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Apple’s new policy includes tracking your calls and emails

Apple’s new policy raises security concerns.

Apple has had a busy few weeks with the release of a ton of new products. The iPhone XS, XS Max, XR and the Apple Watch 4 were all rolled out at the same time and have a lot of cool features, taking technology and innovation to a whole new level. It’s awesome that we are able to do things like ask Siri what the weather will be like on the iPhones, track our heart rate on the Apple Watch 4, and process transactions with Apple Pay.

But there’s one glaring problem. It’s really convenient to be able to autofill our information when shopping online, but how much of the information that we share is stored and who exactly has access to it? Are we trading our safety for convenience?

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Apple has been drilling it into us – pretty much the entire time that they’ve been around – that they are huge on privacy. They’ve convinced us that user data and sensitive information is their number one priority. They say that most of the data stays on our mobile devices instead of being collected on their servers and can only be accessed by the passcodes that we create.

Okay, but what about outside parties? Sure, they don’t sell our private information, but some of our info does get seen. When we send out that chocolate chip cookie recipe request to Siri, it goes to Apple and no one else, but they did let advertisers check out our search history from places like the app store so they can better market something to us. This was how it worked until recently.

With iOS 12, we know more about what Apple is doing. A new addition to the iTunes Store & Privacy policy says that the number of phone calls and emails that users receive will create a “device trust score” for making purchases, and that the information will only be stored for a fixed time on Apple’s servers.

This score will be used to determine whether or not a purchase was true or if it’s a fraud. While we could understand that this information could be collected from phones, Apple says this applies to our Apple TVs as well. Apple doesn’t go into detail about what other “information on how you use your device” will be used.

Apple buys Shazam, kills ads

What changes are coming for Shazam after Apple scooped it up?

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. (Or acquire them.)

On Tuesday, Apple announced it bought Shazam, currently the number one app for song recognition. If you’re out at a restaurant or in your car and hear a song that you want to know more about, Shazam will listen to a few bars of the track and ID the song. Though the price of the purchase hasn’t been confirmed, TechCrunch figured that the cost was about $400 million.

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According to the official announcement, Shazam was one of the first apps released when the app store became a thing. It is one of the most popular, with 1 billion downloads and users accessing it over 200 million times a day. Not only can it tell you what song you’re listening to, but it can also store your song history, lets you listen to clips of the most listened to tracks around the world, and opens your selected track in Spotify, Deezer, and Apple Music. You can purchase them in the iTunes store as well.

If this wasn’t exciting enough, the best part is that Apple says Shazam will soon be completely ad-free so that we can enjoy it without interruption. As for what this means for Android users of Shazam – we’ll have to wait and see.

Snapchat uses augmented reality to team up with Amazon

Snapchat and Amazon team up for an impulse buyer’s dream.

You ever wish you could just look at something cool and then buy it within a few seconds? There’s good news for you, my impulsive friend, as Snapchat has teamed up with Amazon, allowing Snap users to scan items using their phone cameras, taking them directly to their Amazon store page.

As shown in the picture above, scanning an item in Snapchat will bring up a window for its Amazon store page, displaying its price and a few related items. The technology combines augmented reality with Amazon’s machine-based visual learning software, which analyzes shapes, colors, and logos in order to identify products. Given the gigantic variety of items available to purchase on Amazon, this kind of software is no small technological feat.

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Shopping features have been slowly added to popular social media apps for a while now, but haven’t really gained much momentum because they took too many extra steps. Snapchat and Amazon’s partnership is ingenious in that it only takes a tap or two to get to the product page, encouraging impulse buying and increasing profits. Ensuring impulse buying is especially important for Snapchat’s userbase, as its users tend to be younger and more prone to buying things en masse.

It is currently unknown what the financial details are in this partnership. Some believe that Snapchat will get referral money from Amazon when its users buy products, while others think that this may simply be a new feature that Snapchat hopes will allow it to gain new users and engage and maintain current ones.

This feature is slowly being introduced throughout the United States, and it will hit international users soon.

Waze finally arrives for Apple CarPlay

Waze finally arrives on Apple CarPlay. Here’s what you need to know.

Sure, Google Maps are nice. But do they help you know when cops are lying in wait on the highway? Nope. That’s where Waze comes in. Today, everybody’s favorite speeding ticket eliminator arrives on Apple CarPlay.

If your ride has Apple CarPlay, just use Bluetooth or a USB cable to connect your iPhone. Once you click on the Waze icon, you’ll be able to use Waze as normal.

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The screen will now show your home, work, and favorites as destinations. You can also see your full route overview and report on those road hazards and waiting police cars right on your screen.

If you need help setting up your iPhone with CarPlay, you can find the info right here.

