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Saudi Aramco Expected to Beat Apple as ‘Most Valuable Company’

Andrew Orr ·

Oil giant Saudi Aramco recently had the world’s biggest IPO of US$25.6 billion. At that level it has a market valuation of US$1.7 trillion, beating Apple to become the world’s most valuable company.

Aramco did not say when shares would start trading on the Saudi stock market but two sources said it was scheduled for Dec. 11.

Saudi Arabia relied on domestic and regional investors to sell a 1.5% stake after lukewarm interest from abroad, even at the reduced valuation of $1.7 trillion.

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Robocalls and Scams are Killing Phone Calls

Andrew Orr ·

Sarah Hagi writes how the phone call is dying thanks to the rise of robocalling. Now, many people don’t answer unknown callers and instead send them to voicemail.

Speaking to so many people, it struck me how resigned everyone was to this fact: that this is seemingly just the way things are now, with no hope of it getting better, only worse. And while many believe millennials killed talking on the phone because we fear real connection, maybe it’s because we are too scared of getting scammed.

It’s appropriate to come across this article today because I’ve gotten an increase in robocalls in the past couple of days. Aside from using a robocall-blocking app, I go to Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers.

TMO Deals

Track Your Cards and Cash in One Place with this Digital Finance and Budgeting Tool: $34

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the Toshl Medici plan, a financial tracking service that unlocks all the features available in Toshl Finance. That includes all graphs and the option to automatically import data from your bank, credit card or other financial services. You can get a 3-year subscription through us for $39.99, but coupon code BFSAVE15 brings the price down to $34 at checkout. There’s a 1-year option available in the deal listing, too, and the coupon code works on it, too.

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The iPhone SE 2 Might Be Called... iPhone 9?!

Charlotte Henry ·

Rumors emanating from Japan suggested that the much-discussed iPhone SE 2 may actually be called the iPhone 9. AppleInsider took a look at this somewhat unlikely claim.

Japanese site Macotakara is reporting confirmation from its sources within manufacturers in the supply chain, that Apple is readying a cheaper, smaller ‘iPhone SE 2’ to replace the iPhone SE. It may be released in spring 2020, but Macotakara also claims that it may be called the iPhone 9. “Since the consecutive design has been used from iPhone 6 to iPhone 8,” says the site in its own English-language translation, “it is difficult to be thought that the name of iPhone SE would be succeeded.” The word “design” there is most likely to be a mistranslation of what the site probably meant was the iPhone naming convention.

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The Privacy Problems Around Facebook's Libra Currency

Charlotte Henry ·

Libra, Facebook’s attempt to get into cryptocurrency, has suffered a number of setbacks. On Wired, European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski highlighted the privacy issues with the project.

In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive guarantee privacy and personal data protection as fundamental rights for every individual. There can be no doubt that Libra would be subject to these laws. It is clear that payment and transaction data convey a lot of information about the user, facilitating profiling. The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) mainly examines potential data-sharing that may be triggered by Libra facilities on a previously unseen scale. Even if sharing would be conditional on user consent, the long-term implications may be the further loss of control over data.

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Bernie Sanders Unveils ‘High-Speed Internet for All”

Andrew Orr ·

Today Bernie Sanders revealed a plan to expand broadband access across America called ‘High-Speed Internet for All’.

High-speed internet service must be treated as the new electricity — a public utility that everyone deserves as a basic human right. And getting online at home, at school, or at work shouldn’t involve long waits, frustrating phone calls, and complex contracts and fees meant to trap and trick consumers. It should just work.

It’s time to take this critical 21st century utility out of the hands of monopolies and conglomerates and bring it to the people while creating good-paying, union jobs at the same time.

Cool Stuff Found

YouTube Releases Rewind 2019 Video

Charlotte Henry ·

Last year’s YouTube rewind video did not go down well. At all. In fact, it became the most disliked video on the platform ever. This year, YouTube decided to play it safe. It admitted its users are “better at this than we are” and brought together all the most popular clips from the year. The finished video is not that exciting then, but it is certainly less cringe-inducing than last year’s offering. It also gives a good insight into where the site is going as we head into the next decade.

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Homeland Security Cancels Facial Recognition Plan for Americans

Andrew Orr ·

Homeland Security had a plan to expand its use of airport facial recognition to include U.S. citizens. After much outcry the agency will drop that plan, although foreign nationals and visitors will still face mandatory scanning.

A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection, which filed the proposal, said the agency has “no current plans to require U.S. citizens to provide photographs upon entry and exit from the United States,” and that it “intends to have the planned regulatory action regarding U.S. citizens removed from the unified agenda next time it is published.”

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Behind the Scenes of VSCO With CEO Joel Flory

Andrew Orr ·

VSCO is my favorite photo editor and TechCrunch’s Kate Clark sat down with CEO Joel Flory to talk about his company.

Without selling ads or customer data, VSCO has developed a sustainable subscription-based business and written a new playbook for social media businesses in a world where Facebook’s advertising-based model is king. For those fed up with platforms that have facilitated bullying and failed to prioritize privacy, VSCO may be a protective corner of the internet.

I have a couple more VSCO articles planned for the future, like a review of the editing tools.

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A History of Apple’s Technology Transitions

Andrew Orr ·

Martin Pilkington wrote a long blog post detailing Apple’s technology transitions over the years. These are the big, fundamental changes, like going from Motorola 68k to PowerPC in 1994. In fact, the transitions are put into two categories: CPUs and APIs. It’s a great read about Apple’s history.

A lot of the controversy comes down to people not understanding the how or the why of these transitions, and why Apple ultimately drops the old technology. So I thought it would be useful to explore Apple’s history of transitions and try to explain some of the reasons for this latest one in a way everyone can understand.

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T-Mobile 5G Currently Two-to-Four Times Faster Than 4G/LTE

Charlotte Henry ·

T-Mobile turned on the U.S.’s first-ever nationwide 5G Network this week. Venturebeat gave it a test-drive.

Thankfully, my initial testing of T-Mobile’s low-band 5G network revealed a more complex reality than the company’s conservative figure. The good news is that low-band 5G downloads peaked at 227Mbps, 2-4 times faster than T-Mobile’s LTE service at the same locations, and far higher than the aforementioned 20% estimate. But the bad news is that you won’t always achieve the peak speeds, and — surprise — early T-Mobile 5G phone adopters can’t actually use 5G for tethering, only smartphone service.

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AirPower, And Other Products And Firms That Died This Decade

Charlotte Henry ·

There are plenty of firms and products that were with us a the start of the decade that are no longer around. CNET compiled a list of some of those that have disappeared or never even existed. This includes Apple’s much-hyped AirPower charging mat, that never got shipped.

Sometimes they just feel dead because a company doesn’t update or even mention them for a while. The Apple iPad Mini, Mac Mini, MacBook Air, Mac Pro and iPod were on our endangered list for years before Apple surprised us with upgrades to all. On the other hand, the company’s AirPort router line and Time Capsule backup drive also were on a long death watch until they finally landed on Apple’s vintage and obsolete product list this year. You just never know… Apple, with its much-hyped-but-never-shipped AirPower wireless charging pad is my Could’ve Been King of the decade. Google’s Project Ara modular phone and Theranos’ unproven blood-testing tech are other rivals for the position, but while highly newsworthy, neither felt as eagerly anticipated by the tech world as the AirPower.