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Report Links Apple Suppliers With Alleged Forced Labor Programs for Uyghur Muslims in China

Charlotte Henry ·

Seven Apple suppliers have been linked to forced labor programs that are suspected to be related to the alleged Chinese genocide of Uyghur Muslims in the country’s Xinjiang region. That’s according to a new human rights report shared with The Information, picked up on by AppleInsider.

The Apple supply chain partner produce components, coatings, and offer assembly services to the Cupertino tech giant. At least five received thousands of Uyghur and other oppressed minority workers at specific plants that did work for Apple, according to an investigation by human rights groups and The Information. According to the report, evidence suggests that Advanced-Connectek, Luxshare Precision Industry, Shenzhen Deren Electronic Co., Avary Holding, AcBel Polytech, CN Innovations, and Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing Co. participated in the forced labor programs. To identify those manufacturers and supply partners, the investigation used previously unreported public statements, images, and videos by Chinese government offices and state-run media organizations. That evidence found that the companies participated in what the Chinese call a poverty alleviation program.

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iPhone 13 Models to Be Thicker With Larger Camera Bump

Charlotte Henry ·

Models of the forthcoming iPhone 13 will be thicker than their iPhone 12 equivalents. They will also have larger, thicker camera bumps and the lenses will stick out less. That’s according to ‌schematics seen by MacRumors.

In addition to a thicker camera bump, Apple is changing the overall size of the camera bump, a shift that will also be most noticeable on the ‌iPhone 13‌ Pro. The ‌iPhone 12‌ and 12 Pro have camera bumps that measures in at around 28mm by 30mm, while the ‌iPhone 13‌ will have a camera bump that’s closer to square at around 29mm by 29mm, with the bump also located about a millimeter closer to the top of the iPhone. The ‌iPhone 13‌ Pro is expected to gain a larger camera bump, measuring in at around 36mm by 37mm, so rather than having a camera bump size similar to the ‌iPhone 13‌, it will be more similar to the ‌iPhone 13‌ Pro Max.

TMO Deals

Zulu Exero Bone Conduction Headphones: $34.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on a pair of Zulu Exero Bone Conduction Headphones. Using a light vibration in the headset as they rest around your ears, music is generated just for you, without blocking out your surroundings. They’re lightweight and Bluetooth-enabled, at $34.99 through our deal.

Podcast

Rumbling with Gatekeeper — Mac Geek Gab 870

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

Apple’s protective engines usually do well at protecting our devices, but what happens when they go haywire? It’s time to Rumble, that’s what, and John and Dave are here to help! Listen as they answer your questions, share Cool Stuff Found, push out the Quick Tips and make it easy to learn at least five new things this week!

TMO Deals

Switchmate 2.0 Smart Switch for Toggle Style Light Switches: $19.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on Switchmate 2.0, a smart switch that snaps over your existing light switches and controls them by doing the flipping for you. That means you don’t have to rewire the switch or replace your existing lightbulbs. Using the companion app, the Switchmate 2.0 can respond to voice commands, turn lights on automatically when you arrive home, and it has multiple timers for total smart lighting control. This device is $19.99 through our deal.

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Court Finds NSA Collects Innocent Americans’ Data Anyway

Andrew Orr ·

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) found that the NSA doesn’t follow the law and collections the data of innocent Americans. This is according to a recently declassified document [PDF] from November 2020.

From where we sit, it seems clear that the FISC continues to suffer from a massive case of national security constitutional-itis. That is the affliction (not really, we made it up) where ordinarily careful judges sworn to defend the Constitution effectively ignore the flagrant Fourth Amendment violations that occur when the NSA, FBI, (and to a lesser extent, the CIA, and NCTC) misuse the justification of national security to spy on Americans en mass.

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Over 29,000 Databases Expose 19 Petabytes of Data

Andrew Orr ·

Many companies aren’t properly securing their databases, like the one I wrote about this morning. But we have some numbers. CyberNews quotes “29,000 unprotected databases worldwide exposing 19 petabytes (19,000 terabytes, 19,000,000 gigabytes, etc) of data.

To conduct this investigation, we used a specialized search engine to scan for open databases of three of the most popular database types: Hadoop, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch. While performing the search, we made sure that the open databases we found required no authentication whatsoever and were open for anyone to access, as opposed to those that had default credentials enabled.

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Apple Card Family Features, Restrictions Revealed in Support Document

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple has released a support document outlining the features of the recently launched Apple Card Family. AppleInsider published a breakdown of what it says.

Detailed in a support document, Apple Card Family is available to one cardholder and one member of their Family Sharing group who is 18 or older. Touted as a rethinking of traditional credit cards, the new service enables both members of an account to share a credit line while simultaneously building credit. A total of six people, including owners or co-owners, can be assigned to a particular Apple Card account. Participants must be 13 or older. Co-owners share full responsibility for account balance and payments, and have their credit reported equally in their own name, Apple says.