The American Law Institute (ALI) will vote tomorrow on a proposal that would make it easier for companies to bind you to contracts, even without visiting the website.
If you’re like most people, you’ve probably clicked “I agree” on many online contracts without ever reading them. Soon you may be deemed to have agreed to a company’s terms without even knowing it. A vote is occurring Tuesday that would make it easier for online businesses to dispense with that click and allow websites that you merely browse — anything from Amazon and AT&T to Yahoo and Zillow — to bind you to contract terms without your agreement or awareness.
Sorting through the mesh wireless systems available today can be tricky. Read on, and we’ll teach you how to decide which one is best for you. [Update: Anti-malware is a theme of this update, with Plume SuperPods, Orbi, and Linksys Velop all joining the club with solid offerings in this regard. eero and Plume both solved their LAN persistence problems, keeping your Wi-Fi alive even if your Internet connection goes down. AmpliFi is doing some cool things for IoT users with regards to setting up separate SSIDs for that, too. See Changelog – Dave]
Amy Zirkle is the interim CEO of the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA). Prior to joining ETA, she spent 17 years working as a Senior Economist focusing on technology matters including mobile payments in the developing world. She holds an S.M. degree from M.I.T. where she served as a Research Associate at the M.I.T. Media Lab as well as the M.I.T. Research Program on Communications Policy.
Amy and I talked about her work at the M.I.T. Media Lab, the early days of electronic payments and their exploding growth today. We also chatted about the new tap & go cards, their security, and how they work. I asked about the CurrentC disaster as well as restaurants and gas stations and how they seem to lag behind modern payment methods. We finished with a discussion of the future of electronic payments.
Chtrbox, a social media marketing firm based in Mumbai, India, exposed an Instagram influencer database online.
Each record in the database contained a record that calculated the worth of each account, based off the number of followers, engagement, reach, likes and shares they had. This was used as a metric to determine how much the company could pay an Instagram celebrity or influencer to post an ad.
At the time of the writing there were 49 million database records, but was increasing by the hour. The database has since been pulled offline.
Check out today’s giveaway, the The iPhone XS Max 256GB + AirPods Giveaway. w00t! Sign up to receive deal emails to enter the giveaway—if you’re already signed up for those emails, simply enter. It’s that simple, so get to it! This is the last chance, as this giveaway is coming to a close.
Microsoft announced the release of its Microsoft Edge Preview for Mac users. The company wants the Mac app to match the experience of the Windows 10 version.
Niantic and Warner Brothers released a new trailer for their upcoming augmented reality game, Harry Potter Wizards Unite. I am super stoked about this game, as long-time listeners and readers will know, and this new trailer offers hints about what the game play might look like. The theme of the trailer is that magic has been intruding into the muggle world, risking exposure of the magically-secret wizarding world. The imagery and voiceover suggest that the job of players will be to handle these intrusions. But there’s also a good-wizard versus dark-wizard element to the game, too, which is even more enticing. That said—and as I noted in Monday’s Daily Observations—what the crap is wrong with someone choosing to play as a dark wizard! SMH…Anyhoo, the trailer is amazing, and it has me very excited. And I am now hoping even more that there will be a wand accessory players can use to cast spells. Come on Niantic! Don’t let us down! You can sign up for updates at the game’s website. Unfortunately, someone involved in this franchise made the unfortunate choice to allow pre-registration for the game itself to Android, a weird choice considering Apple’s lead in AR. Hopefully the kickback money was worth it, hey?
Andrew Orr and Bryan Chaffin join host Kelly Guimont to discuss the latest video about Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and the Lazy Guide to Backing Up Data.
Apple Card, which will be released this summer, isn’t the company’s first Apple credit card idea. Steve Jobs first thought of it in 2004.
The year was 2004…Steve thought the time was right for Apple to offer its own credit card. He would call it … (drum roll)… Apple Card…Alas, the Apple Card never saw the light of day. Steve worked to create a partnership with MasterCard, but apparently he couldn’t get the terms he wanted—so he pulled the plug.
Interesting story. The article also includes marketing materials the company created at the time. Edit: As it turns out, this wasn’t the first Apple Card either. In 1992/1993, The Mac Observer’s Dave Hamilton worked on an Apple credit card during a previous career at Citibank.
Staff at MIT opened a time capsule buried 20 years ago Monday. It contained a plethora of tech history, including Sir Tim Berners-Lees original proposal for the World Wide Web and the first Microsoft product, Fast Company reported.
Inside, they found Tim Berners-Lee’s original proposal for the World Wide Web, written in 1992. This document laid out the rules that governed the HTTP protocol and how the HTML language was supposed to work–describing the graphic appearance of content on the internet, and how links would connect everything in a web-like network of nodes that could take you from a page about the mating habits of penguins to one that describes how a steam locomotive work. Basically, the document is one of the primary reasons you’re able to read these lines right now. The capsule also included Microsoft’s first ever product, the BASIC interpreter that Bill Gates and Paul Allen coded for the Altair computer in 1975.
It is well known that customers can purchase a 21.5 in 4k LG monitor and a 27-inch 5K LG monitor in Apple stores. However, TidBits found a mystery 23.7-inch monitor during a recent visit, one marketed explicitly at Mac users. However, the box does not say that the monitor is 4k.
Here’s the weird thing: I could find virtually nothing about the 23.7-inch LG UltraFine Display online. It’s not listed on Apple’s online store or LG’s Web site. A Google search for its model number, 24MD4KL, turns up little, just a page showing an FCC ID and another showing Energy Star certification. The display is not to be confused with other LG displays that are well-documented online. But this new Apple Store model is different in that it’s explicitly intended for and marketed to Mac users—it says so right on the box. What it doesn’t say on the box is “4K.”
First things first: make sure your Mac’s XProtect database is regularly updated. With that out of the way, we can have some fun learning some handy new keyboard shortcuts, new ways to filter Mail on your iPhone and iPad, some tricks for truly securing your router, and a discussion about guest networks, just to name a few topics included in this week’s episode. Press play, and enjoy learning at least five new things!
Google suspended some of its business with Huawei following President Trump’s decision to blacklist the firm. Reuters broke the news Sunday. The suspension affects the transfer of some hardware, software and technical services involving the Chinese telecoms giant.
Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, in a blow to the Chinese technology company that the U.S. government has sought to blacklist around the world…Holders of current Huawei smartphones with Google apps, however, will continue to be able to use and download app updates provided by Google, a Google spokesperson said.
