Last week, regulators in India forced Apple to remove the viral TikTok video sharing app from the App Store one inappropriate content concerns. Now, however, an Indian state court has moved to lift the ban.

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Notarization is an automated code scan service for Mac developers that looks for malicious code and blesses it if none found. In a future version of macOS, the Gatekeeper will look for that notarization. This is a good thing.

Facebook today reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2019, revealing that it has set aside $3 billion in anticipation of a fine from the Federal Trade Commission. The company reported revenue for the quarter of $15.08 billion with earnings of 85 cents per share.

more…

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Since Steve and I can’t cover everything, at the end of each week day, we’ll offer this wrap-up of news items you should check out.

Despite minor issues, Apple continued to top most of the competition in this year's Tech Support Showdown by Laptop Magazine, which says the combination of Twitter, live online chats, its support app and phone calls provides a solid base for the company's support. Oh, and there's also the Genius Bar, which is widely available, thanks to its placement in every Apple Store.

According to a letter Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers sent to Foxconn executive Louis Woo, the state is renegotiating a deal that promised the Taiwan-based company (a major Apple supplier) incentives in return for building a massive manufacturing and R&D facility in the region, reports...

Slides of Qualcomm's opening arguments against Apple have been published, exposing more detail of Apple's long plan to hurt Qualcomm financially to force reduced modem chip payments.

J. W. Verret, writing at The Atlantic, “A Trump Transition Staffer Calls for Impeachment”:

Let’s start at the end of this story. This weekend, I read Special
Counsel Robert Mueller’s report twice, and realized that enough
was enough — I needed to do something. I’ve worked on every
Republican presidential transition team for the past 10 years and
recently served as counsel to the Republican-led House Financial
Services Committee. My permanent job is as a law professor at the
George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, which is not
political, but where my colleagues have held many prime spots in
Republican administrations.

If you think calling for the impeachment of a sitting Republican
president would constitute career suicide for someone like me, you
may end up being right. But I did exactly...

Lens is a new Instagram app for Apple Watch that includes nearly every feature of the photo sharing service — all without the iPhone. The unofficial client is much more capable than Instagram’s outdated and discontinued app for the watch.

more…

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The longstanding mind map app MindNode has been updated to add new features to its Mac and iOS versions. Both now feature a Focus mode that concentrates the map on one topic and the iOS edition also lets you select multiple elements to edit or move together.

How many of you are old enough to remember Bob Vila? As a kid, I loved his version of “This Old House” (I never liked the episodes after he left) even though I have no skill or even interest in construction or carpentry. Vila made it seem effortless and easy.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Developers, it’s time to consider deleting the Facebook SDK and not using its tools anymore. Do we even need to explain why?

A man from Huntington Beach, Calif. has recovered an Apple Watch he lost surfing in the Pacific Ocean six months ago, still in working order.

More allegations about how owners of the Amazon Echo smart speaker range are having their privacy infringed by the retailer have surfaced, with the latest claim involving an internal team of Alexa auditors having access to customer data that can reveal their home address.

Material depicting child abuse l is still being widely shared across WhatsApp. An investigation by The Next Web found the Facebook-owned messaging service had failed to tackle the problem, despite assurances it would do so.

Despite Facebook’s attempts to clamp down on inappropriate content, the two-week long investigation conducted in March found dozens of WhatsApp chat groups with hundreds of members that share child sexual abuse material. The groups were identified through a third-party WhatsApp public group discovery app that Google recently banned from Play Store, but can still be sideloaded using the installation files that are available online elsewhere. Nitish Chandan, a cybersecurity specialist who is also the project manager of CPF, found that members are...

For the first time, Apple has actually seen a decrease in the number of self-driving test vehicles it has on California's public roads.

A class action lawsuit against Apple concerning sleep/wake button issues with the iPhone 4, iPhone 4s and iPhone 5 is going to be heard in a Californian court, with the lawyers bringing the lawsuit against the iPhone producer putting out a call for potentially affected device owners ahead of the October trial.

A jury trial involving iPhone 4’s, iPhone 4S’s and iPhone 5’s with alleged defective sleep/wake (power) buttons will start on Oct. 25, 2019.

