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Andrew Orr

Since 2015 Andrew has been writing about Apple, privacy, security, and at one point even Android. You can find him most places online under the username @andrewornot.

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People are Putting Their Apple Cards Through a CNC Mill

Some people are customizing their Apple Cards with CNC milling machines in an effort to improve Apple’s minimalistic credit card.

As Wiegand showed on his Instagram account, he loaded his card into one of these computer-controlled cutting machines to customize the white finish with the filigree you’d find on the back of a 19th-century-era Bicycle playing card.

Neat stuff. We’ve already seen wallet cases specifically for Apple Cards. I wonder if some companies will create Card skins.

Apple Beta Tests Official Apple Music Web Player

Apple is starting to get the hang of what being a services company really means. Charlotte and I have wrote about unofficial web players for Apple Music, and now Apple is beta testing an official one.

To use the new Apple Music web version, subscribers can visit the link beta.music.apple.com and sign in with their Apple ID.

At launch, the service includes many core features, like searching and playing songs from the Apple Music catalog, searching and playing songs from your library (if Sync Library is enabled), accessing your playlists and more.

Planned Parenthood's App Comes to All 50 States This Year

Planned Parenthood Direct is an app that lets you order birth control and get UTI treatment from your phone. It will roll out to all 50 states by the end of 2019.

For either birth control prescriptions or UTI treatment, you’ll need to fill out some personal and medical information, then wait up to one business day for a clinician to decide whether your case is straightforward enough that they can write your prescription. In some states, you’ll need to do a video chat. And depending on the provider’s decision, your request may be turned down and you’ll need to see somebody in person.

Two Zombie Rumors are Back: iPhone SE 2 and Display Touch ID

I’ve coined the phrase “zombie rumor” because these rumors keep getting resurrected. First it was the Apple TV set, and now it’s the iPhone SE 2 and Touch ID that is embedded into the screen. Mark Gurman tells us about both.

Apple is considering including this in-screen touch sensor in the 2020 iPhone model if testing is successful, the people said. Suppliers have proven their ability to integrate the technology into iPhones, but the company has not managed to mass-produce it yet, one person familiar with the development work said.

I think going back to Touch ID is a step backward. Face ID is more secure, so Apple would be intentionally creating less-secure devices, unless they can somehow get Touch ID up to par with Face ID.

Researchers Test Phones to See if They're Secretly Listening

Researchers put an iPhone and a Samsung phone into a room, playing cat and dog food advertising for 30 minutes.

The security specialists kept apps open for Facebook, Instagram, Chrome, SnapChat, YouTube, and Amazon with full permissions granted to each platform…They repeated the experiment at the same time for three days, and noted no relevant pet food adverts on the “audio room” phones and no significant spike in data or battery usage.

The results won’t surprise those in the information security industry who’ve known for years that the truth is that tech giants know so much about us that they don’t actually need to listen to our conversations to serve us targeted adverts.

For some people, maybe the belief that phones secretly spy on us is less terrifying than learning how much data these corporations actually have on us.

Google Built Fake Webpages Called 'Push Pages' to Defy GDPR

As part of Google’s DoubleClick/Authorized Buyers advertising system, the company created hidden webpages for advertisers that violate its own policies.

Google Push Pages are served from a Google domain (https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com) and all have the same name, “cookie_push.html”. Each Push Page is made distinctive by a code of almost two thousand characters, which Google adds at the end to uniquely identify the person that Google is sharing information about. This, combined with other cookies supplied by Google, allows companies to pseudonymously identify the person in circumstances where this would not otherwise be possible.

Apple Prepares to Offer Bonds to Fund Share Buybacks

Apple is preparing a bond offering to raise money for share buybacks so it doesn’t have to dip into its cash hoard. The company hasn’t offered bonds since 2017.

We estimate the net proceeds from sales of the notes will be approximately $ , after deducting underwriting discounts and our offering expenses. We intend to use such net proceeds for general corporate purposes, including repurchases of our common stock and payment of dividends under our program to return capital to shareholders, funding for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and repayment of debt.

That Apple iPhone 11 Document is Probably Fake

A document that Twitter account AppleBeta2019 claims is an internal Apple document provides iPhone 11 data like new names, build numbers, and launch dates. Inconsistent information within the document suggests that it’s fake, but we’ll share the link in the interest of our readers.

It seems very unlikely that anyone creating such a document would be aware of marketing names and include said branding in the document, whose only purpose is to mention the software rollout plans. Moreover, files intended for the eyes of retail stores often include watermarking and fingerprinting techniques to help Apple detect leaks. This PDF seemingly lacks any such identifying markers.

Primate Labs Geekbench 5 Has Arrived and it's 64-Bit

Geekbench 5 is the latest update to Primate Labs’ benchmarking software. It’s available for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Geekbench 5 is 64-bit only, dropping support for 32-bit processors and operating systems. Geekbench 5 does not include any of the compromises required to run on 32-bit systems. This enables Geekbench 5 to include more ambitious benchmark tests with larger data sets and longer running times.

Next Firefox 70 Update Will Reduce macOS Power Usage

Mozilla announced that the next Firefox 70 update will reduce power consumption on macOS by up to three times.

But according to Mozilla engineer Henrik Skupin, Firefox devs have finally made a breakthrough, and believe they fixed Firefox’s power consumption on macOS. Skupin said that a current fix for the battery drain issue has been deployed on Firefox Nightly, where it managed to reduce power usage by three times. The fix is expected to land in the stable version of Firefox in late October 2019, with the release of Firefox 70.

New Lego Star Wars Battles Arrives in 2020

Lego Star Wars Battles is a mobile game coming to iOS in 2020, combining competitive combat, character collecting, and tower building with the classic charm and humor of LEGO.

Lead an army of LEGO Star Wars characters into real-time multiplayer PvP battles in arenas inspired by iconic locations from throughout the galaxy. Collect and upgrade characters and vehicles and craft both light and dark side armies to take into battle. Build LEGO towers on the battlefield to strategically combat, defend, and capture territory as you push toward the enemy base to claim victory.