Uber Rewards is a loyalty program for frequent riders. It launched in nine cities in November 2018 and now it is available across the U.S.
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.
Articles by Andrew Orr
NSA Spying Program Has Allegedly Ended
The NSA spying program that analyzed the calls and texts of American citizens has allegedly been shut down.
Christopher Augustine, an N.S.A. spokesman, told The New York Times in January that agency officials were “carefully evaluating all aspects” of the Freedom Act program, and were discussing its future. Mr. Augustine made clear that the White House would make the final call about whether to ask Congress to extend the Freedom Act.
I hope this is actually true. Now we need the GCHQ to not spy on us either.
Democrats to Introduce 'Save the Internet Act' Wednesday
House Democrats will introduce a bill this Wednesday called Save the Internet Act in a bid to restore net neutrality rules.
Hospital Program for Pregnant Women Compatible With HealthKit
At a hospital in New Orleans a program for pregnant women called Connected Maternity Online Monitoring (MOM) was set up like a Genius Bar and is compatible with HealthKit.
Hatamian was intrigued and agreed to sign up. After her first visit with an obstetrician, she went over to the Ochsner “O Bar,” a part of the hospital modeled on the Apple Genius Bar. But instead of iPhones, the technologies on display included connected weight scales, blood pressure monitors and activity trackers. The O Bar gave Hatamian a set of devices selected for expectant mothers, including a wireless weight scale and a blood pressure cuff, as well as dipsticks and cups to measure protein levels in urine.
Google Finds Severe macOS Kernel Flaw
The flaw lets a hacker make changes to a file without informing the operating system.
USB4 Will Bring Thunderbolt 3 Speeds
USB is suffering a clusterf*ck of names. Last week 3.2 was finalized, and today the media is talking about USB4. This one will bring Thunderbolt 3 speeds.
You probably won’t see USB4 hardware in the near future, however. The USB 3.2 specification was published in 2017 and is due to show up in products this year. USB4 is just a specification at the moment, and it hasn’t even been published. The publication date is scheduled for sometime in mid-2019, which means we won’t likely see USB4 hardware until 2020 or beyond.
Review: Visible is a New Prepaid Carrier Using Verizon’s Network
Visible is an MVNO that leases Verizon’s network to offer a US$40/month phone plan. But Andrew keeps having problems with texting.
Delete Your Instagram Pics to Fly JetBlue Free
JetBlue is introducing a contest. Three winners can fly JetBlue free for a year if they delete all of their Instagram photos and post a new photo using a JetBlue template.
Upload and customize your image with the tool below,then download and post to Instagram with @JETBLUE and#ALLYOUCANJETSWEEPSTAKES before 9:00am EST on 3/8/2019. Keep your Instagram posts cleared, except for your newly uploaded ALL YOU CAN ___ image, until 11:59pm EST on 3/8/2019 to be eligible to win.
For Hire: An Analyst to Share Negative Siri Feedback With Team
The employee will have the power to lead “rapid-response solutions” to fix problems with Siri that are trending or viral.
Huawei Suing U.S. Government Over Ban
Huawei is suing the U.S. government because its products were banned from being used by federal agencies.
According to one of the people familiar with the matter, Huawei’s lawsuit is likely to argue that the provision is a “bill of attainder,” or a legislative act that singles out a person or group for punishment without trial. The Constitution forbids Congress from passing such bills.
WTF is a Momo? As It Turns Out, a Hoax
On Tuesday, a woman named Wanda Maximoff tweeted a warning to parents about a “Momo’ that encourages kids to kill themselves.
Physical Music Purchases Surpass iTunes Downloads
Sales of physical music media, like CDs and vinyls, have surpassed the number of people downloading music from iTunes. Which makes sense because everyone else has moved on to streaming music, which accounted for 75% of revenue last year for the recording industry.
Downloads represented just 11 percent of US labels’ revenue last year, a music industry trade group said Thursday. Physical sales — the term for music formats you can actually hold, which are mostly CDs and vinyl at this point — booked 12 percent.
Celebgate Hacker Gets 34 Months in Prison
Former school teacher Christopher Brennan—Celebgate hacker—was recently sentenced to 34 months in prison after pleading guilty.
