Andrew Orr and Charlotte Henry join host Kelly Guimont to discuss cancelling Apple Arcade subscriptions, and Apple’s new holiday ad.
New York City Wants to Ban FedEx Robots
FedEx robots called Roxo appeared in New York City for a preview party of the company’s Small Business Saturday event. Despite not being there for testing, New York City’s mayor tweeted that they weren’t welcome, and criticized FedEx for taking jobs away from humans.
FedEx told TechCrunch that the bots were there for a preview party for its Small Business Saturday event and are not testing in New York. Even this promotional event was too much for city officials concerned with congestion and bots taking jobs from humans.
After reports of the bot sightings, the mayor tweeted that FedEx didn’t receive permission to deploy the robots; he also criticized the company for using a bot to perform a task that a New Yorker could do. The New York Department of Transportation has sent FedEx a cease-and-desist order to stop operations the bots, which TechCrunch has viewed.
Floppy Disk Signed by Steve Job Auctioning at $7,500
A Macintosh floppy disk signed by Steve Jobs is up for auction with an estimated value of US$7,500.
Macintosh System Tools Version 6.0 floppy disk, signed in black felt tip, “steve jobs.” In fine condition, with slight brushing to the ink. A hugely desirable format for Jobs’s seldom-seen autograph—known as a reluctant signer, he often declined to comply with the requests of collectors. As a piece of Apple’s iconic Mac OS software, boasting Jobs’s elegantly stylish lowercase signature, this is a museum-quality piece of computing history.
This item is Pre-Certified!
A Smartwatch for Kids Just Exposed the Location of Over 5,000 Children
The Chinese SMA-WATCH-M2 was recently caught exposing personal data like location of over 5,000 children and their parents.
Apple Car Patent Describes ‘Private Lighting’
A patent for the Apple Car describes “systems with synchronized windows” to give drivers a sort of private lighting capability.
Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown Call for Apple Card Probe
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to perform an Apple Card probe.
Learn 14 Languages with this Language Education Online: $101.15
We have a deal on a 1-year subscription for Babbel Language Learning. With this deal, you get access to all 14 languages offered by Babbel. You’ll get to practice with 10-15 minute bite-sized lessons, and Babbel uses speech recognition technology to keep your pronunciation on point. And, it comes with 10,000 hours of online language education. 1 year through our deal is $119, but coupon code BFSAVE15 at checkout brings it down to $101.15. There’s also a 2-year option available in the deal listing, too, and the coupon code works there, too.
Disney+ Now Has a 'Continue Watching' Feature
Disney+ had some technical glitches during its otherwise successful launch. It now has a ‘Continue Watching’ feature that was meant to be available originally, Techcrunch reported.
It should show up automatically as a new fourth row, under the “Originals” section. It behaves just as you’d expect, giving you a list of in-progress movies and shows that you’re watching, with a progress bar and the amount of time remaining. Tapping any of the images will jump right back into that content at the place where you left off, and the resume feature works across your logged-in devices. Turns out that this feature was supposed to be live at launch but was removed temporarily prior to the service going live so that the service’s engineers could focus on making sure other elements worked as intended for consumers.
Full Marc Benioff Fireside Chat with Tim Cook
Tim Cook joined Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff onstage at Dreamforce last week. The two men discussed Steve Job’s legacy, Apple’s environmental plans, and privacy. However, the also talked about Apple moving into the enterprise space, and the relationship their firms had. The whole conversation is available on YouTube and is worth a watch.
How Tim Cook Learned to Do Business With Donald Trump
Apple CEO Tim Cook appears to have built a functioning, if not friendly, relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump. He may face criticism for it, but Forbes outlined how Mr. Cook has done this, and the benefits to his firm.
As an openly gay CEO and supporter of Dreamers, Cook might have some personal disdain for the policies of Trump, but as Apple CEO, Cook has found a way to thread the political needle and thrive under the quixotic leader. Apple saved $43 billion by having the ability to repatriate $238 billion under the 2017 tax bill championed by Trump and the Republicans. Apple’s stock has risen over 60% since Cook’s January warning of faltering sales in China that caused the stock to plunge to a year low. Other tech stocks have done well since then, but few as well as Apple. For all of Trump’s bluster and tariff talk, his actions have been selective, and his results have been mixed. Cook has diligently forged a special relationship with Trump that has largely allowed Apple to avoid the brunt of the tariffs, thus buoying Apple’s significant investment in China and calming the fears of investors who might otherwise worry about Apple’s future.
Texas Drops Opposition to T-Mobile - Sprint Merger
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has outlined a settlement with T-Mobile and dropped his state’s opposition to the merger with Sprint.
Servant Will Return to Apple TV+ For a Second Season
Apple has already renewed the M Night Shyamalan directed show ‘Servant’ for a second series, days before the first episodes air on Apple TV+.
