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News+ How the Upcoming USB4 Tech Could Affect iOS Products

Andrew Orr ·

In the latest issue of Macworld, Jason Cross writes how USB4 could affect iOS products like the iPad.

Simply put, it makes it easier for its iOS devices, Apple TV, and every other product without an Intel chip inside to support all the features of Thunderbolt 3…a future iPad Pro’s USB-C port could be USB4-compatible and hook up to all sorts of monitors, including the Thunderbolt 3 monitor you may have.

This is part of Andrew’s News+ series, where he shares a magazine every Friday to help people discover good content in Apple News+.

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Avengers Endgame - Surviving a 59-Hour Move Marathon

Charlotte Henry ·

There is a new Avengers movie out. You might have heard about it.  CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti attended a 59-hour Marvel movie marathon in preparation for Avengers: Endgame.

My 59-hour Marvel movie marathon is here. Yes, I’m watching 59 hours of Marvel movies, back to back (to back). For two and a half days, I’m essentially confined to a chair at an AMC theater in San Francisco as I attempt to watch all the movies from start to finish, beginning with Iron Man and wrapping up with Avengers: Endgame on Thursday (read our CNET review of Endgame here). I’ll sleep in a theater chair and eat way more popcorn than I probably should. It’s been nice knowing you, everyone.

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Apple's Services Division Twice The Size of Netflix

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple’s Service’s division would be $400 -$450 billion standalone company. That is according to a new note from analyst Dan Ives, reported on by Cult of Mac. That valuation is twice the size of Netflix, and a mere $100 billion less than Facebook.

Apple’s Services division includes everything from the App Store and iCloud to newer offerings like the Apple News+ magazine subscription service and upcoming additions like Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. While Apple has been selling goods via the App Store and iTunes for years, the company recently pivoted to concentrate more heavily on Services as a growth metric.

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Slack Warns it Could Become a Target of Nation State Hacking

Andrew Orr ·

Popular workplace app Slack is preparing to go public, and it warns investors it may become a target of nation state hacking.

Companies that are preparing to go public—such as Uber, Lyft, Pinterest, Snapchat, and PagerDuty—all have sections in their S-1 registrations that address the threat of “unauthorized access” to their software, systems, and technologies. However, none of these companies explicitly referred to “organized crime” or “nation-states,” as Slack did in its S-1 filing.

Ms. Haskins also reminds us that Slack doesn’t have end-to-end encryption, and in some cases your boss can download and read your entire Slack history without you knowing.

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Two Saudi Sisters That Fled Their Country Plead With Apple, Google to Remove Tracking App

Andrew Orr ·

A controversial app called Absher made the news in February because it lets men monitor and control their female relatives’ travel. People like Senator Ron Wyden and others asked Apple and Google to remove the app. No action was taken by either company, although Tim Cook said he would “take a look at it.” Now two Saudi sisters who fled the country are reminding us that no, this app still exists.

Maha, 28 and Wafa, 25 fled Saudi Arabia to for Tbilisi, Georgia via Tuckey earlier this month. The pair had to steal their father’s phone and log onto his Absher account and give themselves permission to go to Istanbul…The al-Subaie sisters said they knew of dozens of other young women who were looking to escape abusive families.

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Relentless Doppelgänger is an AI-Created Death Metal Livestream

Andrew Orr ·

Relentless Doppelgänger is a 24/7 YouTube livestream that features death metal created by AI.

The deep learning behind the YouTube channel is trained on samples of a real death metal band called Archspire, hailing from Canada. These real audio snippets are fed through the SampleRNN neural network to try and create realistic imitations…SampleRNN is smart enough to know when it’s produced an audio clip that’s good enough to pass for the genuine article – and as a result it knows which part of its neural network to tweak and strengthen.

I think it sounds pretty good. \m/

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Apple Maps Continues to Gain Detailed Terrain Data

John Martellaro ·

MacRumors writes:

As part of its ongoing effort to rebuild Apple Maps, Apple has added detailed terrain features to the U.S. states Arizona and New Mexico as well as the southern portion of Nevada, including the city of Las Vegas.

Previously, Apple published more detailed map data in northern, then southern California as well as Hawaii. The effort has been ongoing since 2015.

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How Amazon Monitors and Fires Its Employees

Charlotte Henry ·

It is great when your Amazon order arrives the next day, but it can be tough for the fulfillment facility worker that made it happen. The Verge has shed a light on just how tough it could be. It outlined how the company monitors and fires workers.

The system goes so far as to track “time off task,” which the company abbreviates as TOT. If workers break from scanning packages for too long, the system automatically generates warnings and, eventually, the employee can be fired. Some facility workers have said they avoid bathroom breaks to keep their time in line with expectations. Amazon says retraining is part of the process to get workers up to standards and that it only changes rates when more than 75 percent of workers at a facility are meeting goals. The bottom 5 percent of workers are placed on a training plan, according to the company. An appeal system is also part of the termination process.

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Apple Watch Returned, Still Working, After 6 Months

Charlotte Henry ·

We all know how painful losing a device is. Well, here is a story to warm the soul. Robert Bainter lost his Apple Watch whilst out surfing. He said the device was his «lucky charm,» reported 9to5Mac. Mr. Bainter turned on Lost Mode, more in hope than expectation. A whole six months later he got a call. Not only was his beloved piece of kit back, it still worked. Truly a lucky charm!

After losing the device, Bainter turned on Lost Mode for his Apple Watch through the Find My iPhone app. This displays a message on the Apple Watch’s screen with the owner’s phone number and a message saying it was lost. Six months went by and Bainter hadn’t been able to locate his watch, but then he received a call from a random number. The person calling had found Bainter’s Apple Watch 3 miles north of where he originally lost it – still in working condition.