The game between the Carolina Thunderbirds and Columbus River Dragons on March 8th, 2020 became very interesting as the River Dragons coach began to yell at the Home team coach and then starts to climb into their bench. Both coaches are ejected and as they were escorted off the ice Columbus head coach Jerome Bechard shrugged off his jacket in an attempt to get Carolina head coach Andre Niec to fight him. This leads to a Columbus player dropping his gloves after being challenged by Niec. After this all hell breaks loose.
I like a good hockey fight as much as any other red-blooded Canadian but this was mayhem.
Americans drove 40 percent more miles in 2019 than they did in 1994, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. More driving means more congested traffic. So to reduce congestion, it makes sense to build more highway lanes so that more cars can fit. Right? Actually, no. A new report from the policy organization Transportation for America shows that doesn’t work at all.
That’s because when you build more highways, people start driving more and filling up the lanes in a matter of years. From 1993 to 2017, according to a study by A1 Auto Transport, the average person drove 20 percent more miles. Right after a highway is widened, traffic does speed up, and drivers take advantage of that by “switching from other routes, driving further distances or traveling during the busiest time of the day,” the report, which looked at federal and state data on traffic and freeway growth, says. “People who had previously avoided congestion—whether by riding transit, carpooling, traveling during less congested times of day, or foregoing the trip altogether—start driving on that route more because it has become more convenient.”
As the article explains, solving our traffic congestion issues by building more roads won’t work. We’ve got to find ways to get cars off the road, not make it easier/better for them.
The COVID-19 coronavirus strain continues to rip through communities around the globe, with new cases reported daily in the US and beyond. It has prompted businesses to cancel conferences, restrict travel, and encourage people to work from home, particularly in the Seattle area, which is home to tech giants Amazon and Microsoft.
One thing you probably don’t have to worry about is catching the virus from a device shipped to the US from China. PCMag spoke with several doctors, who said the chances of the virus surviving on the surface of a box during the overseas journey is low.
If you’re trying to keep up with the day-to-day announcements regarding tech giants like Google, Apple, and Facebook, though, read on for the latest updates. And sign up for our What’s New Now newsletter to get the news delivered directly to your inbox.
The tracker keeps up with developments and announcements from Amazon, Microsoft, Foxconn, Facebook, Google, Samsung, and Apple.
On the 11th of January 1982 twenty-two computer scientists met to discuss an issue with ‘computer mail’ (now known as email). Attendees included the guy who would create Sun Microsystems, the guy who made Zork, the NTP guy, and the guy who convinced the government to pay for Unix. The problem was simple: there were 455 hosts on the ARPANET and the situation was getting out of control.
In the original ARPANET design, a central Network Information Center (NIC) was responsible for maintaining a file listing every host on the network. The file was known as the HOSTS.TXT file, similar to the /etc/hosts file on a Linux or OS X system today. Every network change would require the NIC to FTP (a protocol invented in 1971) to every host on the network, a significant load on their infrastructure.
Having a single file list every host on the Internet would, of course, not scale indefinitely. The priority was email, however, as it was the predominant addressing challenge of the day. Their ultimate conclusion was to create a hierarchical system in which you could query an external system for just the domain or set of domains you needed. In their words: “The conclusion in this area was that the current ‘user@host’ mailbox identifier should be extended to ‘[email protected]’ where ‘domain’ could be a hierarchy of domains.” And the domain was born.
In addition to offering many of its employees the ability to work from home this week, Apple is also taking steps to ensure the well-being of its retail workers. 9to5Mac has learned that Apple hourly employees, including retail workers, are getting unlimited sick leave if they experience COVID-19 symptoms.
Apple retail workers are not required to submit a doctor’s note for this time off. This means that if they’re experiencing the COVID-19 symptoms, they can take the time that they need without having to worry about running out of sick days or providing a note to management.
One of the big issues with the “advice” of “just stay home,” is that many people, especially in retail, can’t afford to. This is a big gesture on Apple’s part and shows a lot of trust in their employees.
