posted a picture on social media to boast how great their camera was, only for people to find out it was shot on an iPhone. In 2018 Vladimir Putin’s goddaughter was caught on camera using an iPhone. She was a Samsung ambassador and was sued by the company for 108 million rubles.