What’s new: Dozens of countries have rolled out automated contact tracing apps, but a new study confirms what experts already knew: they can’t beat the pandemic on their own. According to a new systematic review of 15 published studies, the technology still requires manual contact tracing, social distancing, and mass testing in order to be […]
Author: nafees
Epic Games vs. Apple Lawsuit Reassigned to a New Judge
As you might already know, Apple has removed Fortnite from the App Store for iOS as Epic Games introduced a direct payment service for in-app purchases in the game, violating App Store policies. In retaliation, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Apple in California. The lawsuit was assigned to Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco […]
Apple Card’s Customer Assistance Program Limited to Six Enrollments in 2020
Looking at the financial troubles that people are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple and its financial partner for Apple Card, Goldman Sachs, had introduced the COVID-19 Customer Assistance Program in March. This program allowed users of Apple Card to skip their monthly payment for March, without incurring interest charges. People who wanted to enroll […]
Podcast: Want consumer privacy? Try China
The narrative in the US that the Chinese don’t care about data privacy is simply misguided. It’s true that the Chinese government has built a sophisticated surveillance apparatus (with the help of Western companies), and continues to spy on its citizenry. But when it comes to what companies can do with people’s information, China is […]
iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 Beta 5 Download Available Now [Update: Public Beta 5 Out]
A week after Apple dropped the fourth beta of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, the company has released the fifth developer beta of the OS. With the iOS 14 public release date approaching, Apple will now be looking to squash all the reported bugs and fix stability issues with the OS. Continue reading → Powered […]
Health misinformation pages got half a billion views on Facebook in April
The news: Pages spreading health misinformation got an estimated 3.8 billion views on Facebook in the year up to May 2020, according to analysis by human rights group Avaaz. Views peaked at nearly half a billion in April 2020 alone, just as the pandemic was rapidly escalating globally, it found. Content from 10 websites spreading […]
Vietnam’s covid hospital
Until the beginning of August, Vietnam, population 97 million, was the world’s largest country with zero coronavirus deaths. A small number of people have died since then. The one- party state implemented aggressive quarantines. It also funneled most of its coronavirus patients into one central hospital in Saigon. 25Covid deaths as of August 19, 2020. […]
The man who built a spyware empire says it’s time to come out of the shadows
Shalev Hulio wants to explain himself. Normally, silence and secrecy are inherent in the spy business. For nine full years, Hulio never talked publicly about his billion-dollar hacking company—even when his hacking tools were linked to scandal or he was accused of being complicit in human rights abuses around the world. Lately, though, he’s speaking […]
Stockholm Syndrome
Sweden’s controversial, less-stringent lockdown has made an unlikely star of its state epidemiologist. He told us why he still believes in the national strategy and why he thinks a classic second wave is unlikely. Proportionately, Sweden has suffered many more deaths than its neighbors. Norway has had 48 coronavirus deaths per million people, Finland 60, […]
Too many AI researchers think real-world problems are not relevant
Any researcher who’s focused on applying machine learning to real-world problems has likely received a response like this one: “The authors present a solution for an original and highly motivating problem, but it is an application and the significance seems limited for the machine-learning community.” These words are straight from a review I received for […]