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Book Publishers Artificially Limit eBook Lending in Libraries

Andrew Orr ·

Major book publishers impose limits on how libraries handle ebooks, with short-term licenses and contracts.

Because only one reader can check out an ebook at a time, and because the cost of licensing an ebook is prohibitively high for libraries to invest in hundreds of copies for every new title, library-goers have become accustomed to long waits to check out ebooks, particularly bestsellers. For publishers, that’s the point. If you have to wait weeks to check out a new ebook, you might just cruise on over to Amazon and pay $14.99 to have it delivered immediately to your Kindle or the Kindle app on your phone.

Expensive college textbooks and dumb eBook rules are two good examples of how ripe for disruption this space is. It’s also shortsighted. The point of digital media is to make it so easy to access that people don’t feel the need to pirate anymore. But practices like this is partly what drives people to pirate.

TMO Deals

World Travel Plug Adapter with 6 Attachments:$24.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the PAK-WS Travel Adapter Set. This world travel plug adapter comes with six different attachments that will allow you to plug in in 200 different countries. In addition to having a standard U.S. three-pronged A/C outlet and a two-pronged A/C outlet, it also has a USB-A, a USB-C, and a 3.1A USB port. It’s $24.99 through our deal.

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The Apple Smart Ring Might Cover an Entire Finger

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple’s much-rumored smart ring could be extended to cover an entire finger. That’s according to a new patent, granted on Tuesday and reported on by AppleInsider.

A smart ring has the potential to provide users with functionality similar to an Apple Watch, but in a smaller package that doesn’t take up space on a user’s wrist. While part of the challenge of designing a smart ring involves cramming components into a small space, there is also the issue of its size offering little in the way of opportunity for embedded sensors to be used due to a lack of surface area, as well as for users to accurately control it. In a patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday titled “Expandable Ring Device,” Apple suggests the size of a smart ring may not necessarily be static. While the name of the patent hints at a one-size-fits-all design, the filing actually refers to ways the ring could be expanded into a longer tube that covers more of the finger, including some knuckles.

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Atari’s Missile Command Heads to iOS This Spring

Andrew Orr ·

2020 is the 40th anniversary of Missile Command and Atari is bringing it to iOS sometime this spring.

Missile Command: Recharged maintains the same perspective of the original game, in which missile silos battle incoming rockets to protect civilian structures. Recharged uses a neon-colored visual design, a la classic arcade game re-imaginings like Pac Man Championship Edition and Space Invaders Extreme. Gameplay has been remixed, with power-ups, an upgrade system, and an augmented reality mode that projects gameplay onto a “virtual arcade cabinet.”

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Coronavirus Causing Shortages of Key Apple Products

Charlotte Henry ·

The availability of a number of Apple products has been hit by the coronavirus outbreak, Bloomberg News reported. Products affected include the iPad Pro, AirPods Pro, and customized Macs.

The iPad Pro tablet is seeing limited availability at stores in major cities in the U.S., Australia and Europe, according to a review of Apple’s website on Monday. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro with 512 gigabytes of storage and no cellular connectivity is sold out at all Apple stores in the Los Angeles area. That model and other versions are sold out at many stores in New York City as well… AirPods Pro earbuds and built-to-order Mac computers are also continuing to show shipping delays, and some Apple Watch Series 3 and Series 5 models are listed as unavailable to buy online. The Watch Series 3 and in-demand AirPods Pro had been constrained even before the coronavirus. The latest iPhones and Apple’s non-Pro iPads are still widely available in the U.S., though some locations in Europe and Australia are showing the iPhone 11 as unavailable.

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YouTube Doesn’t Recommend as Many Conspiracy Videos Anymore

Andrew Orr ·

YouTube is working to cut the number of conspiracy video it recommends to users, but that number is slowly increasing again.

Researchers trained an algorithm to judge the likelihood that a video on the site contained conspiracy theories by looking at the description, transcript, and comments. They examined eight million recommendations over 15 months. They found that shortly after YouTube announced it would recommend less conspiracy content in January 2019, the numbers did indeed gradually drop—by about 70% at the lowest point in May 2019. However, the number of conspiracy videos YouTube’s algorithm recommends has steadily risen again since then. These recommendations are now only 40% less common than when YouTube started its crackdown.

Podcast

PCMag Lead Mobile Analyst Sascha Segan - TMO Background Mode Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Sascha Segan is PCMag.com’s Lead Mobile Analyst. He has reviewed more than 1,100 smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 15 years with PCMag. Sascha is also a multiple award-winning travel writer.

We chatted about how he got started in computing, and it was a familiar story. “…published the high school newspaper, literary magazine and foreign language magazine on an SE/30.” Along the way, Sascha discovered that he loved helping people and showing them how tech works. We talked about the future of foldable smartphones, how the butterfly MBP keyboard drove him to Windows, a (presumed) Apple iPhone/iPad event on March 31, and what’s in store for the 5G iPhone 12. Sascha understands 5G and phones deeply, and so this was a very informative show.

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The Macintosh II Was Launched Today in 1987

Charlotte Henry ·

Another great ‘Today in Apple History’ from Cult of Mac today. On this day in 1987, the legendary Macintosh II was launched.

Although four Mac models already have been released, the definitive, full-number name of the Macintosh II makes clear that this is a major upgrade for the product line. With a massive hardware boost, optional color display (!) and a new open architecture, it does not disappoint! By far the biggest change with the Mac II? Its open architecture, which allows users to expand the computer. More than just a tech upgrade, this marked a fundamental shift in the way Apple engineers thought about the Macintosh.

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Apple Will Pay up to $500 Million to Settle Slow iPhone Class Action

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple is set to pay up to $500 million to settle a U.S class action related to iPhone slowing allegations, Reuters reported. Claimants said that Apple slowed down devices to encourage users to upgrade to newer ones.

The preliminary proposed class-action settlement was disclosed on Friday night and requires approval by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California. It calls for Apple to pay consumers $25 per iPhone, which may be adjusted up or down depending on how many iPhones are eligible, with a minimum total payout of $310 million. Apple denied wrongdoing and settled the nationwide case to avoid the burdens and costs of litigation, court papers show.

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How to Steal and Repurpose Mac Malware

Charlotte Henry ·

A former NSA hacker argued that stealing and then repurposing Mac malware can be more powerful than creating it from scratch. Patrick Wardle demonstrated one example of how he went about it at RSA Conference, ArsTechnica reported.

Patrick Wardle, who is now a security researcher at the macOS and iOS enterprise management firm Jamf, showed how reusing old Mac malware can be a smarter and less resource-intensive approach for deploying ransomware, remote access spy tools, and other types of malicious code. Where the approach really pays dividends, he said, is with the repurposing of advanced code written by government-sponsored hackers. “There are incredibly well-funded, well-resourced, very motivated hacker groups in three-letter agencies that are creating amazing malware that’s fully featured and also fully tested,” Wardle said during a talk titled “Repurposed Malware: A Dark Side of Recycling.” “The idea is: why not let these groups in these agencies create malware and if you’re a hacker just repurpose it for your own mission?” he said.