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Future MacBooks Could Offer Multiple Haptic Areas, Patent Suggests

Charlotte Henry ·

Upcoming MacBooks could incorporate multiple discrete haptic areas. That’s according to a new patent, spotted by Patently Apple.

Apple’s granted patent generally relates to electronic devices with one or more input areas that also function to provide spatially localized haptics via the Taptic Engine. “Spatially localized” haptics (or haptic output) generally refers to any haptic signal, e.g., haptic output, that is tactilely perceptible to a person touching a particular active region of the electronic device, but imperceptible outside that region. The surface area over which a single haptic output is perceptible is referred to as a “discrete haptic region.” There may be any number of discrete haptic regions in an input area of a laptop computing device. The discrete haptic regions may be separated from each other, or they may overlap. Either way, they remain discrete haptic regions each associated with an individual haptic actuator. An “input area” is a structure or surface configured to accept a user input.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite Adds iPad App, M1 Support
Cool Stuff Found

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite Adds iPad App, M1 Support

Andrew Orr ·

Graphics suite CorelDRAW has added support for M1 Macs and created a brand-new iPad app. Built to take advantage of the power of Apple silicon, the team’s testing showed dramatic performance boosts on these new systems. When comparing a variety of common tasks on a MacBook Air 2019 (Intel chip) vs a Macbook Air 2020 with M1, across the board, most scenarios showed a minimum 2x speed improvement on the M1 system. Some tests were dramatically higher, including an image resampling scenario that produced speed results more than 20x faster.

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Comparing Privacy Policies: Clubhouse Versus Twitter

Andrew Orr ·

Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces are the newest entries to the audio space, but they both do different things with your data. Matt Binder examined their privacy policies.

The two platforms’ approaches to data storage really speak to a major difference in their intended uses. It seems Twitter users will be able to Spaces for more permanent content that they can repurpose for other platforms and mediums; whereas Clubhouse rooms will live strictly in the moment.

I don’t want to spoil the article but it sounds like Clubhouse audio recordings are more ephemeral.

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iPhone ‘Call Recorder’ App Leaked User Conversations

Andrew Orr ·

An iPhone app called Call Recorder lets users record their phone call conversations. But a recently discovered bug leaked those calls.

But using a readily available proxy tool like Burp Suite, Prakash could view and modify the network traffic going in and out of the app. That meant he could replace his phone number registered with the app with the phone number of another app user, and access their recordings on his phone.

A new version of the app was submitted to Apple’s app store on Saturday. The release notes said the app update was to “patch a security report.”

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Mobile World Congress to Take Place in Barcelona in June

Charlotte Henry ·

It was one of the first major events cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, but Mobile World Congress looks set to go ahead in Barcelona in 2021.  Indeed, 50,000 could attend, Bloomberg News reported.

The GSMA trade body said everyone present will have to show a negative Covid-19 result to access the Fira Gran Via venue and repeat the test every 72 hours. Rapid testing centers will be made available on site and organizers are considering using hotels for more. Additional measures being put in place for one of Europe’s most important business gatherings include a new contact tracing mobile app, real-time occupancy monitoring, improved air conditioning at the venue, and an increased number of on-site medical staff. “We believe that we can have around 45,000 to 50,000 attendees, as of today,” Stephanie Lynch-Habib, the GSMA’s chief marketing officer, said in an interview on Monday, adding that visitor interest is expected to be strong.

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Ming-Chi Kuo: US$1000 AR headset expected in 2022, With Glasses and Contact Lenses to Follow

Charlotte Henry ·

Users can expect an Apple AR headset next year, with glasses following in 2025 and contact lenses during the next decade. That’s according to a note by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, seen by AppleInsider.

In outlining an expected roadmap for Apple’s AR efforts, Ming-Chi Kuo claims AR and MR will be the “next critical technology that defines the innovative human-machine interface of electronics products.” However, while virtual reality devices will be niche, MR and AR hardware is reckoned to become mainstream down the line. Apple is thought to deploy products in AR and MR in three phases, with the first being a “helmet type” in 2022. It will be followed by a “glasses type” product in 2025, then contact lens-based hardware between 2030 and 2040. This is a little push back of the expected schedule for Kuo, as a January note floated the idea of AR hardware releasing in 2021. However, earlier notes from TF securities proposed a 2022 launch.

Cool Stuff Found

Some Very Good Dogs Watching Snoopy on Apple TV+

Charlotte Henry ·

Whether it is releasing groundbreaking products, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, or developing powerful content for Apple TV+ with the likes of Malala Yousafzai, Apple often does big picture, serious things. However, sometimes we all need some light relief. So please enjoy some very good dogs taking in the latest episodes of The Snoopy Show. You can share your own clips on social media using #DogsWatchingSnoopy​.

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Cryptee Adds DOCX Support for File Editing

Andrew Orr ·

Hot on the heels of its big 3.0 update, the next announcement for Cryptee is support for DOCX uploading and editing. You can also export documents as DOCX, making Cryptee a viable cloud-based private alternative to Microsoft Word and Google Docs. However, there is an extra security bonus to Cryptee:

A little known fact about docx files is that, due to the fact that they support macros, and other ways to execute code in them, they are commonly used by malicious third parties to distribute and spread malware viruses. Cryptee does not run / execute macros while opening docx files, allowing you to open / edit / save DOCX files safely, without having to worry about your computer getting infected.