Apps that allow Kuwaiti families to buy women as domestic servants for just a few thousand dollars were found on the iOS apps store.
iOS 13.2 Aggressively Kills Background Apps and Tasks
Nick Heer put together a list of people noticing that iOS 13.2 is awfully aggressive in killing apps and tasks in the background.
As bugs go, this is isn’t a catastrophic one, but it absolutely should be the highest of priorities to fix it. It’s embarrassing that all of the hard work put into making animations and app launching feel smooth is squandered by mismanaged multitasking.
ACLU Sues FBI Over Facial Recognition
The ACLU is suing the FBI over its use of secret facial recognition technology. The agency as a database of roughly 640 million faces.
Nylon Braided iPhone Lightning Cable in Space Gray or Rose Gold: $9.99
We have a deal on a nylon-braided, MFi-certified Lightning cables in either Space Gray or Rose Gold. They’re 3.3 feet long (just over a meter), and feature Kevlar fiber core, nylon-braiding, and precision laser welding. They’re $9.99 through our deal. I’m linking to the Space Gray version, but check the pulldown menu for Rose Gold and a longer Space Gray version, too.
M. Night Shyamalan Posts 'Servant' Series Trailers
M. Night Shyamalan posted two trailers for his upcoming series for Apple TV+ called Servant, debuting on November 28.
Earnings Call Observations – TMO Daily Observations 2019-10-31
John Martellaro and Bryan Chaffin join host Kelly Guimont to discuss to discuss what we heard and think we heard on Apple’s earnings call.
AT&T Unlimited Elite Plan Gives You 100GB of Data
AT&T announced three new phone plans for customers: Unlimited Starter, Unlimited Extra, and Unlimited Elite.
Third-Party Lenses Still Beat iPhone 11's Ultra Wide Camera
There has (rightly) been a lot of praise for the cameras in the iPhone 11 family of devices. However, on Cult of Mac, David Pierini, argues why a third-party lens still beats the ultra-wide camera on the entry-level model
if you are a pixel-peeping stickler for quality, the ultra-wide camera may disappoint. The ultra-wide camera does not support RAW shooting or Apple’s new Night Mode. It also has a slow aperture at f2.4, meaning the lenses will not allow in as much light as the iPhone’s standard camera. Zoom in to see how the details are soft and surrounded by digital noise. The higher quality shot will come by placing one of these third-party ultra-wide lens attachments to the standard camera, which has a focal length of 28 mm.
16-Inch MacBook Pro Could Arrive This Quarter
The latest rumors swirling around the 16-inch MacBook Pro say the device is going to arrive in the next couple of months.
Brydge 10.2 Keyboard for iPad 7th Gen is Available
If you’ve purchased the seventh generation iPad you might be happy to know that Brydge’s 10.2-inch keyboard for this model is now available
Military and Government Officials From U.S. Allies Victims of WhatsApp Hack
WhatsApp was hacked to take over the phones of senior government and military officials in countries allied to the U.S.
The ProtonMail iOS App is Now Fully Open Source
Since 2015 ProtonMail’s web app has been open source, and today the company announced that its iOS app is, too.
In addition to making our iOS app open source, we have also documented and published our iOS security model. This is important to us because raw code without documentation can be almost unintelligible sometimes, and a documented security model will assist in rigorous assessment and review of our code by the public. Our iOS trust model is also available on our Github page.
Apple Card Customers Get 24-Month iPhone Financing
Yesterday during Apple’s earnings call one of the announcements was about iPhone financing. Apple Card customers can get 24-month financing.
Jason Momoa Believes 'See' Will Help Create New Roles for Blind Actors
‘See’ star Jason Momoa believes that the Apple TV+ series could help create new opportunities for blind actors
How TikTok Broke Rap Music
TikTok has 1.7 billion active users and features videos of teens and tweens lip-synching. And, according to Wired, it has broken rap music, infantilizing a genre once built on rebellion.
“Rap has always had a playful way of delivering lyrics. We’re seeing a renaissance of humour being put back into the music,” says Isabel Quinteros, senior manager of music partnerships and artist relations at TikTok. “TikTok is filled with light-hearted content from people having fun with their videos, and we’re excited to give these artists a platform to directly connect with their fans.” Since TikTok and rap music both grew out of a practice of remixing and re-contextualising music, it’s fitting that rappers seem to be profiting most from this new interaction. Lil Nas X’s completely clean and cowboy cosplay track ‘Old Town Road’ is still by far the most famous example.
