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Google Helps Apple Progress With One-Time Passcode Proposal

Charlotte Henry ·

A Google staffer and an Apple staffer have come together to make progress on Apple’s work to introduce one-time passcodes delivered in an SMS. AppleInsider looked into the latest developments.

Announced in an updated GitHub explainer, an initial report of Apple’s “Origin-bound one-time codes delivered via SMS” project was published by the WICG on April 2. The draft was co-edited by Theresa O’Connor from Apple and Sam Goto from Google. First proposed by Apple WebKit engineers and backed by Google in January, the initiative seeks to simplify the OTP SMS mechanism commonly used by websites, businesses and other entities to confirm login credentials as part of two-step authentication systems.

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Photographer Using FaceTime to Take Portraits During Lockdown

Charlotte Henry ·

Lockdown is hard for everyone, including creative people used to being out and about playing music or creating art. One photographer, Tim Dunk, found a way to keep taking portraits – using FaceTime. He explained how on Peta Pixel.

I then had an idea to sustain myself creatively and socially, and threw it out to a few contacts — maybe with the use of some common apps and bits of tech, I could continue to make work. Using FaceTime, a MacBook Pro, and my subject using an iPhone under instruction, I was able to make portraits of people in isolation, distanced from the world and the people that make it up. I’ve been lucky enough that my FaceTime portraits have really caught folk’s attention, and I’ve been fielding a lot of questions from other photographers.

Apple’s Clips App Updated to Support Mice, Trackpads
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Apple’s Clips App Updated to Support Mice, Trackpads

Andrew Orr ·

Apple updated Clips, its creative tool used to send quick, fun videos over social media. Version 2.1.1 appeared yesterday with the following features:Use Clips on iPad with a mouse, trackpad, or Bluetooth keyboard for new ways to create videos (requires iPadOS 13.4); Use the Duplicate button to instantly create a copy of a clip with all its effects; Tap the Split button to divide any clip in two; Make stickers pop on and off the screen—just split any clip and apply stickers to either of the two new sections; Give your video the look of an 80’s arcade game with updated 8-bit stickers and the new Game Over poster; Celebrate spring with the floral Springtime poster; Choose from 11 new Mickey and Minnie Mouse stickers, each with its own expressive animation; Performance and stability improvements. 

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Jack Dorsey Donates $1 Billion to COVID-19 Relief

Charlotte Henry ·

Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey announced Tuesday that he has moved $1 billion worth of Square equity into an LLC to fund COVID-19 relief, NBC News reported. This equates to around 28 percent of his total net-worth.

Dorsey’s investment in coronavirus relief is the most significant financial pledge by a private individual to date. Several other current and former tech executives, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, have each pledged $100 million. Unlike other donors, Dorsey also promised to keep a consistently updated public record of all the donations. Once the pandemic is over, Dorsey said, the rest of the $1 billion will be dedicated to “girl’s health and education, and UBI,” which is short for Universal Basic Income, a program that calls for each person to receive a certain amount of money from the government every month.

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Will Apple Kill Beats? Probably Not This Year

Andrew Orr ·

As shared by The Loop, there is some speculation on whether Apple will end the Beats brand. iMore says Apple should kill it, while 9to5Mac claims to have learned there is no plan to kill it. It started because of a separate rumor that Apple will release over-the-ear headphones under the AirPods brand. Quote from the iMore piece:

If Apple is truly planning to release over-the-ear noise-canceling pair of headphones similar to the Bose 700 has Jon Prosser suggests, it would be incredibly redundant to continue to release Beats as well. The Apple brand is just more valuable to Apple than the Beats brand — plain and simple.

My two cents is that Apple will probably phase out Beats, but not this year. It will be a gradual process over the next 10 years, like how the iPod touch still gets an occasional refresh but otherwise isn’t mentioned. You can’t kill a brand like Beats overnight. Once over-the-ear AirPods come out, and they will, phase one will be complete. There will be an AirPod for each Beats category, because you can’t leave customers hanging without alternatives, thank you very much.