Ina Fried lays out all the ways that Amazon harvests your personal data. The list is surprisingly long.

Don’t miss the links at the end for what Google, Facebook, Tesla, and Internet people finders know about you.

Hope King, for Cheddar:

I recently took my first ride in a self-driving car while in Phoenix, Arizona, where Alphabet’s Waymo has been operating the world’s first commercial self-driving taxi service since early December.

and:

My trip spanned 4.4 miles and took about 15 minutes. In the car with me was my videographer Doug, a Waymo spokeswoman, and one safety driver at the wheel.

Ready or not, autonomous vehicles are hitting the road. True, these fleets are all staffed with humans behind-the-wheel, and are in a few markets, not nationwide, but they are up and running.

Hope King does a nice job describing the experience, with video snippets, pictures, and well laid out observations.

One quote in particular stood out to me:

I was excited, but I was also a little nervous the entire time.

Imagine if there wasn’t a driver behind the wheel with hands ready to grab the wheel, foot ready to stomp the brake. This is so key. And a reason I do think we’re still far away from a true, autonomous vehicle rollout.

ABC News:

In an exclusive interview, Cook told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer that Apple is working hard to promote increased regulation of the use and storage of consumer data, empower parents to control their kids’ relationship with devices and enable customers to be more aware of how much time they’re spending on their phones.

He explained why he doesn’t want customers to use Apple products too much and why, and shares his take on children’s usage of devices.

I’m glad to see this issue seems to finally be coming up on Cook’s radar. Parents are hungry for options to help them manage the screen time and content on their children’s’ devices.

VOX:

Technology companies based in Seattle or Silicon Valley now account for five out of the five most valuable companies in America, leading to a spate of commentary last year from lawyers like Columbia’s Tim Wu to economists like Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff arguing that Big Tech has, in some sense, gotten “too big.” And in 2019, politicians are starting to listen.

At the same time, big technology companies have been brutalizing suppliers and competitors (and, not irrelevantly, publishers of journalism) with a range of questionable tactics — including Amazon’s price wars against competitors, Apple’s high-handed management of its own App Store, and Facebook’s long parade of privacy scandals. As the rich get richer, the criticism has become more intense.

None of the efforts to break up these companies will actually come to fruition – as the article points out, US anti-trust laws are mostly about high prices – but it may bring about additional regulation of the companies, something that must be worrisome to the companies involved.

New Atlas:

When Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon on July 20, 1969, it was one of the biggest milestones in human history. Today, we take it for granted that the lunar landing was possible, but at the time, no one had ever done anything remotely like it – let alone in a craft that had never been fully tested. In view of NASA’s promise to return to the lunar surface in the next decade, the approaching 50th anniversary of this monumental feat brings into focus what is still a pertinent question: How does one land on the Moon?

Unsurprisingly, it ain’t easy.

Gizmodo:

The 1987 video, which can be viewed on YouTube, is clearly meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but it shows viewers an amazing world of technological innovation with a handful of things that we actually got.

The video shows Apple payphone stations that communicate with satellites in space (at least they got the satellite part right), and something called the Vista Mac II, eyewear that doubles as a computer (something that we’re still waiting on, sadly). And there’s so much more.

If you were around Apple in 1987, you can be forgiven for believing this was a viable future for the company in ten years. The reality was much less rosy though.

The Daily Beast:

“Dry counties” exist as a sort feral anachronism—like phone booths and video stores. They appeared in response to perceived social or economic need, and when those needs dissipated, they were left behind, like flotsam from a flood nobody remembers. We are a nation that’s pretty good at building laws, and pretty lousy at dismantling them.

And so dry counties persist—today an estimated 18 million people are unable to buy a legal drink where they live. Mostly these persist in the south, and a map of dry counties overlaid with one of the Bible Belt, not surprisingly, shows considerable overlap. (Although the penchant for dryness fades as you get closer to the Gulf of Mexico.) The states with the most dry counties are Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. Fact: you can still get arrested for possession of alcohol in some dry counties, as a 69-year-old man in Culliman, Alabama, learned recently.

This is such a weird and wonderful quirk of US liquor laws. I still remember my first visit to the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg and saying, “let’s go to the pub afterward!” and being incredibly disappointed by the response.

CNBC:

“We haven’t changed our [Apple] holdings,” Warren Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick on Thursday, on the eve of the kickoff of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha this weekend.

Apple shares are up more than 32% this year, including a boost from the iPhone maker’s better-than-expected first-quarter earnings report this week.

