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T-Mobile First Carrier to Enable 988 For Mental Health Services

Charlotte Henry ·

T-Mobile has become the first carrier to enable the 988 number for mental health services, The Verge reported.  If its customers dial that number, they will be connected to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL).

T-Mobile says it is the first carrier in the US to make 988 available to its customers. T-Mobile chief technology officer Abdul Saad said in a statement that making the shorter emergency number available to customers was “a matter of urgency for us, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic continues and the holiday season approaches.” In 2019, the FCC released a report suggesting a three-digit hotline number would make it easier for those seeking help. The FCC voted unanimously in July to make 988 the number to connect to the NSPL hotline, and it gave carriers until July 2022 to put it into effect. However, the 988 number isn’t able to receive text messages, which FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said at the time was problematic. She noted that voice service is “not native for most young people.”

TMO Deals

Hombli Smart Indoor Camera: $34.97

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the Hombli Smart Indoor Camera, a security camera with 1080p HD video, night vision, 2-way audio, and storage with MicroSD or cloud service. It supports Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, and it come with support apps for iOS and Android. This device is $34.97 through our deal.

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Encryption App ‘Cryptomator’ to Integrate With iOS Files

Andrew Orr ·

Cryptomator is my top recommendation for file encryption and it recently shared its late 2020 development roadmap.

What’s up with Cryptomator for iOS? For the last 6-7 months, we have been hard at work on a completely new app written in Swift.

What will be so special about the rewrite? Cryptomator will be fully integrated into the Files app. This comes with many benefits like thumbnails, support for third-party apps that can edit files directly inside the vault, and many more!

Great news. What I’ve also been hoping for is the ability to access Cryptomator vaults in external storage on iOS/iPadOS, like you can on the Mac.

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Facebook Responds to Apple’s Criticism of Data Monetization

Andrew Orr ·

On Thursday, Apple defended its iOS 14 anti-tracking feature in a letter to privacy groups like the EFF, criticizing data collection practices like those used by Facebook. Naturally, Facebook responded.

[Apple] are using their dominant market position to self-preference their own data collection while making it nearly impossible for their competitors to use the same data. They claim it’s about privacy, but it’s about profit.

Fortunately, of course it’s possible to be private and profitable simultaneously. Paid apps and services hopefully incentivize developers to monetize their talent, not our attention through tracking and ads.

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Apple Invited to Showdown EU Talks

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook are among the tech companies invited to partake in video talks with the EU next week, Reuters reported. It is to discuss draft rules set to be imposed on them that will be presented by Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton to Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on December 9.

The video conference on Nov. 24 will discuss the proposed rules, which are known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA). Some companies do not think the discussion will lead to changes at this late stage, people close to the companies said on condition of anonymity. The DSA will require tech companies to explain how their algorithms work and also open up their ad archives to regulators and researchers. The DMA targets online gatekeepers with a list of dos, such as sharing data with rivals and regulators, and don’ts, such as not favouring their own services. Breton has invited chief executives from about 20 companies, which also include Microsoft, Booking.com, Expedia, Trivago, DuckDuckGo, a person familiar with the matter said. It was unclear whether CEOs would take part or send senior executives.

TMO Deals

Babbel Language Learning Lifetime Subscription (All Languages): $199

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on a lifetime subscription for Babbel, the language learning software. With Babbel, you get to 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. A lifetime subscription is $199 through our deal, and it covers all 14 languages.

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How Oprah Could Interview President Barack Obama in The 'Same' Room

Charlotte Henry ·

In the latest The Oprah Conversation episode, in which Oprah Winfrey interviews President Barack Obama,  the two appear in the ‘same’ room. In fact, they were on two different coasts of the U.S. The team at Harpo Productions explained to Oprah Magazine how it all worked.

To ensure a sense of total seamlessness, the two rooms’ identical furniture was arranged with “extremely precise” measurements. The production teams in D.C. and Santa Barbara used the same cameras, lenses, lighting, and audio equipment, to avoid discrepancies. To incorporate the green screen technology, the 44th president was instructed not to wear any green or white garments, and steer clear of shiny shoes, according to the production team. Further, he couldn’t drink water from a clear glass, as it would “disappear” before the green screen, making it look like he was sipping water out of nothing. Oprah and Obama sipped from matching tea mugs. Finally, once the spaces were arranged, Obama and Oprah really did meet in a shared room—a hybrid of real and virtual.

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Popular Android Messaging App Go SMS Pro Has Exposed Millions of Private Photos And Files

Charlotte Henry ·

Popular Android messaging app Go SMS Pro has exposed millions of photos and videos, it has emerged. Cybersecurity firm Trustwave made the discovery and shared the information with TechCrunch.

Security researchers at Trustwave discovered the flaw in August and contacted the app maker with a 90-day deadline to fix the issue, as is standard practice in vulnerability disclosure to allow enough time for a fix. But after the deadline elapsed without hearing back, the researchers went public. Trustwave shared its findings with TechCrunch this week. When a Go SMS Pro user sends a photo, video or other file to someone who doesn’t have the app installed, the app uploads the file to its servers, and lets the user share a web address by text message so the recipient can see the file without installing the app. But the researchers found that these web addresses were sequential. In fact, any time a file was shared — even between app users — a web address would be generated regardless. That meant anyone who knew about the predictable web address could have cycled through millions of different web addresses to users’ files.