Apple has announced WWDC 2024 for June 10, with a rumoured focus on A.I. in operating system updates, including VisionOS. But fear not: 6 (June) + 10 + 2 (A.I.) = iOS 18 confirmed. ⌥ Permalink⌥ Permalink | Continue reading
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, TechCrunch: In 2016, Facebook launched a secret project designed to intercept and decrypt the network traffic between people using Snapchat’s app and its servers. The goal was to understand users’ behavior and help Facebook compete with Snapchat, ac … | Continue reading
Lora Kolodny, CNBC: Judge Charles Breyer in the Northern District of California wrote in his ruling that while X claimed the case was about breach of contract and unlawful data scraping, it was clearly about speech. […] Musk is pursuing similar cases against other groups. In one … | Continue reading
Semafor published in a new format it calls Signals — sponsored by Microsoft, though I am earnestly sure no editorial lines were crossed — aggregated commentary about the U.S. iPhone antitrust case: If the government wins the suit, “the walls of Apple’s walled garden will be parti … | Continue reading
The U.S. antitrust case against Apple was not a closely guarded secret. Stories in the New York Times and Bloomberg spoiled not just the general timing of the case, but its contours as well. That gave Adam Kovacevich, of Chamber of Progress, the confidence to dispute the governme … | Continue reading
In January, Semafor’s Max Tani obtained a memo from Anna Wintour announcing Pitchfork would become part of GQ. Though Wintour emphasized “our coverage of music can continue to thrive within” Condé Nast, it is hard not to see this as the beginning of an ending for the version of P … | Continue reading
Mayank Parmar, Windows Latest: While using Google Chrome, I encountered a Bing pop-up on the right side of the browser. For a moment, I thought Chrome was infected with malware, but it turned out to be a new Microsoft campaign. In a statement to Windows Latest, Microsoft confirme … | Continue reading
John Heilemann, for Wired in November 2000, wrote a sprawling play-by-play of Microsoft’s antitrust trial. There is an awful lot here to digest — close to fifty thousand words — and much of it rhymes with Apple’s situation, as David Piece put it. This, though, is a core issue in … | Continue reading
While the U.S. Department of Justice has not yet issued its press release, its complaint has been filed. Attorneys General from sixteen states have co-signed. ⌥ Permalink⌥ Permalink | Continue reading
Alfred Ng, Politico: The data-privacy bill passed Wednesday, the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, H.R. 7520, is highly targeted: It prevents any companies considered data brokers — third-party buyers and sellers of personal information — from selling that … | Continue reading
Adam Engst, TidBits: Longtime Mac users often get caught up in looking at the amount of free space reported by the Finder. We’ll check the storage numbers shown in a Get Info dialog, delete something, and check again. Don’t waste your time! Space management on the Mac is now larg … | Continue reading
Foo Yun Chee, Reuters: Apple on Monday fended off criticism that it has not done enough to open up its closed eco-system as required under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, saying it has complied with the landmark legislation. […] The company told apps developers, busines … | Continue reading
In 2022, the Biden administration was sued by two Attorneys General because it said the government had overstepped in opining on the moderation of social media platforms. A narrowed version of that case — after removing incidents from before the Biden administration existed — mad … | Continue reading
Even for a Mac user who prides themselves on refined taste in typography, one would be excused for missing the rather buried Typography palette in MacOS. It is available in any application that supports the Fonts selector and allows you to enable all manner of features, depending … | Continue reading
Tim Berners-Lee: Three and a half decades ago, when I invented the web, its trajectory was impossible to imagine. There was no roadmap to predict the course of its evolution, it was a captivating odyssey filled with unforeseen opportunities and challenges. Underlying its whole in … | Continue reading
Do you want to block all YouTube ads in Safari on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac? Then download Magic Lasso Adblock — the ad blocker designed for you. It’s easy to setup, doubles the speed at which Safari loads and blocks all YouTube ads. Magic Lasso is an efficient, high performance … | Continue reading