“I was pleased with what they reported,” Buffett said, while noting he never makes investment decisions based on a single quarterly report. “What they talked about and reported is consistent with the reason we own $50 billion-plus of Apple.”

Good news for Apple in general. Warren Buffett is seen as a bellwether for stable, sane stock market analysis that doesn’t chase trends.

MacRumors:

Powerbeats Pro are now available to pre-order from Apple.com and the Apple Store app in the United States and Canada.

Powerbeats Pro are Apple’s first totally wireless Beats earphones, equipped with the same H1 chip as the second-generation AirPods for hands-free “Hey Siri” and faster connection speeds between the iPhone, Apple Watch, and other devices.

Will you be getting a pair?

The Sun:

Ben Tsu, from Taiwan, fell asleep with his AirPods in his ears, but woke up unable to find the right earbud anywhere. After scouring his room – using the ‘Find My Airpods’ app on his phone – Ben quickly discovered his headphone was a lot closer than he first thought.

“The map showed that my AirPod was at home, and I could hear the ‘beep, beep’ sound, which seemed to follow me around the room

“But I checked under my blanket and looked around but couldn’t find it – then I realised the sound was coming from my stomach!

I think this story is full of crap.

Bloomberg:

Nadella’s turnaround over the five years since he replaced Steve Ballmer as CEO has been nothing short of historic. The company had been universally viewed as spiraling toward obsolescence, having missed almost every significant computing trend of the 2000s—mobile phones, search engines, social networking—while letting its main source of revenue, Windows, the operating system that comes preloaded on PCs, stagnate.

Nadella’s peers say Microsoft’s resurgence is as terrifying as it is impressive. When asked what threat a renewed Microsoft poses to the tech universe, the CEO of a rival software company, who requested anonymity to speak more candidly, begins humming Darth Vader’s Imperial March theme from Star Wars. Put another way: The Empire has struck back.

Regardless of what you think of Microsoft, its “resurrection” under the guidance of Satya Nadella is remarkable. My favorite part of the story is how ignorant the writers are. They say, “Nadella appears irritated by questions about the company’s ascendancy. “I would be disgusted if somebody ever celebrated our market cap,” he tells Bloomberg Businessweek. He insists the valuation—which passed $1 trillion on April 25 and is up more than 230 percent since his watch began in February 2014…”

Petapixel:

If you subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud for Photoshop and Lightroom via the $10 per month Photography Plan, there may be some pain coming to your wallet. Many customers no longer see the $10/month plan on Adobe’s site — the cheapest plan is listed is $20/month.

Instead of $10/month for 20GB of storage being the most affordable plan, only the $20/month with 1TB cloud storage is being offered. If you only use the Photography Plan for the software and not the storage, a phasing out of the $10-per-month/20GB plan would effectively be a 100% price hike with no practical benefit for you.

This will definitely get me to unsubscribe from Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Interestingly enough, the Canadian Adobe Creative Cloud page still lists the $9.99/month US price point.

The Verge:

People are getting injured while riding electric scooters. This shouldn’t come as a huge shock to anyone who has noticed the explosion of dockless, shareable two-wheelers over the last year and a half. But the degree to which people are breaking bones and sustaining head injuries is alarming public health officials who released a major study into scooter-related injuries on Thursday.

Of those injured riders, almost half sustained head injuries. Fifteen percent experienced traumatic brain injuries. These injuries could have been prevented by wearing a helmet, but only one of 190 injured scooter riders was wearing one.

Not surprising at all considering almost anyone can just jump on one of these things and start riding.

AppleInsider:

The Apple Watch maintained a solid grip on smartwatch shipments during the March quarter, according to new estimates, even as rivals from Samsung and Fitbit made headway.

Apple claimed 35.8 percent of the market, Counterpoint Research said on Thursday. That’s up just slightly year-over-year from 35.5 percent in Q1 2018, despite Apple Watch shipments reportedly rising 49 percent in the same timeframe.

Samsung’s marketshare jumped from 7.2 to 11.1 percent, something Counterpoint credited to success of the latest Galaxy Watch models. These include a traditional round watchface, improved battery life, and 4G connectivity, making them one of the better smartwatch options for people who don’t have or want an iPhone.

There’s the Apple Watch and then there’s everything else.

