MarketWatch:

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s enlisting advisers from nearly all sectors of American commerce, the medical field and elected office to help shape his plans to reopen the coronavirus-battered economy.

The panel of advisers, whom Trump said he will consult by phone, will operate separately from the White House task force that’s leading the administration’s public health strategy to contain and mitigate the pandemic, though there is expected to be some overlap.

The panel, which the White House has dubbed the Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups, includes more than 50 executives and leaders from agricultural, defense and financial service industries, as well as leaders from unions, professional sports, think tanks and more.

These kinds of panels are often just for show but for Apple CEO Cook, they are also fraught with implications, political and otherwise.

Macworld:

About a month ago, Apple unveiled the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro when it introduced the new iPad Pro. It wasn’t ready to for order at that time, but Apple announced on Tuesday that they are now taking orders for the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro.

The Magic Keyboard is very different from the Smart Folio Keyboard ($179, $199) that Apple sells. It has a built-in trackpad, full-sized backlit keys that use a butterfly mechanism, and its cantilever design allows the iPad Pro to “float” in front of you and is adjustable. The Smart Folio Keyboard has no trackpad, smaller keys, and has a slot for the iPad Pro with only two viewing angles. Both keyboards fold into a case for the iPad Pro.

Along with the new iPhones, Apple has finally started orders for this keyboard. It will be interesting to see what reviewers think of it.

Motherboard:

Giulio Zompetti, a 27-year-old from Northern Italy, told Motherboard that he purchased half a dozen early prototypes of Apple Watch recently, and is planning to fix them and sell them for thousands of dollars. Zompetti declined to say where exactly he purchased the devices from, but said they come from e-waste facilities. The prototypes he obtained are all broken, but key components are still intact, making it possible to repair them, he said.

Lots of pictures in the linked article.

MacKungFu:

If you open an app you normally use with AirPods, your iPhone or iPad will automatically connect to your AirPods if they’re in your ears – essentially, “stealing” them from whatever they’re currently connected to (for example, your Mac). No need to manually select and connect to them!

This process requires a bit of Shortcuts work. But the steps are very well laid out. A fun project, if you’ve got some time on your hands.

Try as I might, I have not been able to unlock my iPhone with a mask on. Makes sense. With a mask on, my nose is gone, my beard is gone. My own family couldn’t recognize me.

If you have this same experience, give this training process a try, see if it works for you.

Mark Gurman:

Apple Inc. and Google addressed questions about their upcoming Covid-19 smartphone contact-tracing solution on Monday, providing details about a partnership that has raised concerns among some privacy and cybersecurity experts.

One specific concern that was making waves was that of a bad actor seeding false positives. For example, imagine someone putting a device out there that made contact with your iPhone, then reporting it had tested positive, marking you as having had contact with someone who was infected. Much room for malevolent mischief here.

The companies said the tool will require users to verify positive diagnoses before putting that information into the system. Test results will be checked by public health agencies that are building mobile apps that will work with the contact-tracing technology, Apple and Google added. They also defended the privacy of the system, reiterating that users’ names and locations would not be shared or stored.

So far, so good. If the tests are accurate, this should be a good solution.

Enter CNN, with this article, titled Prominent scientists have bad news for the White House about coronavirus antibody tests:

First, the US Food and Drug Administration relaxed its rules, and now companies can sell antibody tests without submitting validation data that shows they actually work.

The American Public Health Lab Association says that has resulted in “crappy” tests flooding the market.

And:

There has been concern that some of the tests might confuse the coronavirus causing the current pandemic with one of several coronaviruses that cause the common cold.

“Lots of tests confuse the two,” Relman said.

Whether these third party tests are used as part of the verification process for Apple/Google contact tracing or not, need this fixed ASAP.

Greg Kumparak, TechCrunch:

Google says it is temporarily lowering the video quality of Nest Cams in an effort to limit how much bandwidth each camera uses and, in turn, “conserve internet resources.” The adjustment is rolling out over the next few days, and Google says anyone who has their quality settings adjusted will get a notification in the Nest app.

More streaming, more Zoom/Skype/FaceTime, no question we’re using more internet in my house in corona time.

Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube have each taken steps to limit the strain they might be adding to the network, while Sony has been capping PlayStation game download speeds.

Interesting times. Imagine if we had to go through this without the internet.

New York Times:

It began life as a tiny emblem, something to adorn a 45 r.p.m. single or the band’s letterhead. It quickly became ubiquitous and, ultimately, the most famous logo in rock ’n’ roll. Over 50 years, the legendary “tongue and lips” of the Rolling Stones has been emblazoned on everything from T-shirts and lighters to stage sets, appearing in countless variations throughout the decades. And while many who love it are fans of the band, the logo has in many ways transcended the Stones. But when it was commissioned in April 1970 its designer, John Pasche, had little idea how popular — and lucrative — it would become.

While I’m not a huge Rolling Stones fan, that logo turned out to be brilliant and unmistakably theirs.

ZDNET:

Zoom’s explosive surge in popularity, however, has created security ramifications. You could almost feel sorry for the company — with its unexpected growth, the spotlight has also been shone on Zoom’s security practices, some of which have fallen short of modern expectations.

