MacRumors

T-Mobile earlier this week shared details on a data breach where hackers gained access to the personal information of close to 50 million current, former, and prospective customers.

At the time, T-Mobile said that data from 7.8 million current customers had been compromised, as well as information from 40 million former or potential customers. In an updated statement provided today, T-Mobile says that it has confirmed that data from another 5.3 million postpaid customers was accessed.

Information accessed from these customers included names, addresses, birth dates, phone numbers, IMEIs, and IMSIs. The prior 7.8 million customers also saw their SSN and driver's license information stolen.

T-Mobile says that on top of the previously announced 40 million former or prospective customers that were impacted, another 667,000 accounts of former customers were breached. Hackers were able to obtain names, phone numbers, addresses, and birth dates from these customers. Other former and prospective customers had their SSN and driver's license information leaked.

Hackers were also able to access data files that included phone numbers, IMEI numbers, and IMSI numbers, but that data included no personally identifiable information. T-Mobile says that it does not believe that the data in the stolen files included customer financial information, credit card information, debit, or other payment information.

There were 850,000 T-Mobile postpaid customers impacted with phone numbers and PINs exposed, and T-Mobile has reset the PINs on all of these accounts. T-Mobile now says that up to 52,000 names related to current Metro by T-Mobile accounts may also have been included, but none of the T-Mobile files stolen related to former Sprint prepaid or Boost customers.

The attack was first identified when hackers posted on a forum offering to sell data from 100 million T-Mobile customers. The data for sale included social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, IMEI numbers, and driver's license data.

T-Mobile says that it has contacted millions of customers and is offering those impacted two years of identity protection services with McAfee's ID Theft Protection Service. The company also recommends that eligible T-Mobile customers sign up for free scam-blocking protection.

To prevent future attacks, T-Mobile says it has "worked diligently to enhance security across our platforms" and is working with experts to understand both immediate and longer-term next steps.

Documents highlighted by The Verge and disclosed as part of the Apple vs. Epic Games trial have revealed that Apple discussed plans for sideloading apps, sought to lock users into its ecosystem using gift cards, attempted to tackle chaos in the App Store review process, and more.

Several of the internal documents related to internal discussions around the possibility of sideloading iPhone apps outside of the ‌App Store‌. Some of these discussions may have gone further than expected, since in 2008, software chief Scott Forstall asked Steve Jobs what text should appear to iOS users when they want to open a sideloaded app. Jobs agreed to the following alert: "Are you sure you want to open the application 'Monkey Ball' from the developer 'Sega'?"

In October 2010, Jobs declared at a corporate strategy presentation that a key company aim would be to use the cloud to "tie all of our products together, so we further lock customers into our ecosystem."

In 2013, Apple's senior vice president of software and services, Eddy Cue, lauded the potential of bundling iTunes gift cards with new Apple devices instead of putting them on sale to lock customers further into the company's ecosystem and dissuade them from switching to a different brand. He also raged at the Apple Retail team for its disinterest in selling iTunes Store gift cards.

Who's going to buy a Samsung phone if they have apps, movies, etc already purchased? They now need to spend hundreds more to get to where they are today.

On a related note, our apple stores (online and retail) are the only distributors around the world that decreased year over year in iTunes card sales. We are starting to make progress again with retail but it is always an uphill battle. Our teams just don't get the ecosystem. We (Val and team) just heard from Jennifer that iTunes cards are not a priority for her. This is ridiculous. Who leaves Apple products once they've bought apps, music, movies, etc!

[...]

...In the meantime, Samsung is discounting and giving crap away everywhere...

Samsung is now pushing Google Play cards with placement right below the phones -

We haven't been putting our cards with our product displays (at 3rd parties) since the iPod. They have to be at a different location. We should have gift cards on the tables like we do in Apple retail. We should also consider having them pegged on all end cap of hardware.

In 2012, Cue demanded to ‌App Store‌ head Matt Fischer that Shazam would not be featured on the ‌App Store‌:

No promotion... we are not going to promote something that puts it's goal as replacing our music player unless it is significantly better than our player and this is not.

Apple went on to acquire Shazam in 2018. In 2016, Apple's Elizabeth Lee said that "Although they may be our best and the brightest apps, Matt feels extremely strong about not featuring our competitors on the ‌App Store‌," when asked why the company does not want to highlight apps from Google and Amazon. The email thread suggested that this was standard ‌App Store‌ practice, with some competing apps being seen "through a slightly different lens than most."