AppleInsider:

Netflix on Wednesday launched what it calls “high-quality audio,” offering crisper sound for viewers with surround-sound systems. Compatible videos are labeled for Dolby Atmos or Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, Netflix said. This includes videos that only have a “5.1” emblem. Both standards are supported by the Apple TV 4K, but only Digital Plus 5.1 is available on the Apple TV HD.

Quality is moreover adaptive based on bandwidth. 5.1 systems will get bitrates spanning 192 kilobits to 640 kilobits — which Netflix calls “perceptually transparent” — while Atmos systems will start at 448 kilobits and reach as high as 768. Atmos does require the company’s Premium plan, which costs $15.99 per month but is also needed for 4K.

Just out of curiosity, how many of you have a system that can take advantage of this new “‘high-quality’ audio” for your Apple TV?

CNET:

One of the parental-control apps removed from the App Store fired back on Wednesday at Apple’s explanation of why the app was banned.

OurPact argued that its app should be reinstated and should be allowed to use technology that enables parents to control what their children access on their Apple devices.

OurPact published a blog post Wednesday that disputed Apple’s statement. The company laid out a detailed record of communication with Apple (for instance, on Oct. 6: “Apple removes the OurPact child app from the App Store without any prior communication.” OurPact also sought to explain what MDM software is by contradicting Apple’s recent statements with the iPhone maker’s own documentation about the technology.

The truth, as is usually the case, is likely somewhere in the middle.

Axios:

In its quarterly earnings released today, Qualcomm said it would record $4.5-$4.7 billion revenue in the coming quarter as part of its settlement of a long-running intellectual-property quarrel with Apple.

The revenue “includes a cash payment from Apple and the release of related liabilities,” Qualcomm said.

Nice little bump.

AppleInsider:

Apple is reportedly fighting the logo for a new German bike path, arguing that it bears too much similarity to its own.

The logo for the “Apfelroute” — Apple Route — was registered with the German Patent and Trademark Office in 2018, and is already in use for tourism marketing in the Rhine-Voreifel region, said Westdeutscher Rundfunk. Lawyers for Apple have not only filed an appeal with the GPTO, but sent cease-and-desist letters to Rhine-Voreifel Tourism. Apple’s trademark objections revolve around the Apfelroute’s green leaf and “bitten” side.

I can confidently predict Apple will lose this battle.

Six Colors:

Apple’s quarterly results are in. The company posted revenue of $58 billion, down 5% from the same quarter a year ago. iPad revenue was up 22% and Services revenue was up 16%, but Mac revenue was down 5% and iPhone revenue was down 17%.

We’ve got lots of charts below, as well as a transcript of CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri’s conference call with financial-industry analysts.

Snell always has the best charts.

Motherboard:

In recent weeks, an Apple representative and a lobbyist for CompTIA, a trade organization that represents big tech companies, have been privately meeting with legislators in California to encourage them to kill legislation that would make it easier for consumers to repair their electronics, Motherboard has learned.

According to two sources in the California State Assembly, the lobbyists have met with members of the Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, which is set to hold a hearing on the bill Tuesday afternoon. The lobbyists brought an iPhone to the meetings and showed lawmakers and their legislative aides the internal components of the phone. The lobbyists said that if improperly disassembled, consumers who are trying to fix their own iPhone could hurt themselves by puncturing the lithium-ion battery,

Apple is on the wrong side of this issue and it makes them seem anti-consumer.

UPDATE: The Right to Repair Bill has been pulled and Motherboard has updated its story with a statement from the bill’s sponsor.

AppleInsider:

You don’t need to go blue to be profitable. After all, some of the biggest shows in history have been clean, such as “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory.” Beyond Netflix, Apple TV+’s closest competition is likely to be Disney+, debuting Nov. 12 with (mostly) family-friendly material from studios like Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and National Geographic.

Turn your head though to the most popular shows on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes right now. Many of them would be impossible under Apple’s current rules.

Jim Dalrymple and I have discussed this on a couple of occasions on the Your Mac Life podcast. It’s an interesting question and problem for Apple. Do they let “the creatives” hold the reins come what may or do they shoot for the largest possible audience with G-rated content?

Uncrate:

It’s been 40 years since the debut of Alien, and the franchise has reproduced exponentially over the decades — just like its iconic xenomorphs. To celebrate the event, 20th Century Fox and Tongal collaborated with fans to create six short films set in the Alien universe. Fox received over 550 scripts before selecting the final six, and each one reverently expands on the source material.

Looking forward to scaring the bejesus out of my 13-year-old with these. And – 40 years? Gods, I’m old.