Waze has been one of the most-requested CarPlay apps, so today’s news will be a major win for lead-footed drivers and anyone who enjoys Waze’s navigation over Apple or Google.

Identity Crisis: Is Apple a luxury brand?

Apple rolls out its most expensive phones yet. Is it leaving the average consumer behind?

Apple recently revealed a slew of new iPhones, including the iPhone XR, the iPhone XS, and the iPhone XR Max. These new options boast better performance and larger screens than their older counterparts. What is most surprising about this reveal, however, is that Apple seemingly discontinued four older versions of the iPhone without much fanfare, including the iPhone X.

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The four models no longer being sold through Apple’s website are the iPhone X, the iPhone 6S, the iPhone 6S Plus, and the iPhone SE. It’s unsurprising that the iPhone 6 line is being discontinued, as Apple usually phases out iPhone models that are over 2 years old, and the line has been replaced by both the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 8. It should, however, be noted that the iPhone 6 line featured the last models that included a headphone jack, a feature that Apple killed off, starting with the iPhone 7.

The discontinuation of the iPhone SE came as more of a shock. The SE was a popular choice for consumers, as it was a small and relatively inexpensive iPhone compared to other models. Currently, the least expensive iPhone being sold by Apple is the iPhone 7, which is $450 compared to the SE’s asking price of $350.

The discontinuation of the iPhone X came as the biggest surprise to most. It’s only been available for about a year, debuting last November. The $999 iPhone, a first for Apple, debuted to high sales and positive reception. The iPhone XS will sell for the same price and has been revealed to have slightly better specs than the X.

The axing of the affordable and popular iPhone SE and the obsolescence of the premiere iPhone X after only a year shows that Apple is shifting their focus away from the average consumer and towards the luxury market.

While Apple has always focused on the more affluent consumer base, they have always had a less expensive option that allowed the average consumer to afford one of their products. Even back when the iPod was all the rage, Apple offered the more affordable iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano. While it makes sense that Apple is phasing out older models of their products as the technology becomes less shiny and intuitive, leaving out a less expensive option alienates a huge part of their potential market reach.

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Apple’s careful shift to a luxury brand has seemingly paid off in the short term. According to Yahoo Finance, Apple’s revenue from smartphone sales last year rose 13% compared to the previous year, due almost entirely to the higher price point of its smartphone line. Despite increased short-term revenue, it’s possible that Apple’s long-term profits will suffer due to a lack of consumer trust.

As Apple quickly phases out older models and slowly increases the price of its “affordable” models, consumers will likely hold on to their phones longer instead of upgrading in fear of obsolescence. If Apple truly wants to be a luxury brand moving forward, they must be prepared to sacrifice their huge average consumer base.

Apple Music update includes Android Auto support

Apple music comes to Android Auto. Here’s what that means.

The moment many Android users have been waiting for has finally arrived.

A few days ago, Apple Music officially updated the Android version of its app for music to support Android Auto. With this, Apple Music users can now control music through their car’s infotainment system. It will allow them to use their car like the mobile app to switch songs and search through playlists. The private Apple Music beta version for Android was rolled out at the end of August, but with the new iOS 12 release, a new search function was introduced as well.

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Previously, the Apple Music app was limited to searching by song title, artist, or album on the iOS version. Now, if you are having a hard time remembering that and just have that one line from a song stuck in your head you can use the new feature ‘search by lyrics’. Just type in that line and the app pulls a number of songs from Apple’s database with that lyric and a few that are closely similar.

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Other cool features in the update include an improved design for the new artist page, ‘friends mix’ – a playlist made up select songs that your friends have been listening to, and the top 100 songs from countries all over the world.

Why iOS devices don’t have a virus problem

Why don’t you hear about iOS viruses? It’s all part of Apple’s plan.

In today’s world of massive data breaches, doxxing, and leaks, it makes sense for one to be concerned about their digital security. For iOS users, Apple has made sure that security on iOS platforms is a subject not worth talking about. The tech giant doesn’t allow actual anti-virus apps onto its App Store, simply stating that they “designed the iOS platform with security at its core.” While this may sound like a bit of bragging, it’s true and it’s been proven.

One big reason that you never see news of iPhones or iPads being hacked or virus-ridden is due to the way Apple approves and distributes its apps. Unlike Android, Apple does not allow 3rd party apps to be downloaded on iOS devices. Instead, they restrict downloads to their App Store, which allows them to curate and approve each prospective app.

There are ways to overcome this barrier, such as an Enterprise Developer Account or a jailbroken device, but for the vast majority of users, the only way to obtain apps is through the App Store. With the code of every app being scrutinized by Apple, it’s highly unlikely any malicious app would make it through their approval process.