Google, SpaceX, the New York City Department of Education, the Taiwanese, Australian, and German governments, to name but a few agencies, have banned employees from using the software until Zoom’s security posture improves.

We’ve covered the basics and some useful tips for experienced users in a guide. To maintain the security of your next meeting, our recommendations are here.

If your IT department or your employer is forcing you to use Zoom, shame on them. But here are some tips to make it as secure as possible.

Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac:

Unlike all other versions of the HomePod Software, 13.4 is derived from tvOS, and no longer the original iOS that iPhone and iPad runs. As we said, this doesn’t affect how you use your HomePod since they all run with the same base system, but it makes us think about what Apple is working on for the future of HomePod.

And:

iOS is designed to work on devices that rely on an internal battery, which means that the way iOS manages power consumption is different from how tvOS does it. Apple TV is always plugged in, and so is the HomePod.

And:

Both Apple TV and HomePod also operate as a home hub for HomeKit, since they’re devices that are always connected at home.

As is, my HomePod and Apple TV do not connect at all. If I ask HomePod Siri to turn on my Apple TV, I jump into a rabbit hole of HomePod trying to run a shortcut, but ultimately failing.

I’m wondering if this path will allow HomePod Siri to act as a hands-free Apple TV remote, with all the power of my iPhone’s Remote app.

And, perhaps, HomePod Siri would know all the shows, Apple TV+, Netflix, Prime Video, etc., give me the power to ask questions, such as, “When is the next episode of The Morning Show” going to drop?” As is, I get, “I can’t get info about TV shows on HomePod. Sorry about that.”

I would welcome these sorts of changes.

If you know someone considering a tablet purchase, this is a good resource to slide their way.

It makes a reasonably easy-to-understand case for the iPad as best-in-class. But it also talks through the differences between all the current models.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. responded to Democratic Senators who sent a letter to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook with questions related to the privacy of the iPhone maker’s Covid-19 screening tools.

From the letter Apple sent in response:

Consistent with Apple’s strong dedication to user privacy, the COVID-19 app and website were built to protect the privacy and security of users’ data. As you note, use of the tools do not require a sign-in or association with a user’s Apple ID, and users’ individual responses are not sent to Apple or any government organization. Access to important information and guidance regarding individual health or the health of a loved one should not require individuals to compromise their privacy rights. Rather, it is in times like these, that our commitment to protecting those rights is most important. Our COVID-19 app and website were designed with that in mind. We appreciate the opportunity to provide the Senators with more information about the COVID-19 app and website.

The letter goes into a fair amount of detail, solid answers to solid questions. Worth taking the time to read.

I found question 2, and the response, to be especially interesting:

Are the Apple screening site and app governed under the terms of the HIPAA? If not, please explain why.

In a nutshell, the response:

Neither the site nor app are covered by HIPAA. Notwithstanding, we have applied strong privacy and security protections to the app and the website, including designing both tools to meet some of the technical safeguard requirements of HIPAA, such as access controls and transmission security.

And for Google folks, The Verge has a well written post that includes some detail on Google’s approach.

As a reminder, here’s a link to a comic about COVID-19 contact tracing that helped me wrap my head around the basic concepts.

BBC News:

The BBC has learned that NHSX – the health service’s digital innovation unit – will test a pre-release version of the software with families at a secure location in the North of England next week.

And:

People who have self-diagnosed as having coronavirus will be able to declare their status in the app.

The software will then send the equivalent of a yellow alert to any other users who they have recently been close to for an extended period of time.

If a medical test confirms that the original user is indeed infected, then a stronger warning – effectively a red alert – will be sent instead, signalling that the other users should go into quarantine.

There’s been a lot of pushback on the idea of embedding contact tracing in your smartphone. At least some of this pushback seems based on faulty assumptions.

While this is not the actual Apple/Google API, this comic about COVID-19 contact tracing does a great job of laying out the mechanics. I think this is worth reading before you make any assumptions about contact tracing and privacy.

Jason Cipriani, CNET:

Being able to control your tablet without touching the display brings the iPad closer to working as a laptop, and in turn, makes it easier to get more work done.

And:

However, not all trackpads or mice are created equal. There’s a big difference in overall experience when using Apple’s first Magic Trackpad or its newer Magic Trackpad 2, which we’ll cover more in-depth below.

Really nice collection of animations, very useful.

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

Apple has launched a portal for hospitals, healthcare providers and businesses to register as a COVID-19 testing location. Apple will review the application and when approved, the location will start appearing on Apple Maps.

The testing locations will appear with a red medical glyph icon, and a special banner in the Apple Maps card.

This will become very important as we start easing lockdown restrictions. I can imagine situations where an all-clear is required before you are allowed into densely populated areas. This is an incredibly complex problem to solve.

Will we reach a point where our iPhone broadcasts our COVID-19 status to allow us back into work, or into, say, a sporting event? Privacy concerns abound. Surreal times.

