Business

This app automatically cancels and sues robocallers

Written by

Edward Ongweso Jr, Motherboard:

DoNotPay, the family of consumer advocacy services meant to protect people from corporate exploitation, is launching a new app aimed at helping end our long national nightmare surrounding robocalls by giving you a burner credit card to get their contact details then giving you a chatbot lawyer to automatically sue them.

And:

Robo Revenge combines both features to automatically add you to the Do Not Call Registry, generate a virtual DoNotPay burner credit card to provide scammers when they illegally call you anyways, use the transaction information to get the scammer’s contact information, then walk you through how to sue them for as much as $3,000 per call under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a law already on the books meant to protect consumers from calls that violate the Do Not Call Registry. The app also streamlines the litigation paperwork by automatically generating demand letters and court filing documents.

This strategy might be effective against US-based telemarketers. But not at all against overseas scammers trying to get at your bank account, arguably the more dangerous of the two. Still, it’s something.

Andy Rubin’s Essential Products, once valued at $1 billion, shuts down

Written by

.

New York Times:

Once considered one of Silicon Valley’s most promising hardware technology start-ups, Essential had raised $330 million in outside funding because of the track record of Mr. Rubin, who is widely credited with creating Google’s Android smartphone software.

And:

Essential was also dogged by news about Mr. Rubin and the circumstances of his departure from Google. The New York Times reported in 2018 that Google had paid Mr. Rubin a $90 million exit package after claims of sexual misconduct with an employee were deemed credible. Mr. Rubin has denied the claims.

From the Essential blog:

In October, we introduced Project GEM, a new mobile experience that our hardware, software and cloud teams have been building and testing for the past few years. Our vision was to invent a mobile computing paradigm that more seamlessly integrated with people’s lifestyle needs. Despite our best efforts, we’ve now taken Gem as far as we can and regrettably have no clear path to deliver it to customers. Given this, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations and shutdown Essential.

An amazing story. Rubin and company burned through $330 million in other people’s money, with nothing to show for it. Poof. It’s gone.

Siri will now answer your election questions

Written by

Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:

With the added Siri integration, you’ll be able to ask the assistant both informational queries, plus those requiring real-time information.

For example, you may ask Siri something like “When are the California primaries?,” which is a more straightforward question, or “Who’s winning the New Hampshire primaries?,” which requires updated information.

On my iPhone, most everything worked as advertised. On HomePod, some questions got the, “I can’t get the answer to that on HomePod” response.

Try it yourself:

What were the results of the Democratic Iowa Caucus?

This comes up when the information has not been pre-parsed for HomePod Siri and requires a web lookup.

Gruber: Let’s get real about how important our phones are

Written by

First things first, this from Geoffrey Fowler, writing for The Washington Post, commenting on Samsung’s new phones, announced yesterday:

With prices ranging from $1,000 to $1,400, either one is hard to justify as much more than a luxury.

Gruber:

There are way more people on the planet who’d rather have a $1,400 phone and a $400 laptop than the other way around. But you’ll never see a tech reviewer claim that $1,000-1,400 is “hard to justify” for a laptop.

Read Gruber’s piece, headline-linked.

Obviously, current, state-of-the-art smartphones have indeed become much more expensive, beyond the budgets of many. But Gruber’s point is spot on. Smartphones have become the new laptops, the main computer for many people.

Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

Written by

KQED News:

An Apple engineer who died when his Tesla Model X slammed into a concrete barrier had previously complained about the SUV malfunctioning on the same stretch of Silicon Valley freeway.

His complaints were detailed in a trove of documents released Tuesday by federal investigators in two Tesla crashes involving Autopilot, one in the Bay Area and the other in Florida.

This is the crash, back in 2018, that took the life of Apple engineer Walter Huang. If you’ve got the stomach for it, follow the headline link and check out the picture of the crash. The front of the Tesla is completely destroyed.

Fills me with anxiety just thinking about turning over control of my driving to any form of autopilot, let along being a passenger in a driverless car.

Apple restores mail app after developer tries to rally ‘Sherlocked’ victims

Written by

Adi Robertson, The Verge:

Apple has restored the email app BlueMail to the Mac App Store after its developer began a campaign to rally small developers. Blix, founded by brothers Dan and Ben Volach, has been locked in conflict with Apple for several months. It alleges Apple stole its anonymous sign-in feature for “Sign in with Apple,” then kicked it out of the App Store on flimsy pretenses to suppress competition. Apple, conversely, has said it removed the macOS app for security reasons.

From Apple’s point of view:

Apple has denied that its standards were inconsistent. “The App Store has a uniform set of guidelines, equally applicable to all developers, that are meant to protect users,” said the company in a statement. “Blix is proposing to override basic data security protections which can expose users’ computers to malware that can harm their Macs and threaten their privacy.” A spokesperson says that last week, Blix submitted a new version of its app that respected Apple’s Gatekeeper security software and resolved technical problems, including an issue that produced privacy and security warnings for users at launch.

