Luxitude Tablet and Phone Holder Stand: $33.99

We have a deal on Luxitude, a tablet and smartphone holder and stand, combined. It features adjustable arms that fit most tablets and phones from 4″ to 11″. It rotates 360° for the best viewing, and has suction cups that make it easy to pop off and fold up to move from surface to surface. A padded holder protects the device from scratching, falling, or slipping. It’s $33.99 through our deal.

Microsoft’s Project Artemis Tool Will Help Find Online Predators

Microsoft has created an automated tool codenamed Project Artemis that can help detect patterns of communication used by predators to target kids.

Building off the Microsoft patent, the technique is applied to historical text-based chat conversations. It evaluates and “rates” conversation characteristics and assigns an overall probability rating. This rating can then be used as a determiner, set by individual companies implementing the technique, as to when a flagged conversation should be sent to human moderators for review. Human moderators would then be capable of identifying imminent threats for referral to law enforcement…

Microsoft was the company that also helped developed PhotoDNA, an automated tool to detect child abuse images. Now it’s moving to text.

CES 2020: Turn Your iPad Into a Drawing Board With Sketchboard Pro

With the arrival of the Apple Pencil, more and more artists and designers are using their iPad to draw. Braintreehouse, a studio of artists who have worked on shows such as Adventure Time and The Simpsons, created Sketchboard Pro. The stand fits your iPad perfectly and has a slot for the Pencil. It essentially turns your iPad into a classic drawing board. The product launched on Kickstarter and hit its target. The makers brought it to CES this last week. Sketchboard Pro is expected to ship in March 2020. You can pre-order one now at Indigogo for $50.

'Mythic Quest' And The Future of Apple TV+

Mythic Quest will launch on Apple TV+ on February 7. Variety spoke to Rob McElhenney, who he acts in and wrote the show, about what viewers can expect.

The show will be Apple’s first straightforward comedy since launching its streaming platform in November — and a successful launch would be welcome. The platform’s flagship series, “The Morning Show,” recently received three Golden Globe nominations but was widely panned by critics. Other Apple shows, like “Dickinson,” “For All Mankind” and “Servant,” have found modest critical success, but it remains unclear if any of them have truly broken through the crowded pop culture landscape. Apple no doubt hopes that gamers, who collectively spent a record $43.4 billion in the sector in 2018 in the U.S. alone, will flock to the series given its subject matter and the pedigree of its creators.

Fan in Dubai Has One of The World's Best Collections of Apple Devices

Jimmy Grewal is not just an ordinary Apple fan. Based in Dubai, he has one of the world’s most impressive collections of the company’s products. Cult of Mac had a chat with him.

Is this heaven? The world’s greatest Apple Store? Nope, it’s Dubai, actually. Home to Jimmy Grewal, a collector of vintage Apple computers and one of the most impressive collections you’re likely to find anywhere. “Dubai is not exactly the hotbed of vintage Apple collecting,” Grewal told Cult of Mac. “Although Apple computers were sold and used here from the early 80s, a lot of those old computers are not [around any more.] The dealers who used to sell them have gotten rid of their inventory and their spare parts. What I don’t already have, I have to import.” Fortunately, Dubai’s geographical location makes this reasonably easy. Grewal has sourced computers from everywhere from the U.S. to Australia and Europe. He scours eBay and Facebook Marketplace, and relies on word-of-mouth to clue him on possible deals.

Facebook Deeply Committed to Keep Lying Political Ads

Facebook remains committed to keep lying political ads on its platform, saying that private companies shouldn’t make decisions about them.

Instead of banning such ads across the platform, Facebook has opted to introduce new tools for users to limit the way they interact with political ads. The company has expanded its Ad Library tool, an archive which shows all the political ads running on Facebook or Instagram, by adding information on approximately how many people ads reach.

Why would Facebook ban its source of income?

LaunchCuts Adds Folders, Search Filters, More to Shortcuts

Writing for MacStories, Federico Viticci reviewed LaunchCuts, a launcher for shortcuts that can organize them into folders, gives you search filters, and more.

…LaunchCuts’ sole purpose is to offer an alternative view for your shortcut library with folders and powerful search filters. If you have less than 20 shortcuts installed on your iPhone or iPad, you’re likely not going to get much benefit out of LaunchCuts’ advanced organizational tools; but if you’re like me and use hundreds of different shortcuts on a regular basis, and especially if your library has grown out of control over the past few years, you’re going to need the assistance of LaunchCuts to make sense of it all.

App Store: US$7.99

PSA: People Have Been Getting Fake Military Draft Texts

The U.S. Army is warning Americans about fake military draft texts going around. They tell you to report to the nearest Army recruiter “for immediate departure to Iran.”

Some of the fake texts used real names of Army recruiting commanders — while others used fictitious names — lending the false appearance of authenticity, said Kelli Bland, a spokeswoman for the US Army Recruiting Command.

US military conscription was suspended in the 1970s. To resume the draft, Congress would need to enact legislation, according to the Selective Service System, the independent agency that would manage the draft in an emergency.