Jack Dorsey from TWITTER Mocks FACEBOOK New Branding

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey does not seem to be that impressed by Facebook’s new branding. He sent a rather mocking tweet, Bloomberg News noticed.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey poked a bit of fun at Facebook Tuesday morning by seemingly imitating the new “Instagram from Facebook” and “WhatsApp from Facebook” branding.

Facebook unveiled the new branding Monday that aims to make the Facebook brand recognizable in the products it owns.

How Apple's Success Changed an OS Myth

A great feature on AppleInsider tracked Apple’s dramatic rise. It also showed how that rise helped counter the myth that the OS platform was the only important factor in picking who won the tech wars.

Apple somehow regained market power and began selling new volumes of Macs, assisted by the support of new sales of mobile devices. That dramatic shift, which resulted in Apple completely turning the tables on Microsoft, began in less than a decade after Windows 95. In the early 2000s, Apple’s iPod made an appearance that many discounted as irrelevant. Just as Windows 95 couldn’t immediately compete in Apple’s core markets, iPod similarly wasn’t competing with Microsoft’s bread and butter Windows PCs; instead, it was opening up a new market for very personal mobile devices, with media features and prices Microsoft and its licensees were unprepared to match. By 2004 iPod had trampled Microsoft’s Windows Media Player and PlaysForSure “Portable Media Player” platforms. Three years later iPhone similarly crushed global Windows Mobile handsets almost immediately out of the gate. Three years after that, the iPad not only crushed the emergence of Windows Tablet PCs and netbooks but also destroyed any future growth of PC sales.

Like an Addict Facebook is Chasing Even More of Our Data, Now With Facial Scans

Researcher Jane Manchun Wong found that Facebook is working on facial scans called “facial recognition-based identity verification.” It would ask users to upload a selfie of them looking in different directions before they can access their account.

On that same screen and later in the actual video selfie process, Facebook notes that “no one else will see” the video selfie you submit to them and says the video will be “deleted 30 days after your identity is confirmed.”

Deleted after 30 days. Based on Facebook’s past actions we can safely assume it will do the exact opposite. There’s not much room for giving them the benefit of the doubt.

How the Internet Archive Makes Wikipedia More Reliable

Many of Wikipedia’s citations are from books, and to check the book citation against the article requires that you hunt down the book. But now the Internet Archive is making the process easier.

Now, thanks to a new initiative by the Internet Archive, you can click the name of the book and see a two-page preview of the cited work, so long as the citation specifies a page number. You can also borrow a digital copy of the book, so long as no else has checked it out, for two weeks—much the same way you’d borrow a book from your local library.

TMO Contributor Kelly Guimont (#8) - TMO Background Mode Interview

Kelly Guimont is a long-time podcaster, Contributing Editor for The Mac Observer, the host of the Mac Observer’s Daily Observations podcast, a tech support guru, and a Founding Volunteer of App Camp for Girls.

Kelly first appeared here in December, 2015 to tell her career story and has returned many times for interesting discussions. In her 8th appearance, we chat about our favorite TV shows of late. Kelly: Fleabag (Amazon), The Politician (Netflix), and Billions (Showtime). John: Madam Secretary (CBS), Toy Story 4 (Pixar) and Victoria S3 (PBS). Join us as we explore together what’s great about these shows.

Facebook Profits on Manipulating Us, an Insider Reveals

Writing for The Washington Post, Yaël Eisenstat writes about paid political advertising at Facebook and how the company profits off of manipulation.

The “culture of fear,” nasty political campaigns and amplified extreme voices are not new in American society. But the scale to which these platforms have fueled and exacerbated this by using our emotional biases to keep our eyeballs on their screens, to vacuum up our data and sell their targeting tools to advertisers, has tilted the playing field toward the most salacious and fanatical voices.

What to Look For When Reading a Privacy Policy

Yael Grauer wrote a useful guide on what to look for when reading a privacy policy, such as length, updates, and more.

While you shouldn’t feel compelled to read your apps’ and services’ privacy policies word for word—boring!—there are still a few key criteria you should look for while you’re skimming. Yes, skimming; you shouldn’t ignore privacy policies completely, because it’s important to know what’s being done with (or to) your data.