During a White House press briefing on March 12, CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe asked press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if photos of the president or other members of the White House are ever digitally altered. Jean-Pierre laughed and asked, in response, “why would we digitally alter phot … | Continue reading
Kashmir Hill, New York Times: But in other instances, something much sneakier has happened. Modern cars are internet-enabled, allowing access to services like navigation, roadside assistance and car apps that drivers can connect to their vehicles to locate them or unlock them rem … | Continue reading
Jason Snell, Macworld: And now we can fully see Apple’s strategy of incremental compliance, brought into action: The company announced the minimum possible and then waited to be told what else it needed to do. Now it will begin modifying those policies, as required, in order to s … | Continue reading
Sarah Perez, in her Small Screens newsletter: What’s worse is that Apple doesn’t seem to think that IAP [in-app purchases] can stand up to the competition: app developers’ websites. In reality, Apple’s IAP is the most natural and easiest way to buy things on the iPhone, whether t … | Continue reading
In November, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a revised version (PDF) of its case against Amazon with some notable redactions removed or adjusted. There is much to learn in this newer version which I have inexplicably ignored for four months. For example, paragraph 39 orig … | Continue reading
Do you want an to try an ad blocker that’s easy to setup, easy to keep up to date and with pro features available when you need them? Then download Magic Lasso Adblock — the ad blocker designed for you. Magic Lasso Adblock is an efficient and high performance ad blocker for your … | Continue reading
Dan Moren, Six Colors: That’s where optics comes into play. Apple’s not publishing a 1500-word piece about why it disagrees with the EC’s ruling in order to convince the EC to change its mind. Presumably it made all of these arguments in its discussions with the regulator, and if … | Continue reading
You’re still not sure if and how ScreenFloat 2 for Mac powers up your screenshots and recordings? There’s a very easy way to find out: download the no-strings-attached, free, 28-day trial (with a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store after that)! It floats your captures, like Pi … | Continue reading
Kalhan Rosenblatt and Kyle Stewart, NBC News: A bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to divest the popular social media company passed a crucial vote Thursday, as the company sought to rally users to its defense with a call to action that flooded some congressio … | Continue reading
Jason Koebler, 404 Media: The New York Times has filed a series of copyright takedown requests against Wordle clones and variations in which it asserts not just ownership over the Wordle name but over the broad concepts and mechanics of the word game, which includes its “5×6 grid … | Continue reading
Big news out of Brussels: The European Commission has fined Apple over €1.8 billion for abusing its dominant position on the market for the distribution of music streaming apps to iPhone and iPad users (‘iOS users’) through its App Store. In particular, the Commission found that … | Continue reading
I only drop into “Decoder” every now and again, but this recent episode is fantastic. It is a reversal of the usual format — instead of Nilay Patel interviewing an executive, guest host Hank Green chats with Patel about the Verge’s business and publishing on the web. It seems a l … | Continue reading
XOXO Festival is coming back in August, “one last time”. I do not know if you like playing with toggles and switches but this website has light mode, dark mode, and — well — see for yourself. ⌥ Permalink⌥ Permalink | Continue reading
Jason Koebler, 404 Media: We have recently been getting bombarded with Instagram Reels of influencers explaining how they make five figures a month by using AI to create tons of viral TikTok pages using stolen celebrity clips juxtaposed next to Minecraft gameplay footage. This st … | Continue reading
Kate Wagner wrote, for Road & Track, a exploration of Formula 1 from the perspective of a cycling journalist who does not have a driving license, and it is wonderful: One thing that strikes me about Formula 1 is its unexpected resemblance to fencing — it is an absolutely poised a … | Continue reading
Power up your screenshots and recordings with ScreenFloat. Here’s how. Capture screenshots, record your screen, or take timed screenshots. Re-capture shots without painstakingly reframing them. Import from your clipboard, other apps, or your iOS devices. Float your captures to ke … | Continue reading
