A Son Designed an Apple Watch App To Help His Dad With PTSD Nightmares

Iraq veteran Patrick Skluzacek had seen his life ruined by PTSD nightmares so bad that he feared closing his eyes. NPR has the tale of how his son, Tyler, developed an Apple Watch app to help break this cycle. Called NightWare, it was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Tyler was a senior at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minn., in 2015 when he heard about a computer hackathon being held in Washington, D.C. Developers come together over an intense few days to build prototypes to tackle a specific problem. This particular hackathon focused on developing mobile applications to help people with PTSD. Tyler scraped together his on-campus job earnings and bought a ticket to Washington. During the hackathon, he put together a team to program a smartwatch to detect the onset of night terrors based on the wearer’s heart rate and movement.. The idea, Tyler says, was to use technology to imitate something service dogs were already doing — recognizing a traumatic nightmare and then nudging or licking the person to disrupt the bad dream. He thought the smartwatch could do this with a gentle vibration.

Will Apple’s Crackdown on Data Tracking Hurt Small Businesses?

Ben Thompson publishes good analysis on Stratechery, but I don’t agree with his latest piece. It’s about Apple’s privacy campaign and the new iOS 14 privacy “nutrition labels.” If I understand them correctly, he seems to have two main points: We should feel bad for small businesses because they won’t be able to collect our data in the same capacity as before, and that Apple’s attempts are futile because the internet is a giant shopping mall and “personal data wants to be free.” My summary is an oversimplification but I believe we should be combining Apple’s privacy with regulation like GDPR. In my opinion you can still have ads that don’t invade your privacy.

While transparency for customers is definitely a good thing, Apple’s simultaneous appeals to analog analogies and simplistic presentation of privacy trade-offs risks a similar path when it comes to the GDP of the Internet and to what extent power is disbursed versus centralized.

Why Does Apple Price Products Like This?

Jason Snell shares three things for Apple users to expect when they’re expecting a new product. Sometimes the price isn’t right and Apple doesn’t sell as many units as it hoped. But reports are saying the AirPods Max are already backordered until March, so it’s a good start.

Today’s Apple seems to be executing a different strategy, pricing their products a bit higher in order to provide some room for sales, deals, and other marketing efforts.

Fully Functional Apple I in Original Box Signed by Steve Wozniak Up for Auction

A fully functional Apple I signed by Steve Wozniak with rare original box is up for auction with a starting bid of US$50,000. The set includes: original Apple-1 board, original Apple-1 box, signed inside the lid in black felt tip by Steve Wozniak, “Woz”, original Apple Cassette Interface (ACI), original Apple-1 Operation Manual, original Apple Cassette Interface manual, a vintage Apple-1 power supply, a vintage Datanetics keyboard in wooden case, a vintage 1976 Sanyo monitor, and a vintage Panasonic cassette player. This Apple-1 computer was restored to its original, operational state in September 2020 by Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen, and a video of it running and functioning is available upon request. A comprehensive, technical condition report prepared by Cohen is available to qualified bidders; he evaluates the current condition of the unit as 8.0/10. Bidding starts December 10 until December 17.

Adobe Lightroom Adds Support for M1 Macs, ProRAW

Adobe Lightroom is now a native app for M1 Macs and supports Apple’s ProRAW photo format it will release in iOS 14.3 for iPhone 12 Pro/Pro Max.

As we’re getting started on desktop Arm / Apple M1, we’ll continue to optimize for Arm and M1 in subsequent releases. And if you’re on an Intel based computer, don’t worry…we’ll continue to invest in and improve Lightroom for you too.

100 Entries to Win the Ultimate Gaming Giveaway and Donate to Charity: $10

Our friends at Stack Commerce have new take on a giveaway for us today, the Ultimate Gaming Giveaway. The short version is that when you donate $10—which goes to Playing for Change—you’ll get 100 entries int the giveaway.  And this giveaway is loaded with stuff:

  • PlayStation 5 Console (Value: $499)
  • 5 Years of PlayStation Plus (Value: $299.95)
  • Xbox X Series Console (Value: $499.99)
  • 5 Years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (Value: $899.40)
  • Secretlab TITAN Gaming Chair (Value: $459)
  • Corsair Optical Gaming Keyboard (Value: $229.99)
  • Sony X900H 65 Inch TV: 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (Value: $1,897.99)
  • Bose QuietComfort 35 Series 2 Gaming Headset (Value: $329.99)

There are options for more tickets, too. If you enter, good luck!

EU Lays Out New Search Ranking Guidelines For Google And Other Tech Firms

Google, Microsoft, and other tech firms will have to provide more transparency about how they rank online search results. Reuters reported on new EU guidelines forcing the change that were released on Monday.

The guidelines, which take immediate effect, will be followed up next week by the publication of draft rules that could eventually impose further restrictions on the tech sector… The Commission said the guidelines require online platforms to identify the algorithmic parameters that determine ranking and to share them with companies. “These guidelines set the standard for algorithmic ranking transparency and will increase fairness in the online platform economy, which drives innovation and welfare for millions of Europeans,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.