I also use two tools called Polisis and PriBot. These are automated tools that break down a privacy policy for you.

Facebook Updating Branding to Provide Clarity Across Instagram And Other Apps

Facebook announced Monday that it will update its branding across its range of products. The company said the move is a bid to provide greater clarity.

People should know which companies make the products they use. Our main services include the Facebook app, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Workplace, Portal and Calibra. These apps and technologies have shared infrastructure for years and the teams behind them frequently work together. We started being clearer about the products and services that are part of Facebook years ago, adding a company endorsement to products like Oculus, Workplace and Portal. And in June we began including “from Facebook” within all our apps. Over the coming weeks, we will start using the new brand within our products and marketing materials, including a new company website.

Adobe Announces Photoshop Camera App

Today Adobe announced a Photoshop Camera app that gives you plenty of photo effects and lenses and preview them before you take the shot.

Scroll through tons of insta-worthy lenses and effects to apply before or after the shot. It’s really easy to swap them in and out, so you don’t have to worry about changing your mind. And you can keep your favorites to use again and again.

Photoshop Camera is packed with amazing AI-powered features that help you take gorgeous selfies, food and scenery shots, and more. Quick fixes like portrait relighting and distortion removal mean you can post images that look like you spent way more time on them than you did.

It’s not available for release yet but you can sign up to try to test it.

Apple May be Partnering With Valve on AR Headset

Apple is said to be developing an AR headset with Valve, the game developer behind the Steam platform. MacRumors picked up on a report from DigiTimes:

DigiTimes is reporting this morning that Apple has partnered with U.S. game developer Valve to develop its rumored AR headset, which is expected to launch next year. ‘Apple reportedly has partnered with US game developer Valve to develop AR head-mounted display devices, which may be released in the second half of 2020 at the earliest, with Taiwan’s ODMs Quanta Computer and Pegatron said to handle the assembly job, according to industry sources.’ Creator of the popular Steam digital storefront and delivery platform, Valve launched Steam machine consoles in 2015 and released its first VR headset, Valve Index, in April 2019. Notably, Valve worked with Apple in 2017 to bring native VR headset support to macOS High Sierra, leveraging the operating system’s then-new eGPU support with a Mac version of Valve’s SteamVR software. However, Apple’s latest partnership with the company is said to be focused on AR, not VR.

 

Google Wants to Provide Doctors With Medical Record Search Tool

Google is looking to create a high-powered medical record search tool for doctors, The Next Web. Hard to see anything going wrong here…

In a logical next step to make its search products the access point for all content on the web, the internet goliath is turning its focus to healthcare. David Feinberg, the recently appointed head of its Google Health initiative, outlined plans to make it easier for doctors to search medical records, and improve the quality of health-focused search results across Google and YouTube. “Imagine a search bar on top of your EHR (electronic health record) that needs no training,” Feinberg said at the HLTH health care conference in Las Vegas last week. According to Feinberg, the search bar will supposedly allow doctors to type into it, with the system automatically displaying appropriate responses to the queries. For example, a doctor could just type the number “87” to return details about an 87-year-old patient with a history of stomach cancer.

Adobe Releases Photoshop for iPad, But it's Still a Work in Progress

Adobe has released Photoshop for iPad. You can try it for a 30-day free trial, and after that it requires a subscription to Creative Cloud that costs US$9.99/mo.

This first version focuses on core compositing and retouching tools designed to work best on the iPad with Apple Pencil and touch. And we’re just getting started. For future versions, we’re looking at enhancing our tools used for brushes, masks, refining edges, and selecting smart subjects. Plus, we want to make it easier to access your brushes and fonts in Creative Cloud.

Early reviews of the app say it’s a bit rough around the edges, but download it to see for yourself. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)

Hey Presto! I Outsmarted Myself! – Mac Geek Gab 787

Tips about new functionality, including moving Catalina’s windows, scanning with your iPhone, fixing mail, running cron jobs, and downloading installers from the Terminal are just scratching the surface. Then it’s on to diagnosing some network problems and learning how Time Machine can keep your volumes from being resized. Listen as John and Dave walk through all of these, to ensure everyone (including them!) learns at least five new things this week.