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This is How Seriously Apple Takes Partner Secrecy

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple, as we all know, loves secrecy. No wonder Hyundai did a quick retreat when it confirmed talks about an Apple car. But, CNBC revealed, the burden placed on partners can go even beyond that.

One example is Corning, which supplies glass for iPhones. Apple has paid the company at least $450 million since 2017 and has highlighted it in its own press releases as an example of an American manufacturing company it supports. But its CEO said earlier this year he wasn’t comfortable talking about the relationship until Corning’s new stronger glass was mentioned during the recent iPhone 12 launch livestream. “I have to tell you that it feels not quite right to use Apple’s name out loud. I still don’t think I’ve ever done that. Inside the company, we have a codename for Apple, we never even say ‘Apple’ inside the company,” Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said on an earnings call in October. “So, if you could see me, I sound like I’m turning a little pink and I am having an anxiety attack, if I read their name out loud.”

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Pixelmator Shares Free Photo Presets From Professional Photographers

Andrew Orr ·

Pixelmator wrote on Thursday that it will share three collections of color adjustment presets. These have been each designed by a photographer and shared for free. Paolo Baretta’s style is “characterized by cold delicate colors and a nostalgic, intimate mood, uniting my empathy with the loneliness of the human being.” Oladimeji Odunsi’s style is “more of people and portraits because I get to represent the part of the community I’m from and my style tries to include more vibrant colours/tones, contrasts and shadows.” Finally, Lan Nguyen’s style is “I don’t have a particular style since I’m very versatile, but the photos that I post on social media can fit in categories like: magical / dreamy / fantasy.”

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Apple REJI Program Lead Alisha Johnson Discusses Latests Announcements

Charlotte Henry ·

On Wednesday, Apple announced new programs and investments as part of its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI). Program lead Alisha Johnson talked to Bustle about how efforts fit within the company.

When we looked at REJI as an effort, we had this great model to follow. And it was the environment work that Apple’s been steeped in for over a decade, where in order to ensure this work is sustained and that it’s far-reaching and affects every part of our operations. We have employees in every part of our operations who are looking at ways to already start to focus this work in their daily roles… We talked to our content team, Apple Music, and Apple TV+, and they’re already looking at ways that they can ensure they’re elevating Black voices, that their programming is focused on educating customers. As we were having internal conversations within Apple around launching REJI, there were teams that were already deploying education moments for customers. They weren’t waiting for our green light. We had a Siri team that was already put together in response to the question, “Do all lives matter?” so people could really understand the importance of saying Black lives matter.

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Apple Apps No Longer Bypass macOS Big Sur Firewalls

Andrew Orr ·

In macOS Big Sur, Apple deprecated third-party kernel extensions including Network Kernel Extensions (NKEs). NKEs are used by apps like firewalls to monitor network traffic. Apple’s new user-mode Network Extension Framework had a side-effect: Apple’s own apps wouldn’t be routed through it and thus could bypass third-party firewalls. But now that has changed.

I of course also wondered if malware could abuse these “excluded” items to generate network traffic that could surreptitiously bypass any socket filter firewall.  Unfortunately the answer was yes! It was (unsurprisingly) trivial to find a way to abuse these items, and generate undetected network traffic.

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Meditation App ‘Calm’ Introduces Calm Puzzles with Spin Master Games

Andrew Orr ·

Calm is a popular sleep and meditation app. It recently partnered with Spin Master Games to create Calm Puzzles. These are jigsaw puzzles featuring zen, tranquil landscape scenes (Calm Coral, Foggy Mountains, Hidden Waterfalls, Jasper Lake, Sunflower Fields and Waterfall Mountain). These Mindful Puzzles are available to purchase on Amazon and in stores at Target and Walmart. You can listen to peaceful audio in the Calm app while you work on the puzzle. Each 300-piece puzzle includes a FREE 30-day subscription to the Calm app, which allows you to listen to sounds of nature and peaceful audio content that corresponds to your mindful puzzle as you work on putting it together.