Coca-Cola’s brand of bottled water, Dasani, was a flop in the UK after the public realised it was just filtered tap water. But the story’s a bit more complicated than it might seem.
I love Scott’s video channel. When I drank bottled water years ago, I always chose Dasani. I knew it was just tap water but didn’t care. I didn’t know it wasn’t available in Britain.
Apple has canceled all of its Today at Apple sessions in Apple retail locations in Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area, two of the places in the United States that are seeing some of the worst coronavirus outbreaks.
Searching for Today at Apple sessions in the SF Bay Area or around Seattle provides results that say there are currently no classes available. Apple has also canceled all Field Trip programs, which allowed teachers to take students to Apple Stores.
Apple sent out notices to stores in these areas asking them to cancel all sessions from March 8 to March 29, according to an Apple retail source that spoke with MacRumors.
I won’t be surprised if these cancellations spread to other areas or last into April and May.
Using a 70 percent isopropyl alcohol wipe or Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, you may gently wipe the hard, nonporous surfaces of your Apple product, such as the display, keyboard, or other exterior surfaces. Don’t use bleach. Avoid getting moisture in any opening, and don’t submerge your Apple product in any cleaning agents. Don’t use on fabric or leather surfaces.
This is an updated support article from Apple but I’ve always used Clorox Wipes on my water-resistant iPhones.
Pirating content is making a comeback (again) thanks to the streaming wars.
Given the influx of streaming services created to compete with Netflix, such as Disney+, Apple TV Plus, and Peacock, people are now turning back to torrenting their favorite shows instead of paying multiple subscription fees.
All the Streams claims to be a “private radio for streaming,” and does work as such. You can “turn the dial” and go to channels of the main streaming services, from Hulu to Netflix to Amazon Prime. Like actual pirate radio, you cannot choose what’s playing — you just sit back and enjoy.
Pirating content may be popular again, but it’s still not legal.
They’re hard to remember, hackers exploit their weaknesses and fixes often bring their own problems. Dashlane, LastPass, 1Password and other password managers generate strong and unique passwords for every account you have, but the software is complex. Services from Google, Facebook and Apple allow you to use your passwords for their services at other sites, but you have to give them even more power over your life online. Two-factor authentication, which requires a second passcode sent by text message or retrieved from a special app each time you log in, boosts security dramatically but can still be defeated.
A big change, however, could eliminate passwords altogether. The technology, called FIDO, overhauls the log-in process, combining your phone; face and fingerprint recognition; and new gadgets called hardware security keys. If it delivers on its promise, FIDO will make cringeworthy passwords like “123456” relics of a bygone age.
“A password is something you know. A device is something you have. Biometrics is something you are,” said Stephen Cox, chief security architect of SecureAuth. “We’re moving to something you have and something you are.”
It’s only a matter of time before FIDO happens but it won’t be a quick or easy fix.
In the early days at Mei Mei, success was measured by having enough dumplings to get through the day and confirming that the bank account wasn’t empty. Today, every single staff member, from the dishwasher to the line cook, can interpret and speak to the restaurant’s entire profit-and-loss statement because, for two years now, Mei Mei has been opening its books to its staff.
This means all staff are able to see every line item associated with money coming in the door and all of the expenses the restaurant takes on — from paying its employees to keeping the lights on. Not only that, each employee actually plays a hand in working to move the bottom line, working on teams tasked with the goal of reducing costs and increasing profits for the business. If the team wants to research and vet new vendors, they have that power. If they want to change the menu prices for a fixed period of time, they’re able to do that too.
Now, it’s no longer enough for Li to share the nitty-gritty financial info with her team. She wants the public to understand it, too.
Really interesting article, whether enjoy Denver food or whether you want to run a restaurant or not.
NetNewsWire, which was relaunched on the Mac last August, is now available on iOS and iPadOS. Like its Mac counterpart, the iOS and iPadOS version is built on a foundation of fast syncing and sensible, bug-free design. As with any 1.0 app, there are additional features and refinements I hope to see in future releases. Unlike most 1.0 releases, though, you won’t find lots of rough edges and bugs. NetNewsWire is ready to be your primary RSS client today.
