Have you ever wanted to sleep, comfortably, under the stars? From Digital Trends: “…’head in the stars’ may sound like a Coldplay lyric but it’s a pretty good description for this tiny house in France being manufactured by a company called SCOP Optinid.” Plus it’s transportable. It’s a star gazer’s dream trailer, with all the amenities, for just US$54,000. Binoculars not included.
TMO Background Mode Interview with Academic Director of IT Bradley Chambers
Bradley Chambers has been managing Apple devices in an education environment since 2009. Currently he’s the IT director at a school in Chattanooga, and he’s also a contributor to 9to5Mac via his weekly column: “Making the Grade.” Bradley told me about his work as an IT administrator, how iPads and Macs are deployed, configured and repaired. There are some good tools for doing that, but they’re also supplemented with Google docs and JAMF tools. His kids are taught programming at an early age with Swift Playgrounds, and it turns out that the iPad offers just what his students need for a K-5 curriculum. We finished with a discussion of a few of his recent columns, including why digital textbooks generally failed in the market as well as thoughts about the state of Apple’s iBooks Author app.
How to Use 'Right to be Forgotten' as a Censorship Tool
A French data regulator is asking for more powers to remove out-of-date or embarrassing content from the web. This effectively turns the ‘right to be forgotten’ rule into a censorship tool.
In the latest ECJ case to be heard in Luxembourg on Tuesday, the French data regulator is seeking to extend that power so that it applies universally. That would permit national regulators to hide articles deemed unacceptable not only from their own cyberspace such as google.fr, but also from global domains including google-com and from those of other countries.
Google of course is resisting this, saying it would create a precedent for authoritarian governments to limit free speech. We don’t need a Ministry of Truth, thanks.
Here's Why You Don't Need an iOS Antivirus App
Kaspersky Labs wrote an informative blog post on why you don’t need an iOS antivirus app. In short, apps can’t access other apps’ data.
Corporations Use Our Data in Part to Train AI
Besides advertising, corporations use our data to train AI systems. And now the companies are deciding how AI will affect our future.
The ethical use of AI is a matter of public discourse but Google (and others) seem unfazed by the potential dark side of their products and practices. We know this because they keep pressing forward to implement their visions of the future – visions they may not necessarily see a need to reveal to the public.
Companies, especially those in the tech industry, move faster than governments. And we need governments to create ethical guidelines on how AI should be used. Because if we leave it up to corps like Google, every single facet of our lives will be collected for monetization, even more so than now.
The Inside Story Behind the Apple Watch
The story behind the Apple Watch is a fascinating one. It was Jony Ive’s pet project, and he started thinking about it back in 2011. He said he didn’t remember talking about it with Steve Jobs, so you could say the Apple Watch was Apple’s first post-Jobs product.
The process was both typical and atypical for us. We are a tight-knit group of designers, and as always, these things start with an idea that quickly becomes a conversation that changes in nature as soon as you start to draw and make physical objects. Things are exceptionally fragile as an idea – entirely abstract – but once there is an object between us, it is galvanizing.
USB-C iPad Pro, New iPhone Names - TMO Daily Observations 2018-09-10
Bryan Chaffin and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet to share their thoughts on a report saying Apple is replacing the iPad Pro Lighting port with USB-C, along with the reported names for the new iPhone lineup.
iOS: How to AirDrop Passwords Between Devices
What if you need to share a password from your iPhone but don’t want to use iCloud Keychain? You can AirDrop passwords in iOS 11 and later.
Analyst: iPad Pro Dropping Lighting Port for USB-C, Apple Watch Getting ECG Sensor
Apple is dropping the Lighting port in favor of USB-C on the new iPad Pro, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Sphero Intros BOLT Robot for STEAM Education
Sphero announced its newest robot, Sphero BOLT, on Monday. The sphere-shaped robot is targeted at the education market, but is available to everyone. It packs an array of infrared and ambient light sensors, LEDs, and a digital compass in its clear body. You can program it from a wide range of devices including iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, Kindle, Macs, and PCs. Sphero BOLT is priced at US$149.99 and is available at the Sphere website.