Apple does take Gatekeeper seriously. In addition to Gatekeeper adherence, a new policy requires apps to go through a notarization process, where the developer uploads their app and it is scanned for malware. Hard to know if this is a developer not following protocol, or something deeper, perhaps connected to Blix suing Apple.

Blix fought their battle with Apple in public. You can read their side of this on the Bluemail web site.

Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s lost notebook

Written by

Steven Levy, Wired:

I took it in stride that Zuckerberg looked even younger than his 21 years. I’d been covering hackers and tech companies for long enough to have met other peach-fuzz magnates. But what did shake me was his affect. I asked him a few softball questions about what the company was up to, and he just stared at me. He said nothing. He didn’t seem angry or preoccupied. Just blank. If my questions had been shot from a water pistol at the rock face of a high cliff they would have had more impact.

And:

Though I was unaware at the time, I had joined the club of those stunned by Mark Zuckerberg’s trancelike silences. Facebook VP Andrew Bosworth once called this stare “Sauron’s gaze.”

I know the above does not touch on Zuckerberg’s notebook. But it is just a taste of Steven Levy’s writing. He’s one of my favorite tech writers and has been for years. He wrote the first great book on Macintosh, 1994’s “Insanely Great.”

The linked article is an excerpt from Levy’s upcoming book on Facebook, and it’s him at his best. Terrific read.

Swift Playgrounds catalysts from iPad over to Mac

Written by

Ever wanted to learn how to program? If you’ve got an iPad, Swift Playgrounds has been your solution for years. But thanks to Catalyst, Swift Playgrounds is now available on the Mac.

I like Swift Playgrounds because there’s zero programming experience required. I like Swift Playgrounds on the Mac because it is one step closer to Xcode.

Some truly old school tech

Written by

[VIDEO] This video (embedded in the main Loop post), from a few years ago, was near the top of Hacker News this morning. Pretty cool.

It shows an Apple II, connected to an acoustic coupler, connecting to the net via a rotary telephone. That’s about as old school a net connection as you can get. RS-232, anyone?

Apple and Hearables

Written by

Counterpoint Research:

Apple expected to lead the true wireless hearables market, selling more than 100m units in 2020. Competition for second place will remain fierce, especially in the premium market.

From the hearables Wikipedia page:

The neologism “hearable” is a hybrid of the terms wearable and headphone, as hearables combine major assets of wearable technology with the basic principle of audio-based information services, conventional rendition of music and wireless telecommunication. The term was introduced in April 2014 simultaneously by Apple in the context of the company’s acquisition of Beats Electronics and product designer and wireless application specialist Nick Hunn in a blogpost for a wearable technologies internet platform.

I read “hearables”, I think AirPods. Apple so dominates this market. If you’re interested in the history of the term and the market, the Wikipedia page is a fascinating read.

How to own some big-time music, film, and other royalties

Written by

Follow the headline link, start scrolling. It’s a market for film and music royalties:

Artists turn to Royalty Exchange to raise money and take control of their financial future. We connect them with private investors through the world’s first online marketplace for buying and selling royalties. Creators love us because we give them a powerful new way to fund their career. Investors love us because we help them generate income that’s hard to beat. And our commitment to transparency and honesty ensures value for all.

A few (of many) highlights:

  • The film “Trading Places”
  • Jay-Z, Alicia Keys “Empire State of Mind”
  • Ben & Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia”
  • “Black Water” and 23 other Doobie Brothers songs

Note that copyright is generally not included in the auction. You pay up front, get the royalties over time. Fascinating.

WSJ: Judge approves T-Mobile, Sprint merger

Written by

Wall Street Journal:

A judge’s approval of T-Mobile US Inc.’s takeover of Sprint Corp. will usher in a new balance of power in the U.S. wireless market and test whether three giants will compete as aggressively for cellphone users as four unequal players once did.

And:

The opinion will leave most of the country’s wireless customers with three major network operators: Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and the new T-Mobile. New entrant Dish plans to use the deal as a springboard for its mobile ambitions, while U.S. cable companies are stuck with existing providers’ networks for their fledgling cellular services.

And:

The judge was convinced both by testimony from Sprint executives that the struggling carrier was falling behind, despite what he described as “valiant attempts” to remain competitive, and from Dish that it would be able to operate a viable new carrier.

He also acknowledged the effort the FCC and Justice Department put into crafting a fourth nationwide carrier run by Dish. The agreement requires Sprint to sell airwaves and about nine million customer accounts to Dish.

Better for consumers? Who knows.

From the horse’s mouth: Here’s a link to the decision itself.

