Google and Oracle have been fighting for a decade over the copyright status of APIs, or application programming interfaces. But Google just won [PDF].
The high court punted on whether APIs can be copyrighted in the first place. But the court’s fair use reasoning was broad enough that it should provide a strong defense for most API copying, making the question of API copyrights much less important.
A report on Monday shows that QuikTrip is rolling out support for Apple Pay at its gas pumps.
Writing for The New Yorker, Ted Chiang believes that the concept of a technological singularity, in which computers / AI would be able to make themselves ever smarter, is similar to an ontological argument. In other words, it probably won’t happen.
How much can you optimize for generality? To what extent can you simultaneously optimize a system for every possible situation, including situations never encountered before? Presumably, some improvement is possible, but the idea of an intelligence explosion implies that there is essentially no limit to the extent of optimization that can be achieved.
Our friends at Stack Commerce have a fun deal for us today on the GoFish Cam Wireless Underwater Fishing Camera, a wireless underwater fishing camera that sits on your fishing line and works with a mobile app so you can see your footage right from your phone. The camera attaches in-line between your main line and leader line, and it allows you to both view and share your underwater fishing footage. It’s $199.99 through our deal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKUJI2R_vlo
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote an argument for the Supreme Court on why digital platforms should be regulated as utilities.
The U.S. is preparing a round of retaliatory tariffs against six countries that have imposed taxes on U.S.-based internet companies.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed he “probably” would not still be running the company in 10 years’ time in a new interview.
Jason Sudeikis continued Ted Lasso’s winning streak, named Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series at the SAG Awards 2021.
M1 Macs have only been available for a few months, but y’all are buying them up like crazy. Of course, troubleshooting them is a bit different than familiar Intel models, and Dave and John talk through some of that while answering your questions. Quick Tips help to make this episode accessible for all, in addition to some non-platform-specific questions about troubleshooting in general. Listen in as your two favorite geeks help share the knowledge, and perhaps you’ll learn five new things, too!
U.S. government servers have been getting hacked left and right. In response, the NSA wants us to think that approval of domestic spying will solve the problem, despite suffering an egregious hack in 2016 where its zero-day exploits were stolen.
“We truly need to look at the ability for us to see ourselves and right now it’s difficult for us to see ourselves,” Nakasone testified on Thursday to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Adversaries like China and Russia “are operating with increased sophistication, scope [and] scale, including operations that can end “before a warrant can be issued,” he warned.
As part of a lawsuit, a judge has decided the suit can proceed, ruling that Apple deliberately sold MacBooks with display issues.
Google announced that it will stop Android apps from scanning the list of your other apps in Android 11. Why this behavior was accepted before is beyond me.
Google has another page that lists allowable use cases for Play Store apps querying your app list, including “device search, antivirus apps, file managers, and browsers.” The page adds that “apps that must discover any and all installed apps on the device, for awareness or interoperability purposes may have eligibility for the permission.”
Time to make a fake antivirus app which queries your list of apps to sell to other companies.
Andrew Orr joins host Kelly Guimont to discuss new App Tracking Transparency news, other updates, and the difference between security and privacy.
A report says that Snap Inc has developed a workaround for iOS 14’s App Tracking Transparency feature.
Apple Arcade will now have Timeless Classics and App Store Greats included, plus new games, bringing the catalog up to 180 games.
A new report says that Apple has been rejecting updates for certain apps, and the cause may be the use of an SDK from Adjust.
We have a deal on Babbel language learning software, and it’s a lifetime subscription at that. Babbel lets you practice with 10-15 minute bite-sized lessons, and Babbel uses speech recognition technology to keep your pronunciation on point. And, it comes with 10,000 hours of online language education. That lifetime subscription is $199 through our deal, and it covers all 14 languages.
Collabio Spaces is an interesting new office suite that allows for document collaboration without needing external servers. Unfortunately it requires a subscription, but could be a useful tool for sensitive documents.
The P2P software lets multiple people co-edit a document locally — from a mobile device or desktop computer — without A) the risk of uploading sensitive information to the cloud (i.e. as you must if you’re using a shared document function of a service like Google Docs); or B) the tedium of emailing a text to multiple recipients and then having to collate and resolve changes manually, once all the contributions trickle back.
Thursdays with Bob continue, Dr Mac drops by to chat with host Kelly Guimont to share how a new iPad proved the power of iMazing as a backup utility.
Apple will announce its fiscal second-quarter earnings and hold a call on April 28 according to an update on its investor page.
Season two of Ghostwriter will be available on Apple TV+ from May 7 and Apple has shared some clips in a series called ‘Beyond the Page’.
As if Siri wasn’t already fun, a patent published on Thursday reveals how our favorite digital assistant could start shouting or whispering.
UBS analyst David Vogt upgraded AAPL to a Buy and raised the price target to US$142 from US$115, Yahoo Finance reported. This upgrade was in no small part based on the impact he thinks Apple can make in the electric vehicle market.
Our analysis of the auto market and Apple’s multi-year investment in the industry (self-driving car licenses and LiDAR patents) suggests to us Apple’s auto optionality is worth at least an incremental $14/share,” Vogt said in a research note to clients. “Apple’s current portfolio provides significant cash flow the company will likely utilize to enter the battery electric vehicle market.” Vogt says Apple can capture some of the battery electric vehicle (BEV) market given customer satisfaction is already high for the tech giant’s products. “We expect Apple’s platform strategy and market share in the global PC and smartphone markets should enable Apple to introduce a branded BEV and achieve a minimum 5% market share in the global BEV market,” he wrote. “Over the next ten years, we forecast the global automotive market will likely transition to almost 100% EV opening up a 90M unit market to new entrants with large installed bases of loyal satisfied customers like Apple.”
Andrew recently learned a quick way to automatically clear text formatting when you’re copying and pasting something.
![[Updated]Jason Sudeikis Earns SAG Awards 2021 Win for ‘Ted Lasso’ Performance](https://www.macobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Jason-Sudeikis-Ted-Lasso.jpg)