The complaint alleges that Apple sold the aforementioned smartphone models with defective sleep/wake (power) buttons and failed to disclose (or insufficiently disclosed) this defect to purchasers in violation of various California state laws. This action seeks relief for alleged claims of breach of warranty and alleged violations of the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the California Unfair Competition Law, the California Song-Beverly Act and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. 

The complaint seeks damages in the form of recovery of the cost to repair the broken sleep/wake button or the diminished value of the iPhone due to the broken sleep/wake button, along with restitution, injunctive and declaratory relief.

Apple denies all of the allegations and denies it did anything improper...

A fascinating story about people and their relationship to the land.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple has earned another first place ranking for its laptop customer service when compared to other tech companies. Laptop Mag today released its 2019 study that found Apple far ahead of competition like Samsung, Microsoft, HP, and more when it comes to both phone and web support for computers.

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The post Apple earns first place in laptop customer support ranking with 91/100 score, 6 minute avg. call time appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Whether you're looking for an over-the-ear, on-ear, or in-ear model, we'll help you find the perfect pair.

Vacuuming is one of the most hated household chores. Here are your best choices for outsourcing it to some automated help.

9Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

https://9to5mac.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2019/04/9to5Mac-Daily-04-24-2019.mp3

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The post...

Apple has claimed the top spot on Laptop Magazine's 2019 customer service ratings, scoring 91 out of 100 based on a mix of phone and online performance.

Google announced today that its Google Fit app that launched on Android in 2014 is now available for iOS.

Last August, Google Fit was completely revamped with the Material Theme and a focus on two new metrics. The health and activity tracking application is now coming to iOS with full Apple Health integration.

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Samsung's chip division is its most lucrative, but memory chip prices are falling and the company's overall operating profits are slipping. In response, Samsung just announced a $116 billion investment in non-memory chip R&D and production infras...

If you make less than US$34,000 per year, you could get a TurboTax refund if the company made you pay them when you filed your taxes.

If you are one of the millions of Americans who made under $34,000 last year, you should have been able to use a free version of TurboTax. If TurboTax directed you to a paid version, it’s worth giving the company a call.

“I called today and they are issuing a refund on my credit card,” one reader said. “I just had to mention ProPublica.”

Thanks to lobbying by corporations like TurboTax, the IRS doesn’t do our taxes for us like other countries.

MindNode 6 is out and it brings more productivity features to help us with our mind maps. Some of the new features: Focus Mode puts a spotlight on one part of your mind map and fades out all the rest; Hide Connections reduces distractions even further by hiding all connections on the canvas; Sticker Search helps you quickly find the right sticker to make your document even more appealing; Multi-Select gives you styling, editing, and rearranging for multiple nodes; External Screen Support lets you put your mind map on two screens at once; Customizable Panels lets you drag and drop your favorite actions onto the panel’s quick actions. On iPad drag the panels to the other side of the screen; Traditional Chinese is the newest language, increasing overall localizations to 14. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)

...

After the latest Facebook privacy fiasco which involved Instagram passwords, regulators are looking even more closely at Mark Zuckerberg.

Here’s the picture, Steve plush with iPod.

Want one? The Reddit poster bought it here.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Wired:

What if an Ethereum owner stored their digital money with a private key—the unguessable, 78-digit string of numbers that protects the currency stashed at a certain address—that had a value of 1?

To Bednarek’s surprise, he found that dead-simple key had in fact once held currency, according to the blockchain that records all Ethereum transactions. But the cash had already been taken out of the Ethereum wallet that used it—almost certainly by a thief who had thought to guess a private key of 1 long before Bednarek had.

And:

That initial discovery piqued Bednarek’s curiosity. So he tried a few more consecutive keys: 2, 3, 4, and then a couple dozen more, all of which had been similarly emptied. So he and his colleagues at the security consultancy Independent Security Evaluators wrote some code, fired up some cloud servers, and tried a few dozen billion more.

Seems such an obvious tack to take. And reinforces my avoidance of blockchain backed...