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The other main reason security is a non-issue on iOS devices is the way apps are stored and executed within the device. iOS apps exist within their own secure environments, preventing them from interacting with or gathering data from other apps or essential iOS functions. This means that even if a malicious app somehow made it through Apple’s rigorous App Store approval process, it would not be able to steal valuable data from other apps contained in the device. This is also why dedicated antivirus apps do not exist on iOS. While there are many security apps on the App Store, none of them function as actual anti-virus software. In order for an anti-virus app to be able to work on iOS, it would need to be able to interact with and pull data from other apps, something that no app on iOS can do.

If you jailbreak your iOS device, you negate both of these security precautions and potentially put your device at risk. Though jailbreaking is significantly less popular now than it used to be (due mainly to most popular jailbroken features being included in iOS and modern iOSes being difficult or impossible to crack), it is definitely the easiest way to expose your device to security threats. If you’re going to jailbreak, use extreme caution.

As of now, if you don’t jailbreak your device you should be almost completely secure from hackers or malicious software. Very few viruses have been created for iOS, and most of those that exist were created by security companies as tests. While you should always exercise caution while giving entering personal information online or into your iOS device, the chances of your data being stolen by a hacker or virus while using iOS is incredibly low.

Apple fans are putting their new Macs in their freezers to beat heating problem

Apples recently released MacBook Pros can be bought with Intel’s Core i9 processor. Though this processor is powerful, this option is expensive, with the lowest spec model including it costing $2,800.

Apple had advertised that these new MacBook Pros could reach speeds of 2.9 GHz. However, the cooling system included within the MacBooks can’t keep up with the new processor, causing the laptops to overheat and their processors to slow down significantly. Apple fans have gotten creative in order to hit the advertised speeds, with Dave Lee aka YouTuber Dave2D going as far as to put his MacBook in his freezer.

The 2018 MacBook Pro with an i9 processor was only able to beat the clock speed of the 2017 MacBook Pro with an i7 after Dave put it in the freezer. When the new MacBook Pro gets too hot, it automatically throttles its clock speed. While this prevents the laptop from getting dangerously hot, it also prevents the device from maintaining even its base clock speed. This has understandably upset many Apple users, as their $2,800 device cannot perform at advertised or even baseline speeds.

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Apple relies on their devices being as streamlined and simple to use as possible. The Apple audience does not expect to have to use under-the-hood or 3rd party solutions in order to get more performance out of their device, especially for a device with such a premium price tag. Apple’s MacBook Pro line had been criticized by laptop enthusiasts for a few years because their processors have been a generation behind. It’s disappointing that when Apple finally decides to move to the next generation of processors they’re completely crippled by heating issues.

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WhatsApp notifications are getting a massive update

WhatsApp is going to start showing photos, GIFS, and videos in notifications

You’ll soon start noticing a rather large change when you receive WhatsApp notifications. They are going to start including the multimedia content your contacts sent, including photos and videos. They should start to look something like this:

Multimedia WhatsApp notifications — WhatsApp will start showing message multimedia in the notifications

This news comes from the guys over WABetaInfo, who are constantly monitoring additions to the advanced beta version of WhatsApp. The new notification feature has been found in WhatsApp version 12.18.80 of WhatsApp for iPhone. There is still no official word from WhatsApp about this new feature.

If you don’t want huge multimedia-filled WhatsApp notifications, you’ll have the ability to disable this new feature. If you like the sound of WhatsApp’s updated notifications, however, you’ll also be able to download the multimedia directly from the notification.

As mentioned earlier, we still don’t know when or if WhatsApp will roll this new feature out to everybody. The beta version of the app runs like a test for the developers so that they can receive feedback on new features from the testing community. If you’re interested in testing advanced beta versions of your favorite apps, check out our handy guide to becoming a beta tester below.

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Baseball breakthrough: Use your iPhone to order a beer to your seat

It’s not officially summer until you’ve kicked back at a baseball game. And it’s not officially a baseball game until the beer guy comes along to sell you an admittedly overpriced (but refreshing) cold one. But have you ever needed the beer guy and he’s AWOL? Where does he go? Doesn’t he know it’s 97 degrees and you’re sweating and your team forgot how to hit and you need something to drown your sorrows?

A new pilot program will allow some lucky fans to use their iPhones to order a beer directly to their seat. Don’t get too excited just yet. The trial is limited to 10 games at the Phillies’ ballpark and only in specific sections. But the potential is exciting.

This video describes how it works:

Just pull out your iPhone (sorry, Android users) and scan a QR code on the seat back in front of you. That opens a chatbot and you can see a menu of your options. Then order and pay with Apple Pay. Eventually, the beer guy will find you and deliver the suds (or water).

The program runs July 20-25 and August 2-5 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. And you’ve got to be sitting in section 142, 143, 144, or 145.

The program makes use of something called Apple Business Chat, and if the pilot succeeds, we might see this technology rolling out across the MLB and beyond!