We finally have the winner of our iPhone 16 Pro international giveaway! Congratulations to Oliver T., and a huge thank you to everyone who participated.
WeWork Series Coming to Apple TV+
An Apple TV+ series on the rise and fall of WeWork, based on the WeCrashed podcast from Wondery, is in development.
iPads, Trackpads, China, and Censorship – TMO Daily Observations 2020-02-28
This week we saw rumors of Apple releasing an iPad keyboard with a trackpad, and news that Apple will be requiring paid game developers to comply with Chinese censorship laws. Charlotte Henry and Bryan Chaffin join Dave Hamilton to sift through it all for you before the weekend. Press play and enjoy!
Stars of Apple TV+'s 'Visible - Out on Television' Ask: How Much Longer?
In the latest Apple TV+ clip, some of the stars featured in the series Visible – Out On Television, share moments when they nearly gave up. The likes of Ellen DeGeneres, Laverne Cox, and Adam Lambert all appear in the series and explain the difficult times they went through. The series is available now with an Apple TV+ subscription.
First Apple Store to Launch in India in 2021, Online Store Will Launch This Year
CUPERTINO – Apple CEO Tim Cook announced his company would open its first physical Apple Store in India in 2021, and that the company would launch its own online store later in 2020.
How to Create a Honeypot URL With URL Canary
A service I recently discovered is URL Canary. It creates a honeypot URL that you can then put in a location such as your cloud storage. It alerts you if that URL has been accessed.
URL Canary will catch automated robots and crawlers, as well as manual human attackers. The only time it won’t catch an attacker is if they don’t see the canary, or they don’t find it sufficiently-compelling and opt not to visit it. Since you have control of the URL and the domain name, you can make your canaries as compelling as possible for your specific use case.
There’s a similar service I know of called CanaryTokens.
Carriers Could be Fined $200M For Selling Location Data
The FCC is preparing to fine four major cellular carriers roughly US$200 million for selling location data of customers.
MI5 Chief Wants ‘Exceptional Access’ to Encrypted Messages
Sir Andrew Parker is the head of MI5, the UK’s domestic security service. He wants tech firms to provide “exceptional access” to encrypted messages.
In an ITV interview to be broadcast on Thursday, Sir Andrew Parker says he has found it “increasingly mystifying” that intelligence agencies like his are not able to easily read secret messages of terror suspects they are monitoring.
Bah, this is smoke and mirrors. As the head of a security agency he knows that restricting backdoors to the good guys is impossible.
Tim Cook Thinks China is Getting Coronavirus 'Under Control'
Tim Cook appears to be more optimistic than most about China’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. In an interview with Fox Business, the Apple CEO said he felt China was getting the illness “under control.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook told FOX Business’ Susan Li Thursday that he is “optimistic” about China managing the coronavirus outbreak, which has slowed production at the tech giant’s suppliers. “It feels to me that China is getting the coronavirus under control,” Cook said. “You look at the numbers, they’re coming down day by day by day. And so I’m very optimistic there.” He stressed that iPhone gets parts from “everywhere in the world,” including China, which has seen 2,744 deaths among 78,497 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei.
What Impact Does Watching Netflix Have Climate Change?
Despite what mainstream media wants you to think, the outcome is mostly still unclear when it comes to Netflix binging.
On one hand, the paper reports, strides in data center efficiency have mostly kept pace with growing demand for data, meaning that in the last decade the total amount of energy consumed by the centers has not changed much—around 1% of global energy use. That’s about the same as 18 million US homes.
On the other hand, it’s clear that we’re approaching a limit to squeezing out more efficiency—especially given the rise of data-ravenous artificial intelligence.
What I find annoying about the debates around climate change is how a lot of mainstream media are trying to blame people. Like blaming their Netflix binging instead of reporting the facts like 100 corporations are responsible for 71% of emissions. Sure, Netflix wouldn’t exist without its users, but I think it’s important to focus on how much more damage a corporation does than an individual.
Kelly and Peter Cohen – TMO Daily Observations 2020-02-27
Kelly sits down with Peter Cohen to discuss the Mac App Store as a way to get apps, Twitter polls, and how the App Store ranks as a service.
This Universal Wall Charger Lets You Charge 4 Devices with 2 Power Outlets and 2 USB Ports: $19.99
We have a deal on the HyperGear 3-in-1 Multi-Charger, Holder, and Nightlight. This multi-charger plugs into a wall, has two normal AC power outlets, two USB ports, and a holder for your iPhone (or Android device) on top. Oh, and it has a nightlight, too. This device is $19.99 through our deal.
Apple Reportedly Plans iPad Keyboard With Trackpad
A report today claims that Apple plans to introduce an iPad keyboard with a built-in trackpad, and we could see it with the next iPad Pro.
Facebook Sues OpenAudience for Improperly Harvesting Data
Facebook filed a federal lawsuit in California against OneAudience, saying it improperly harvested its user data.
