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Chicago Music Summit Coming to Apple Store Michigan Avenue

Charlotte Henry ·

The Apple Store on Michigan Avenue will host the second Chicago Music Summit it emerged Monday. 9to5Mac outlined some of the details of the event, which which will run for the second time this September. Details of the first two weeks of sessions also appeared as part of the Today at Apple program.

Apple describes the Chicago Music Industry Summit as a time to “connect with others and tap into creative resources to help further your career in music and the arts.” The month-long event collection is a collaboration with Apple Music and organized under the umbrella of Today at Apple, the program of daily creative sessions held in every Apple Store. Like all Today at Apple sessions, Chicago Music Industry Summit events are free to attend and generally take the form of hands-on labs, discussions, and live performances.

Podcast

Persistence Is Reality – Mac Geek Gab 775

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

Sometimes your computer keeps doing something you don’t want it to do. Sometimes it stops doing something it’s supposed to be doing. Persistence is a finicky friend sometimes, and your two favorite geeks are here to help you with some of the specifics. Listen as John and Dave dig into Safari tabs, Apps on Apple Watch, displaying Time Zones in a world without Dashboard Widgets, and more. Press Play and enjoy learning at least five new things!

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YouTube's Original Content May be Reacting to 'Subscription Fatigue'

John Martellaro ·

Either YouTube’s original content managers are reacting to consumer ‘subscription fatigue’ or they’ve somehow learned of Apple’s (possible) plans for its Apple TV+ service to be free to Apple hardware customers. Or Disney’s recent announcements have taken the wind out of their sails. (sales?) PC Magazine writes:

YouTube’s original series, movies, and live events will be available for free starting Sept. 24. Here’s the catch: non-paying viewers will see ads when watching this content, and «only select episodes may be available for streaming [for free] at any time,» YouTube said.

The TV original content subscription war is heating up.

Podcast

Science Communicator Dr. Kiki Sanford (#7) - TMO Background Mode Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Dr. Kiki Sanford makes her seventh appearance on Background Mode. Kiki is a neurophysiologist with a B.S. in conservation biology and a Ph.D. avian neurophysiology from the University of California. She’s a popular science communicator and creator of This Week in Science (TWIS) podcast and radio show.

In this episode, we chat about Elon Musk’s Neuralink, Tardigrades on the Earth’s moon, how Dark Matter may have actually preceded the Big Bang, how older parents tend to have children with fewer behavior problems, the latest findings from the exoplanet hunter, TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and, finally, how climate change is affecting the size of some birds. Dr. Kiki is always a delight to listen to and learn from.

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Meet the Professor Behind Netflix's 'The Great Hack'

Andrew Orr ·

David Carroll sued Cambridge Analytica after news broke that it used Facebook user data for targeted political advertising. Netflix’s The Great Hack tells his story, and Business Insider interviewed him.

My pursuit is a highly individualized narrative, which obscures the reality that it’s a story about all of us. Quitting your Facebook account doesn’t do anything. You can try to do the work of going through all your settings and being really hygienic about your data, but it’s only going to reduce the scope of data leaking all over the place. It’s certainly not going to have a total effect that people might want.

I’m putting this on my list to watch.

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Some Companies Don't Like iOS 13 Location Privacy Feature

Andrew Orr ·

App developers wrote a letter to Apple saying how much they don’t like iOS 13 location privacy rules, accusing the company of anti-competitive behavior.

We understand that there were certain developers, specifically messaging apps, that were using this as a backdoor to collect user data. While we agree loopholes like this should be closed, the current Apple plan to remove [access to the internet voice feature] will have unintended consequences: it will effectively shut down apps that have a valid need for real-time location.

The letter was signed by Tile CEO CJ Prober; Arity (Allstate) president Gary Hallgren; CEO of Life360, Chris Hullsan; CEO of dating app Happn, Didier Rappaport; CEO of Zenly (Snap), Antoine Martin; CEO of Zendrive, Jonathan Matus; and chief strategy officer of social networking app Twenty, Jared Allgood.

A helpful list of all the apps I’ll never download. I hope Apple does more when it comes to privacy.

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The Retreat That Tech Execs Escape to

Charlotte Henry ·

The world can rest heavy on the shoulders of top tech execs. The New Yorker revealed the retreat that some, including those from Apple, escape to as they struggle with crises of conscience.

There are many upscale New Age retreat centers (Kripalu, in Massachusetts; Feathered Pipe Ranch, in Montana) where stressed-out executives can spend restorative weekends before returning to work with looser hip flexors and a clearer conscience. But Esalen is just outside Silicon Valley, so the executives who visit it have come from the likes of Intel and Xerox parc—and, more recently, from Apple and Google and Twitter. Esalen’s board of trustees has included an early Facebook employee, a Google alumnus, and a former Airbnb executive. Presumably, had there been such conspicuous overlap between a countercultural think tank and captains of any other industry—fast food, say, or clean coal—there would have been an outcry, or at least some pointed questions. But Big Tech was supposed to be different. It was supposed to make the world a better place.

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Facebook Moderator Counselors Under Pressure to Disclose Details of Confidential Sessions

Charlotte Henry ·

In recent times, reports emerged about the toll being a Facebook moderator took on people. The company introduced access to on-site counselling for staff. However, The Intercept found that some therapists were put under pressure to disclose what was discussed in those confidential sessions.

Access to on-site counseling is one of the few bright points for this workforce. But now even this grim perk has been undermined by corporate prying, according to a letter drafted by a group of about a dozen Austin moderators who work across Facebook and Instagram. The letter alleges that, starting in early July, Accenture managers attempted to pressure multiple on-site counselors to share information relating to topics discussed in employee trauma sessions. This information was understood by both counselors and Accenture employees to be confidential, said several Accenture sources interviewed by The Intercept. It is not clear what specific information related to the sessions was sought by the managers.