Apple continues to lead global premium smartphone segment by capturing more than half of the market while OnePlus entered the top five brands in the premium segment for the first time ever in 2018 as competition intensified in the global premium smartphone segment. The segment grew faster than the global smartphone market, according to Counterpoint Research’s Market Monitor 2018 service.

The segment grew 14% year-on-year (YoY) in terms of sell-in and 18% YoY in terms of sell-through. Growth was driven by new iPhones and launches in a premium segment from Chinese manufacturers like Huawei, OPPO, OnePlus.

Apple remained the market leader capturing 51% share of the premium segment, a significant lead over its nearest competitor Samsung which had a 22% share. However, Chinese brands made their mark as Huawei’s share in the segment reached double digits (10...

The upcoming spring/summer 2019 edition of Document Journal includes a fascinating new conversation between Apple’s Chief Design Officer Jony Ive and Kim Jones, Creative Director for fashion brand Dior Men since 2018. Ahead of the magazine’s release in May, the full interview has been published online and is filled with observations from the two designers.

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The post Jony Ive and Dior designer Kim Jones discuss the environmental cost of design, challenges of working for the future, more appeared first on 9to5Mac.

In observation of Distracted Driving Month this April, The Zebra, an insurance comparison site, surveyed 2,107 Americans to uncover what activities are distracting them on the road. 

The survey revealed that 78% of Americans admit to engaging in activities other than concentrating on the road, even though the majority of them (66%) feel guilty while doing so. And iPhone users are twice as likely to text and drive as Android users.

According to The Zebra, when looking at iPhone vs. Android owners, Apple users are more addicted to their mobile devices, as they’re more prone to text, take photos, video-chat and more while driving. 

Emotional commercials and big brand petitions tell us that a text message can wait, yet 73% of respondents who admitted to texting and driving agree that this risky act can be classified as an addiction. Eighty percent of people in this group...

The latest data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) suggests that the iPhone XR continues to dominate US smartphone sales. The XR is the best-selling model for the second quarter running.

The news follows Kantar data showing that the iPhone XR was also the best-selling smartphone in the UK …

more…

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Reddit:

Just got my first set of AirPods two weeks ago. Really enjoying them now that my company has switched to iOS and I tote around 2 iPhones. Then today I just popped them in to walk to the office and an Amber Alert game in. Through the AirPods. Full blast loud. My eyes watered and I threw one out as fast as possible but didn’t quite get the other in time as I tried to dismiss the alert. Holy hell my ears are ringing so loud. Is there any way to turn that down??

Amber alerts are designed to play at max volume, to get your attention. I get that.

But seems to me, Apple should do a bit of testing with AirPods volume, set a max limit for emergency klaxons and Amber alerts. There are people who need their AirPods at full volume, so not clear that a hard volume level cutoff is the right answer, but seems clear that the current in ear volume for Amber alerts and the like is just too loud and, perhaps, harmful to hearing.

...

In a note to clients — as noted by AppleInsider — analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple will release two new AirPod models later this year or in early 2020. The Sellers Research Group (that’s me) says, barring any production problems, we’ll see them this year, so Apple can capitalize on holiday spending.

He says one of the wireless earbuds will sport an all-new form-factor at a higher price. The second model will have the same design and cost as the current AirPods, Kuo adds.

He doesn’t elaborate on what design changes we might expect. However, possibilities are new health features, enhanced audio quality, a new coating for improved grip and noise cancellation tech.

Whatever the changes, Kuo predicts that Apple will sell 52 million units in 2019, and between 75 million and 85 million in...

Cloud services are great for keeping your data backed up in the cloud, syncing to a number of devices simultaneously, and archiving information that's important but just not needed each and every day. Some services can be ridiculously expensive, but that's not the case with Zoolz Cloud Storage. Can you imagine paying only $19.99 for 1TB of Cold Storage? That’s our deal for today for what TopTenReviews called the "Number 1 Best Business Cloud Storage Service": Zoolz Cloud Storage. 

