The iPhone 13 Candy Catapult Case

I’ve been thinking about getting a 3D printer for quite some time, and now I may have the perfect excuse. While waiting for his iPhone 13 Pro Max to be delivered, Matty Benedetto designed and produced his own custom case. Benedetto, over the past two years, has “designed and fully prototyped over 280 new inventions that solve problems that don’t exist”. I think Benedetto has cited the problem of the boring phone case with this one, though. This case actually stores pieces of candy, which it dispenses through old-school pinball mechanics. If designing and crafting something like this isn’t a good enough excuse to buy a 3D printer, I don’t know what is.

Monterey On The Horizon — Mac Geek Gab 894

Your macOS Monterey questions are starting to trickle in, and your two favorite geeks have your answers. That’s not all, though! This episode’s got Quick Tips about webpage screenshots, Safari 15 tabs, Internet Recovery, and making your music sound better for YOUR ears. Plus, John and Dave answer your questions about all kinds of things…and they share your recommendations for new keyboards, too! Press play and enjoy learning at least five new things.

Running Into The Woods Will No Longer Save You From Drones

Researchers at the University of Zurich have developed [PDF] an AI system that can help drones fly through complex environments at up to 40kmph.

An algorithm first piloted a computer-generated drone through a simulated environment that contained complex obstacles. This data was used to train the drone’s neural network to predict a flight path based on information from onboard sensors. The system was then tested in various real-world environments, such as forests, collapsed buildings, and derailed trains.

Dutch Regulator Demands Apple Makes Changes to In-app Purchases

Regulators in the Netherlands have found that Apple’s rules around its in-app payment system are anti-competitive. It has ordered the company to make changes, Reuters reported.

The Dutch investigation into whether Apple’s practices amounted to an abuse of a dominant market position was launched in 2019 but later reduced in scope to focus primarily on dating market apps. They included a complaint from Match Group, owner of the popular dating service Tinder, which said Apple’s rules were hindering it from direct communications with its customers about payments. The Netherlands’ Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) last month informed the U.S. technology giant of its decision, making it the first antitrust regulator to make a finding the company has abused market power in the app store, though Apple is facing challenges in multiple countries. ACM has not levied a fine against Apple, but demanded changes to the in-app payment system, the people said.

'GRID Autosport' Gets More Game Controls in New Update

Feral Interactive has released a new update for GRID Autosport on iOS and Android, with a focus on further refining the game’s control options. Leading the pack is Arrow Touch Pro – a much-requested alternative layout for Arrow Touch steering that enables the use of manual acceleration. Following close behind is the brand new, fully-customisable Throttle Slider, allowing players to set their acceleration with pinpoint precision. This patch also adds full support for the latest DualSense and Xbox Series X|S wireless controllers, as well as language support for Traditional Chinese.

YouTube Rewind Scrapped Permanently

YouTube is to stop making its annual ‘Rewind’ videos. The look-back clip was scrapped in 2020 because…2020, but the move has now been made permanent, TubeFilter reported.

The decision was made on what would be the 10th anniversary of Rewind. YouTube says it is not abandoning the project because of the widespread criticism it has received on more recent efforts, but because its platform has become so massive that it is impossible to encapsulate its vastness and diversity within a minutes-long compilation. Accordingly, YouTube says it will be passing the baton to creators, who have increasingly been producing their own homespun versions of YouTube Rewind in recent years. “Since Rewind started in 2011, we have seen creators from MrBeast [54 million views], elrubiusOMG, and Slayy Point, to so many more, create their own end-of-year videos, uniquely capturing the year from each of their perspectives,” a YouTube spokesperson tells Tubefilter.

iMessages are End-To-End Encrypted But iCloud Backups Are Not

For Lifehacker, Jake Peterson wrote a reminder that under certain circumstances, Apple can theoretically access your iMessages.

Here’s the tricky thing; Messages in iCloud is end-to-end encrypted, just as you’d expect—that’s why there’s no way to access your messages on the web, such as by logging in to icloud.com. There’s one big problem, though: your iCloud Backup isn’t end-to-end encrypted—and Apple stores the key to unlock your encrypted messages within that backup.

Messages in iCloud has been a thing for a few years now, but you can turn it off.