Analysts React to Apple's Latest Results
Wall Street analysts were, as ever, quick to react as Apple revealed its latest round of results on Wednesday. Many of them focused on the growth in wearables. AppleInsider insider has a nice roundup of what many of the big names had to say.
Cowen and Company: Reiterating its “Outperform” rating on the stock the iPhone business is performing “better than market expectations in the near term.” The iPhone 11 product family “is being received well by consumers and this could drive a re-rating in shares,” the firm suggests, “especially as a potential low-cost SE2 in C1H20 and a 5G iPhone by C4Q20 could be additional catalysts in the coming year.” Rosenblatt Securities: The 1.58% year-on-year revenue increase is “mainly driven by the wearable segment” and primarily from AirPods, Rosenblatt claims, though this is of limited use to the company as it “does not bring much upside to iOS services” at all. “We believe the lack of upside to services from wearables is why the Street gives low multiples to wearable companies.”
Apple TV+ is about to launch. What can we expect?
Apple TV+ is about to go live, but what can we, the viewers, expect? The reviews have not been good, but that does not mean we should give up hope just yet.
Twitter Leapfrogs Over Facebook and Bans Political Ads
I’m actually impressed with Twitter’s move. A corporation is willingly giving up the money it would make from political ads (Although it’s easy for them since these ads were a “small fraction of Twitter’s revenue). Still, kudos.
[Twitter CEO Jack] Dorsey touched on the conflict between hosting paid political ads and trying to fight the spread of misinformation.
“For instance, it‘s not credible for us to say: ‘We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want!'” Dorsey tweeted.
Tim Cook Implies Free Year of Apple TV+ Promo Is Temporary
In comments during Apple’s quarterly conference call with analysts, Mr. Cook strongly implied it was a time-limited offer to get people in the door.
![AAPL Turns in Record Q4 Revenues of B, Beats Wall Street on Earnings and Revs [Update]](https://www.macobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/aapl-stock-graph-wide.jpg)
AAPL Turns in Record Q4 Revenues of $64B, Beats Wall Street on Earnings and Revs [Update]
Apple on Wednesday turned in a record September quarter—the company’s fiscal 4th quarter—with revenues of US$64 billion. The company also reported earnings per share of $3.03, crushing Wall Street consensus estimates of $2.68 EPS. [Updated with more details.]
Edit Photos, Retouch Images, Design Content, and More with Fotor for Mac: $19.99
We have a deal on Fotor, an image editing and design app for Mac. Fotor allows you to crop, retouch, and add creative effects to your content, and it features a collage-maker. It also has pre-made templates, tools, and customizable elements. You can get a one-year subscription to Fotor through our deal for $19.99.
Blockbusters Not Boxsets Might Decide The Streaming Wars
As more and more streaming services are announced, a lot of the talk is on the boxset-style series that are available. It is though they will be crucial in attracting subscribers. However, Variety suggests the blockbuster-style might be more important in deciding who wins the streaming wars.
The pressure is only growing on the film front, particularly as Netflix has dramatically increased the quality of its feature offerings. After backing critically maligned productions such as the Will Smith fantasy “Bright,” Netflix’s feature division is overflowing with Oscar contenders this year. The company has generated rave reviews for the likes of Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” Fernando Meirelles’ “The Two Popes” and Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman.” That track record, along with its 2017 decision to enlist former Universal executive Scott Stuber to oversee its film division, has made the service a desirable destination for filmmakers looking for a home for their passion projects.
AvengerCon: The Return of a Hack Convention for the Military
AvengerCon is a hacking convention for members of the US Cyber Command and government cyber operations community at the US CYBERCOM DreamPort facility.
AvengerCon is an event that is attracting the very best talent both from our DoD participants and also from some of the folks that are working with us outside of the DoD,” Luber said. “When you bring those very best cyber experts together, they get to learn, test out new ideas, and work in an environment that is hosted by and for DoD cyber operations community experts.
The AI 'AlphaStar' Becomes a Grandmaster in StarCraft II
DeepMind’s AlphaStar AI has recently become a Grandmaster in the game StarCraft II.
StarCraft requires players to gather resources, build dozens of military units, and use them to try to destroy their opponents. StarCraft is particularly challenging for an AI because players must carry out long-term plans over several minutes of gameplay, tweaking them on the fly in the face of enemy counterattacks. DeepMind says that prior to its own effort, no one had come close to designing a StarCraft AI as good as the best human players.