News

Happy Thanksgiving, from TMO!

Bryan Chaffin ·

It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S., so that means The Mac Observer is taking Thursday and Friday off to celebrate the holiday. (Though we will also sneak some Black Friday deals in throughout the long holiday weekend.) We’ll be back with our regular news, analysis, tips and podcasts on Monday, December 2nd. We hope everyone has a great weekend, wherever you are in the world!

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Russian Dairy Cows Wear VR Headsets to Reduce Anxiety

Andrew Orr ·

The RusMoloko farm is experimenting with giving cows VR headsets. They claim it can reduce anxiety and thereby increase milk production.

“Examples of dairy farms from different countries show that in a calm atmosphere, the quantity, and sometimes the quality, of milk increases markedly,” it read.

Researchers will examine the effects of the programme in a long-term study. The developers reportedly hope to expand the project if positive results continue.

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This Tool Shows Which Sites Disguise Third-Party Trackers

Andrew Orr ·

Tracking companies have started disguising their third-party trackers as first-party trackers to bypass privacy tools, called CNAME tracking. This tool called TrackingTheTrackers can find them.

This method is called CNAME Cloaking and the disguise is not obvious if one does not know where to look. That’s why we made a free analysis tool that anyone can run on any website. We also wrote an in-depth article about this, you can read it here.

Sounds like a helpful tool. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one. Even Apple does it (But The Mac Observer doesn’t).

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New Apple Store Opening in Toronto

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple customers in Toronto can look forward to a new Apple Store. Macrumors shared details about the new downtown location.

The new store will take over a space recently vacated by apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. Apple’s new store will be more than twice as large as the current 4,977-square-foot store, according to an Eaton Centre floor plan. The extra space is much needed, as not only is the Eaton Centre the busiest shopping mall in North America, but it is home to Apple’s only store in Toronto’s downtown core. Apple has three other stores in Toronto at Yorkdale, Sherway Gardens, and Fairview, all within shopping malls.

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Samsung and LG to Supply iPhone 12 OLED Displays

Charlotte Henry ·

The iPhone 12 is set to have OLED displays supplied by Samsung and LG. That is according to industry sources that spoke to South Korean outlet Etnews.

According to the industry, 5.4-inch, 6.1-inch, and 6.7-inch new iPhone models that will be released in the fall of 2020 are expected to be applied with three different sizes of OLED panels. Although there are three types of displays, it is likely that the number of entire iPhone models will be more than four as Apple is also planning to release a model that will support 5G network. It is understood that Samsung Display will be the sole supplier of 5.4-inch and 6.7-inch OLED panels. Specifically, it will supply on-cell touch flexible OLED panels… 6.1-inch OLED panels will be supplied by both Samsung Display and LG Display as 6.1-inch OLED panel will not be an on-cell touch OLED panel but based on film touch method.

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Readdle Celebrates Black Friday 2019 With Deals up to 50% Off

Andrew Orr ·

Readdle creates apps like PDF Expert and Documents, and it’s celebrating Black Friday 2019 with deals until December 2.

PDF Expert for Mac at 40% off

Black Friday Bundle at 50% off: Apps include Scanner Pro, Calendars 5, PDF Converter, and Printer Pro

Premium Features in Calendars at 40% off

PDF editing in Documents at 50% off

I no longer use Readdle apps but these are great deals for great apps.

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Apple Staff Support Tim Cook's Trump Strategy

Charlotte Henry ·

It is probably fair to say that Donald Trump is not widely popular across Silicon Valley. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook has taken a pragmatic approach to dealing with the U.S. President. A survey conducted for Fortune showed his staff largely agree with it.

The survey, conducted on Fortune’s behalf on the anonymous workplace social network Blind, 81.6% of Apple employees said they support Cook’s efforts to engage the president on matters that “shape policy in Apple’s favor.” Meanwhile, eight in ten respondents said they believe it’s “fair that some of Apple’s products have been exempted from U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made goods.” The findings, which were collected from more than 100 Apple employees between Thursday, Nov. 21 and Monday, Nov. 25 suggest Cook has strong support among his employees in working with Trump to get favorable results for his company.

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Inactive Twitter Accounts to be Removed in December

Andrew Orr ·

Inactive Twitter accounts will be removed in December, freeing up these usernames for reuse.

Twitter is sending out emails to owners of inactive accounts with a warning: sign in by December 11th, or your account will be history and its username will be up for grabs again. Any account that hasn’t signed in for more than six months will receive the email alert.

Twitter hasn’t yet said exactly when recouped usernames will be made available to existing users. The account removal process “will happen over many months — not just on a single day,”

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New York City Wants to Ban FedEx Robots

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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Floppy Disk Signed by Steve Job Auctioning at $7,500

Andrew Orr ·

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!