In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed the issue of the Mac App Store's lack of traction, putting it down to a lack of gaming and productivity apps: "I think the lack of gaming (along with the lack of native productivity apps) are the main reason the ‌Mac App Store‌ is dormant." Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller answered:

We and the major game developers have tried high-end gaming on the Mac... but have failed to generate any sizable business in that genre.

[...]

On the native productivity app front it starts and ends with Microsoft and Adobe. Neither is on the store because they don't have to be. They can be on the Mac and distribute to users without sharing the revenue with us, following our rules on app engineering and business models, or go through any app review process.

Many of the disclosed documents showed how Apple executives responded to repeated failings in the ‌App Store‌ review process. In February 2012, Schiller ranted:

What the hell is this???

Remember our talking about finding bad apps with low ratings?

Remember our talk about becoming the "Nordstroms" of stores in quality of service?

How does an obvious rip off of the super popular Temple Run, with no screen shots, garbage marketing text, and almost all 1-star ratings become the #1 free app on the store?

Can anyone see a rip off of a top selling game? Any anyone see an app that is cheating the system?

Is no one reviewing these apps? Is no one minding the store?

This is insane!!!

In 2015, Schiller asked the ‌App Store‌ team to "PLEASE develop a system to automatically find low rated apps and purge them!!"

In February 2019, a scam app that purported to be able to measure blood pressure using the ‌iPhone‌'s camera and a fingertip reached the top ‌App Store‌ rankings for medical apps. Later that year, apps that claimed to be able to measure a user's heart rate through Touch ID also came under internal scrutiny after being accepted on the ‌App Store‌ during the review process.

Apple's Tom Reyburn seemingly admitted that "LinkedIn has been rejected for using the same language on their subscription call to action button that Apple uses in our own apps." "It's not right, but apparently it is what it is," Apple's senior director of developer relations Shaan Pruden replied. Reyburn added, "Amazon is also complaining about this. We need to have one set of rules that all apps follow whether they are from Apple or third-party developers."

Apple also realized that it had erroneously allowed two separate games that featured school shootings on the ‌App Store‌, seven months after they were approved. Discussions put the error down to the fact that "it took a total of 32 seconds to review both apps." In a similar case, Schiller questioned how a game about shooting protestors was accepted during the review process.

Separately, the documents show that in 2011, Schiller suggested that Apple could "ratchet down from 70/30 to 75/25 or even 80/20 if we can maintain a $1B a year run rate," in terms of ‌App Store‌ commissions, since the 30 percent commission rate would "not last forever."

He also proposed a scheme called "Jump Start" in June 2018, which would have given half of Apple's 30 percent commission back to developers in their first year to spend on iAd advertising. This idea appears to be a precursor to the ‌App Store‌ Small Business Program.

In February of 2020, Apple's head of fraud, Eric Freidman, said that Apple was "the greatest platform for distributing child porn." He added that "we have chosen to not know in enough places where we really cannot say." It is not clear if these discussions were related to Apple's recently announced child safety features.

Other interesting findings and tidbits from the internal document disclosures showed that Apple seemingly offered Netflix a discounted 15 percent in-app purchase commission, much like its arrangement with Amazon Prime Video, instead of its usual 30 percent rate, Schiller said that in terms of "threat level," the Amazon Appstore posed a "very high" threat to Apple, and in the second quarter of 2016, the ‌App Store‌ grew to be worth more than the Mac and iPad to the company.

To read the full documents or for more highlights, see the original article.

Apple today shared a new "Today at Apple" session on YouTube with photographer Mark Clennon on how to properly take "powerful portrait" photos using the built-in camera and Camera app on the iPhone.

Apple has begun promoting and posting Today at Apple sessions on YouTube due to the global health crisis. The company was planning to bring back its session to its in-person retail stores at the end of this month; however, it has since decided differently due to the health crisis. The sessions cover photography, art, design, video, coding, music, and more using Apple products and accessories like the ‌‌iPhone‌‌, iPad, Mac, and Apple Pencil.

Respected university researchers are sounding the alarm bells over the technology behind Apple's plans to scan iPhone users' photo libraries for CSAM, or child sexual abuse material, calling the technology "dangerous."

Jonanath Mayer, an assistant professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University, as well as Anunay Kulshrestha, a researcher at Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy, both penned an op-ed for The Washington Post, outlining their experiences with building image detection technology.

The researchers started a project two years ago to identity CSAM in end-to-end encrypted online services. The researchers note that given their field, they "know the value of end-to-end encryption, which protects data from third-party access." That concern, they say, is what horrifies them over CSAM "proliferating on encrypted platforms."

Mayer and Kulshrestha said they wanted to find a middle ground for the situation: build a system that online platforms could use to find CSAM and protect end-to-end encryption. The researchers note that experts in the field doubted the prospect of such a system, but they did manage to build it and in the process noticed a significant problem.

