Items tagged with (NASDAQ:APPL)
Do you have any fitness-related New Year resolutions? Apple’s latest series of partnerships may be what you need to get moving. Apple recently introduced its “Apple Watch Connected” program which will help users earn rewards for working out at select gyms. The Apple Watch Connected program is an expansion of its GymKit technology. GymKit technology was originally introduced in 2017 and allowed Apple Watch wearers to sync their devices with gym equipment. Apple hoped that this technology would allow users to better track their gym workouts. Fitness trackers tend to do well when the user is moving across distances, but struggle when the user is working out on a stationary...
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Have you ever wondered what Windows 10 would look like if Apple had designed it? One concept artist has reimagined Windows 10 as an Apple product. The concept includes a few interesting features, but overall we find ourselves personally favoring the existing Windows 10. Kamer Kaan Avdan published a video that asked “How would it look like, if Apple created Windows 10?” His version of Windows 10 features Apple’s iconic playful and colorful aesthetic. Several Windows 10 features also have naturally been replaced with Apple items. For example, users would browse with Safari instead of Edge and Cortana has been replaced with Siri. There are also a handful of characteristics that...
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Many argue that Apple has their finger on the pulse of technology trends. This claim may be more literal than originally anticipated. A cardiologist is currently suing Apple for stealing his Atrial fibrillation (AFib) detection technology and using it in Apple Watches. Dr. Joseph Wiesel is a cardiologist and clinical assistant professor at New York University’s School of Medicine. In 2006, Dr. Wiesel filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a method and apparatus for detecting atrial fibrillation or irregular heartbeats. The patent states that the heartbeat is detected either through an inflatable cuff or “light transmitted through a body appendage, such...
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As we approach the new decade, it feels as if every major tech company is working on their own satellites. Everyone from SpaceX to Amazon is interested in broadband satellites. It was recently revealed that Apple has also thrown its hat into the ring. Apple has been secretly working on its own satellites over the last few years. According to a Bloomberg article, Apple has been hiring hardware and software engineers for the satellite project over the last few months. There are currently about a dozen engineers working on the satellites. The team is led by aerospace engineers Michael Trela and John Fenwick, who worked for the company Skybox Imaging until 2015. Apple hopes to finish the satellites...
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iPhone 11 Apple was under fire this past week for tracking iPhone 11 users’ locations even when that setting was disabled. They have now promised that an update is on its way. iOS 13.3 will likely be released next week and contain a fix for unwanted location tracking. Security researcher Brian Krebs or “KrebsOnSecurity” recently discovered that Apple’s range of iPhone 11 devices will occasionally report a user’s location. These intermittent pings occur even if a user has diabled location tracking. A video captured the odd behavior. Apple originally responded that this was “expected behavior” and refused to offer any further details. Apple then “came...
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The right to repair movement is about to get a much needed boost. The Massachusetts state legislature plans to host a public hearing regarding their “Digital Right to Repair” bills. Many anticipate that this will be the largest hearing in support of this kind of legislation. Many have argued that the policies of large tech companies have hurt consumers and small businesses. The proposed legislation would “establish fair and reasonable terms for providing diagnostic, service or repair information and services for digital electronic products.” Manufacturers would also be prohibited from installing software on a device that would prevent it from being repaired by a third-party....
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Many companies are working hard to improve their artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. AI could impact everything from medicine to silly Instagram overlays and everything in between. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are all toiling to gain an edge in the AI field by leveraging their massive treasure troves of data, but what are their existing privacy policies and user data security track records? Which of these companies cares the most about protecting your privacy? Should you even trust Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google with your data? We examined the kind of data that is collected by the above companies and how it is shared, their virtual assistants, and privacy controls. We also reviewed...
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What do Hollywood, Apple users, and Google Chrome share in common? A wave of unbootable MacBooks and Mac Pros. A Google Keystone update was able to damage certain Mac files and shut the affected devices down unexpectedly. This past week, several Hollywood film editors reported that their Mac devices were unable to reboot. Affected Apple users included the video editing team of ABC’s Modern Family. Many of these film editors use Avid Media Composer software and initially believed that a software bug or virus was to blame. Google later confessed that a Chrome update was the real culprit. Google Keystone Bug Most Mac devices include “SIP” or “system integrity protection”....
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Many people have been talking about the upcoming iPhone 11’s trypophobia-triggering cameras, but the device’s insides are the real attention grabber. The iPhone 11 will ship with Apple’s new U1 chip. Although the U1 chip’s Ultra Wideband technology will initially be used in a limited capacity, it could potentially power new augmented reality experiences and security features. First, what is Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology? UWB is a radio technology that is used for short-range, high-bandwidth communications. It is particularly useful for precision location and tracking and time-of-arrival-based localization. Apple’s UWB technology will be primarily used for spatial...
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The current United States-China trade war has had a major effect on several technology and telecommunication companies. Apple is one of the corporations that as borne the brunt of the trade war. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently met with President Trump and warned that the new tariffs made it difficult to compete with companies like Samsung. President Trump and Tim Cook met for dinner this past Friday at the president’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Apple manufactures many of its products in China and contend that it would be difficult to entirely move manufacturing to other countries. Cook reportedly argued that the new tariffs would make it hard for Apple to go toe-to-toe with companies...
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Voice assistants can be great for looking up the weather, playing music, and answering inquiries. However, consumers should use caution before asking their voice assistant to call a business or customer service line. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) recently reported that voice assistants are accidentally dialing scammer phone numbers. According to the BBB, several consumers have recently used voice search to dial the numbers of customer service lines, but were taken instead to scammers. For example, one consumer asked their voice assistant to dial an airline’s customer service phone number. The scammer attempted to convince the consumer to purchase $400 in prepaid gift cards. Why are consumers...
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Are Apple employees listening to your conversations? There is a chance that whatever you say is not just between you and Siri. An Apple whistleblower recently revealed that contractors listen to Siri recordings and frequently hear private information. According to an interview in The Guardian, Apple hires contractors to listen to and “grade” roughly 1% of daily Siri recordings. These contractors are tasked with deciding whether Siri responded appropriately to a question and whether or not Siri activations are accidental or deliberate. Unfortunately, these Apple contractors will often hear private information and recordings. Siri can accidentally be activated if it believes that...
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Firefox users have spoken up and Mozilla has listened. Firefox 68 is available today for iOS and desktop, with the new update including a number of features like dark mode for Firefox Reader View, new extensions and bookmark editing, and more options for IT professionals. Firefox or “Firefox Quantum” desktop and iOS users can now enjoy “blackout shades” in Firefox Reader View. Reader View strips away extras like advertisements and allows users to alter the size and color of a page’s text. Before this update, “dark mode” only affected the text. Now dark mode will apply to all sections of a page, including sidebars and images. Mozilla has also created a...
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There are few things more inconvenient in the modern world than a bricked smartphone. A security researcher recently disclosed an iMessage bug that could brick a user’s iPhone. The bug was severe enough to require users to wipe and restore their device. What caused the bothersome issue? Google Project Zero security researcher Natalie Silvanovich noted that a “malformed message” contained a text key, but not a string. She noted that another method would try to use the key as if it was a string without confirmation. This created “an exception as the selector does not exist in that class”. This exception caused Springboard, an application launcher for iPhones, to crash...
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