Oprah has launched a special new show on Apple TV+ discussing the coronavirus outbreak with a variety of guests.
Apple TV+ Throttling Video Streaming to Help Reduce Strain on European Broadband
Apple TV+ has reduced the bit rate quality of its streamed-video to help ease the strain currently on European broadband networks.
Siri Can Walk You Through Symptoms of Coronavirus
Siri has a new capability: She can list the symptoms of coronavirus if you question if you have it, and give you advice based on your answers.
Apple Books Gives Out Free Books and Audiobooks
On Sunday Apple customers may have noticed a notification from Apple Books. It offers free books and audiobooks for the whole family.
Should We Ban Targeted Advertising?
Gilad Edelman asks an important question at Wired: Why don’t we just ban targeted advertising?
The solution to our privacy problems, suggested Hansson, was actually quite simple. If companies couldn’t use our data to target ads, they would have no reason to gobble it up in the first place, and no opportunity to do mischief with it later. From that fact flowed a straightforward fix: “Ban the right of companies to use personal data for advertising targeting.”
Instead of, or in addition to, banning or restricting targeted advertising, I think we should go a step further and restrict data collection, which is what these companies use for these ads in the first place. When any startup without a track record can enter the business of collecting and selling our personal information, that’s a problem.
The Great Internet Blocking Conspiracy – Mac Geek Gab 807
Options for Apple TV Volume, Silencing CarPlay upon connect, LTE internet options, and managing the shared family calendar only scratch the surface of this episode’s content: the mailbag overflows with your tips and questions, and John and Dave do their level best to share, answer, entertain and inform! Press play to learn about all this and more; and learn five new things in the process!
Freesay TWS Simultaneous Translation Earphones: $169.99
We have a deal on a pair of Freesay TWS Simultaneous Translation Earphones. The company says these wireless earbuds deliver 97% accurate two-way translation, with 30+ languages under Wi-Fi or mobile hotspot connection. They also play music, have noise canceling, and come with a charging case that can be used in the translation process. They’re $199.99 through our deal, but coupon code SPRINGSAVE15 brings the checkout price down to $169.99.
In Search of Longer MacBook Pro Battery Life
Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus has been looking for ways to eke out more battery time from the 7-year old MacBook Pro, and he shares what he’s learned.
Netflix Relief Fund Gives $100M for Halted Productions
Netflix is creating a US$100 million relief fund to help productions that were halted due to the coronavirus.
Manfredi Gioacchini Used an iPhone to Document Climate Change in Antarctica
Documentary photographer Manfredi Gioacchini is documenting climate change in Antarctica. His tool? An iPhone.
“Most of the usage was related with video recording, in fact the audio of the new phone is incredible,” says the photographer. “That’s important in matters of the climate change… capturing the sounds of icebergs breaking down…”
He also managed to take advantage of the phone’s Night Mode, though it wasn’t necessary for most of the trip, since the sun never dipped below twilight. Scroll down to see Manfredi’s photos for yourself.
Important work, and also beautiful.
5 Resources For Meditation, Mindfulness, and Exercise
We live in stressful times, but there are some fantastic digital resources out there to help with meditation, mindfulness, & exercise.
CarPlay Slows Driver Reactions Even More Than Alcohol, Study Finds
CarPlay is fantastically useful, but new research reported on by AppleInsider suggests that it could severely limit your reaction time. The study for UK road safety charity IAM RoadSmart showed that in-vehicle infotainment systems can impair drivers’ reactions even more than cannabis or alcohol do.
Regardless of the infotainment system, all users showed significantly slowed reaction time. Undistracted drivers typically showed a one-second reaction time. Those who used the voice-controlled Apple CarPlay saw a 36% increase in their reaction time, which rose to 57% when they used the touch interface. Android Auto users faired only slightly better—a 30% increase in reaction time when using voice control, and 53% when using touch controls. For comparison, those who drive under the influence at the drink-drive limit showed a 12% increase in reaction time, and those who used cannabis saw a 21% increase.
macOS: Here’s How to Restore the Mac Startup Chime
Are you looking to restore the Mac startup chime? Many newer Macs do away with this feature but you can bring it back with a terminal command.
Conan O'Brien to Shoot Full Episodes of Late Night Show on His iPhone
Conan O’Brien announced he will become the first late night host to produce a full show remotely, using his iPhone and Skype.