How big companies spy on your emails

Written by

Joseph Cox, Motherboard:

The popular Edison email app, which is in the top 100 productivity apps on the Apple app store, scrapes users’ email inboxes and sells products based off that information to clients in the finance, travel, and e-Commerce sectors. The contents of Edison users’ inboxes are of particular interest to companies who can buy the data to make better investment decisions, according to a J.P. Morgan document obtained by Motherboard.

Edison responded in a Medium post titled A Reminder of How We Use Data and Protect Privacy:

To keep our Edison Mail app free, and to protect your privacy by rejecting an advertising-based business model, our company Edison Software, measures e-commerce through a technology that automatically recognizes commercial emails and extracts anonymous purchase information from them. Our technology is designed to ignore personal and work email, which does not help us measure market trends.

Edison puts privacy first in everything we do as a company and that includes making our users aware of how we use their data in our products.

If the product is free, you are the product.

Back in the ’70s, someone made this observation about television being free. Prescient.

Counterpoint: I LOVED Apple TV+ Mythic Quest

Written by

Yesterday, Shawn posted a link to FastCompany’s Mythic Quest review. They appreciate it technically, but did not get the funny. Fair enough.

One particular line paints the picture for me:

I am not a gamer, so I can’t speak to the precision and accuracy of every detail.

And there’s the rub. You don’t have to be a gamer to get the humor, but it does help. There’s a lot of context in many of the jokes.

Personally, I absolutely love the show. I found it funny, insightful, irreverent, and clever. It worked for me and for my wife, a rare comedy in that regard.

No complaints about the FastCompany review. It was, overall, very positive. The reviewer just didn’t find it funny. I’ve read a number of reviews that shared my love for the series. So do give it a chance. It’s on my short list of the best shows on any streaming platform, period.

Samsung teases Galaxy Z Flip in Oscars ad

Written by

[VIDEO] Samsung hasn’t officially posted the ad on YouTube yet, but that hasn’t stopped any number of people from capturing and reposting the ad themselves. One such capture is embedded in the main Loop post.

A pretty good ad, though two things stick out in the fine (tiny and blurry) print, there at the bottom of the screen:

  • You may notice a small crease in the center of the main screen, which is a natural characteristic of the screen.

And:

  • Screen images simulated.

The ad ends with, “Unpacked 02.11.20”. That’s tomorrow.

Makes me wonder if Apple will release a foldable that requires a public caveat about a crease in the screen.

Backstage at the Oscars: Apple keyboard rant

Written by

Backstage at last night’s Oscars, writer/director (and winner of Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit) Taika Waititi was asked what writers should be asking for in the next round of talks with producers. His response was all about the Mac keyboard.

Watch for yourself. I’m guessing a number of you will be nodding your head in agreement.

https://twitter.com/IndieWire/status/1226704317136220160

This person does not exist

Written by

I posted a link to this a while back. It’s an AI that generates computer-generated faces.

In the last incarnation, the faces are realistic, but I could easily pick out artifacts from each face, blurry hair, odd shapes, unrealistic facial features.

That has all changed. To my eye, these artificial people are eerily perfect. Fake people, for your consideration.

A fix for iPad multitasking

Written by

Ryan Christoffel, MacStories, lays out his fix for iPad multitasking. This is some thoughtful, detailed feedback for Apple, a proposal to fix a system that is certainly problematic.

Personally, I find iPad multitasking to be confusing at best. So much so, I’ve just avoided it. There have been times when I’ve gone to swipe a second app off the screen, only to have the swipe get processed by the app and, on more than one occasion, swipe-deleted something from an app accidentally.

That said, I see the massive potential in iPad multitasking. It’s not an easy system to design, and I hope the team at Apple takes Ryan’s thoughts to heart, is willing to take a step back and consider some design changes to address user confusion.

Apple shares Night mode ad

Written by

[VIDEO] A little Night mode music, “We Only Come Out At Night” by Smashing Pumpkins. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Interesting FCC application for Apple Park GPS

Written by

Apple FCC application:

We seek to accomplish the following objectives:

1.Illumination of the part of the facility, located at 1 Apple Parkway, Cupertino, CA with a GPS signal to allow for the testing and experimentation indoors for continued exploration of utilizing GPS technologies within their devices to provide innovative applications and continue to provide safe products.

2.Further design, development and enhancement of existing GPS applications to provide greater efficiency and more effective means of utilizing GPS derived information.

Came across this on Reddit this morning. Wonder what this is for?

John Gruber’s 2019 Apple report card

Written by

You can quibble with the grades, but no doubt the discussion of each category is worth the read.

Two A’s, deserved in my opinion: Wearables (AirPods and AirPods Pro are home runs) and Hardware Reliability (surprising A, but my experience in recent hardware has been rock solid).

I think Jason Snell and John Gruber should consider adding Apple Store/Customer Service grades. Lots to discuss there.