Apple is Hiring More Software Employees Than Hardware
For the first time in years, Apple has been hiring more software employees than hardware employees. I think this is a great move because Apple software is generally basic.
It makes sense for Apple: its hardware is now not only ubiquitous, but demand has finally plateaud. At the end of 2018 (right around when Apple began its earnest search for more software people), it became very clear that the iPhone was no longer Apple’s meal ticket as sales lagged followed by a very rare warnings call from Tim Cook.
So now what? Lock people into the ecosystem with software and services. How to get there? Hire people who know how to build that walled garden.
New York Investigates iOS Apps Sharing Data With Facebook
Additionally, on Thursday Ireland’s privacy regulator has 10 open investigations trying to figure out if Facebook violated GDPR.
Apple Watch Health Features Can Change Medicine
Apple Watch health features and fitness tracking have the potential to change medicine. Dan Hon writes how his friend’s Apple Watch helped him.
One day, while I was testing my own Apple Watch, Tom was deconstructing a rack of network equipment. He suddenly noticed his heart was pounding. Then he began feeling dizzy. Next came tunnel vision. He needed to sit down.
I think more and more health features will come to the Apple Watch,, such as blood glucose monitoring.
5G Makes Location Tracking More Precise
5G will be a major upgrade to cellular networks. But since this technology requires more cell towers than 4G, it will make location tracking more precise (paywall).
5G signals in the U.S. will have a very short range and won’t easily go through buildings. This means there need to be many more cell towers. The main way that a cellphone tells where you are—as opposed to a website or an app—is, which tower are you talking to. Today’s towers have a radius of about a mile. If the new towers cover a much smaller area, it means that they know much more precisely where you are.
New Siri Shortcuts for Airlines, Food Orders, Dictionary
New Siri shortcuts are arriving that involve airlines, food ordering, dictionaries, and more (via TechCrunch). [Apple Highlights 18 Top Apps that Support Siri Shortcuts (with Links)] Siri Shortcuts Introduced with iOS 12, shortcuts are a way for developers to integrate Apple’s virtual assistant into their apps. Apps like American Airlines, Caviar, Merriam-Webster, and Dexcom are…
TikTok Fined 5.7M Over Illegal Data Collection of Kids
TikTok is being fined US$5.7 million over allegations that it “illegally collected images, voice recordings, and geolocation of children, some younger than 13.”
The amount, part of an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday, is the largest civil penalty ever issued by the agency in a child privacy case. FTC commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter also filed a separate statement calling for TikTok executives to be held accountable in any future cases. “In our view, these practices reflected the company’s willingness to pursue growth even at the expense of endangering children,” the statement read.
New Apple Podcast Rules Aim to Clean up Episodes
In more podcast news today, emails are getting sent to people with new podcast rules about episode metadata and titles.
Halide's New App Spectre Gives You AI-Powered Long Exposure
Halide is a fantastic camera app for the iPhone, and one that I use exclusively. The team created a new app called Spectre. It gives you long exposure photography powered by machine learning.
Spectre reimagines long exposures: its intelligent shutter takes hundreds of photos during the exposure time and merges the result. That means you don’t just get a final still image, but also a video of the entire exposure as it happened.
The app is on sale with an introductory price of only US$1.99.
Cellebrite Hacking Tool Sells on eBay for $100
The Cellebrite hacking tool used to break into iPhones is being sold on eBay starting at US$100, and could contain data from legal cases.
Like Apple News, Privacy is a Feature of Apple Podcasts
It’s hard for publishers and individuals to make money via Apple’s platforms like News and Podcasts. Jason Snell’s argument seems to be that competitors like Spotify might do better than Apple because advertisers can’t collect user statistics from Podcasts. It’s a conundrum, because I think you can have both good privacy and good advertising. But Apple is never going to give up privacy in favor of deeper advertising. Hopefully there can be a happy medium.
Maybe it’s all for the best. There aren’t too many examples of enormous tech companies opting not to take advantage of their dominance in a market. Perhaps Apple’s light touch on the world of podcasting will continue, at least until a competitor does something to get its attention.
Tim Cook Talks Privacy and Health in Interview
So far, doctors have been fairly comfortable with Apple’s health features because of the company’s commitment to privacy.