The social media company claims that OneAudience harvested users’ data by getting app developers to install a malicious software development kit, or SDK, in their apps. SDKs are packages of basic tools that make it easier and faster for developers to build their apps.
Oddly, Facebook isn’t suing itself.
Airbnb’s Secret Algorithms Plunder Your Social Media
Airbnb uses a secret algorithm to figure out how trustworthy you are, and it mines your social media for sex work, porn, drugs, and more.
Two Key Operations Execs Are Leaving Apple
Two long-serving Apple execs, Nick Forlenza and Duco Pasmooij, are leaving the company’s operations division.
China Says That Plague Inc. Game is Illegal, Gets Removed From App Store
Ndemic Creations, the creator of the popular game Plague Inc. received a warning from China that the game contained illegal content.
Apple Gives China App Store Game Developers Deadline to Comply With Censorship Laws
Apple has announced that game developers selling in the China App Store have until June 30 to get a license from the state’s censors.
Microsoft, Like Apple, Will Miss Revenue Guidance For Next Quarter
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it will miss its revenue guidance for the second quarter of 2020 as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, The Verge reported. Apple made the same announcement just over a week ago.
“Although we see strong Windows demand in line with our expectations, the supply chain is returning to normal operations at a slower pace than anticipated at the time of our Q2 earnings call,” Microsoft said in a press release. The company did not give a specific revenue range for the segment; instead, it said it does “not expect to meet our More Personal Computing segment guidance as Windows OEM and Surface are more negatively impacted than previously anticipated.” During its earnings call last month, Microsoft issued quarterly revenue guidance for the personal computing segment between $10.75 billion and $11.15 billion.
Photo App Neural Cam Moves to Subscription
Neural Cam promises to give you Night Mode photos even if you don’t have the latest iPhones. It costs US$4.99 up front and recently moved to a subscription of US$4.99/month or US$35.99/year.
I’ve never used the app but people are saying the app is taking away features that people had paid for and locking it behind a subscription, a clear violation of App Store Review Guidelines, section 3.1.2(a).
Update: NeuralCam reached out to me to clarify: The Pro Pack is optional and only adds features for Pro users who subscribe. There’s also an additional 12-month introductory price at US$2.99/month. Finally, no features will be taken away from existing users.
Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Worry About Apple Watch AFib Detection
The Apple Watch is a Class II medical device which puts it in the same category as condoms. Here’s why you shouldn’t worry about its AFib detection.
iBaby Monitors Can be Exploited by Hackers
Parents using an iBaby Monitor M6S should be aware it has multiple security problems that open it up to hackers.
That means any ne’er-do-well can purchase an iBaby monitor and use it to access files from every iBaby monitor. Unbelievable? Believe it. For legal reasons, the Bitdefender researchers did not access data belonging to other real-world users. Instead, they set up a second test device and verified access.
Reddit CEO Brands TikTok 'Fundamentally Parasitic'
It turns out the Reddit CEO is not a big fan of TikTok. Steve Huffman called the video-sharing app “fundamentally parasitic” and “spyware” at a recent event, TechCrunch reported.
The comments from Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman were some of the more controversial offered up during a panel discussion with former public policy exec Elliot Schrage and former Facebook VP of Product Sam Lessin. During a brief conversation about the feature innovations of TikTok, Huffman pushed back hard on the notion that Silicon Valley startups had something to learn from the app. “Maybe I’m going to regret this, but I can’t even get to that level of thinking with them,” Huffman said. “Because I look at that app as so fundamentally parasitic, that it’s always listening, the fingerprinting technology they use is truly terrifying, and I could not bring myself to install an app like that on my phone.” “I actively tell people, ‘Don’t install that spyware on your phone,’” he later added.
Amazon Transcribe Will Now Redact Personally Identifiable Information
Amazon Transcribe has made a good step forward in protecting users’ privacy. It now allows personally identifiable information (PII) – social security numbers, credit card details and the like – to be automatically redacted, VentureBeat reported.
Amazon Transcribe is part of Amazon’s AWS cloud unit and was launched in general availability in 2018. An automatic speech recognition (ASR) service, Transcribe enables enterprise customers to convert speech into text, which can help make audio content searchable from a database, for example. Contact centers can also use the tool to mine call data for insights and sentiment analysis. However, privacy issues have cast a spotlight on how technology companies store and manage consumers’ data. Text-to-speech services can be used to search for keywords and sentiment at a later date, but phone calls often feature significant private data that may be transcribed by Amazon and stored in a searchable database — even if that information is not necessary for analysis. Meanwhile, regulations are springing up around the world to protect consumer data — including the recently implemented California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Inside TMO's Background Mode Podcast - A Story
John writes about the origin and evolution of The Mac Observer’s Background Mode Podcast. And how he’s come to feel about it.