Privacy And The Next Phase of Apple vs Facebook

Facebook and Apple’s approach to privacy has long differentiated the two firms. While that remains the case, things are changing Writer, and recent Background Mode guest, Lance Ulanoff looked at the next phase of the battle between companies.

Facebook hasn’t traditionally cared much for [privacy], for example, while Apple has bent over backwards to market privacy features. But the tide may be shifting, depending on how you interpret some recent product announcements. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently committed himself to “building a privacy-focused” platform, while Apple announced a slate of new services that a different, less scrupulous company might use to harvest user data.

The Redacted Mueller Report is Here

The Mueller Report has now been uploaded and released to the public, and it has been heavily redacted. It’s 448 pages long.

This report is submitted to the Attorney General pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 600.8(c), which states that, “[a]t the conclusion of the Special Counscl’s work, he…shall provide the Attorney General a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions [the Special Counsel] reached.”

Apple VP Lisa Jackson on Making an iPhone From Recycled Materials

Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson was recently named one of  Business Insider’s 100 people transforming the world of business. The publication has a fascinating interview with the Apple exec, in which she talks about Apple’s aim to make an iPhone from only recycled materials.

Since joining Apple in 2013, Jackson has driven initiatives like Apple’s decision to run on 100% clean energy and the Daisy recycling robot, which it announced in 2018 after debuting its first iPhone-dismantling machine called Liam in 2016. “We’re feeling really good about the fact that we’ve watched this idea go from a pilot stage with Liam to full production stage in Daisy,” Jackson said…Apple’s initiatives under Jackson come as advocacy groups have criticized the company and other large tech firms and accused them of kneecapping efforts to minimize manufacturing waste

AirPods Are Causing Some Awkward Social Situations

AirPods are hugely popular. Everywhere you turn people have them hanging out of their ears. While they bring a lot of benefits, not least for Apple, Buzzfeed News looked at the awkward social situations the wireless headphones can create.

Unlike traditional headphones, AirPods are the kind of things you can keep in your ears at all times, and many people do. Their sleek design and lack of wires make it easy to forget they’re resting in your head. And their status symbol shine doesn’t exactly scream “take me out.” This may be great for Apple and its bottom line, but it’s making life weird for people interacting with those wearing them. Are they listening to me? Are they listening to music? A podcast? Just hanging? It’s tough to know.

Advertisers Hate This Texas Privacy Proposal

The Texas Privacy Protection Act (HB 4390) was introduced last month, and it would require opt-in consent from consumers before companies could use their data for targeted ads. Advertisers aren’t happy.

Without the ability to effectively advertise online due to opt-in consent barriers, revenues will be impacted and companies that rely on such revenue may no longer be able to support free and low cost content and services that Texans desire, such as online newspapers, social networking sites, mobile applications, email, and phone services,” the ad industry writes in a letter sent last week.

The groups add that the constant requests for consent will frustrate consumers and also “desensitize” them, which will reduce “their sense of control over their privacy.”

A Trader Woke in the Night and Sold His Qualcomm Postion - He Lost Out on $50,000

Not everyone was rejoicing at the news that Qualcomm and Apple had settled their differences. An Australia-based trader with the handle ‘Arminoxx’ revealed that he had woken up in the night to look after his crying baby. At the same time, he sold some of his position in Qualcomm, trying to limit his expected losses. That was hours before the firms settled. The move cost the trader a $50,000 return, according to MarketWatch.

“I live in Australia, so I am mostly sleeping during U.S. trading hours,” [the trader] said. “However, I woke up at 4 a.m. and decided to put a limit sell order of $0.06 on my options to salvage my losses given that only 2 days are remaining till expiry, and went back to sleep.” Ouch. Arminoxx, in an exercise in self-flagellation, tallied what he would have made had he slept through the night: $50,000 or a 6,000% gain.

Wisconsin Regrets $4 Billion Foxconn Deal

Wisconsin’s governor wants to renegotiate his deal with Foxconn, saying he doesn’t believe the jobs promised as part of the deal will come.

“Clearly the deal that was struck is no longer in play and so we will be working with individuals at Foxconn and of course with (the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.) to figure out how a new set of parameters should be negotiated.”

Wisconsin forced people out of their homes, claiming the site of the Foxconn plant was blighted, and now it’s changing its mind. Shameful.

Galaxy Fold is Breaking for Some Users

File this under, “we suspected that might happen.” CNBC writes:

Samsung’s $1,980 Galaxy Fold phone is breaking for some users after a day or two of use. A review unit given to CNBC by Samsung is also completely unusable after just two days of use.