We sought to explore a possible middle ground, where online services could identify harmful content while otherwise preserving end-to-end encryption. The concept was straightforward: If someone shared material that matched a database of known harmful content, the service would be alerted. If a person shared innocent content, the service would learn nothing. People couldn't read the database or learn whether content matched, since that information could reveal law enforcement methods and help criminals evade detection.

Knowledgeable observers argued a system like ours was far from feasible. After many false starts, we built a working prototype. But we encountered a glaring problem.

Since Apple's announcement of the feature, the company has been bombarded with concerns that the system behind detecting CSAM could be used to detect other forms of photos at the request of oppressive governments. Apple has strongly pushed back against such a possibility, saying it will refuse any such request from governments.

Nonetheless, concerns over the future implications of the technology being used for CSAM detection are widespread. Mayer and Kulshrestha said that their concerns over how governments could use the system to detect content other than CSAM had them "disturbed."

A foreign government could, for example, compel a service to out people sharing disfavored political speech. That's no hypothetical: WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging app, already uses content matching to identify dissident material. India enacted rules this year that could require pre-screening content critical of government policy. Russia recently fined Google, Facebook and Twitter for not removing pro-democracy protest materials.

We spotted other shortcomings. The content-matching process could have false positives, and malicious users could game the system to subject innocent users to scrutiny.

We were so disturbed that we took a step we hadn't seen before in computer science literature: We warned against our own system design, urging further research on how to mitigate the serious downsides....

Apple has continued to address user concerns over its plans, publishing additional documents and an FAQ page. Apple continues to believe that its CSAM detection system, which will occur on a user's device, aligns with its long-standing privacy values.

Apple recently launched an invite-only iOS app called "Siri Speech Study" to improve and provide feedback on the Siri voice assistant, it has emerged (via TechCrunch).

The app, which first appeared on the App Store on August 9 without fanfare and was updated on August 18, allows users to voluntarily share their ‌Siri‌ interactions and feedback with Apple so that it can gain data to improve ‌Siri‌.

The app is reportedly available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Taiwan, but does not show under the Utilities category where it is published, on the ‌App Store‌ charts, or via search. Users must have a direct link to the app to be able to find it on the ‌App Store‌.

The sparsely designed app simply provides a link to a license agreement and a field to enter a valid participant ID number to begin.

Speaking to TechCrunch, Apple said that the app is being used to improve ‌Siri‌ across various products by providing a way for participants to share feedback directly with Apple. Apple added that participants have to be invited to the study and there is no way for consumers to volunteer to sign up for the app.

When signed into the ‌Siri‌ Speech Study app, participants must provide explicit feedback on a per request basis, according to Apple. For example, if ‌Siri‌ mishears a request or identifies a user incorrectly, users can explain what they were trying to ask or that they were identified wrongly, which will be fed back to Apple.

No participant data is automatically shared with Apple and users can see a list of the ‌Siri‌ requests that they have made in the app, and then select which of those to forward to Apple with their feedback. Apple told TechCrunch that no user information is collected or used in the app except for the data directly provided by participants.

Apple fans tend to accumulate old products in their homes, likely on a shelf or in a drawer collecting dust. Rather than letting Apple's history become junk items for dust collection, Grid Studio aims to turn them into artistic wall decoration.

Grid Studio, whose tagline is "Every classic deserves to be framed," takes Apple products and breaks them down component-by-component, placing them in gorgeously labeled, neat, and organized frames for your home or office that beautifully respect the devices' intricate designs.

Grid Studio offers a selection of older-generation iPhones, with the most prized being the limited-edition original iPhone. Grid Studio is only offering 999 of the original iPhones in its frame collection, and each frame comes with a special plaque that lets you know which unit out of the 999. In my case, I received the 197th frame.

Each frame is labeled with the names of numerous components, but also other much-welcomed additions such as their dimensions. Additionally, while the frames come shipped with a transparent plastic cover, they can be removed, allowing you to touch the different components directly. If you do, however, be aware that the components inside are dust collectors and can be challenging to clean.

For this review, Grid Studio sent not only the first-generation ‌iPhone‌ but also the ‌iPhone‌ 3GS, ‌iPhone‌ 4S, ‌iPhone‌ 5, and the original Apple Watch. Besides each frame featuring a different device, they're very similar in design. Each one has the name of the device alongside a short paragraph explaining its introduction and history.

