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Disney’s Netflix rival doubles subscriptions in Covid-19 lockdown

It’s interesting to see how much of the media is treating these numbers as just a horse race without acknowledging the huge advantage Disney has over Netflix, Apple TV+ and other services – a massive, well known and much loved back catalog. A cheap price point doesn’t hurt either.

Apple schedules Q2 2020 earnings call for April 30

Apple announced back in February it wouldn’t make its Q2 earnings range due to the coronavirus pandemic but this has been a brutal quarter for Apple and the numbers to be announced will reflect that.

Will Apple kill off Beats or not?

I find these kinds of stories interesting, if a little “inside baseball,” for a lot of people. One source is suspect and offers nothing but opinion. The other uses the old trope of “sources have told us…” One of these stories must be wrong. But, who cares? For arguments’ sake, what do you think?

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Watch 75 SXSW short films online right now for free

Personally, I’m all in favour of SXSW being canceled but it does hurt the indie filmmakers. If you’ve got the time (and who doesn’t now?), you might find a few cinematic gems in here.

Imagination Library bedtime stories with Dolly Parton

So many kids think of Dolly Parton as “The Book Lady” but she is so much more. But right now, I bet a lot of kids would love to have her read them bedtimes stories. Hell, I’ll watch it too because I love that book and I love the sound of Dolly’s voice.

Emma and the search for the key to the secret box

Read this thread for the most wonderful, sweetest, joyful story you’re likely to read today. In these times, we need and love stories even more. This is the story of a little girl and a father’s love and his joy at helping her explore.

Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted, despite misleading marketing

“Everyone” is using Zoom but no one should trust Zoom. They have shown over and over again they don’t care about user security or privacy and will only “do what’s right” when caught and forced to amend their actions.

This is an area Apple could have absolutely owned with FaceTime and Group FaceTime. But it’s yet another example of Apple creating cool tech and then letting it fall by the wayside.

Dark Sky has a new home

Their iOS weather app was always one of the best and most accurate ones I used when I lived in the US. I hope Apple treats it right.

How I lost control of our bank accounts to a phone scammer

What an awful story but I’m glad Griffiths wrote it up. I saw his tweets yesterday and I wondered what was going on. This is a great reminder that any of us can be scammed, no matter how technically proficient or “smart” we think we are.