Jason Koebler and Samantha Cole, 404 Media: Almost every platform has some sort of post “firehose,” API, or way of accessing huge amounts of user posts. Famously, Twitter and Reddit used to give these away for free. Now they do not, and charging access for these posts has become … | Continue reading
Two weeks ago, Apple confirmed it would roll back the capabilities of Progressive Web Apps in the E.U. to the days of iPhone home screen bookmarks. It said it would need to do this to comply with the Digital Markets Act, implying it interpreted alternative browser requirements to … | Continue reading
Today’s announcement from the Competition Bureau reveals an expansion in the scope of its investigation into Google’s advertising business, something it has been looking into for over three years. One of the problems faced by regulators like these is the sheer scale of an operati … | Continue reading
Even though it has only been a couple of days since word got out that Apple was cancelling development of its long-rumoured though never confirmed car project, there have been a wave of takes explaining what this means, exactly. The uniqueness of this project was plenty intriguin … | Continue reading
U.S. President Joe Biden today signed an executive order, previously covered, which intends to limit the sale and distribution of Americans’ sensitive data to “countries of concern”: To address this threat and to take further steps with respect to the national emergency declared … | Continue reading
Bryon Tau, in an excerpt from his new book “Means of Control”, as published in Wired with a clarification in brackets by me: Initially, PlanetRisk was sampling data country by country, but it didn’t take long for the team to wonder what it would cost to buy the entire world. The … | Continue reading
Mark Gurman, Bloomberg: Apple Inc. is canceling a decade-long effort to build an electric car, according to people with knowledge of the matter, abandoning one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the company. 2023 California testing reports, made public earlier this … | Continue reading
What people with Big Business Brains often like to argue about the unethical but wildly successful ad tech industry is that it is not as bad as it looks because your individual data does not have any real use or value. Ad tech vendors would not bother retaining such granular deta … | Continue reading
When I linked to Tim Burke’s indictment yesterday, I compared the ridiculousness of the case to Josh Renaud’s near-indictment for viewing the source of a webpage. I missed an obviously more analogous and equally outrageous case: that of Aaron Swartz. Sarah Jeong, of the Verge, [… … | Continue reading
This story from Troy Hunt is a maddening read, though not because of Hunt. It is a poisonous stew of bad security practices, inconsistent behaviour, and bugs. It is a level of sloppiness that is far too common at businesses large and small. This is everything they should not be d … | Continue reading
Online privacy isn’t just something you should be hoping for – it’s something you should expect. You should ensure your browsing history stays private and is not harvested by ad networks. By blocking ad trackers, Magic Lasso Adblock stops you being followed by ads around the web. … | Continue reading
Justin Garcia, Dan Sullivan, Jay Cridlin, and Olivia George, Tampa Bay Times: Tampa media consultant Tim Burke was charged Thursday with 14 federal crimes related to alleged computer hacks at Fox News. […] According to the indictment, Burke and an unnamed person used “compromised … | Continue reading
Alexander Saeedy and Alexandra Bruell, Wall Street Journal: Vice Media said it would stop publishing content on its flagship website and plans to cut hundreds of jobs, following a failed effort by owner Fortress Investment Group to sell the embattled digital publisher and its bra … | Continue reading
Apple, in a post credited to Security Engineering and Architecture: Today we are announcing the most significant cryptographic security upgrade in iMessage history with the introduction of PQ3, a groundbreaking post-quantum cryptographic protocol that advances the state of the ar … | Continue reading
When I bought my mid-2017 iMac, I had assumed I would get eight to ten years of updates from it, similar to my mid-2012 MacBook Air. Alas, just four years after it was on my desk, Apple deemed it unworthy of running MacOS Sonoma, which means I have begun looking at desktop replac … | Continue reading
Bryan Carney, the Tyee, March 2019: The RCMP has been quietly running an operation monitoring individuals’ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media activity for at least two years, The Tyee has learned. […] “There is a position taken that this is public information and … | Continue reading