One of the strengths of NetNewsWire is that if you’ve used the Mac app, the iOS and iPadOS version is immediately familiar, while also feeling right at home on an iPhone or iPad. I wish I could say the same about most apps, but I can’t. Whether it’s an iOS or iPadOS app moving to the Mac or the other direction, too often the core experience of an app is replicated without accounting for the unique qualities of the platform to which it’s being added.
That isn’t the case with NetNewsWire. The app benefits from the same careful attention to detail that the Mac app does, but adapted for the iOS/iPadOS environment.
While reports of its death are greatly exaggerated, RSS isn’t a particularly popular piece of tech. But NetNewsWire is well done and well thought out. If you need a full-featured RSS reader on the Mac or your iOS device, you won’t find a better one than NetNewsWire.
Today’s lighter fare will be another go at a now well-aged rumor — or prediction — that Apple’s home-grown ARM processors will replace x86 Intel chips as the main CPU of our Macs, a prophecy that was reinvigorated last week when notorious and prolific analyst Ming-Chi Kuo added a timeline to the prediction: Apple will make the move in the next 12 to 18 months.
This isn’t wild speculation. The iPhone and iPad have run on Apple-designed ARM chips since birth, and while early entries into the Axx line were underpowered, the latest chips created by Apple’s silicon design teams have yielded laptop- or even desktop-class performance. Couple that with Apple’s well-established drive towards vertical integration and control over its products’ key technologies, and the “rumor” seems inevitable.
Last year, I concluded that a move to the ARM processor created two serious challenges for the Macintosh line, two forks in the product line.
I’m not really much of a “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” kind of guy so I ignore most of the rumours but this switch seems inevitable.
Apple sold fewer than half a million iPhones in China in February, government data showed on Monday, as the coronavirus outbreak halved demand for smartphones.
China placed curbs on travel and asked residents to avoid public places in late January, just ahead of the Lunar New Year festival, a major gift-giving holiday. Those restrictions stayed largely in place through most of February.
In total, mobile phone brands sold a total of 6.34 million devices in February in China, down 54.7% from 14 million in the same month last year, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed (CAICT).
This will be the same story for other smartphone vendors as well as just about any sector that relies on China for sales.
“Uh huh, sure!” we say sarcastically when a laptop brand boasts about its product’s “spectacular” battery life. Forgive us at Laptop Mag for being skeptics — if you’ve been testing a crapload of laptops that rarely lived up to their battery life hype, you’d be a cynic, too.
Let’s start with some good news! Not all laptop brands have been spewing tall tales about their products’ battery life. Apple and Microsoft are the top two companies that made battery life claims that were closest to our real-world test results.
Apple knocked it out the park with an impressive eight out of nine products that matched our battery life results; in other words, 88% fell within our permitted 2.5-hour window. In some cases, our battery life results surpassed Apple’s advertised battery life claims.
Apple has determined that, under certain circumstances, the screen on a limited number of iPad Air (3rd generation) devices may go blank permanently. A brief flicker or flash may appear before the screen goes blank.
Affected devices were manufactured between March 2019 and October 2019. Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider will service eligible devices, free of charge.
Note: No other iPad models are part of this program.
This program is very specific to these iPads only but if you’re affected, Apple has you covered.
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook offered employees at most of its global offices the ability to work from home and called the coronavirus outbreak an “unprecedented event” and a “challenging moment.” IF you want to learn more on how to make your employees happy during difficult times, there are new team building ideas that have been tested and proven to work great, for example you can Book an escape room game and make corporate team building fun and exciting again. Fun activities that help people see each other in a different light allow them to connect in a different setting.
Cook told employees at several global offices to “please feel free to work remotely if your job allows” for the week of March 9 to 13, according to a memo Cook sent that was obtained by Bloomberg News. That extends the company’s move last Friday to encourage employees in California and Seattle to work remotely. In addition, a new type of remote work is emerging that offers workers the flexibility they value while benefiting businesses too—asynchronous work. If you want to learn more about asynchronous work, you might want to visit sites like https://rock.so/blog/asynchronous-work/ to learn more.
