iOS 13 Could Be Google and Facebook's Worst Nightmare

Improved privacy and security is a big part of iOS 13. Apple is also used its release to highlight the data collection practices of Facebook and Google. As Kate O’Flaherty noted at Forbes, this could put them under a lot of pressure.

People are certainly becoming more aware of the way their data is used, following incidents such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In this context, many of the changes could be seen as a direct blow to Apple’s rivals Google and Facebook: iOS 13 highlights their data collection practices and gives iPhone users the opportunity to stop them. In this way, it’s an attack on Facebook and Google’s business models. It’s true: There are many apps that track you and collect data on you, and iOS 13 will affect all of these. But it is also worth considering the position that Apple holds in the market. When Apple speaks, people listen.

Analyst Shares Typically Bearish Take on iPhone 11

Jun Zhang of Rosenblatt Securities tends to be pretty Bearish on Apple. His latest notes, seen by Apple Insider, are no exception.

In the latest essay, provided to investors on Monday, Zhang offers dour opinions on the sales of the new iPhones. The iPhone 11 is estimated to make up around 60% of total new model sales, with the iPhone 11 Pro Max at around 22% and the iPhone 11 Pro at 18%. The product mix is skewed towards the iPhone 11 in Rosenblatt’s view more than last year, which saw iPhone XR sales make up 55% of the total, with the iPhone XS Max at about 30% and the iPhone XS at around 15%. The change in mix is obviously going to affect the average selling price (ASP), which Zhang predicts will be between 10% and 15% lower than the second half of 2018, with between 68 and 70 million new iPhones thought to ship this year.

More Apps Should Use Differential Privacy

News app Tonic is different than most news apps because it uses differential privacy. More apps should do the same.

Before your eyes cross, a real-life example Cyphers gave me is the census. The government has a lot of aggregate data about its citizens—and it probably wants to share demographic information from that set without revealing anything about any one particular individual. Let’s say you live in a small census block with only one or two people. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out personal information about you, given the right parameters. Differential privacy would be a way to summarize that data without putting any one individual at risk.

Answers and Tips for iCloud, iOS 13, iPhone 11, macOS, and More – Mac Geek Gab 781

Lots of new stuff from Apple this week… and lots of technical landmines to navigate. Thankfully, you’ve been sending your questions into John and Dave, and they’ve been doing the research to get you answers. Listen to the answers to your questions – and everyone else’s, too! Press play, and enjoy learning at least five new things… one that might even save your bacon this week!

Safari 13 Just Killed uBlock Origin and Other Extensions

Safari 13 deprecates support for legacy extensions. Instead, you now how to download them through the Mac App Store. A GitHub user explained the uBlock Origin situation and recommends adblocking alternatives.

Get a content blocker. Not nearly as powerful as uBO, but the best option if you want to stay with Safari. Do not get the app called “uBlock”, this is unassociated with uBlockOrigin (read about the split here), and is simply a content blocker with a big negative feature of having acceptable ads built in

Portable 10,000mAh Power Bank: $15

We have a deal on a portable power bank with a 10,000mAh capacity. It features dual USB inputs for faster charging up, and dual 2.4A outputs for charging your smartphone and other devices at high speeds. And, it’s just $15 through our deal.

Apple Reality Composer Available on App Store

The Apple Reality Composer app is now available on the App Store. It’s also included with Xcode so developers can build, test, tune, and simulate augmented reality experiences. Easily prototype and produce AR experiences directly in AR with no prior 3D experience. Drag and drop to place and rotate virtual objects to assemble your scene directly in AR or on the canvas. Build your scene by importing your own .usdz files or take advantage of the ready to use virtual objects in Reality Composer’s built-in AR content library, so you can get up and running quickly. Customize a virtual object’s size, style, and more. Add animations that let you move, scale, and add emphasis like a ‘wiggle’ or ‘spin’ to virtual objects, without having any animation experience. Add spatial audio, all of which can be set up to happen upon a user tapping on those objects, coming in close proximity with them, or other triggers. App Store: Apple Reality Composer – Free

Streaming 'a Whole New World' in November, Says Netflix Boss

Netflix is going to be under a lot of pressure come November when Apple TV+ and Disney+ launch. Variety reported on boss Reed Hasting’s comments to the Royal Television Society Friday, in which he looked ahead to what comes next.

“While we’ve been competing with many people in the last decade, it’s a whole new world starting in November…between Apple launching and Disney launching, and of course Amazon’s ramping up,” said Hastings, who also cited NBCUniversal’s coming Peacock service. “It’ll be tough competition. Direct-to-consumer [customers] will have a lot of choice.” He said Netflix would continue to hew closely to its core strategy of offering content for binge viewing, the phenomenon it helped create. That means the service isn’t moving into live sports, as Amazon Prime Video has, and won’t experiment much with different release models, including for its expanding catalogue of original films. “They may have a qualifying run for theatrical, but it’s fairly small.”

A Deep Dive Into Apple's A13 Bionic Chip

Om Malik wrote a great dive into the A13 Bionic chip that powers the latest iPhones.

Apple’s new chip contains 8.5 billion transistors. Also, there are six CPU cores: Two high-performance cores running at 2.66 GHz (called Lightning), and four efficiency cores (called Thunder). It has a quad-core graphics processor, an LTE modem, an Apple-designed image processor, and an octa-core neural engine for machine intelligence functions that can run over five trillion operations per second.

Big numbers are amazing, and I still marvel at the fact that this chip can do five trillion operations per second. That is astoundingly fast. Five trillion seconds is 158,550 years. Just one trillion seconds ago (31,710 years) was before written history, before the pyramids were built.

Science Journal Admits Those Bone Horns Were Wrong

Remember the study claiming smartphone usage caused bone horns to grow on millennials? The publisher now admits the conclusion was false. But other scientists say their correction is still false.

While the correction attempts to clarify the record on smartphones, it does not do anything to address the fact that the study’s main finding — that poor posture and age are connected to neck bone spurs — still isn’t supported by the underlying data…

“I actually think Nature should remove the original article as the correction has not proved their point,” said Sara Becker, a bioarchaeologist at the University of California Riverside.

Sayonara Wild Hearts Available on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4

When Apple said that Apple Arcade games were exclusive, it meant that they won’t be on Android. But these games can be released on other platforms. Like Sayonara Wild Hearts which was shown at Apple’s keynote. It’s available for Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 for US$12.99. In Sayonara Wild Hearts, players follow a young woman after she experiences heartbreak and finds her other self dubbed “The Fool” in an alternate universe. Play as The Fool and journey through a custom-written pop soundtrack, chase scores, and set out to find the harmony of the universe hidden away in the hearts of Little Death and her star-crossed allies: Dancing Devils, Howling Moons, Stereo Lovers and Hermit 64. Additionally, you can get physical copies as well as a vinyl record at iam8bit.com.