Maybe the customers are holding it wrong. Android Central also has details.

Interview With Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf

A day after Qualcomm and Apple reached a settlement, CNBC released an interview with Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf.

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf joins CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” to discuss the Qualcomm-Apple settlement and the company’s future in 5G.

I can’t directly link the video here but I think it’s worth watching.

Tim Cook, Luca Maestri Sued For Alleged Securities Fraud

The City of Roseville employee’s retirement fund is suing Apple over alleged securities fraud. Tim Cook and Luca Maestri are listed as defendants.

Specifically, the lawsuit claims that Apple was not initially forthcoming about a drop in demand for the iPhone due to poor sales in China and the 2018 battery replacement program, both of which contributed to lower than expected iPhone sales in the first fiscal quarter of 2019.

Free Sectigo S/MIME Certificates Limited to One Month

Free Sectigo (formerly Comodo CA) S/MIME certificates, which is a standard used to encrypt emails, are now limited to one month instead of twelve.

On renewing this month, have found that the new issued Certificate only has a 1 month duration instead of 12 months, and if you want 12 months, you now need to pay. (US$48 per year, multi-year discounts available). Note: Sectigo’s Sales Team all ensure me that they still offer 12 months free, despite evidence otherwise.

If you use one of these certificates for email encryption on macOS and iOS, be warned you may have to look for another solution, like OpenPGP.

PDF Expert 2: $54.99

We have a deal on PDF Expert for Mac from Readdle. You can create and edit PDFs, work with large PDFs smoothly, and it allows you to annotate PDFs, merge them, and much more. This PDF editor also has a nice list of distinctions, including being The 2015 App of the Year in the Mac App Store and Top Paid App in the Mac App Store. It’s $54.99 through our deal, 31% off retail.


For Years, Google Sabotaged Firefox

In the latest news of anticompetitive corporate behavior, a former Mozilla executive said Google sabotaged Firefox for years.

“When Chrome launched things got complicated, but not in the way you might expect. They had a competing product now, but they didn’t cut ties, break our search deal – nothing like that. In fact, the story we kept hearing was, ‘We’re on the same side. We want the same things’,” the former Mozilla exec said.

I encourage everyone to read the Twitter thread.

Apple Should Be Buying Roku

Apple TV+ is on its way, but should the company actually be buying Roku? Tim Beyers on Motley Fool thinks it should. He said it should remake its streaming service as the Roku Channel. It’s certainly an idea…

Now imagine Apple acquiring Roku and making Apple TV+ with its original content a featured channel and selling access as part of the hardware bundle. (“Buy an Apple Roku player and get both Apple TV+ and the Roku Channel, free,” they might say.) Netflix, which has long been available through Roku, could remain on the platform without streaming its data through Apple servers. Everyone wins. Even better, Apple would be putting its service out in the wild — i.e., unbundling the service from the device — just as Roku is getting traction for being the most widely used TV operating system.

AI's Serious Diversity Problem

Diversity, or lack thereof, is a big issue in the tech industry. The problem has particularly serious ramifications in AI. The Verge looked at a new report on the topic, and what the industry can do about it.

Diversity, while a hurdle across the tech industry, presents specific dangers in AI, where potentially biased technology, like facial recognition, can disproportionately affect historically marginalized groups. Tools like a program that scans faces to determine sexuality, introduced in 2017, echo injustices of the past, the researchers write. Rigorous testing is needed. But more than that, the makers of AI tools have to be willing to not build the riskiest projects. “We need to know that these systems are safe as well as fair,” AI Now Institute co-director Kate Crawford says.

Tim Cook is a Better CEO of Apple Than Steve Jobs

Leander Kahney’s biography of Tim Cook hit stores Tuesday. In a piece for Wired, the author explained why he believes Mr. Cook is a better CEO of Apple than Steve Jobs. The proof, he said, is in the numbers.

Apple is the world’s first trillion-dollar company, a milestone reached under Cook’s watch. Apple reached this landmark valuation on August 2, 2018, when Apple’s stock hit $207.05. By comparison, when Jobs passed away on October 5, 2011, Apple’s stock was $50.53 (split adjusted), which valued the company at about two-thirds less: $300 billion. During his tenure, Cook has almost tripled Apple’s revenue. In 2018 Apple earned $265.6 billion, the highest annual revenue in the company’s history.