Apple is implementing “new efforts to maximize interpersonal space and continuing, enhanced deep cleanings,” according to the memo. This includes reducing human density and occupancy at Apple classes and Genius Bar appointments at stores.
Things are going to get worse before they get better. This all but ensures Apple will cancel WWDC. It’s just a matter of time before they make the announcement.
Apple Music has tapped Lady Gaga to help celebrate International Women’s Day on Sunday (March 8).
As the music streaming service’s new Artist in Residence, Gaga has curated an exclusive playlist, titled Women of Choice, featuring her new single “Stupid Love,” along with music by St. Vincent, Rosalia, Grimes, Charli XCX and HAIM, among others.
Apple Music will also feature artist-curated playlists by Taylor Swift (Playlists by ME!), Meghan Trainor (Who Runs the World), Kehlani (#OnRepeat), Hailee Steinfeld (Heartbreak Pop) and others.
That’s Neil deGrasse Tyson’s exact MO. He appears, on Twitter at least, to live exclusively for yucking your yum. Each new day to him is a challenge to find the most innocuous thing that people frivolously enjoy, and “debunk” it with straight talk. He’s just obsessed with letting you know that everything that has ever been said about the moon in pop culture is factually inaccurate. I would say that the sight of anyone enjoying themselves whatsoever is like Neil deGrasse Tyson’s bat signal, but that would probably only lead to Tyson somehow appearing before me to explain why the bat signal is impossible, because of the moon.
IMO, Neil deGrasse Tyson is the very definition of the word “annoying.”
The 2020 South by Southwest conference and festivals have been canceled amid fears of the growing American outbreak of the coronavirus. Many large companies had already pulled out of the conference, including Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter.
Austin city officials said in a press conference, “this is a medical and data-driven decision.”
SXSW organizers said in a tweet they were “devastated.”
The SXSW organizers should have made this decision on their own and not been “forced” into it by city officials. Your move, Apple.
Looking for a hybrid vehicle to help cut down on your carbon footprint? Can I suggest the new 1,700-horsepower Koenigsegg Gemera?
Their latest creation, the Gemera, takes the absurdity to another level. And while, yes, it’s not going to make the same kind of dent in transportation emissions as, say, a Toyota Rav4 Hybrid, or a Chevy Volt, or any all-electric vehicle, it’s a fascinating piece of modern automotive technology.
The benefits of this wild hybrid powertrain are multifold. For one thing, Koenigsegg says the single gear direct drive setup allows the car to achieve its incredible performance with higher efficiency and less weight than “any other hybrid solution.” The result is a car that can go up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) before needing to recharge or refuel, and also go from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour (62mph) in a brain-liquefying 1.9 seconds.
There will come a day when automakers will stop making insane supercars but today is not that day.
Coronavirus is affecting people around the world, but what does it mean for WWDC? Dave and I also talk about the possible affects on iPhone production, as well as switching Apple Music to other countries.
Sonos has been under fire lately for the way it has handled a few decisions around its oldest products. Last fall, the company introduced a “trade up” program — if you owned one of Sonos’ oldest products, you could send it in to the company and get 30 percent off new gear. However, to get the discount, you had to put your old products in “recycle mode,” a setting that would permanently make them unable to connect to a network or work with other Sonos gear.
Today, the company is reversing course. A Sonos spokesperson confirmed that the Trade Up program will continue, but recycling mode is no more.
That said, it’s worth noting that Sonos hasn’t changed its plans to stop updating those legacy products come May. As a reminder, they’ll work as they do now but won’t receive new features or software updates going forward.
Another example of a PR disaster that shouldn’t have happened.
The TV industry is second to none when it comes to misleading, obscure, hyperbolic, and useless terminology and specifications. Manufacturers try to baffle you with bull… Err, bedazzle you with numbers and fancy names. Case in point: it’s an industry that can keep a straight face while telling you that 3840 horizontal pixels equals 4K horizontal pixels (4K equals 4096, but who’s counting?)