With this plan you get:

• Backup 1TB of Cold Storage w/ no limitations

• ...

iFixit:

Well, we’ve finally got the Samsung Galaxy Fold on our teardown table. This is, without question, an ambitious first-generation device—the idea of having both a smartphone and a tablet in your pocket at all times is pretty exciting! That said, a number of early reviewers had some durability issues with their review units, ultimately leading to a launch postponement. Are these temporary setbacks? Or are we headed for a full-blown AirPower-style product cancellation?

The teardown is full of great pics and details, but this little bit goes to the heart of the matter:

Unlike the dull slabs of glass we’re used to, this smartphone/tablet hybrid has lots of potential entry points—and not the good kind.

To achieve the fold, the thin bezel that surrounds (and protects) the screen leaves a gap where the two halves meet.

And:

This 7 mm gap doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but it leaves the display exposed—so should something accidentally enter,...

Before Samsung chose to hold back launch for a redesign, the Galaxy Fold was inherently vulnerable to debris reaching the display, according to a new teardown.

In a new study (n=2,000) 51% of iPhone users said they text and drive, compared to 35% for Android users.

16% of iPhone users said they never get distracted while driving (vs. 23% of Android users and 38% of users of other mobile operating systems).

iPhone users are more than twice as likely than Android users to video-chat, use Instagram, stream shows on Netflix or Hulu, and take photos and videos while driving.

10% of iPhone users admitted watching videos on YouTube while driving, while 4% of Android users admitted to doing the same.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs have improved their view of Apple's share, raising the stock's 12-month target price from $140 to $182 under the belief demand in China is no longer an issue, at the same time as anticipating Apple will beat its guidance for the upcoming financial results.

I'll admit it: I was skeptical that a WiFi-connected grill could really improve my casual culinary exploits. During my review of Traeger's Timberline 850 though, I would discover it's actually very useful -- especially for things that take several ho...

Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Wireless charging has a long way to go before it replaces wired charging, but the technology has advanced dramatically in the past few years. Everyone with the newest smartphones, wearables, and other gadgets can get behind the idea—simply place your device on a charging pad or stand and let it sit. Within a few minutes, you'll have more battery power than you did before, and you didn't have to fuss with wires or cables to get it.

But quite a bit of technology goes into make an accessory that makes your life that much easier. Most wireless chargers come in the form of circular or rectangular pads, some of which are propped up on legs to make stands that take up minimal space and work well as nightstand or desk accessories. But don't be fooled by...

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is predicting two new AirPods models to ship at the end of 2019 or in the beginning of 2020, solidifying Apple's lead in the marketplace.

A letter from Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers reveals that Foxconn is indeed seeking to renegotiate the scale of its investment, which was originally supposed to generate 13,000 jobs in the state. The company has so far renamed an office building which currently appears empty.

Foxconn had previously said that it remained committed to the contract despite Gov. Evans stating that ‘the deal is no longer in play‘ …

more…...

I fell in love with the Mac nearly 30 years ago, in the fall of 1989. It’s been the center of my tech world ever since, and I’ve been writing about it professionally for 25 years. And yet these past months, I’ve noticed something strange creeping into my thoughts occasionally while I sit at my desk working on my iMac Pro: iOS does this better.

It’s disconcerting, after three decades, to suddenly find that manipulation of files and folders in the Finder has gone from being business as usual to seeming like it’s more fuss and effort than is necessary. And yet that’s where I am now, thanks to a couple of years of using an iPad Pro rather than a MacBook Air whenever I’m away from my desk. The iPad, she has infected me. And I fear there is no cure.

To read this article in full, please click here

Reports from the supply chain suggest that Apple may release a third generation of AirPods with noise cancellation before the end of 2019.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Looking for a new laptop? New CPUs and GPUs are just begging for you to upgrade. And if you have a bigger purchase in mind, you should check out the new Teslas, which feature more range than ever -- up to 370 mi...

There tends to be nuggets of truth in almost all rumors.

The current rumor is that Apple Pay Australia will launch today, although it’s unknown as to which banks will support it upon launch.

The following translated quote was offered by a source close to the story:

As a partner Apple could win the Erste Bank and Sparkasse and the online bank N26…The question is whether Apple launches its service far too late in Austria. Many banks have already equipped their cards with the NFC function years ago, so fast payments are already possible in this way.

Via The Mac Observer and DerStandard