Sidecar Makes iPad a Mac Display, Customize Control Center - TMO Daily Observations 2020-03-20
Bryan Chaffin guest-hosts with Charlotte Henry to discuss how to use Sidecar to make your iPad a second display for your Mac. They also dig into all the ways you can customize Control Center on iPad (and iPhone, for that matter).
Netflix And YouTube Reducing Streaming Quality in Europe to Help Reduce Network Strain
Netflix and YouTube are going to reduce their streaming quality for the next month, CNN reported. They are aiming to help reduce strain on networks as more-and-more people are forced to work from home due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Both companies said the measures will affect all video streams for 30 days. “We estimate that this will reduce Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25% while also ensuring a good quality service for our members,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. A spokesperson for Google (GOOGL), which owns YouTube, said: “We will continue working with member state governments and network operators to minimize stress on the system, while also delivering a good user experience.” The changes follow appeals from EU officials for streaming services and individual users to ditch high definition video to prevent the internet from breaking. With so many countries on forced lockdowns to fight the spread of the virus, hundreds of millions working from home and even more children out of school, the officials were concerned about the huge strain on the internet.
Apple Bans Keyboard App Used to Bypass Chinese Censorship
On Thursday, Apple removed “Boom the Encryption Keyboard” from the App Store. People used it to bypass censorship in China.
NordPass Password Manager 1-Year Subscription: $25.49
We have a deal on a 1-year subscription to NordPass Password Manager for Mac, Windows, or Linux devices. The subscription is good on up to 6 devices, and it will remember and autosave all your complex passwords, autofill online forms, generate strong passwords when needed, and more. This subscription is $29.99 through our deal, but coupon code SPRINGSAVE15 brings the checkout price down to $25.49.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkYUSeAs4mE&feature=emb_logo
Google: “We Don’t Sell Your Data, We Just Monetize It”
One way to avoid the California Consumer Privacy Act is to claim that you don’t sell data. This is what Google has seemingly done.
Google monetizes what it observes about people in two major ways: It uses data to build individual profiles with demographics and interests, then lets advertisers target groups of people based on those traits. It shares data with advertisers directly and asks them to bid on individual ads.
As I tweeted yesterday, there is no difference between selling “access” to data and selling data “directly.” In both scenarios, people are products for advertisers. Although I’m sure lawsuits have been won and lost on lesser technicalities.
Watch This Full Bruce Springsteen Set on Apple Music For The First Time
Bruce Springsteen’s entire 2009 London Calling: Live In Hyde Park set is available in entirety for the first time on Apple Music. The set was filmed at the Hard Rock Calling festival. It kicks-off, naturally, with The Clash’s London Calling, before plowing through a host-of Springsteen classics. For those without an Apple Music subscription, you can now also watch the whole thing on YouTube.
Comparing the PS5 and the Xbox Series X
Time at home making you fancy a new games console? Wired has put what we know about the forthcoming devices head-to-head.
Several of the Xbox Series X and PS5 specs sound similar. They have fast all-SSD storage, 16GB GDDR6 RAM and both a CPU and GPU made by AMD. But if you a little deeper, their differences become apparent. To simmer it down to a reductive analogy: the PS5 is nimble while the Xbox Series X is out to win with brute force power. The PS5 uses incredibly intelligent hardware optimisation and custom silicon to tease remarkable performance out of its core components. But the Xbox Series X has a more powerful GPU, which is the first metric by which any console is usually judged. Their hardware belongs to the same family, though. They have AMD Zen 2 generation CPUs and AMD Navi-based graphics chipsets. The latter will share some hardware with PC graphics cards not even released yet.
Apple Working Towards High-Quality AR Images
A new patent takes it clear that Apple wants its AR devices to be attractive, as well as producing high-quality images.
Tim Cook Announces More Coronavirus Donations
Tim Cook said Apple will make a “substantial donation” to the Protezione Civile in Italy to help them deal with the Coronavirus outbreak.
Is Apple the Company That Can Transform the AR Industry?
Lucas Matney wrote for TechCrunch and asked if Apple can keep the AR industry alive.
AR startups have already been struggling and hardware efforts have largely cratered. The software platforms have had some success building what Apple hasn’t or won’t for niche enterprise customers, but as the economic realities shift, all bets are off.
First, I don’t think there’s much of an AR industry right now to keep alive. We have a scattering of AR features on iPhones and Androids, but right now it still seems niche. Second, in my biased opinion as an Apple blogger, I think Apple is the one to truly make AR mainstream. As an example, Apple didn’t invent the cellphone, but the iPhone transformed our lives and the cellphone industry. For the company to do the same with AR, we need an AR headset.