Private Search Engine 'Xayn' Releases Web Version of its App

An AI company based in Berlin, Germany called Xayn has launched a web version of its private search engine app.

Both versions of Xayn use Masked Federated Learning to protect users’ data privacy while still providing them with an individually tailored web experience. They are created with the same code base in Flutter, a developing framework that’s designed to function both on mobile and web. The team transferred the AI to work directly in the respective browsers with high speed via WebAssembly so that all personal data stays privately within the browsers.

Looks like it doesn’t work yet on Safari.

Update to Command Line App ‘a-Shell’ Can Force iCloud Downloads

a-Shell is a terminal app for iOS and iPadOS that supports Python, Lua, Perl, C, C++, TeX, and all Unix utilities. It received an update recently with even more capabilities: New commands: ffmpeg, ffprobe, unrar; ffmpeg is compiled to Arm64 and uses hardware acceleration for fast conversion; iOS won’t idle while a-Shell is running a command (good for long running commands); If you open an iCloud directory with pickFolder, a-Shell will download all files in this directory; New commands: downloadFile and downloadFolder, to force downloading iCloud files; Shortcuts: You can run small python scripts or ImageMagick (convert) commands in extension; Improvements to lg2: lg2 merge –abort, lg2 reset –hard, documentation fixes.

Remembering The Hokey Pokey — Mac Geek Gab 887

How much Cool Stuff Found can your Two Favorite Geeks share? You’re about to find out! Listen as John and Dave share all of your (and their) Cool Stuff Found, PLUS answering a slew of your networking and networking-related questions. Good stuff this week, folks, and it’s all because of you. Press play, listen, and enjoy learning five new things!

AdGuard: 'People Should be Worried About Apple CSAM Detection'

Adblocking company AdGuard is the latest to offer commentary on Apple’s controversial decision to detect CSAM in iCloud Photos. The team ponders ways to block it using their AdGuard DNS technology.

We consider preventing uploading the safety voucher to iCloud and blocking CSAM detection within AdGuard DNS. How can it be done? It depends on the way CSAM detection is implemented, and before we understand it in details, we can promise nothing particular.

Who knows what this base can turn into if Apple starts cooperating with some third parties? The base goes in, the voucher goes out. Each of the processes can be obstructed, but right now we are not ready to claim which solution is better and whether it can be easily incorporated into AdGuard DNS. Research and testing are required.

New Roleplaying Game 'Baldo' Available on Apple Arcade

Journey through a magical land teeming with mysteries to unravel. Baldo: the Guardian Owls is full of challenging puzzles to solve and intricate dungeons to explore. Traverse this captivating open world as Baldo, and meet a host of quirky and unforgettable characters, as you struggle to decipher the cryptic prophecy, and thwart destiny. From delightful whimsy to thrilling adventure, discover new towns and their distinctive inhabitants, fight ferocious foes, locate hidden temples, and collect objects both magical and mundane to obtain powerful new weapons, or to help unveil the myriad secrets of this strange land.