Enter our new international giveaway for a chance to win the brand new iPhone 16 Pro.
Apple Sends, Then Retracts, DMCA Takedown Notices Over iPhone Encryption Key Tweet
Apple issued a DMCA takedown notice to Twitter after someone posted an iPhone encryption key, but then retracted the request.
Apple Partners With Orangetheory on Apple Watch Fitness
Apple has partnered with Orangetheory Fitness, which created a device called OTbeat Link that clips on an Apple Watch band.
How Thermodynamics Help Keep the Mac Pro Cool
The new Mac Pro is a bit of a beast. Computers like that obviously generate a lot of heat. Popular Mechanics spoke to the Apple engineers tasked with keeping such a powerful device cool.
Most high-grade PCs and displays cool things off with big fans or pump-driven water systems. But if you’ve used a Mac in the past decade, near-silent operation is a non-negotiable requirement for Apple laptops. That means Apple engineers have to find creative ways to exploit the laws of thermodynamics. Among those engineers is Chris Ligtenberg, Senior Director of Product Design. His name is on dozens of the company’s patents, but he’s especially interested in how air moves. (He’s also a pilot. “I fly a Beechcraft Turbo Bonanza, B36TC,” he says. Before that, he had a Piper straight-tail Lance, PA32R-300). Ligtenberg’s group built the Pro’s fan system—three axial fans in the front, with a blower in the back. Since most off-the-shelf fans would be too loud, Apple designs them internally.
Twitter Will Turn Your Live Photos Into GIFs
Twitter says that the next time you upload Live Photos from iOS onto its platform, you’ll see an option to turn it into a GIF. It won’t happen automatically, but you’ll see a GIF button in the lower-left corner of the tweet compose window.
Give the gift of GIFs. You can now upload your iOS Live Photos as GIFs anywhere you upload photos on Twitter.
Twitter Announces Changes to Help Combat Hate and Harrassment
Twitter is going to pay five people to work on decentralized standards for social media. They hope it will help combat hate and harassment online. CEO Jack Dorsey made the announcement in a thread on Wednesday. Wired explained what it all means for the future of social networking.
That could mean that, instead of Twitter the company having sole control over Twitter the social network, many other people could run their own versions of Twitter, in the same way that many different companies, nonprofits, and individuals run email services. You can send an email from Gmail to Yahoo, or to a server run by a mom-and-pop email provider. You can even set up your own email server at home. That’s because email is based on open standards that anyone can use. But don’t expect to set up your own Twitter tomorrow. The project is in its earliest stages. Twitter CTO Parag Agrawal is hiring the team, which will be known as “@bluesky.”
PDF Search - AI-Powered Text Search Inside PDF Documents: $8.50
We have a deal on PDF Search, software that enables you to find any information in seconds within thousands of documents using Artificial Intelligence. Instead of checking only what’s in front of you, iPDF Search analyzes all pages separately and makes a relevance check for each of them according to given keywords. It’s $9.99 through our deal, but coupon code MERRYSAVE15 brings the checkout price down to $8.50. Check out the promo video below.
Google’s Project Understood Aims to Help People With Down Syndrome Use Voice Technology
Google started an initiative called Project Understood. It’s partnering with the Canadian Down Syndrome Society to ask people with Down syndrome help train its voice recognition algorithms to understand them better.
“Out of the box, Google’s speech recognizer would not recognize every third word for a person with Down syndrome, and that makes the technology not very usable,” Google engineer Jimmy Tobin said in a video introducing the project. Google is aiming to collect 500 “donations” of voice recordings from people with Down syndrome, and is already more than halfway toward its goal.
A worthy project.
iOS Update PSAs, John's Mac Pro – TMO Daily Observations 2019-12-11
Andrew Orr and John Martellaro join host Kelly Guimont to discuss some new features in the latest iOS update, and John’s Mac Pro.
AT&T Raises Price of DirecTV Again
Despite losing millions of customers the last time it did this, AT&T decided to once again raise the price of DirecTV. Monthly rates will increase by US$8/mo starting on January 19, 2020.
The $8-per-month increase will apply to the DirecTV Premier plan that currently costs $189. A $7 increase will apply to the Ultimate package that costs $135 and to the Xtra package that costs $124; a $5 increase will apply to the Choice plan that costs $110; a $4 increase will apply to the Select package that costs $81 a month and to the Entertainment package that costs $93; and increases of $1 or $3 will apply to basic plans.
Drafts: Popular Note-Taking App Gets Integration Upgrade on Mac
The Mac version of Drafts has been updates to include integration with other apps, as is possible on the iOS version.
Analyst Predicts Six New iPhone Models
Speculation about the 2020 iPhone is growing. In an investors note seen by AppleInsider, Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang predicted specs for six different models.