Every device in the collection is genuine, as is each part that's broken down, including the screen, logic board, speaker, and cameras. The lone exceptions are the batteries, which due to safety concerns are replicas. Beyond the level of detail within the frames themselves, Grid Studio also takes into account the packaging.

All of the packaging for the frames includes neat glyphs of iPhones, the original Mac, and the iPod. With the original ‌iPhone‌ frame, however, Grid Studio includes some extra special items. Most notably, the original ‌iPhone‌ frame comes with a printout timeline of the history of the ‌iPhone‌, including 3D foldable images of Steve Jobs and the information for all current models. The quality of the printout is superb, with an excellent glossy finish.

Conclusion

What's certain is that Grid Studio took into account every possible detail, not only in deconstructing and framing a range of Apple's products but also in the experience from when your package first arrives. For anyone with love for Apple's products or who simply wants to put on display the evolution of products through the years for themselves or as a gift, Grid Studio without a doubt offers a terrific way to do just that.

How to Buy

On its website, Grid Studio offers frames for most of Apple's iPhones, including the ‌iPhone‌ X, first-generation iPhone SE, the ‌iPhone‌ 5S, ‌iPhone‌ 8, and more. Pricing varies depending on the significance and rarity of the devices. For example, the original ‌iPhone‌ frame retails for $599; however, as noted above, Grid Studio offers a limited supply of the original ‌iPhone‌ and it is currently listed as sold out.

Frames for other ‌iPhone‌ models are typically priced at $169 and up, although Grid Studio is currently running a sale. Apple Watch Series 0, as well as the iPod touch, are also available, as are an assortment of other smartphones and handheld gaming systems.

Blackmagic Design has announced a new update to its professional video editing and color correction software, DaVinci Resolve, that includes a new processing engine offering significantly better performance on Apple silicon Macs.

Thanks to the completely reworked engine, DaVinci Resolve 17.3 can work up to 3 times faster on Apple Mac models with the M1 chip, according to the company. The speed increase should make playback, editing, and grading of 4K and 8K projects faster using the software.

The new processing engine also uses tile based rendering, which can give users on notebooks up to 30% longer battery when working in DaVinci Resolve.

In addition, version 17.3 supports a new option on Mac computers with ‌M1‌ for H.265 hardware encoding. It's now possible to prioritize speed or quality when rendering, with render times potentially improved by up to 65%. DaVinci Resolve now also decodes AVC Intra files using the media engine built into the Apple ‌M1‌ chip, making decoding and playback faster when working with these file formats.

Meanwhile, new FX controls have been added, including new grid shapes and greater precision when using mosaic blur, allowing users to finely adjust the amount and appearance of pixellation.

Keyer garbage mattes now have rotation controls, making it easier to remove unwanted items from view, and new saturation and gamma controls on the glow plugin allow greater control and subtlety over lighting effects. Also, aperture diffraction in DaVinci Resolve Studio has new anamorphic aperture controls, allowing a wider range of lenses to be emulated.

Elsewhere, new drivers offer improved latency, and more Fairlight export options make it easier and faster to pass on audio for further processing or inclusion in a larger project.

"This is truly an amazing update that gives customers huge performance and power efficiency gains on Mac models with M1, and it totally transforms your computer, simply by downloading this free of charge DaVinci Resolve software update" said Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty in a press release. "This speed increase is stunning and it's hard to believe. I have not seen a speed improvement this large since the original 68000 to Power PC transition back in the 1990s and it is just amazing. Who would have thought just a year ago that multiple 4K streams could be played back and edited natively on a MacBook Air, but it's easy now on DaVinci Resolve with M1. The engineering team has worked so hard on this new image processing engine for DaVinci Resolve, and it is an incredibly exciting time to be developing software for the Mac!"

The DaVinci Resolve and DaVinci Resolve Studio 17.3 update is now available for download from the Blackmagic Design website for all current DaVinci Resolve users. DaVinci Resolve is a free download on the Mac App Store for individual users; Resolve Studio, the enhanced group collaboration editing suite, costs $295.

Apple is considering making future iPads with a titanium alloy chassis design, replacing the aluminum-based metal used in current models, according to sources cited by DigiTimes.

The claim appears in a piece covering the production of the upcoming ninth-generation iPad, which will reportedly include a PVD (physical vapor deposition) application to enhance the devices' scratch resistance.

The new iPad will also equip with aluminum-alloy chassis that will be processed by PVD. The sources also revealed that Apple is also considering equipping iPads with titanium-based metal chassis, but the high costs for doing so may not be economical at the moment.

The claim follows a similar report last month suggesting high-end models in Apple's 2022 iPhone lineup will eschew the existing aluminum and stainless steel case design in favor of titanium, due to the latter's tougher strength and durability.

