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Niantic’s Diana Hu Talks Engineering, AR, And ‘Lightbulb Moments

Charlotte Henry ·

iMore has another fascinating interview as part of its ‘Celebrating Women in Tech’ series. This time it is with Niantic’s Director of Engineering and Head of AR Platform, Diana Hu.

The exciting thing here, with building things for AR, is that this is really new technology that hasn’t been created yet. I get to work with a lot of super-smart people and very caring people. And pushing the technology forward is exciting. For some of the innovations that we get to realize, I am one of the first people to see it before anyone else. It’s very exciting when that light bulb moment comes on and it is like, “Oh, we can connect these ideas from the past to what’s happening in the present to invent the future.” An example of this happened about two years ago.

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Google Restarting Chrome Updates

Charlotte Henry ·

Google announced Thursday that it will resume its Chrome and Chrome OS update program, ZDNet reported. It paused the updates to avoid disruptions web developers during the coronavirus pandemic.

The company said that starting next week, the current Chrome 80 release will start receiving security updates once againt. Chrome v81, initially scheduled to be released on March 17, was rescheduled for April 7, at which time, web developers and system administrators would have had the time to adapt to their new working conditions. The Chrome 82 release was canceled altogether, with features being reshuffled into Chrome 83 and other versions. Per the new adjusted schedule, Chrome 83 is now expected to be released somewhere in mid-May.

TMO Deals

The Pick Your Streaming Service and Device Giveaway: HBO Now, Apple TV+, Hulu, Disney+, More

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a giveaway for you today called The Pick Your Streaming Service and Device Giveaway. The winner can choose a streaming device, including, but not limited to: Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, and Google ChromeCast. And, a 1-year subscription to the streaming service of your choice — including, but not limited to: Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Showtime, and Disney+. Cool, right? To enter, register for our deal emails (which you should do anyway). If you’re already registered, click the Enter to Win button on the giveaway listing.

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There’s a Cyber Defense Force Fighting Coronavirus Hackers

Andrew Orr ·

An international group of roughly 400 cybersecurity experts are fighting hacking related to the coronavirus.

One of four initial managers of the effort, Marc Rogers, said the top priority would be working to combat hacks against medical facilities and other frontline responders to the pandemic. It is already working on hacks of health organizations.

Also key is the defense of communication networks and services that have become essential as more people work from home, said Rogers, head of security at the long-running hacking conference Def Con and a vice president at security company Okta Inc.

At least there’s some good news.

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Nintendo Fixes 'Animal Crossing' Infinite Items Glitch

Charlotte Henry ·

A lot of people have been getting into the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game since it launched last week. But there was a glitch that allowed players to get infinite items, something many were happily taking advantage of. However, Kotaku reports that the game’s makers managed to fix it with the first update… sorry if you’ve been enjoying the freebies!

If you weren’t aware, the item involved two players. While one of them rotated an item, the other would pick it up at the same moment, suggesting to the game that two different versions of that item existed – one which had been rotated, and the other which had been placed in the other player’s pocket. This would generate an awful lot of items in a short space of time, which could then be sold back to Timmy and then used to pay off your Nook Loans.

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Why is Zoom Sending Our Data to Facebook?

Andrew Orr ·

As people are required to work from home, apps like Zoom help us with video conferencing. But why is the iOS app sending our data to Facebook?

Upon downloading and opening the app, Zoom connects to Facebook’s Graph API, according to Motherboard’s analysis of the app’s network activity. The Graph API is the main way developers get data in or out of Facebook. The Zoom app notifies Facebook when the user opens the app, details on the user’s device such as the model, the time zone and city they are connecting from, which phone carrier they are using, and a unique advertiser identifier created by the user’s device which companies can use to target a user with advertisements.

I’ll add this to my #DeleteFBSDK endeavors.

Cool Stuff Found

The New iPad Pro Still Bends

Charlotte Henry ·

We’re starting to get the first wave of reviews for the new iPad Pro. Given it is meant to be a device you can take anywhere, people want to know about durability. Well, according to YouTuber EverythingApplePro, it still bends. And cracks. In lots of different places. I personally don’t think these kinds of tests, that basically have the intention of breaking a device in not very realistic circumstances, give a totally fair picture. They prove you need a case, obviously, and show some weak spots, but I’m not sure much beyond that. It is though interesting to see some of the new parts within the iPad Pro.