Fast Company:

Killing Eve, the hit BBC thriller series, returns for a third season on Sunday, April 12, and you know what that means: More soaring shots of Villanelle (Jodie Comer) strutting through gorgeous European locales in amazing outfits with a vintage 1960’s biker girl soundtrack.

It also, of course, means more of the tainted love between absurdly lethal assassin Villanelle and former MI6 agent Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh.) Theirs is the central dynamic at play in the show, and it is more fraught than any other relationship currently on TV.

Before diving back in on Sunday night, here are three things to know before catching up.

This show is another Phoebe Waller-Bridge creation and it’s brilliant.

The Guardian:

It was one of 2019’s hottest theatre shows, returning Phoebe Waller-Bridge to the stage in her most famous role and swiftly selling out in London’s West End. Now, the triumphant live production of Fleabag at Wyndham’s theatre – which has already been broadcast to cinemas by NT Live – is being streamed online to raise money for those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

All proceeds will go towards charities including the National Emergencies Trust, NHS Charities Together and Acting for Others, which provides support to all theatre workers in times of need. There will also be a special Fleabag Support Fund, which will distribute grants of £2,500 to freelancers working in the UK theatre industry.

Fleabag is available to stream from today in the UK and Ireland on Soho theatre’s On Demand site. From 10 April it will be available for a two-week period in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, as well as on Amazon Prime Video in the US and UK.

If you’re a fan of the brilliant TV series, then you’ll really enjoy this emotional roller coaster that honestly had more punch than the series for me.

New York Times:

After 40 years, Yankovic is now no longer a novelty, but an institution — a garish bright patch in the middle of America’s pop-cultural wallpaper, a completely ridiculous national treasure, an absurd living legend.

I have spent much of my life chortling, alone in tiny rooms, to Weird Al’s music.

Weird Al has now been releasing song parodies for seven presidential administrations. He has outlasted two popes and five Supreme Court justices. He is one of only five artists (along with his early muses, Michael Jackson and Madonna) to have had a Top 40 single in each of the last four decades. Yankovic has turned out to be one of America’s great renewable resources.

I’ve honestly never gotten the appeal of Weird Al. While I admire his longevity and ingenuity, his music has never done anything for me.

TechCrunch:

Apple and Google’s engineering teams have banded together to create a decentralized contact tracing tool that will help individuals determine whether they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

Contact tracing is a useful tool that helps public health authorities track the spread of the disease and inform the potentially exposed so that they can get tested. It does this by identifying and “following up with” people who have come into contact with a COVID-19-affected person.

The system uses on-board radios on your device to transmit an anonymous ID over short ranges — using Bluetooth beaconing. Servers relay your last 14 days of rotating IDs to other devices, which search for a match. A match is determined based on a threshold of time spent and distance maintained between two devices.

If a match is found with another user that has told the system that they have tested positive, you are notified and can take steps to be tested and to self-quarantine.

Even though it’s opt-in, I predict that when this comes online in May, it will be a controversial move.

AppleInsider:

Aptly dubbed “30 Creative Activities for Kids,” the program is designed to foster and support at-home learning for children ages 4 through 8 years old, or pre-kindergarten to second grade.

Apple relies on iPad’s — or iPhone’s — built-in technologies to guide kids through a series of challenges like capturing a time-lapse video, creating a comic strip, making cards and more. Along with projects that yield tangible results are esoteric thinking puzzles, like writing sentences and phrases using emoji characters.

Many activities tap into iPad’s camera and first-party apps. For example, Apple suggests making a simple storybook by adding photos and video to a template in Pages, writing captions and decorating each page with drawings.

If you have young children and are having trouble keeping them occupied, this might help.

NASA:

Enter NeMO-Net, a video game in which players identify and classify corals using these 3D images while virtually traveling the ocean on their own research vessel, the Nautilus. Principal investigator Ved Chirayath at Ames developed the neural network behind the game, also called NeMO-Net, or the Neural Multi-Modal Observation and Training Network, which will use player input to build a global coral map.

“NeMO-Net leverages the most powerful force on this planet: not a fancy camera or a supercomputer, but people,” said Chirayath. “Anyone, even a first grader, can play this game and sort through these data to help us map one of the most beautiful forms of life we know of.”

On each “dive,” players interact with real NASA data, learning about the different kinds of corals that lie on the shallow ocean floor while highlighting where they appear in the imagery. Aboard their virtual research vessel, players will be able to track their progress, earn badges, read through the game’s field guide, and access educational videos about life on the sea floor.

My wife is Australian so coral is near and dear to her heart. It’s a simplistic looking game but the data it delivers is important.

CNBC:

A new app from Stanford Medicine built with Apple’s help will help connect firefighters, police officers and paramedics in California to drive-through COVID-19 testing if they are showing symptoms of the coronavirus.

Here’s how it works: Users take a survey with questions about their symptoms. If they have symptoms suggesting COVID-19 infection, the app recommends testing. First responders can take that result to the contact at their workplace in charge of health, referred to as a “department infection control officer” inside the app, and get scheduled for priority testing at a Stanford Health Care site.

Every expert says we need more testing. This will help.