Vignette app allows you to change all those ugly grey circles with initials into actual photographs. By searching Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Gravatar—no login required—Vignette will attempt to pair your contacts with their profile pictures on social media. After amassing all these images, using Vignette’s easy to use interface, you can select which avatar you’d like to use, or none at all. Once you’re all set, Vignette will write those updates to your contacts database on your phone. That means in Messages, Phone, and all of your other apps, you see beautiful images instead of ugly initials. Vignette is free to try, but in order to save the updates to your contact list, you will need to buy the one-time in-app purchase. Vignette app runs entirely on your phone; your contacts stay on your device and are never transmitted *anywhere*. Privacy is a critical factor to Vignette; your trust is important and will not be squandered. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)
Cannes Lions Names Apple 2019 Creative Marketer of the Year
Apple has been awarded the 2019 Creative Marketer of the Year by Cannes Lions, the world’s largest festival for advertising and creative communications.
Portland Transit Riders Can Add Hop Fastpass to Wallet
Portland transit riders can now add the Hop Fastpass to Apple Wallet, which works with TriMet, C-Tran, and Portland Streetcar.
UN Report Says Making Siri Voice Female by Default is Sexist
A report from the United Nations says that making virtual assistants like Siri have female voices by default is sexist.
As voice-powered technology reaches into communities that do not currently subscribe to Western gender stereotypes, including indigenous communities, the feminization of digital assistants may help gender biases to take hold and spread. Because Alexa, Cortana, Google Home and Siri are all female exclusively or female by default in most markets, women assume the role of digital attendant…
I think it’s a fair point.
Apple’s Privacy Preserving Ad Click Attribution in Safari
In a WebKit post today, Apple has an idea to make online ads private. It’s called Privacy Preserving Ad Click Attribution.
EE Unveils UK 5G Launch And Harry Potter Partnership
Mobile network EE announced the launch of its 5G service – it will exclusively offer Harry Potter: Wizards United, but not Huawei devices.
Apple AR Hiring Increases to 33 Positions Since Last Year
Last May Apple had one AR job position open. It gradually increased to five by the end of 2018. Now, Apple AR hiring has increased to 33 open positions.
The hiring upswing is a clear sign that the Cupertino tech giant is looking to make AR a major part of its mobile iOS devices moving forward…Of the current 33 openings, the extreme majority — 30 — are located at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters.
Are AIs Being Designed to Harm Us?
The question we must always have for the high tech giants is embedded in this essay at the Internet Health Report:
“Are you going to harm humanity and, specifically, historically marginalized populations, or are you going to sort of get your act together and make some significant structural changes to ensure that what you create is safe and not harmful?”
Given the demonstrated proclivity of many high tech companies to, without adult supervision, create technologies that callously enrich them at our great expense, the above is a great question to ask. Every day. Of every technology.
New Backlight Service Program Addresses ‘Flexgate’ Problem
Some 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro displays suffered problems with the backlight, and Apple will repair them under a new Backlight Service Program.
Apple will repair affected devices, which includes machines sold between October 2016 and February 2018, for free. Eligible models are listed below:
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
No other MacBook Pro models are included in the repair program at this time.
2018 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air Added to Keyboard Service Program
The new 8-core MacBook Pro brings with it an updated version of the butterfly keyboard. Additionally, the 2018 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are being added to Apple’s Keyboard Service Program.
Apple has updated its official Keyboard Service Program support page with the 2018 and 2019 MacBooks. If you’ve been having issues with your 2018 MacBook Pro or MacBook Air keyboard or any MacBook notebook with a butterfly keyboard, get in touch with Apple Support to get the repair process started. Keep in mind you’ll likely be without your machine for a least a day, if not longer.