The rumors tally with Apple's recent investigations into the viability of titanium casings for its products, which include patents related to the use of processed titanium with unique properties for future MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones.

Compared to stainless steel, titanium has a relatively high hardness that makes it more resistant to scratches, and its stiffness makes it durable enough to withstand bending.

However, titanium's strength also makes it hard to etch, so Apple has developed a blasting, etching, and chemical process that can give titanium enclosures a high-gloss surface finish for a more attractive appearance. Apple has also been researching the use of thin oxide surface coatings which can reduce the appearance of oily fingerprints.

If the latest reports are accurate, it would be the first time Apple has used titanium in iPhones‌ and iPads. The company has used titanium as an optional casing material in recent Apple Watch models, and the physical Apple Card is made of titanium, but the latest iPhones and iPads are made of stainless steel and/or aluminum.

Apple is planning to hold multiple product events in September, rather than its strategy from last year to break up its fall product launches into three separate events split across September, October, and November, according to sources who spoke to DigiTimes.

In a new paywalled report today, the publication states that Apple will "host a series of product launch conferences in September," with a highlight of one of the events being the ninth generation baseline iPad.

Apple has multiple new products in store for release this fall, ranging from the iPhone 13, Apple Watch Series 7, third-generation AirPods, an updated iPad mini, a new baseline iPad, and of course, the highly anticipated redesigned 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

Last fall, Apple released a similar lineup of products, and due to the global health crisis, all of the company's events since have been digitally rather than in-person. The digital form of the events has allowed Apple to more carefully plan out the releases of its products, given in-person events are more expensive and challenging to plan.

Apple's first fall event in 2020 was on September 15, where Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 6, Apple Watch Series SE, the eighth generation ‌iPad‌, and the redesigned iPad Air. Rumors at the time were conflicted on whether the flagship iPhones, which have historically been released in September, would be announced at the event.

Apple decided to instead dedicate its entire September event to the Apple Watch, its impact on users' health, and the ‌iPad‌. The ‌iPhone‌ 12 series, alongside the HomePod mini, were announced at the company's second event less than a month later, on October 13. Less than a month following that event, Apple held its Apple silicon-focused event on November 10.

The scenario ‌DigiTimes‌ is reporting, where Apple will hold multiple events in a single month is not entirely impossible, but may be unlikely. By having multiple events spread out across various months, Apple is better equipped to ensure that every new device gets highlighted thoroughly and adequately.

Alternatively, Apple may be taking into consideration the back-to-school season, where the majority of students will return to either digital or in-person learning in September. Some upcoming products, such as the baseline ‌iPad‌, updated ‌iPad mini‌, and the redesigned MacBook Pros, may be popular with students, and Apple may feel it wants to target some of its new products to students going back to school.

Additionally, today's report from ‌DigiTimes‌ lines up with a previous report by the publication, stating the redesigned 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros would be released in September. The laptops just recently entered mass production.

While not explicitly stating the timeframe of Apple's events this fall, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has reported that Apple will not release all of its new products in a single event but instead split them into multiple online events.

In a long and extensive interview with the Australian Financial Review, Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed many topics, from Apple's core values on privacy, the importance of user trust, his morning routine, App Store regulation, and more.

The interview, conducted in July, is in celebration of the Financial Review's 70th anniversary. Cook begins the interview by sharing his morning routine, noting he likes to read emails from customers as it helps him keep a "pulse on what customers are feeling."

Tim Cook likes to begin his days early; he's at his desk by 4am. "I do that because I can control the morning better than the evening and through the day. Things happen through the day that kind of blow you off course," he tells The Australian Financial Review. "The morning is yours. Or should I say, the early morning is yours."

The morning routine of the man at the helm of the world's most valuable company? Reading emails from customers. Cook estimates he gets through hundreds a day. "I cannot read all of them, no. I'd not admit to doing that. But I read an extraordinary number of them. It keeps my hands on the pulse of what customers are feeling and thinking and doing"

Speaking about the Apple Watch, which since its introduction in 2015 has gained new health monitoring and tracking capabilities, Cook said emails from customers on how the device has changed, or in many cases saved their life, "really mean something" to Apple. Cook notes that his company wants to create products that "enrich people's lives, and there's no better example of that than saving someone's."

Talking about artificial intelligence, Cook notes that Apple already utilizes AI in features on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch but believes that AI is just getting started in terms of on its impact on our lives. Cook also commented on augmented reality, calling it a way to "amplify the value of technology with people, without enclosing or shutting off the real world."