New accessibility feature in 10.15.4 lets you control the cursor with head movements

Written by

Science fiction, come to the Mac:

https://twitter.com/_inside/status/1225199498001047552

I’ve seen a few apps do similar things, but this is now baked into macOS.

Makes me think of possibilities, of future AirPods that pick up your brain’s alpha waves, let you move your cursor, or control your iOS device with your mind.

The ability to use your mind to control a mouse has been around for a long time, but requires very specialized hardware. Imagine if Apple could find a way to embed that hardware in your AirPods or, perhaps, in an AppleHat?

The future is coming.

New ‘CarKey’ feature in iOS 13.4 beta might let your iPhone and Apple Watch be your car key

Written by

Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac:

iOS 13.4 contains references to a “CarKey” API, which will make it possible to use the iPhone and also the Apple Watch to unlock, lock, and start a car. According to the system’s internal files, users will be able to use CarKey in NFC-compatible cars, as they only need to hold the device near the vehicle to use it as a key.

I would absolutely love this feature.

I recognize this might not be possible with existing hardware, but imagine if you could get a text or your phone could ring if someone unlocked your car and your keys were nowhere near the car.

Or how about a camera built into the car that took a snapshot every time your car was unlocked? If you live in or near a city, car break-ins are a way of life, and these two features might help reduce these.

The unification of the car and the smartphone ecosystem moves ever closer.

Google Maps getting big new iOS update

Written by

Maps is one of the very few products I use, equally, in both the Google and Apple ecosystems. Apple doesn’t have a counter to Google search. I use Gmail, not Mail. But I use Google and Apple Maps interchangeably.

I definitely prefer Apple Maps, purely for the ecosystem support, and especially for those turn-by-turn Apple Watch taps that I don’t get with Google Maps.

But I am not a fan of Yelp, and I find Google Maps’ crowd-sourced restaurant reviews more accurate than what I experience with Apple Maps’ Yelp tie-in.

So a Google Maps update is nice news. Follow the headline link to scan through the new features. A welcome redesign, some nice new ideas.

Neil Peart, isolated drumming

Written by

[VIDEO] Laughing Squid:

kiboko, a video editor who focuses on drum tracks, took the iconic Toronto Pearson Airport inspired instrumental “YYZ” by Rush and brought the audio of Neil Peart‘s drumming to the forefront while quieting Geddy Lee‘s bass and Alex Lifeson‘s guitar.

Beautifully done. Really showcases the complexity of Peart’s iconic drumming style. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Harsh take on Apple’s evolving privacy pickle

Written by

At first blush, this post’s title, “One very bad Apple”, gave the impression of pure trolling. But reading through (which is worth your time, IMO), I found it to be an informed take on Apple’s evolving privacy model, full of detail and solidly sourced links.

Bottom line:

So, here we are, in 2020, with Apple in a bit of a pickle. It’s becoming so big that it’s not prioritizing security. At the same time, it needs to advertise privacy as a key differentiator as consumer tastes change.

Not sure I’d agree that Apple is “not prioritizing security”. But Apple’s massive growth has certainly made supporting privacy a far more complex problem than in Steve Jobs’ time, when Apple was small enough that he had complete control.

Apple’s News Service business chief departs after slow start

Written by

Bloomberg:

The head of business for Apple Inc.’s news app stepped down less than a year after launching a high-profile subscription product that has struggled to attract paying readers.

Liz Schimel, the outgoing executive, joined in mid-2018 after serving as the president of international business at magazine publisher Conde Nast, said people familiar with the move who asked not to be identified discussing personnel matters. At Apple, Schimel oversaw relationships with advertisers and news publishers.

Of all Apple’s services, News+ seemed to me the toughest win for Apple. When Apple took on the music space, it had a stronger financial model, consumers very willing to pay for songs to bring from CD to their hard drives and then pay again for the monthly all-you-can-eat of Apple Music. Apple also had Steve Jobs building and cementing those initial relationships.

Much has changed since the iTunes Store launched back in 2003. Liz Schimel had an unenviable, difficult task convincing publishers that News+ was their savior. Too much competition in news aggregation, much of it free.

To me, this is not a sign of doom for Apple News+. More a sign that change is needed. And if the Bloomberg report is correct, change is coming.

Detailed review of Apple’s Pro Display XDR

Written by

Great review of the Pro Display XDR from PCMag.

I especially appreciate the discussion of full-array local dimming (FALD), which Pro Display XDR uses, vs OLED, microLED, and mini LED. Well written, worth the read.

Bottom line:

Apple’s Pro Display XDR provides exceptional color accuracy and build quality at a price that’s quite competitive with those of reference-grade pro monitors. It’s exquisite enough that swallowing the wildly extravagant cost of its Pro Stand is worth it.