The iPhone 11 Glows Thanks to its Glass Back

Someone noticed that their iPhone 11 glows when you turn on the flashlight. The latest models have a special matte glass material on the back. While the iPhone 8 and later have had a glass back, it wasn’t matte and so didn’t produce this effect (Or at least, this is the first time I’ve seen this).

When you turn the flash light on, the iPhone 11 glass back glows. Not sure if the iPhone XR did this too, but I thought the effect was pretty cool.

You can watch it in action on YouTube here.

Securely Store and Access Your Files with E2E Encrypted Cloud Storage: $99

We have a deal on a 1-year subscription to MEGA Cloud Storage PRO, a cloud storage platform using end-to-end encryption. The service encrypts what you upload before you upload it—and, you control the keys. You can store, access or share your files from within your web browser, or through dedicated Android, iOS, or Windows Phone apps. Our deal has three levels of storage, starting with 1TB at $99 per year.

Amazon Planning $800 Million Data Centre in Argentina

Amazon is planning a new cloud data center in Argentina, according to a Bloomberg News report. It will invest $800 million in the project over 10 years.

The Seattle-based company is preparing to invest about $800 million in the project … will reap considerable tax benefits by locating the data center in the Bahia Blanca-Coronel Rosales districts of the province of Buenos Aires, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. Amazon’s decision to put part of its cloud infrastructure in South America’s second-largest economy is a big win for the Argentine government, which is keen to diversify the economy into digital services, nanotechnology, aerospace and more. Earlier this year, the national congress unanimously passed a law creating incentives for tech companies to set up shop there.

Uber Helicopters Available to All Users From JFK

Uber made its helicopters available from JFK Airport to all users. Users within the geofence will be able to book the flights via the app, Reuters reported.

The company announced its Uber Copter offer on Thursday, saying flights to and from Lower Manhattan will become available to all Uber users on Oct. 3. Uber made the feature available to its premium members in June. The roughly eight-minute flight will cost between $200 and $225 per person and include ground transportation on either side of the trip. Passengers can bring along a small suitcase and have to watch a safety video before takeoff, similar to that on an airplane. The flights are operated by HeliFlite Shares, a licensed company, and Uber’s prices roughly compare to those of competitors offering helicopter rides to JFK… JFK is one of the countTry’s largest airports and car trips from congested Manhattan can take anywhere from one to two hours, while public transit takes between 50 and 75 minutes.

32BitAppCheck Helps You Transition to macOS Catalina

32BitAppCheck is an app that scans for 32-bit apps on your Mac. It can help you prepare for macOS Catalina because this release will end support for 32-bit apps. It takes about 30 seconds to scan your computer (longer if you have hard drives plugged in). Once it’s finished it will present a list of all the 32-bit apps it found, which you can save as an .RTF file.

Information then collected in the app’s window begins with a list of 32-bit applications, followed by 32-bit preference panes found in System preferences. Then, you will see 32-bit system extensions, and 32-bit system frameworks. These software will include both Apple and 3rd-party software. You can then edit the information, changing fonts, and adding notes. Click Save to save the information in an RTF file. The most recent information with you edits is also saved within the app.

You can download the app here. As this is an app outside of the Mac App Store, I scanned it for malware using VirusTotal, and it appears to be clean. For an additional resource I’ve also written about Go64, which does the same thing and the UI is a bit more friendly.

DuckDuckGo Survey Shows People Taking Action on Privacy

A recent survey (n=1,114) by DuckDuckGo found that 79.2% of U.S. adults had taken privacy measures in the past year, like adjusting privacy settings on social media or just using social media less.

43.1% (± 2.9) removed personal information or posts that they didn’t want the network or others to see.

35.0% (± 2.8)made their profile completely private.

34.8% (± 2.8) stopped adding location tags to their posts.

38.2% (± 2.8) changed which data they allow the network to collect and share about them.

I think it’s great to see more people paying attention to their privacy. For most people, privacy is something that you don’t notice often until you start losing it.