For the “iPhone 12” range, Zhang expects there to be a far wider array of models to choose from than Apple has ever offered before, in part due to the introduction of 5G The analyst’s model predictions include: iPhone 12 4G with a 6.1-inch LCD screen and dual rear cameras, iPhone 12 Pro 4G with a 5.4-inch OLED screen and dual rear cameras, iPhone 12 Pro 5G with a 5.4-inch OLED display and dual rear cameras, iPhone 12 Pro Plus 4G with a 6.1-inch OLED display and a triple rear camera with Time-of-Flight 3D sensing capabilities, iPhone 12 Pro Plus 5G using a 6.1-inch OLED screen, triple camera setup, and ToF features, iPhone 12 Pro Max 5G with a 6.1-inch OLED panel, the triple camera setup, and ToF. To further complicate matters, Zhang also suggests the “iPhone 12” Pro 5G could be offered in variants supporting sub-6GHz only or adding mmWave compatibility.
The Moment Ellen De Generes and Michelle Obama Give iPads to a Class of Schoolchildren
Ellen De Genres and former First Lady Michelle Obama visited Randle Highlands Elementary School in Washington, D.C. There, they handed out an iPad from Apple to every pupil. Furthermore, the teachers got MacBook Airs and the school got new iMacs (via Cult of Mac). A video shows the moment the pupils realized what was happening!
How to Call Your Legislators With a Shortcut
Matthew Cassinelli was part of the team that created Workflow, which Apple acquired and turned into the Shortcuts app. He recently created a shortcut that lets you enter your zip code and automatically call your legislators.
Hello. You can use this tool to immediately call your senator/representative based on your ZIP code. Contact them now.
Apple TV+ Bosses Reflect on Golden Globes Nominations
This week, Apple celebrated Apple TV+ flagship The Morning Show receiving three Golden Globes nominations. Deadline spoke to the company’s heads of world video – Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg about what it all means.
“Honestly we had really mitigated expectations because no streamer has ever received nominations in any significant categories the first year, it took minimum two years before they got traction to get nominations,” Jamie Erlicht, Apple’s head of Worldwide Video, said. “We expected that it would be very hard to do, but we also had to believe in the quality of our shows and that if anyone had a chance to get early awards recognition, Apple TV+ would be one to do it. It’s been validating what we knew, that we had something special here.” Added Apple’s fellow head of Worldwide Video Zack Van Amburg, “After the debut of Apple TV+ just last month, today’s nominations are a true testament to the powerful storytelling that went into The Morning Show, as well as all of our Apple Originals.”
Apple Just Made SMS Two-Factor Authentication More Annoying
iOS 13.3 added an improvement to minimize junk messages you get, but it also made SMS two-factor authentication more annoying.
Safari Now Prevents Tracking Prevention Tracking
In a blog post called “Preventing Tracking Prevention Tracking” WebKit’s John Wilander explained a new Safari capability.
Mac Pro's Different Pricing Options
There are lots of different pricing options for the newly released Mac Pro, with upgrades possible to the processor, RAM, GPU, and storage.
Twitter Will Stop Transcoding JPEG Images Which Lowered Quality
Twitter engineer Nolan O’Brien said that Twitter will preserve JPEGs as they are uploaded. This means that uploaded images will retain their original quality.
It’s a small change that has the potential to make a big difference to the way photographers view and use the platform. Nolan’s thread has inevitably kick-started a conversation about plans for other image formats and user-requested changes, so Twitter could make itself even more photo-friendly soon.
Another interesting note is that Twitter automatically strips EXIF data from photos, which I didn’t know. This is nice because this metadata can contain private information, such as where the photo was shot.
Angry Birds Celebrates 10 Years on iOS
Angry Birds first appeared in the iOS App Store 10-years ago, and has grown into a worldwide phenomenon, downloaded 4.5 billion times.
My Life and Times With a 2013 Mac Pro
The unloved, beautiful, black duckling of a 2013 Mac Pro has been a workhorse for John for almost six years. He tells its story.
Mac Pro and iMac Pro, Apple Card Bonuses – TMO Daily Observations 2019-12-10
Charlotte Henry and Bryan Chaffin join host Kelly Guimont to discuss the new bonuses with the Apple Card and Bryan’s impending Mac purchase.
HUB Hi-Fi Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds: $60
We have a deal on HUB, a set of wireless, noise cancelling earbuds. They offer up to 8 hours of playback time on a single charge, with the charging case capable of charging another 100 hours of playback time. And, you can use the charging case to charge your other devices, too. They also feature Bluetooth 5.0, and they’re rated as IPX5 waterproof, which means they can resist a sustained, low-pressure water jet spray. They’re $74.99 through our deal, but coupon code GREENMONDAY20 brings the price down to $60.
Steam Game Terraforming Mars Heads to iOS
Terraforming Mars, a Steam game that was previously only available for PCs, has made its way to iOS. It’s a strategy game in which players try to terraform Mars to make it habitable. You play as a corporation, and each one has a different specialization, like metal, heavy industry, financier, biotech, or energy. You work together with other corporations in the terraforming process, and compete to get points based on your contributions. You can play solo with AI opponents or online with humans. It requires a minimum of iOS 10 to download. App Store: US$8.99
Apple Releases 13.3 Updates to iOS, iPadOS, tvOS
Today Apple released iOS 13.3, iPadOS 13.3, and tvOS 13.3 with bug fixes, improvements, and a couple of new features.