Hurry, Pixelmator Photo on iPadOS is Free Right Now
Normally US$4.99, Pixelmator Photo is free right now. It’s a photo editor that promises a full collection of nondestructive color adjustments, full support for RAW images, and machine learning that can improve your photos like a pro photographer. It’s an exclusive app for iPadOS. Here are some of the other features: Batch edit photos using the entire collection of editing tools available in the app; Enhance automatically takes care of all the subtle improvements that go into every great shot — white balance, exposure, shadow, and highlight detail — so you can focus on adding your own creative finishing touches; Presets for film emulation, vintage looks, and more.
Why I Cancelled my Apple Arcade Subscription
With some new blockbuster games available on iOS, Charlotte decided that an Apple Arcade subscription just wasn’t providing enough value.
Fermilab Cosmologist Dr. Dan Hooper - TMO Background Mode Interview
Dr. Dan Hooper is a Senior Scientist and the Head of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. He is also a Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin.
Dan told me about how his early aspirations as a youth were actually in music. It wasn’t until he took a class as an undergraduate in Relativity that the astrophysics bug bit him. Hard. Dan explained how he landed a post-doc position at Oxford and how he was later hired at Fermilab. Later, we chatted about his interest in the interface between particle physics and cosmology, Dark Matter and what neutrinos can tell us about the early universe. We finished with an overview of his new astrophysics book that explores the mysteries of the origin of the universe.
Apple TV+ Shows Hit Streaming Top 20, as 'The Morning Show Producer' Hits Out at Critics
Two Apple TV+ shows – See and The Morning Show entered Reelgood’s streaming Top 20 last week, in 11th and 12th positions respectively.
Apple's Latest Service, Black Friday Deals – TMO Daily Observations 2019-11-25
Bryan Chaffin and John Martellaro join host Kelly Guimont to discuss Apple’s new Music For Business service and upcoming Black Friday deals.
Apple and Nvidia's Relationship Seems to Be Over
It seems that Apple and Nvidia are about to break up for good. Gizmodo noticed in the release note that the latest update of Nvidia’s CUDA platform will be the last to support running and developing applications on macOS.
That means all future versions of CUDA will lack support for Apple devices, which could leave a decent share of the pro community, as well as the hackintosh community, without support for the most popular discrete GPUs being made at the moment. So what is CUDA and why does this mean END TIMES for the relationship between the two companies? CUDA is an Nvidia specific parallel computing platform that lets programs take better advantage of Nvidia’s hardware. This tends to result in better performance in programs like Adobe’s Premiere and AfterEffects and can even result in better performance in some games, like Just Cause 2. The GPUs of Nvidia’s rival, AMD, can’t support CUDA, which has led to some video professionals relying on the macOS platform to grumble over Apple’s long-term reliance on AMD GPUs.
Apple Shares Featurette of ‘Truth Be Told’
Apple shared a video that gives us a look at its upcoming Apple TV+ show Truth Be Told.
When new evidence compels podcaster Poppy Parnell (Octavia Spencer) to reopen the murder case that made her a national sensation, she comes face to face with Warren Cave (Aaron Paul), the man she may have mistakenly helped to put behind bars. Her investigation navigates urgent concerns about privacy, media and race.
Truth Be Told is created by Nichelle Tramble Spellman and stars Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul, Lizzy Caplan, Elizabeth Perkins, Michael Beach, Mekhi Phifer, Tracie Thoms, Haneefah Wood and Ron Cephas Jones.
Why Teaching Privacy to Your Kids is Important
Siobhan O’Flynn writes about all the ways that companies like Google collect data from kids in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. It starts when schools increasingly turn to Google services in education.
Alphabet Inc. dominates child-directed and child-featured content online through YouTube Kids and has now colonized online educational spaces through Google Docs, G-Suite, Chromebooks and the associated Gmail accounts for children that are required for use. This means that Google’s access to children’s data spans entertainment (YouTube and YouTube Kids), search and purchase histories (via associated parental accounts), and educational sectors.
Nike Joins the 3% Cash Back Club for Apple Card
Nike joins other companies in offering 3% cash back to customers who use the Apple Card on any of the company’s retail platforms.
Satechi Releases New Compact Bluetooth Keyboard
Satechi announced today the release of its compact Bluetooth keyboard featuring a full keyboard layout with dedicated number keys.
Apple Expects to Sell 100 Million 5G iPhones Next Year
Apple expects to sell over 100 million 5G iPhones in 2020, according to sources within its Tawainese supply chain.
Apple Offers up to $200 Gift Cards With Certain Purchases
Between Black Friday 2019 and Cyber Monday, Apple is offering up to US$200 gift cards with certain product purchases.