Month: March 2019

Apple is ‘racing’ to get HBO and Showtime added to its soon to be announced streaming service

CompuScoop Staff March 13, 2019 0

Apple Inc. “will host A-list celebrities and media executives on March 25 to outline how it will take on competitors like Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc.,” Lucas Shaw, Mark Gurman, and Julie Verhage report for Bloomberg. “Apple plans to unveil a long-awaited streaming service and magazine subscription bundle, and could use the event in Cupertino, California, to preview additional Apple Pay features, laying the groundwork for an iPhone credit-card partnership with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.”

“But before the curtain goes up, Apple needs to complete deals. The company is racing to secure movies and TV shows to offer alongside its own original videos and is offering concessions to get deals done by a Friday deadline, according to people familiar with the matter,” Shaw, Gurman, and Verhage report. “Pay-TV programmers such as HBO, Showtime and Starz have to decide whether Apple is an existential threat, as some now view Netflix, a potential partner or something in between.”

“he upcoming video service, which will likely be integrated into the iPhone, iPad and set-top box’s TV app, will include two new features: shows funded, bought or developed by Apple, and programming from outside media companies,” Shaw, Gurman, and Verhage report. “At launch, most of the shows and movies in Apple’s video service will be from outside suppliers, underscoring the importance of signing up partners. Most of Apple’s own movies and TV shows are still in development, according to the people, with the company planning the first slew of releases later in the year at the earliest.”

Read more in the full article here.

Thousands of ICE Employees can access license plate reader data emails show

CompuScoop Staff March 13, 2019 0

Immigration and Customs Enforcement allows thousands of employees to access a controversial license plate database with questionable legal safeguards in place to prevent abuse, the American Civil Liberties Union said today as it published thousands of pages of agency documents.

The documents, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and include emails as well as internal ICE policies, detail the agency’s access to a massive private database that civil liberties advocates have criticized as unduly invasive. The database, run by a company called Vigilant Solutions, allows law enforcement to track cars against previously compiled license plate data, giving police a way to closely monitor the movement of vehicles.

In emails obtained by the ACLU, ICE was told that law enforcement could expect access to billions of license plate scans, with hundreds of millions more added each month. A law enforcement data-sharing process makes the system “as easy as adding a friend on your favorite social media platform,” according to the emails.

More than 9,200 ICE employees have access to the database, according to an email from last year, but there were scant privacy safeguards in place, the ACLU said. The agency is provided access to up to five years of driver information, which the group describes as “both a significant invasion of privacy and entirely unnecessary to find someone’s current location.”

According to a report published in the documents, more than 80 local law enforcement agencies share license plate information with ICE. Those cities, the ACLU notes, include sanctuary cities like Union City, California. The documents also showed a close relationship between ICE and local authorities, with one California detective informally sharing information with ICE.

ICE’s use of the license plate database was first revealed in early 2018, and it quickly set off privacy concerns. As ICE, under the Trump administration, expands how far it will go to deport immigrants, the database provides a powerful tool to track people around the country. An ICE spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vasudha Talla, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Northern California, said in a statement that the practice was “appalling” and that “local law enforcement agencies must immediately stop sharing their residents’ information with this rogue and immoral agency.”

Via: TheVerge.com

Climate Change Skeptic’s App Removed from Apple App Store – Read possible reason why

CompuScoop Staff March 13, 2019 0

Geologist Gregory Wrightstone has accused Apple, Inc., of removing his app from the Apple Store for political purposes, saying the company won't allow views on climate change that run counter to those of global-warming activist Al Gore, who sits on Apple's board.

What are the details?

Wrightstone wrote a book called "Inconvenient Facts: The Science That Al Gore Doesn't Want You to Know," which challenges many of the catastrophic claims made in Gore's documentaries, "An Inconvenient Truth" and "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power."

Glenn Beck hosted the author on his show, Feb. 13, where Wrightstone discussed the information in his book, which was used to create an app made available for purchase by Apple on Feb. 3.

But just a month later, on March 4, Apple removed the "Inconvenient Facts" app from its store, despite it being downloaded several thousand times. (It is still available for Android users through the Google Play Store and has been downloaded roughly 13,000 times as of this writing.)

On Wednesday, Wrightstone wrote in PA Townhall that "it appears that Apple has chosen to weaponize its control over purchasing apps to stifle science that doesn't conform to its politically correct notions."

The geologist said, "The app contains more than 70 useful science-based charts and diagrams derived from well-respected sources such as NASA, NOAA or peer-reviewed studies. The information is a powerful tool that counters the 'consensus' of catastrophic man-made warming using science, facts and data."

Gore has made tackling man-made global warming his mission since leaving office, and Wrightstone points to Gore's position on Apple's board of directorsas one reason for why he believes his app is being censured by the company.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Apple News Magazine Service details revealed by latest MacOS Beta

CompuScoop Staff March 12, 2019 0

Apple News’ magazine subscription service looks like it will be available on iOS and macOS when it’s unveiled later this month.

After digging into the latest macOS 10.14.4 beta, developer Steve Troughton-Smith found some new references that confirm the magazine subscription service is on the way. Even better, Apple’s code provides some new details about it that we didn’t know.

Steve Troughton-Smith tweeted some images that show macOS will notify subscribers when new magazine issues are available. Previous iOS 12.2 betas revealed similar notifications on iPhone and iPad. It also looks like Apple News’ magazine service will have seven sections or tabs: Following, For You, History, Magazines, My Magazines, Saved and Subscription.

Via: Cult of Mac