Don’t worry, we’re here to help with no-hype, no-frills, plain-language (or as close as we can get) definitions of the terms and specs you’ll encounter when you go shopping for your new TV. We’ll also present some basic advice that will have you schooling your local big-box store pro in no time.
There are few things in tech more frustrating than trying to compare tech specs of big-screen TVs. This article might help make sense of some of the terms used by manufacturers.
Tot (or Tot Pocket as it’s called on iOS)—a new, purposely limited notetaking app for iOS and macOS—warrants your attention. Not only does it introduce more than one fresh idea, but it also solves a specific and common digital notetaking problem.
Most notetaking apps let you create an unlimited amount of documents, but Tot only lets you choose between seven different sheets within the same interface. This is especially satisfying on the iPhone, as a little haptic tap accompanies each swipe. You have to click on the dots representing each document on the Mac, but the interface looks exactly the same and the automatic syncing takes a couple of seconds at most.
Tot impresses me because it lets you edit in both Markdown and rich text through a simple toggle at the bottom of the interface, and I like that it usually converts copied rich text snippets into Markdown when you copy and paste them from other documents and sites (aside from font and font size). For that matter, you don’t have to keep each of the seven files in either rich text or Markdown. Tot remembers the settings, and it’ll even maintain them when you switch from an iPhone to a Mac or vice versa.
Tot is an interesting app with an even more interesting pricing model – it’s free on macOS but $20 on iOS. I wish the nice folks at Iconfactory much success with this app.
Apple is cracking down on apps related to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak that aren’t from recognized institutions like governments or hospitals, iPhone developers told CNBC.
Apple has been specifically evaluating coronavirus apps to prevent the spread of misinformation. It looks at both where the health data comes from and whether the developers represent organizations that users can trust to publish accurate data, like governments or health-focused organizations, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The restriction appears to be working, as search results show few apps about the outbreak and no obvious spam. But it could also reduce the availability of software that would enable iPhone users to track the outbreak, and raise fairness questions about who is allowed to develop apps for iPhones.
Some will say Apple (and Google) are being too heavyhanded on this issue but with so much false information and so many sleazy people trying to take advantage of it, it’s prudent for the companies to take this action.
When a plane is in trouble, the pilots dump all its fuel before making an emergency landing. This is controversial; though fuel usually dissipates before reaching ground, it’s a dangerous pollutant all the same and sometimes it gets dumped close enough to humans that it puts them at risk.
This 1984 film, of a test of jet fuel formulated to resist igniting, shows why pilots dump it. NASA and the FAA loaded a retired training jet with test dummies, then remote-piloted it to a crash landing in the Mojave desert. It comes down rough but stays in one piece as it plows through earthworks and obstacles. If it were out of gas, chances of everyone surviving would be good. But with a full tank?
Spoiler: the fuel ignites.
I’d seen the end of this video many times but this is the first time I’ve read about the whys of it or seen what came before the fireball.
Companies based in Santa Clara County, California — which includes Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and San Jose — should avoid travel and postpone or cancel mass gatherings, the county recommended on Thursday. The recommendations come after six new cases of the novel coronavirus have been identified, bringing the total number of people confirmed to have the disease to 20.
Other guidance from the county includes minimizing the number of people “working within arm’s length of one another,” urging people to stay home if they’re sick, and spacing out start and end times of the workday for employees. People at higher risk for serious illness — those who are over 50 or have another underlying health condition — should stay home.
The county recommendations are an attempt to slow the spread of the new coronavirus by limiting in-person contact.
As I said on Wednesday night’s Your Mac Life show, Apple should just announce the cancellation/postponement of WWDC now. It’s obvious that they are going to do it eventually. Sooner rather than later is best – release all of those people from the stress of not just planning the trip but also of having to deal with this issue.
The oral history of a team of geeks and misfits in the back of a Chicago factory creating the biggest video games (Mortal Kombat, NBA JAM, and others) of all time.
You may have to be “of a certain age” to enjoy this trailer but, if you are, prepare to be hit by a tsunami of nostalgia for your misspent youth and remember how many literal thousands of dollars many of us pumped into these machines. I want to know – where the hell did I get all that money?