How Motorola Helps Enable Government Surveillance

Since 2017 Motorola Solutions has invested US$1.7 billion to support or buy companies that build police body cameras, train the cameras with facial recognition, find suspects in videos, and track vehicle movement via license plates.

The company provided a statement that described its plan to add artificial intelligence products, including object detection and “unusual motion detection,” to a package it sells to public safety agencies. The systems can help flag a potential trespasser or the appearance of smoke, the company said. The company emphasized that the new tools are not meant to make automatic policing decisions but to help officers decide how to act.

Apple Files Amicus Brief in Support of DACA

Apple has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy.

Apple has filed many briefs before the Court, but this is the first time that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and Vice President of Retail and People Deirdre O’Brien are named too.

In its brief, Apple notes that it employs 443 Dreamers who come from more than 25 different countries spanning four continents. Dreamers at Apple run the gamut of roles within the company, including hardware engineering, software engineering, retail, customer support, and operations across 36 states.

Ikea Smart Blinds Suffer From Second Delay

The Ikea smart blinds Fyrtur model have suffered a second delay. The after the first delay they were supposed to be released on October 1. But now the company says “later this year.”

The delay is already obvious to anyone who has been feverishly refreshing the US listing, hoping their local Ikea suddenly shows in-store availability. The blinds are on sale elsewhere. In the UK, for example, the Fyrtur blackout blinds are available for home delivery. Moreover, they’re also selling the less expensive, and more translucent, Kadrilj model that won’t be on sale in the US.

Kamala Harris Asks Jack Dorsey to Suspend Donald Trump's Twitter Account

California Senator and Democratic Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris wrote to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Wednesday, CNBC reported. She asked him to remove President Donald Trump’s account, highlighting a number of the President’s recent Tweets.

In a letter to Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, the senator from California pointed to a series of tweets from the president referring to the whistleblower who filed a complaint about Trump’s July 25 call with the president of Ukraine. Harris said Trump’s tweets were an attempt to “target, harass” and “out” the whistleblower. Harris also pointed to Trump’s tweet that “a Civil War” could break out if Democrats successfully remove the president from office. She said the tweet suggests “that violence could be incited should Congress issue formal articles of impeachment against him.” “Time to do something about this,” Harris tweeted to Dorsey. She included Trump’s tweet calling the impeachment inquiry a “COUP.”

Google Will Tell Users if Their Password has Been Hacked

Google has updated its password manager to tell users if their password has been compromised, Wired reported. The feature, called Password Checkup, resembles those available from other password managers.

The feature, Password Checkup, is built into Google’s existing password manager, and tells you if you username or password has been compromised in a third-party data breach. Along with this service, Checkup will also tell you if your passwords are being reused across different sites, and recommend if your password should be strengthened. Password Checkup is built from a Chrome extension launched earlier this year. Google says the extension has been downloaded more than one million times, with nearly half of those users receiving a warning that their password was compromised. In the future, Password Checkup will be built directly into the Chrome browser by default – users will receive the feature without needing to install a separate extension.

Mark Zuckerberg Discusses Elizabeth Warren and TikTok in Facebook Staff Meeting

On Tuesday. The Verge published leaked audio of Mark Zuckerberg talking to staff during an internal meeting. It has now published further transcripts. They revealed the Facebook CEO’s thoughts on a number of issues, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and TikTok.

Question: With the recent FCC fine, investigation, and with the rise of politicians like Sen. Warren, I was wondering how personally worried you are about regulators coming in and breaking up Facebook? Mark Zuckerberg: Well, I think you want to separate out a couple of things. I’m certainly more worried that someone is going to try to break up our company. Now, there’s a separate question about, at the end of the day, there is the rule of law — which, for all of the concern about the direction the country is going in, as someone running a company that operates in a lot of different countries, I have to say one of the things that I love and appreciate about our country the most is that we have a really solid rule of law, which is very different from a lot of other places around the world.