He's excited about artificial intelligence, which is already "all over the current iPhone, iPad and the watch et cetera" but "we're only at the early stages of what can be done". AI will take away some of the mundane things we do every day, he says, and free up our time so we can do more of what we love."

He goes on: “I'm a huge believer in augmented reality. It can enhance our conversations that we're having, and enhance learning and really amplify the value of technology with people, without it enclosing or shutting off the real world.”

Apple is widely rumored to be working on augmented reality glasses, and the company has stepped up its efforts in recent years on building outs its AR platform. Learn more about Apple's future augmented reality plans using our comprehensive guide.

With the emergence of AI and AR becoming more mainstream in the future, Cook spoke to concerns over how technology can be utilized for harm rather than to benefit people's lives. Cook said he believes that technology's impact on society is not based on the technology itself but on how its creators and users take advantage of it.

"Technology doesn't want to be good. It doesn’t want to be bad, it's neutral," Cook says when asked about the potential downsides from tech as we move towards the middle of this century. "And so it's in the hands of the inventor and the user as to whether it's used for good, or not used for good. And it depends on creativity. It depends on empathy. It depends on the passion of the people behind the technology. At Apple, when we make something, we make sure that we spend an enormous amount of time thinking carefully about how it will be used."

As is customary for any ‌Tim Cook‌ interview, the executive also touched on privacy and its role as a core value for Apple. It's worth mentioning that the interview was conducted in July, before Apple announced its controversial plans to scan ‌iPhone‌ users' photo libraries for CSAM or child sexual abuse material. As such, Cook's privacy and user trust comments during the interview don't address those plans.

Referencing Screen Time, a built-in feature of iOS and macOS that provides users with tools to monitor the amount of time they're spending on their device, Cook said that it was an important feature to launch, pointing out the potential risks of technology losing touch with people's lives.

Cook went on to discuss privacy as a whole, noting that the topic has become more mainstream over the last few years. Cook said that he believes people's trust in some ways has been taken advantage of and that steps need to be taken to rebuild that trust.

Does he think people's trust has been taken advantage of?

"In some cases the answer is undeniably yes. And I think it's incumbent on all of us to rebuild that trust."

"I think what's happened is that there are many more people today that view privacy as a mainstream issue," he tells the Financial Review. "Ten years ago, privacy was a niche issue. Today it's one of the primary issues in people’s minds because people know that the web has become this surveillance tool in all too many cases, and that the building of detailed profiles on people has gone well beyond any kind of reasonable thing."

In several countries, including Australia, Apple is under investigation for alleged monopolistic practices and behavior that could be considered anti-competitive. Probes, still ongoing in many cases, are likely pointing to increased regulation that would Apple and how it operates the ‌App Store‌.

Cook spoke about regulation and said it needs first to be determined where regulation is needed and where its specific focus should be. The CEO also pointed out the competition that Apple faces and said that he believes "competition is inherently good."

"Well, I think scrutiny of large companies is fair. And I start from the premise that regulation is necessary in some areas. And so it becomes a matter of determining where it's necessary and where the focus should be...In our model, the user is where the power exists because it's the user who decides when they buy a phone, are they going to buy an iPhone. Are they going to buy any number of Android phones? And so it's a fiercely competitive market. And then the market inside the App Store is also fiercely competitive ...And so there's huge competition in all areas of this.

Cook said that any form of regulation that could be implemented would need to "be justified by being great for the user," drawing the comparison between regulation and product innovations. Cook also touched on the idea of Apple's tight control of the ‌App Store‌, which has become a hot button issue for the company.

Criticism, mainly driven by game developer Epic Games, is that Apple holds a monopoly over the ‌App Store‌ and that it should instead open up its devices to allow users to download apps from platforms outside of its own. Cook said that he believes doing so would be considered a backdoor.

"It's the reality. If you put back doors in a system, anybody can use a back door. And so you have to make sure the system itself is robust and durable; otherwise you can see what happens in the security world. Every day you read about a breach, or you read about a ransomware."

In the remainder of the interview, Cook spoke about his childhood, the late Steve Jobs, and more. ‌Tim Cook‌ is being featured on the cover of the Finical Review's "Platinum 70" magazine for Friday, August 20.

Twitter says it is rolling out a number of changes to the way direct messages work, including the ability to send a direct message to several people in different conversations.

Going forward, Twitter says users will be able to share the same tweet in up to 20 separate direct message conversations, which should ensure "no more (awkward) accidental group chats when you DM a tweet to multiple people."

Twitter says this change is rolling out on iOS and web over the next few weeks, with the changes coming "soon" on Android.

