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Apple TV+ Shows Get Luke Warm Reviews

Charlotte Henry ·

I’m rather excited to see the new shows on Apple TV+ later this week. However, some that have seen the series already have not greeted them all that warmly. The LA Times rounded up some of the indifferent reviews for The Morning Show, See, and For All Mankind.

Reviews are in for all the shows leading the charge ahead of Apple TV+’s much-anticipated Friday launch, and the general consensus has been lukewarm at best. Even “The Morning Show,” the forthcoming streaming service’s timely flag-bearer starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, has elicited mixed reactions. Four series are set to premiere by week’s end, and all signs point to a slow start as Apple enters the streaming wars. But despite its flaws, some still argue there’s content worth watching in the four new shows.

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Is Dark Mode Technically Better? No, But That's Not The Point

Andrew Orr ·

Since Apple introduced Dark Mode in iOS 13 we’ve had a wave of people arguing that dark mode isn’t better for legibility, it could made reading worse on your eyes, et cetera et cetera. But I think they’re missing the point. I’m sure it’s subjective but staring into a searing white screen is worse than staring into a dark screen at night, and I don’t care how many “experts” pull a “well, ackshually.” Speaking of searing white screens, using as much white space as possible in web design has been popular for the last several years and it’s probably a reason why everyone wanted dark mode in the first place. Some web designers tend to prize aesthetics over readability. I’m looking at you Jony Ive.

So yes, you can have the Wednesday Adams aesthetic on your phone interface too. But at this point, it seems to be just that—about the looks.

Podcast

GRUBBRR CEO Bhavin Asher - TMO Background Mode Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Bhavin Asher is a technologist and entrepreneur. After graduating college with a computer science degree, he went to work for IBM. Later, Bhavin transitioned to a position at Deloitte as a CRM Strategy Consultant. Deloitte provided a learning environment to understand how successful businesses leverage technology to scale and grow. Most recently, he was a Director and Solutions Architect at Salesforce. Today, Bhavin is the founder and CEO of GRUBBRR.

Bhavin tells a career story that well prepared him to launch his own business. GRUBBRR is a full-service kiosk order and sales system for, to name a few, restaurants, fast-casual restaurants, cafes, bars, coffee shops, and bakeries. If you’ve ever waited an eternity for your food order or check, you’ll want to hear how GRUBBRR has re-engineered the whole process for the digital age—including great GUI displays, AI and Apple Watch support. Welcome to tomorrow.

TMO Deals

Learn a Language by Chatting with Native Speakers Around the World: $29

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on HelloTalk VIP, a language-learning app that connects you with native speakers around the world. You can search for language exchange partners by native language, city, distance from you, and you can chat with language partners via text, voice recordings, voice calls, video calls, and doodles. A lifetime subscription to HelloTalk VIP is $29 through our deal.

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Spotify Reaches 113 Million Paid Subscribers

Andrew Orr ·

Spotify announced that it reached 113 million paid subscribers around the world, and it’s growing twice as fast as Apple Music.

We continue to feel very good about our competitive position in the market. Relative to Apple, the publicly available data shows that we are adding roughly twice as many subscribers per month as they are. Additionally, we believe that our monthly engagement is roughly 2x as high and our churn is at half the rate.

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Australia, Please Don't Scan My Face When I Download Porn

Andrew Orr ·

The U.K. recently canceled its plans for an age filter on porn websites, but now Australia has taken up the mantle. It wants internet users to verify their identity using facial recognition before viewing pornography.

Writing in a submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs’ inquiry, launched in September, Home Affairs said it could provide a “suite of identity-matching services”.

One example highlighted by the department was the use of the Face Verification Service to prevent a child using their parent’s driver licence to get around any age verification.

At this point, me writing about porn is a running joke now. But stuff like this raises awareness on important privacy issues.

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That Apple Bluetooth Tile Product to be Named 'AirTag'

Andrew Orr ·

There’s a 99% probability that Apple’s new Bluetooth product will be named AirTag, according to assets found in iOS 13.2 which was just released today.

A folder within the filesystem for the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system possibly confirms the name “AirTag” for the new device, which will be paired with a user’s iPhone just like AirPods and will allow users to track any item using the Find My app.

I currently have a bet going that AirTag will be released tomorrow.

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Spotify Reaches 113 Million Paid Subscribers

Charlotte Henry ·

Spotify has hit 113 million paid subscribers, according to its latest financial update, Music Business Worldwide reported.  Apple Music hit 50 million paid subscribers in the final quarter of 2018.

The subscriber numbers were confirmed in a Q3 financial update today (October 28), in which SPOT confirmed that its premium subs count was up 31% year on year (on the same three months, to end of September, in 2018). The 113m is comfortably within the firm’s guidance range of 110-114m for Q3. The average paying Spotify subscriber across the world (ARPU) in Q3 2019 paid €4.67, down 1% YoY, but actually down 3% excluding the impact from foreign exchange rates. SPOT’s global Q3 Monthly Active User count (248m) was up 30% year-on-year, and up by 16m people quarter-on-quarter.

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President Trump Allegedly Ordered Defence Secretary Mattis to 'Screw Amazon'

Charlotte Henry ·

On Friday, the Pentagon awarded a huge contract to Microsoft. It had been expected to go to Amazon. A former aide to  Jim Mattis alleged that President Donald Trump told the Defense Secretary to “screw Amazon,” MotherJones reported.

Guy Snodgrass, one-time aide to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, alleged in a book that was published only recently that Trump had indeed attempted to intervene. Here’s Task & Purpose, via Jake Tapper: Trump called Mattis in the summer of 2018 and directed him to “screw Amazon” out of a chance to bid on a $10 billion cloud networking contract. Snodgrass writes: “Relaying the story to us during Small Group, Mattis said, ‘We’re not going to do that. This will be done by the book, both legally and ethically.” The Department of Defense defended its decision in a statement yesterday, saying that that everything was mad legit: “The acquisition process was conducted in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.” and totally cool and stuff: All parties, the statement said, “were treated fairly and evaluated consistently with the solicitation’s stated evaluation criteria.”

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Arguing That Platforms Can't Moderate Content is a Cop Out

Andrew Orr ·

Mike Masnick writes about Elizabeth Warren’s Facebook feud over its advertising policy that leaves room for fake information. He also says it’s “impossible” to moderate content at scale. I disagree. Facebook and the rest of Big Tech have billions of dollars. They absolutely can moderate content. They either choose not to, or put in place petty measures that don’t do anything. Perhaps the new motto for corporations should be, “If you can’t do it ethically, don’t do it at all.” Online platforms should follow the same/similar rules that broadcasters do.

And this is the point that lots of us have been trying to make regarding Facebook and content moderation. If you’re screaming about all the wrong choices you think it makes to leave stuff up, recognize that you’re also going to pretty pissed off when the company also decides to take stuff down that you think should be left up.