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.

Variety:

Apple TV Plus is making a number of its original television series, kids shows and one documentary available for free as millions of families are cooped up indoors due to coronavirus-induced prevention measures. The streaming platform joins HBO, AMC and others in offering free content during the pandemic.

The following programs are currently available to watch without an Apple TV Plus subscription: Wildlife documentary “The Elephant Queen,” “Little America,” “Servant,” “For All Mankind,” “Dickinson,” “Helpsters, “Ghostwriter,” and “Snoopy in Space.”

Those in the U.S. can watch these Apple TV Plus originals for free starting Thursday evening, while users across 100 countries and regions will have access to them starting Friday through the Apple TV app.

If you haven’t watched any Apple TV+ content, this is a good sampler of what’s on offer. Shame they didn’t include “The Morning Show” though.

Hodinkee:

As of WatchOS 6, which was introduced last September, there is a new Solar watch face. This one is simply called the Solar Dial, and it is a remarkably charming thing. It has been described as a miniature sundial for the wrist, but it is rather more like having a sundial and the Sun itself on your wrist, both at the same time.

The Solar Dial consists of a 24-hour dial with 12 (noon) at the top and 24 (midnight) at the bottom. An hour hand moves once around the dial per day, and attached to the hour hand is miniature representation of the Sun. The portion of the dial that’s in light blue represents the number of daylight hours, and the portion in dark blue, night; the boundaries between each section mark sunrise and sunset. Opposite the Sun on the 24-hour hand is a smaller dial which shows the hours and minutes, in either an analog or digital format.

I love Hodinkee’s obsessiveness with watches. The article also includes an interesting discussion of the different Twilights – not the YA novels but of sunrise and sunsets.

AppleInsider:

Following many suggestions that Apple is bringing sleep tracking to the Apple Watch, the company appears poised to further delve into its Beddit purchase and develop bedding and blankets to monitor vital signs.

Apple’s proposed solution, then, is effectively to have bedding that tracks the sleep of anyone lying on or under it. This appears to be an extension of Beddit’s system, which saw a strip of material being placed under bedsheets and relaying data to an iPhone.

This extended version appears to suggest that instead of one short strip positioned under one part of a sleeping person’s body, at least a larger portion of the bed would become a sensor.

To be clear, this is a patent application only. This is not a product Apple has announced or even will announce. All the stories written about it are speculation based on the patent application.

But what if?

Would Apple get into the mattress business? Unlikely. But they might get into the mattress pad business. This makes more sense as a sleep tracker for many people than an Apple Watch. For example, I can’t wear my Apple Watch while I sleep but I do have an electric mattress pad for warmth on those cold Canadian winter nights.

And contrary to other reports, it’s unlikely to be a “sheet set” – those are too personal and “individualistic,” as anyone who has gone shopping for sheets with a significant other knows fully well.

I think the odds of this ever becoming a shipping product are next to nil but it’s an interesting idea to entertain.

Jelle Prins:

Many governments are looking at Singapore where apps are playing a crucial role in finding contacts who may have been infected. This enables infected people to be isolated early, before they potentially infect many others.

Numerous initiatives have already sprung up to develop apps to anonymously track who you have been in contact with.

Apple and Google have a lot of experience with keeping sensitive data secure, likely far more experience than many individual developers or even governments have. We would even go so far as to highly recommend both Google and Apple make this an open-source project.

The question is: Will Tim Cook & Sundar Pichai get this done?

First of all, no, they can’t. And secondly, would you want them to by this method?

Gizmodo:

Star Trek. It’s one of the most quintessential pieces of science-fiction television around. And there’s a whole damn lot of it, even if you cut it down to the current eight different shows in the franchise (there’s even more on the way!). Want to start, but need a little guidance? We’ve beamed up to help you.

Just for the fun of it (or if you’ve got a 14 year old home to entertain), this is not a bad list to go through.

Sophos:

In this latest round of research, we found more than 30 apps we consider fleeceware in Apple’s official App Store.

Many of these apps charge subscription rates like $30 per month or $9 per week after a 3- or 7-day trial period. If someone kept paying that subscription for a year, it would cost $360 or $468, respectively. For an app.

Like we have seen before, most of these fleeceware apps are image editors, horoscope/fortune telling/palm readers, QR code/barcode scanners, and face filter apps for adding silly tweaks to selfies.

My 14-year-old is constantly asking for apps in this category. Thank God for the App Store Family Plan that allows me to approve or deny his downloads.

The Guardian:

Disney’s new streaming service has almost doubled its global subscriber numbers to 50 million since the coronavirus outbreak took hold in February, as lockdown conditions prove a boon for streaming services.

Disney+, which launched in the UK and most major western European markets last month, with hits including the Star Wars spinoff The Mandalorian, has signed up 50 million subscribers just five months after launch.

It took its rival Netflix, which has more than 160 million subscribers, seven years to reach the same milestone after moving from DVD rental by post to streaming in 2007.

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.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is organizing a company-wide virtual meeting for later this month to allow employees to ask questions of the executive team led by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook.

The company sent a note to employees advising them of the plan on Wednesday in the U.S., which Bloomberg News has reviewed. It asked that questions be submitted by end of day on Saturday and also encouraged workers to share their experiences of working through the disruption to daily life that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about. The specific date of the meeting has not yet been disclosed.

Among its measures to smooth out work and life disruptions brought on by the novel coronavirus, Apple has put a particular focus on helping parents cope. The company is “working on options to make sure parents have the support and the flexibility to adjust their schedules as needed,” according to a note to employees from Senior Vice President of Retail and People Deirdre O’Brien.

Apple is in the same position as much of Corporate America – just trying to figure out how to keep a company running in the face of a worldwide pandemic.

MacStories:

Watchsmith, the latest app from David Smith, was birthed from the inability to create third-party watch faces on the Apple Watch. As Smith has previously explained, while third-party faces may never be possible, several first-party faces already offer significant room for customization. The Infograph face, for example, contains eight different complication slots; if a rich array of third-party complications were available, you could build a highly customized watch face using the existing faces provided by Apple.

Watchsmith exists to provide that rich set of complications. The app offers 37 types of complications, each adaptable to different watch faces and complication slots, and all fully customizable so they can look exactly the way you prefer. Additionally, Watchsmith offers scheduling functionality to cause different complications to appear on your Watch at different times throughout the day.

This is a clever hack to get around Apple’s prohibition on third-party complications.

MacRumors:

HBO today announced that its HBO GO and HBO NOW streaming services will no longer be available on second-generation and third-generation Apple TV models starting April 30, 2020.

HBO says this change is being made “in order to provide the best streaming experience.”

I hate that kind of weaselly PR speak. If you are affected by this, there are some options still available to you such as using AirPlay or an HDMI cable to connect.