Twitter is also tweaking DM timestamps for iOS users in order to reduce "timestamp clutter." Rather than having each message within a DM conversation stamped with the date and time, Messages will be grouped by day.

In addition, the Twitter iOS app is gaining a couple of user interface tweaks, including a long-press gesture to access the "add reaction" buttons (previously only accessible via a double tap, and a new down-arrow button to return to the most recent message in a DM conversation after scrolling through.

Earlier this month, Twitter added support for Sign in With Apple, allowing new users to create an account using their Apple ID while hiding their true email address from the social network.

Apple has delayed its plan to return employees back to the office until at least January, due to concerns over an increase in COVID-19 cases and the possible emergence of new variants, Bloomberg reports.

Apple had previously planned to return to in-person work by early September, but the company delayed that timeline until October. Now, due to continued concerns, that timeframe has been further pushed back until at least January.

In a memo sent to staff, obtained by Bloomberg, the company's human resource and retail chief, Deirdre O’Brien, said that Apple is not planning to close its offices or retail stores that are currently open, but is encouraging employees to get vaccinated. Unlike other companies, Apple has yet to enforce a requirement for employees to be vaccinated.

The company told staff it would confirm the re-opening timeline one month before employees are required to return to the office. Apple had previously aimed to require all staff to return to corporate offices by early September before delaying that until October. When employees are required to return, they will be expected to work at the office at least three days a week -- Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays -- with remote work on Wednesday and Friday available.

The memo to staff, sent by human resources and retail head Deirdre O'Brien, added that the company does not currently expect to shutter its offices or retail stores. But she strongly encouraged staff to get vaccinated. The company is yet to require vaccinations or testing, though it is upping its testing program to as many as three at-home coronavirus tests per week. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the memo.

Apple's plans to return to the office have received criticism from Apple employees, who claim that the company is being insensitive to staff members who may prefer working remotely. When employees return, Apple plans to have employees in the office at least three days a week, with the remaining days working remotely.

Apple today sent out emails letting Apple Pay users know about its latest promotion, which offers $2 off any footlong sub from Subway when using ‌Apple Pay‌ and the Subway app to make the purchase.

To get the deal, customers will need to use the promo code APPLEPAY when checking out. The $2 discount is available through August 25, and it is applicable in participating U.S. restaurants only. It applies to footlong subs, but PRO and signature wraps are excluded.

The United States Federal Trade Commission today reinforced its antitrust case against Facebook by providing more detail on how the company either crushed or bought out its rivals in an attempt to get rid of competition.

The updated filing is longer than the original complaint and it offers additional evidence in favor of the FTC's argument that Facebook is a monopolist, plus it again asks the judge overseeing the case to force Facebook to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, the two social networking apps that Facebook also operates.

In the complaint, the FTC says that Facebook used an illegal "buy-or-bury" scheme to maintain its dominance in the social networking market after it failed to "develop innovative mobile features" during the transition from desktop to mobile devices. Facebook is also accused of luring developers to its platform, surveilling them for signs of success, and then burying them when they became a threat.

With no "serious competition," the FTC says that Facebook has been able to "hone a surveillance-based advertising model" that causes increasing harm to consumers.

"Facebook lacked the business acumen and technical talent to survive the transition to mobile. After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat," said Holly Vedova, FTC Bureau of Competition Acting Director. "This conduct is no less anticompetitive than if Facebook had bribed emerging app competitors not to compete. The antitrust laws were enacted to prevent precisely this type of illegal activity by monopolists. Facebook's actions have suppressed innovation and product quality improvements. And they have degraded the social network experience, subjecting users to lower levels of privacy and data protections and more intrusive ads. The FTC's action today seeks to put an end to this illegal activity and restore competition for the benefit of Americans and honest businesses alike."

According to the FTC, Facebook was unable to integrate its desktop-based technology to mobile devices, and when it was unable to fairly compete, Facebook executives addressed the threat by buying up new innovators in the space like Instagram and WhatsApp, who had "succeeded where Facebook failed."

Facebook's policies of hindering third-party developers on its Facebook Platform impacted companies like Circle and Path, and also "deprived consumers of promising and disrupting mavericks" that would have been able to force Facebook to make improvements to its own social network.

The FTC says that its amended complaint provides direct evidence that Facebook has the power to control prices, drive competitors out of business, and reduce the quality of the product delivered to consumers without losing a significant number of users.

The FTC originally filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook in December 2020, teaming up with 46 states, the District of Columbia, and the territory of Guam to accuse Facebook of maintaining an illegal social networking monopoly.

Major features like SharePlay, Safari updates, Photos changes, and more have received most of the attention when it comes to iOS 15 coverage, but there are some notable new translation-related features that are being introduced in the update.