Another Creepy Facebook Story: Scanning Your Photos For Profit

FastCompany writes:

Facebook has just been awarded a patent for technology that could let the social network scan through your photos, see what products you like, and then send that data to advertisers in the hopes of selling you more of the product.

So every photo a user posts to Facebook may, someday, be used to manipulate that user. But it’s just a patent award, right?

6th London Apple Store Set for Prestigious Location

LONDON – Apple could be on its way to one of the most prestigious parts of London. The London Evening Standard reported that a new Apple Store will open in the Knightsbridge area, which is best known for Harrods. If it comes to fruition, the new location will be the firm’s 6th retail outlet in the UK’s capital.

Property sources said the iPhones maker has agreed to open a 20,000 square feet Knightsbridge store between high-end department stores Harrods and Harvey Nichols. It is understood to have signed a deal with Chelsfield, the property asset manager overseeing the makeover of The Knightsbridge Estate on behalf of its owner, Saudi Arabia’s Olayan Group. Agents CWM and CBRE are retail letting agents on the building.

Tragedy and Mutiny at HQ Trivia

In May 2018, I reported for TMO on a popular new quiz app.  HQ Trivia raked in users and soared up the App Store chart. Since then, tragedy has struck. CEO Colin Kroll was found dead, aged just 34. Techcrunch reported that current CEO, Mr. Kroll’s co-founder Rus Yusupov, is battling plummeting ratings and a staff mutiny.

By February 2019, HQ’s staff was fed up. Two sources confirm that 20 of the roughly 35 employees signed a letter asking the board to remove Yusupov and establish a new CEO. With HQ’s download rate continuing to sink, they feared he’d run the startup into the ground. One source suggested Yusupov might rather have seen the whole startup come crashing down with the blame placed on the product than have it come to light that he played a large hand in the fall. The tone of the letter, which was never formally delivered but sources believe the board knew of, wasn’t accusatory but a plea for transparency about the company’s future and the staff’s job security.

macOS 10.15 Will Allow Users to Have iPad as External Display

macOS 10.15 will have a new feature allowing users to send a window to an external display. That display could be an iPad, as well as a standard external display, reported 9to5Mac. The reported feature, nicknamed ‘Sidecar’, seems to be Apple’s version of Luna Display. The new version of macOS is expected to be unveiled at WWDC in June.

According to people familiar with the development of macOS 10.15 – the next major version of Apple’s desktop OS – the new system will have a feature that allows users to send any window of any app to an external display. The external display can be an actual external display connected to the Mac or even an iPad. The new feature – called “Sidecar” internally – can be accessed via a simple menu. This new menu will be opened by hovering over the green “maximize” button in a Mac app window for a split second.

Leaked Facebook Documents Show how Mark Zuckerberg Plays Dirty

Leaked Facebook documents that include emails, chats, presentations, spreadsheets, and meeting summaries show how Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s board and management team played dirty.

Zuckerberg, along with his board and management team, found ways to tap Facebook’s trove of user data — including information about friends, relationships and photos — as leverage over companies it partnered with.

In some cases, Facebook would reward favored companies by giving them access to the data of its users. In other cases, it would deny user-data access to rival companies or apps.

Basically, everything Facebook has said in public, they are doing the exact opposite in private.

Apple Donates to Notre Dame Rebuilding Efforts

Tim Cook tweeted that Apple will be donating to the rebuilding efforts of Notre Dame after its horrific fire.

We are heartbroken for the French people and those around the world for whom Notre Dame is a symbol of hope. Relieved that everyone is safe. Apple will be donating to the rebuilding efforts to help restore Notre Dame’s precious heritage for future generations.

It’s great to see Apple donate, and I hope other companies do the same.

 

AT&T Sells its Stake In Hulu to Disney (and Comcast) for $1.43B

The Verge writes:

[It’s a] move that will now give Disney (which already had gained a controlling interest in Hulu through its Fox purchase) even more control going forward….

Disney gaining even more control over Hulu could also mean a radical shift in what Hulu even is.

Now, Disney owns 66 percent of Hulu. The remaining stakeholder is Comcast which, as a result, now owns 33 percent. Comcast owns NBCUniversal, and it might only be a matter of time before Comcast pulls its Hulu content back to its own streaming service. Soon, it appears, each and every studio will have its very own exclusive subscription service.

2Do Task Manager for Mac: $19.99

We have a deal on 2Do, a task manager for the Mac. 2Do features color coded lists, the ability to add URLs, addresses, or Google searches to your tasks, and the ability to sync over Dropbox, Reminders (CalDAV), or Toodledo. 2DO is $19.99 through our deal.