In a clip from Apple TV+ documentary The Year Earth Changed shared on YouTube, experts explain how the pandemic-enforced reduction of whale boating reduced stress on the amazing creatures. The series, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, is available to subscribers now.
Rewatch Apple's 'Spring Loaded' Event
There was an awful lot packed into Apple’s ‘Spring Loaded’ event on Tuesday. If you missed any of the announcements, you can rewatch the whole event on YouTube or via Apple’s website.
Reflecting on Apple's 'Spring Loaded' Event on Daily Tech News Show
The Mac Observer’s Charlotte Henry joined Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Nica Montford, and Terrance Gaines to reflect on all the announcements from Apple’s ‘Spring Loaded’ event on Tuesday. They also discussed other topics like Facebook’s approach to handling data breaches and Microsoft building a new app store.
Plant Trees for Earth Day 2021 by Using ‘Ecosia’
Ecosia is a non-profit search engine that plants a tree for every 45 searches. So far it has now planted over 120 million trees across 9,000 planting sites worldwide. The current rate is a new tree planted every 1.3 seconds. Ecosia makes advertising revenue like other search engines, but it takes 80-100% of that to reinvest into its tree planting projects around the world. It’s also a private engine, as it does not permanently store users’ searches and they are deleted after a week. Ecosia does not sell any user data to advertisers, all searches are encrypted and it doesn’t use any external tracking tools. And with iOS 14.3, Apple users can choose Ecosia as their main search engine in Settings > Safari > Search Engine.
16 Books to Read for Celebrating Earth Day 2021
Reading app Libby has rounded up the best 16 books to read for celebrating Earth Day 2021. These books focus on topics like climate change, environmentalism, and activism and can be borrowed for free from your local library. Books include The Hidden Life of Trees (decent read), The Overstory, The Invention of Nature (been on my list for months), Losing Earth, Walden, How to Give Up Plastic, and many others. Speaking of nature books, a couple of my own favorites include The Wild Trees by Richard Preston, The Songs of Trees by David George Haskell, and What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz.
Scott Kelby’s iPhone Photography Book is Released
Professional photographer Scott Kelby has recently published The iPhone Photography Book. It’s filled with tips and tricks to help iPhone users get the most of out their camera and editing techniques. I particularly thought the guide on how to pose people was helpful. To me, taking a good photo of a person is more difficult than taking a good photo of a landscape or building. Travel and landscape photography are covered, as well as how to best organize your photo library and apps you can use to shoot and edit. It’s US$29.95 on Amazon for the paperback, and US$17.29 for the Kindle edition.
Filming Inside the Reef for 'Tiny World' on Apple TV+
The second season of Tiny World was one of a number of new nature documentaries released on Apple TV+ on Friday. In a newly released clip, some of the camera operators reveal the groundbreaking technology and techniques used to get amazing shots inside a coral reef.
The Story of Apple vs Facebook, Told by (Ripped) Action Figures
The upcoming (eventually) release of 14.5, and in particular the introduction of Ad Tracking Technology, has prompted an almighty fight between Apple and Facebook. In a new video, the Wall Street Journal‘s Joanna Stern explains what’s really going… with the help of some seriously ripped action figures.
Plant Real Trees While Playing ‘TerraGenesis’ Space Game
TerraGenesis is a space terraforming simulator and its publisher has partnered with Ecologi on a new, permanent feature within the game. With the new partnership, and based on the actions players take in TerraGenesis – from daily logins to ad views to completing missions and more – the game will help plant trees, contributing toward reforestation with the help of Ecologi. In addition, players can monitor their impact, as well as those of the TerraGenesis community as a whole, via an in-game hub and unlock rewards as they reach tree planting milestones.
This Shortcut Called ‘Ebb’ Can Track Your Menstruation
I like to share cool shortcuts that I discover and I recently found this one on r/Shortcuts. It’s called “ebb” and the creator says it’s an inclusive period tracker and their first shortcut. Here is their story: “Hi. I created Ebb to track my menstrual cycle, my symptoms (I have an anxiety disorder) and journal about my body in the same space. I also wanted an easy format that I can backup and/or export without having to pay a period app’s subscription service. I mean no disrespect to any of these apps, but a lot of people cannot afford a monthly subscription so I hope this helps! I am a black queer woman and tried to make everything as inclusive as possible but if you see a mistake or faux-pas, please let me know! You can email me at [email protected] or, as of v3.0, you can send feedback through Ebb.”