System-wide translation, Live Text translation, and other new options add useful new functionality to the iPhone. This guide highlights everything that's new with the Translate app and the translation features in iOS 15.

System-Wide Translation

Apple in iOS 14 introduced a new Translate app that can be used to translate conversations from one language to another, and also added translation features to Safari.

In iOS 15, translation capabilities are expanding further and can be used system-wide. You can select any text anywhere in iOS 15 and choose the new "Translate" option to translate it into your preferred language.

Live Text

iOS 15 adds a Live Text feature that lets your ‌iPhone‌ detect text in any image or photo on your device. You can select text in images and it works like any other text on your ‌iPhone‌.

You can copy text, paste text, and use the built-in system-wide translation feature to translate text. So if you're in another country and need to read a sign or a menu in a foreign language, you can snap a quick picture, highlight the text, and choose the translate option to see just what it says.

Live Text can be selected and translated in ‌Photos‌, screenshots, Quick Look, Safari, and even live previews with the Camera app.

Translate App

In addition to the system-wide translation feature, Apple has made several improvements to the dedicated Translate app, which is designed for communicating with someone who speaks another language.

Conversation Updates

The Translate app's conversation feature has been updated to make it easier to get into conversation mode. Just tap on the Conversation tab in landscape or portrait view, which is located at the bottom of the Translate app.

Chat bubbles have been added to the conversation mode so that it's easier to follow along with the chat.

Auto Translate

The Translate app is now able to auto translate speech without the need to tap on the microphone button when in conversation mode.

It automatically detects when you start speaking and when you stop, so the other person can just respond without the need for interacting with the ‌iPhone‌.

• iOS 15: How to Turn on Auto-Translate in the Translate App

Face to Face View

The conversation view has a face to face option so that each person participating in the conversation through the Translate app can see their own side of the chat.

Language Selection Improvements

Apple has made it easier to select languages through drop-down menus.

Guide Feedback

Have questions about the updated Translate app features in iOS 15, know of a feature we left out, or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

Apple supplier Foxconn is making a major push into electric vehicle manufacturing and has long been aiming to get into the vehicle market, according to a new profile of Foxconn's car ambitions that was shared by Nikkei.

"If we can make iPhones, why can't we make EVs?" Foxconn founder and former chairman Terry Gou said in an internal meeting. "It is an iPhone with four wheels."

Foxconn has been pursuing electric vehicles since 2014 when there was an "A-Fu Initiative" to build an electric vehicle prototype. That project ultimately folded because of the complexity of creating a car, but Foxconn is once again building up a vehicle supply chain with plans to get into EV manufacturing.

Gou's successor Young Liu is aiming to have Foxconn designs, components, and mechanical parts or software inside five percent of electric vehicles by 2025, and Foxconn is building factories in the U.S. and Thailand for car assembly.

Apple too is making inroads into car manufacturing with its long running "Project Titan," and though the project has evolved and shifted over the years, rumors suggest that Apple is working on creating a full electric vehicle that could come out by 2028.

Foxconn subsidiaries already supply parts to companies like Tesla and BMW, and Foxconn has signed vehicle supply deals with Fiat and Chrysler owner Stellantis and is working with Geely to develop software platforms and whole vehicles. It is also planning to manufacture vehicles for Fisker.

As Foxconn is already a major Apple supplier, Foxconn could play a key role in Apple's future vehicle plans. According to Nikkei, Foxconn is assumed to be a candidate to produce Apple Cars.

Rumors have suggested that Apple is pursuing manufacturing partners and talking with multiple companies at the current time, though there's no concrete word yet on the companies that Apple will end up working with for the Apple Car.

Apple has temporarily shut down its retail store located in Charleston, South Carolina after more than 20 staff members were exposed to or tested positive for COVID-19, reports Bloomberg.

According to the website for the store, it will be shuttered until Monday, August 23. According to Bloomberg, stores of this size typically have 70 to 80 employees, so around a quarter of the staff may have been exposed.

Apple appears to be suffering from staff shortages at the Charleston store and other retail locations, both because of COVID exposures and the difficult labor market. Stores remain operational at this time, but some have been forced to close earlier and open later because of a lack of staff.

Continuing issues with the delta variant of COVID-19 have impacted Apple's store plans. Apple stopped requiring customers and employees to wear masks back in June, but then reinstated mask mandates at many retail locations in the United States in late July. So far though, Apple has not reinstated widespread store shutdowns.

Apple had also planned to bring back in-person Today at Apple classes on August 30, but has since pushed back those plans because of the prevalence of the delta variant.

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