Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted Thursday that his company would be donating to Hurricane Michael recovery and relief efforts.
BostonDynamics's Atlas Robot Can Now Use Parkour Tactics (to Hunt Us Down)
I both love and am terrified by the astounding work BostonDynamics is doing with its future masters-of-us-all. The company has a new video our showing its Atlas robot on a parkour outing, something they will no doubt find useful when they turn on us at some point in the not-too-distant future. OK, I mostly kid, but seriously: watching this video is both amazing and weirdly creepy (and scary). The way Atlas uses its arms to balance and help lift itself…it’s so human-like. BostonDynamics, by the by, is the company that makes dogbots that can open doors, another ability they will no doubt find useful.
Plucky Google Reaches for the Golden Ring With Call Screen
You have to hand it to Google. The company has a certain spirit of AI inventiveness, even if the result isn’t always iron-clad consumer ready. In this case, it’s the recently announced Call Screen service for Pixel phones that puts an AI between the Pixel user and the telemarketers & robocalls. Read about it in the link below. This may not do amazing things for Pixel sales, and it may still have kinks to work out, but it sets a bar and whets our appetite for what Apple could do when it’s in top gear. Alas, Siri, cannot do this. Yet.
Genius Lyrics Have Arrived in Apple Music
Genius has partnered with Apple Music to introduce Genius lyrics into the app. Apple Music is also the official music player on its website.
Why Do Many Fantasy Books Feature Academia?
Jason Kehe writes about an interesting trope in fantasy books: wizard schools. Specifically, orphans who go to wizard school, meet friends along the way, and finally defeat a villain.
Authors change; the story stays the same. In the darkness a child is born. The child suffers, but he has mysterious power. Posthaste, destiny leads the child to the same place it herds all the courageous orphan-protagonists of speculative fiction: a storied and exclusive institution of magical learning, where he unnerves the faculty, demonstrates arrogance, and forms lasting friendships on his way to vanquishing evil.
2018 National Book Awards List is Out in Apple Books
The 2018 National Book Awards list is out, and you can find them in Apple Books. They are split into four categories.
Ancestry Sites Can Potentially Expose Your Identity
Researchers have determined that ancestry sites could potentially expose anyone’s identity.
Much like the Golden State investigators, the team found they could trace back someone’s identity in the database with relative ease by using these distant relatives and other demographic but not overly specific information, such as the target’s age or possible state residence.
Well isn’t that just a bucket of awesome.
Get Apple Pay Cashback with Discover Debit
You can now get Apple Pay cashback with Discover debit cards. Get 1% back on qualifying purchases.
Apple's Maybe Free TV Shows Plan, Google and Apple's AI Battle - TMO Daily Observations 2018-10-11
John Martellaro and Bryan Chaffin join Jeff Gamet to share their thoughts on how Apple will promote its streaming TV content and follow up on yesterday’s subscription TV overload discussion. They also look at competition in the artificial intelligence space with Google’s new Call Screen feature.
6-in-1 USB-C Hub for MacBook Pro: $39.99
Check out today’s deal on a 6-in-1 USB-C Hub for MacBook Pro. It features 2 USB-C ports, 2 USB-A 3.0 ports, a SD port, and a Micro SD port. It supports 5K video out through USB-C, and it supports 2016 and 2017 USB-C MacBook Pro models. It’s $39.99 through us.