Big Library Read’s Latest Book Club Offering is ‘The Art of Taking it Easy’
Overdrive’s book club called Big Library Read announced its latest entry for readers called “The Art of Taking It Easy” by psychologist and stand-up comedian Dr. Brian King. Through Libby, OverDrive’s one-tap reading app, The Art of Taking It Easy is available for free, simultaneous use access from over 20K libraries and schools worldwide through April 19. Being selected for Big Library Read provides great exposure for King, with hundreds of thousands checkouts per program and the unique opportunity for readers to interact with the author and others in the online discussion.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Online Anonymity Version 9
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Online Anonymity is an open source, non-profit guide on how to be anonymous online. It covers multiple platforms like Windows, Linux, macOS, Whonix, TAILS, Qubes, and more. Its creator announced an update to the guide, version 9. This version adds bug fixes, more topics, and its own Tor Mirror. You can find the online guide here, and the PDF guide here. The creator’s post on Reddit includes many variations on these guides.
‘Opposing Fronts’ DLC Comes to ‘Company of Heroes’ on iOS
Feral Interactive have announced that Opposing Fronts is now available as an expansion pack for the award-winning Company of Heroes on iOS. Available as an in-app purchase, Opposing Fronts offers two gripping new campaigns, both with fresh perspectives on pivotal moments of World War II. Players can command the British 2nd Army in their armoured assault on the city of Caen, or choose to mobilise the German Panzer Elite in their attempts to halt the Allied crossing of the Rhine. This substantial expansion also adds both the British and Panzer Elite forces as playable armies in Skirmish Mode, bringing new units, tactics and special abilities to master and employ. Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts is now available for US$3.99 as an in-game purchase.
Measure Your Broadband With New ‘FCC Speed Test App’
As part of its Measuring Broadband America Program, the FCC announced the release of a speed test app. The information collected through the app will help to inform the FCC’s efforts to provide improved coverage information to the public. “We expect that some of the information collected through the app will be incorporated into the Commission’s broadband data collection systems, including challenges to provider-submitted maps and our collection of additional crowdsourced data.”
‘Smart Task’ Adds Support for Apple Watch, Apple Pencil, VoiceOver, and More
Productivity app Smart Tasks just received a huge update with version 2.0. It adds support for Apple Pencil, VoiceOver, new category colors, a fully independent Apple Watch app, and lots more. Apple Watch: View today, tomorrow, and whenever tasks in the Next 2 Days view; Quickly add tasks and categories; View/edit task and category details. Apple Pencil: Start writing in the space between each day in Next 7 Days to add a task for that day quickly; Also, you can do this for Categories and in Scheduled’s Calendar view. VoiceOver: Fully interact with Smart Tasks using Apple’s VoiceOver; Every screen and action has been improved to work with VoiceOver.
The 'Mythic Quest' Season Two Trailer is Here
Mythic Quest is set to return to Apple TV+ on May 7. On Monday, the new trailer landed. It shows (most) of the team back in the office working on a successor to Raven’s Banquet and gives a hint at how reintegration is going.
Eddie Murphy Discuss His Real Legacy with Oprah
Eddie Murphy is the latest guest on Apple TV+ show The Oprah Conversation. In one clip, he discussed what he considers his true legacy – his family. (The acting icon has 10 children.)
Export Apple Health Data for Your Doctor With ‘Heart Reports’
An app called Heart Reports lets you export Apple Health data as a beautiful, human-readable PDF for your doctor. There are six different reports that you can generate: Heart Rate Report: minimum, maximum, and average heart rate data, heart rate variability(HRV), graphs, and more; Blood Pressure Report: scatter and simple line graphs of your blood pressure readings combined with the corresponding heart rate, body temperature, and 12-hour nutritional intake values(sodium, caffeine, carbohydrates); Blood Sugar Report: all of your blood glucose readings with nutritional intake values, heart rate ranges, and classifications based on your diabetes type; Activity Report: four charts from your step count, burned calories, BMI, and body weight; Sleep Report: visualized sleep cycles with heart rate data, asleep, awake, and in-bed times, nutritional values, and more; Blood Oxygen Report: all of your blood oxygen readings with minimum, maximum and average data, combined with your heart rate info. App Store: US$2.99
Zynga Launches ‘Puzzle Combat’ Match 3 Game
On Thursday Zynga announced the release of a new game called Puzzle Combat. It’s a match-3 action role playing game where players recruit heroes, build bases and compete in player-vs-player (PvP) battles in a zombie-themed setting. In Puzzle Combat, players will immerse themselves in battling enemies from the dangerous Dread Army with power-ups by creating unique match combinations. Players recruit spies, medics, demolition experts and more to fight on their side, each bringing unique special attacks to the fray. Players will also design impenetrable bases by constructing and upgrading buildings like foundries, workshops, training schools and quarters.
Apple TV+: Helpsters Teach Heart T-Ball
In a new clip shared Friday, the Helpsters teach their friend Heart to play T-Ball. It’s the latest in the ‘We’ve Got a Plan’ series of videos from the Apple TV+ show that have been released. It is from the season two finale, which is available now to subscribers.
