How the U.S. Used the Patriot Act to Track Web Browsing

Government entities have been using Section 215 of the Patriot Act as justification to collect logs of web browsing activity.

In fact, “one of those 61 orders resulted in the production of information that could be characterized as information regarding browsing,” Mr. Ratcliffe wrote in the second letter. Specifically, one order had approved collection of logs revealing which computers “in a specified foreign country” had visited “a single, identified U. S. web page.”

New Apple TV+ Ad Highlighting Big Name Originals

A new advert for Apple TV+ was  posted on YouTube on Friday. It highlighted the streaming service’s biggest original serious like The Morning ShowDefending Jacob, Ted Lasso, and Servant. It arrived on the same day that new shows Stillwater and Earth at Night in Color became available.

Easy Data Transform Software for Mac and Windows: $29.99

We have a deal on Easy Data Transform, data manipulation software for Mac and Windows. With 46 transforms and 60 text encodings to choose from, you’ll be able to merge, split, clean, dedupe, reformat, and more without coding or programming skills. There’s a video demonstration of this software on the deal listing, and it’s $29.99 through our deal.

Discussing Accessibility Innovation at Apple

Apple’s Senior Director of Global Accessibility Policy & Initiatives, Sarah Herrlinger, and accessibility engineering lead for iOS, Chris Fleizach, recently joined TechCrunch editor Matthew Panzarino for a Sight Global Tech conversation. They outlined the company’s latest accessibility technology and discussed how Apple works to foster a culture of innovation, empowerment, and inclusion.

Scam Calls About Suspicious iCloud Activity are Appearing

Calls from scammers pretending to be from Apple and Amazon have been appearing lately. In the case of Apple, some of them mention suspicious iCloud activity.

In both scenarios, the scammers say you can conveniently press 1 to speak with someone (how nice of them!). Or they give you a phone number to call. Don’t do either. It’s a scam. They’re trying to steal your personal information, like your account password or your credit card number.

Patent For Dual Pro Display XDR Now Published

Apple has developed a Dual Pro Display XDR. A patent for the invention, published by the US Patent & Trademark Office, was spotted by Patently Apple.

Apple’s invention covers a support stand for multiple displays. In their patent background they note that when users use multiple displays in a workspace, the displays are generally supported by multiple different individual stands or by independently-movable arms that extend from a single support point. These individual stands or arms unnecessarily take up large spaces, are often aesthetically unpleasing, overcomplicated, and have inefficient redundant mechanisms. When multiple displays are used on independent arms, they can be difficult to align in a smooth and precise way due to inconsistent counterbalancing and arm lengths. When multiple displays are used on a single support, they cannot be effectively adjusted relative to each other about a vertical axis.

iPhone Game of The Year, ‘Genshin Impact’ Brings in Nearly $400 Million in Two Months

Apple named Genshin Impact its iPhone Game of the Year on Wednesday. The game has brought in a staggering $400 million across iOS and Android in two months – it only arrived on the App Store in September. That’s according to a report by Sensor Tower, seen by Cult of Mac.

That averages more than $6 million a day across both iOS and Android — with Apple’s platform accounting for the majority of that spending. The report notes that Genshin Impact experienced: “[A] quick start to life, accumulating $60 million in just its first week after release. By the end of its first month, it had grossed $245 million. In the month following, the blockbuster title continued to find success, picking up close to $148 million. During its first two months, Genshin Impact was the No. 2 revenue-generating mobile game worldwide, ranking behind Honor of Kings from Tencent at No. 1 and above PUBG Mobile from Tencent at No. 3.”

The iOS 14 and SwiftUI Bootcamp Bundle: $24.99

We have a deal on the iOS 14 and SwiftUI Bootcamp Bundle, a three course training bundle for making apps for iOS. It includes SwiftUI: The Complete Developer Course, iPhone Apps for Absolute Beginners: iOS 14 & Swift 5, and SwiftUI Apps for All Apple Platforms. There are 341 individual lessons in these courses and 43 hours of content for $24.99 through our deal.

Labor Board Alleges Google Illegally Spied on Workers, Then Fired Them

A complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Thursday claims that Google violated U.S. labor laws. It alleges that the company spied on workers who were organizing employee protests before firing two of them, The Verge reported.

The complaint names two employees, Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers, both of whom were fired by the company in late 2019 in connection with employee activism. Berland was organizing against Google’s decision to work with IRI Consultants, a firm widely known for its anti-union efforts, when he was let go for reviewing other employees’ calendars. Now, the NLRB has found Google’s policy against employees looking at certain coworkers’ calendars is unlawful. Several other employees were fired in the wake of the protests, but the NLRB found that only the terminations of Berland and Spiers violated labor laws.