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iOS 12.1 to Address iPhone Front Camera Skin Smoothing Effect

Jeff Gamet ·

Complaints about the front-facing camera on the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR smoothing away skin details in selfies apparently has a fix coming. Apple told the Verge it’ll be part of iOS 12.1, an update that’s currently in beta testing. From the Verge’s iPhone XR review:

Apple told me that the forthcoming iOS 12.1 update, currently in public beta, will address the issue of the front camera appearing to smooth out skin by picking a sharper base frame for Smart HDR, but I wasn’t able to test it yet.

That sounds like a reasonable fix for what some see as a problem with photos on the new iPhone models. Also, the Verge review says the iPhone XR is a really nice phone. Pre-order deliveries and in-store sales start this Friday, October 26th.

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Intel's 9th Generation Chips Confront Moore's Law

John Martellaro ·

Moore’s Law appears to be coming to a grinding halt, and Intel is confronting that reality with new ideas to speed up it’s 9th generation CPUs. The Verge writes: “But for the most part, the new chips have the same things last year’s chips had: more cores. And the reason is pretty simple: Intel still hasn’t managed to move on from its 14nm manufacturing node to the next step, its repeatedly delayed 10nm process.”

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TMO Background Mode Interview with Science Fiction Writer & Biographer Alec Nevala-Lee

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Alec Nevala-Lee is a science fiction novelist, essayist and biographer. He’s known for the scifi novels: The Icon Thief, City of Exiles, and Eternal Empire. He’s written for Analog Science Fiction, and he’s had essays and non-fiction published in the Los Angeles Times, Salon, The Daily Beast and more. We chatted about growing up in California, the influential book that inspired him to become a writer, his early career, life at Harvard, and quitting his job to become a struggling – then successful novelist. Alec also shared a bit about his writing tools and techniques. Finally, we explored his new biography entitled: ASTOUNDING, a critical look at the life, writing and mutual influences of four famous scifi authors: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard during the Golden Age of Science Fiction in the 1940s and 50s.

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Saudi Arabia Had a Mole Inside Twitter

Andrew Orr ·

The New York Times reports that Saudi Arabia “groomed a Saudi employee at Twitter” to help spy on certain user accounts, presumably including that of Jamal Khashoggi.

Many Saudis had hoped that Twitter would democratize discourse by giving everyday citizens a voice, but Saudi Arabia has instead become an illustration of how authoritarian governments can manipulate social media to silence or drown out critical voices while spreading their own version of reality.

Once Arab Spring happened back in 2010-2011, I think that was the moment that governments—authoritarian and otherwise—realized the power of social media as a force for the public. And of course some governments don’t like that.

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The White House Encourages Public Service for Silicon Valley

Andrew Orr ·

Today the White House will talk with technology companies with a plea to make it easier for tech workers to do public service in government.

For the Trump administration, the hope is that private companies might encourage employees to take leaves of absence to help modernize state and federal agencies — bringing a Silicon Valley sensibility to challenges like improving veterans’ health care and combating cybersecurity threats.

This sounds like a shockingly good idea for the current administration, and maybe it will help to deflate the Silicon Valley bubble a bit.