Apple’s 2019 Mac Pro production will be moved to China. Quanta Computer Inc will be the contractor.
DeepNude App That Could Undress Women Taken Offline
Yesterday Vice reported on an app called DeepNude. It used machine learning to turn a clothed photo of a women into a naked version. It has since been taken offline.
The developers have now removed the software from the web saying the world was not ready for it. “The probability that people will misuse it is too high,” wrote the programmers in a message on their Twitter feed. “We don’t want to make money this way.” The developers also urged people who had a copy not to share it, although the app will still work for anyone who owns it.
I mean, if we’re being pedantic, you can’t really misuse technology specifically designed for ill intentions unless you try to use it for good intentions, if that’s even possible.
Second Singapore Apple Store Opening July 13
Apple’s second Singapore Apple store will open Saturday, July 13 at 10:00 AM. It will be at the Jewel Changi Airport.
JCPenney Reinstates Apple Pay
JCPenney reinstated Apple Pay at its stores after it had not offered the service for a number of months following a deadline from Visa.
Japan Display Getting $100 Million Bailout From Apple
Apple is reportedly set to provide $100 million to Japan Display as part of attempts to salvage the struggling smartphone display supplier.
Trump Administration Talking About Banning Encryption
Politico reports that the Trump administration is in talks about banning encryption, or at least certain forms of it that law enforcement can’t crack.
The encryption challenge, which the government calls “going dark,” was the focus of a National Security Council meeting Wednesday morning that included the No. 2 officials from several key agencies, according to three people familiar with the matter…Senior officials debated whether to ask Congress to effectively outlaw end-to-end encryption, which scrambles data so that only its sender and recipient can read it…
Great. I can’t wait for Russia and China to intercept all of our insecure communications.
A Green New Deal For Big Tech
Under Tim Cook and Lisa Jackson’s leadership, Apple has prided its self on its contribution to tackling climate change. However, there is still a lot of tech firms could do. Fast Company looked at what they could learn from the Green New Deal.
Given that many corporations aren’t as focused on sustainability, the tech companies’ efforts to reduce emissions appear at first to be a good track record. But as the fight against climate change heats up, the big tech companies’ claims and commitments still are not enough to make an impact on a widening emissions gap… And while much of that growth in emissions can be attributed to a range of corporate bad actors, some leaders in the climate community think tech companies are not doing enough to use their clout and tech prowess to make real change.
This Seamless, Searchable Bookmarks Manager Was Made for the Busy Modern Web User: $19.99
We have a deal on a lifetime subscription to Qlearly Premium, a searchable bookmark manager made for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. It’s $19.99 through our deal.
The Story of Sir Jony Ive's Apple Exit
Sir Jony Ive’s departure from Apple had been rumored long before he confirmed it Thursday. Bloomberg News detailed his walk towards the exit.
Ive still only came to the office a couple of days a week, with many meetings shifting to San Francisco, according the people familiar with the matter. That helped him avoid the long commute from his home in the Pacific Heights district of the city to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. Ive sometimes met with his team at the homes of his employees, at hotels, or other venues. The design executive even set up an office and studio in San Francisco to do much of his work. Ive also traveled frequently to London, near where he was raised. He occasionally missed out on Apple product launch events, an unthinkable absence several years ago.
The Real Issue is Sir Jony Ive is Not Being Replaced
Sir Jony Ive is leaving Apple. You might have heard about it. John Gruber gives his take over on Daring Fireball and highlights the key issue about the departure – design is now reporting to operations. (I know Gruber doesn’t like formal titles, which is fair enough, but I’m a Brit so I have to use them!)
It makes me queasy to see that Apple’s chief designers are now reporting to operations. This makes no more sense to me than having them report to the LLVM compiler team in the Xcode group. Again, nothing against Jeff Williams, nothing against the LLVM team, but someone needs to be in charge of design for Apple to be Apple and I can’t see how that comes from operations. I don’t think that “chief design officer” should have been a one-off title created just for Jony Ive. Not just for Apple, but especially at Apple, it should be a permanent C-level title. I don’t think Ive ever should have been put in control of software design, but at least he is a designer.
