Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote a memo to employees on Sunday about the controversy surrounding podcaster Joe Rogan, who removed over 100 episodes of his show over the weekend that reportedly contained racial slurs. And frankly the Grammy Awards should consider giving out a trophy for this kind of corporate fence-sitting.
From all the movies and TV shows we’ve seen, one of things people do to stop being tracked would be to toss away electronics that could be used to track them, such as mobile phones, computers, tablets, and so on. However, in the case of Joseph Beecher, it seems that his undoing was due to an iPad belonging to the housekeeper of former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg.
According to the report, it seems that Beecher was actually looking for Bloomberg’s daughters, Emma and Georgina, but after breaking into the home and discovering they weren’t there, he ended up kidnapping the housekeeper, Amanda Edinger, but not before he demanded to know if the daughters were on the property.
He then forced her to drive to Wyoming. He also made her withdraw cash from an ATM. What led to his eventual arrest was when investigators discovered the housekeeper’s location via her iPad, but it is unclear if the use of Apple’s Find My network was involved, or if the location was discovered in another way.
It was unclear why Beecher was looking for Bloomberg’s daughters, but he did allegedly tell authorities that he wanted to make an “international scene”. He was arrested and has since been charged with kidnapping in a federal court.
Maid’s iPad Helped Police Track Down A Kidnapping Suspect
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Meta’s products and services like Facebook and Instagram are free, but they’re not really free per se because what you’re “paying” for in exchange for their services would be your personal data that you may or may not have knowingly provided them with. This includes things like pages you interact with, posts you like, stuff you search for on the marketplace, and so on.
Now, over in the EU, consumer data protection laws are especially strict and according to Meta’s annual report filed with the SEC last week, the company notes that they might have to pull their services like Facebook and Instagram out of the EU because if they are unable to reach some kind of data sharing agreement, it would not be profitable for them to remain in the region.
According to the statement, “If we are unable to transfer data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, or if we are restricted from sharing data among our products and services, it could affect our ability to provide our services, the manner in which we provide our services or our ability to target ads.”
The company says they believe they will be able to reach an agreement this year, but assuming they don’t, “we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe.”
Meta Threatens That Facebook And Instagram Might Have To Leave The EU
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When Apple first launched their M1 chipsets, one of the computers that received the chipset was the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple later refreshed the MacBook Pro lineup with new 14-inch and 16-inch options, as well as M1 Pro and Max chipsets, so at the moment it is unclear what will become of the 13-inch model.
Now according to a report from Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, he claims that Apple is working on a new entry-level MacBook Pro that could be powered by Apple’s upcoming rumored M2 chipset. It is unclear what size this entry-level model will be, but apparently one of the ways Apple will be keeping it “affordable” will be by using an LCD screen.
This means that it will not be using the mini LED displays that Apple introduced in the 14-inch and 16-inch models, and it could also mean that it will most likely skip the ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate. We’re not sure how much cheaper this model will be, but assuming it is anything like the 13-inch model refreshed back in 2020, it should be a more affordable alternative to the newer 14-inch and 16-inch models.
Gurman does not state when this model will be introduced, but seeing that it has been more than a year, perhaps we’ll learn more at Apple’s spring event which is rumored to take place on the 8th of March.
Entry-Level MacBook Pro Expected This Year, But Will Skip ProMotion Display
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The two-time gold medalist got off to a disastrous start at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
With good sound quality, customizable ANC and moisture protection for sweaty workout sessions, Jabra’s Elite 4 Active wireless earbuds are already a pretty good deal at $120. If you’ve been holding out for a discount, however, Amazon has the first one we’ve seen on this model — they’re now available for $102.92 or 14 percent off the retail price.
Buy Jabra Elite 4 Active at Amazon – $102.92
Jabra’s Elite 4 Active have a lot of tech and features packed into relatively inexpensive wireless earbuds, helping them garner a solid 84 Engadget review score. They offer IP57 water resistance, particularly around the onboard controls, making them ideal for intense workouts. The active noise cancellation (ANC) can be tailored to your needs using the company’s Sound+ app. It also comes with the HearThrough transparency feature so you can tell what’s going on around you, along with Sidetone, which lets you hear your own voice on a call.
Sound quality is quite good considering the price, with decent clarity and nice detail, though they lack the wider soundstage found on models from the likes of Sony and Sennheiser. Call quality is also decent and the seven hour battery life (with three additional charges in the case) is excellent. The drawbacks are ANC that isn’t as powerful as on Jabra’s pricier earbuds, and onboard controls can be difficult to find. Still, the Elite 4 Active earbuds have an impressive feature set for a reasonable price, and the extra discount makes them that much more compelling.
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“It didn’t seem real as it was happening,” Cpl. Annette Goodyear told local media.
On platforms like Reddit, you have the option to downvote comments and posts. This can help other Reddit users to identify posts that might be “bad”, whether it’s an inflammatory comment, or a post that spreads false information or contains hateful content, and so on. Sometimes if a post or comment receives too many downvotes, it will be hidden from view.
It looks like Twitter is bringing that feature onto its platform as the company has announced that they will be expanding the test of its downvote feature. Twitter had previously revealed that they were testing out the feature, so the announcement is basically them expanding it to cover more users.
We learned a lot about the types of replies you don’t find relevant and we’re expanding this test –– more of you on web and soon iOS and Android will have the option to use reply downvoting.
Downvotes aren’t public, but they’ll help inform us of the content people want to see. https://t.co/g8LcTpQqDv pic.twitter.com/wm5MmdR4Xh
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 3, 2022
That being said, keep in mind that the downvote feature on Twitter is slightly different from that on Reddit. The downvotes will be hidden from public view, so it is kind of similar to YouTube’s changes to its Dislike button. So instead of the downvote being used to inform other users on what the general sentiment is on the post, it will be more for Twitter to better understand what you like or don’t like to see.
Presumably it will then be used to help tweak the algorithm so that the company knows what kind of posts users prefer. If you don’t see the feature available to you, don’t worry as it is still being tested, but assuming all goes well with testing, Twitter should eventually roll it out to more users.
Twitter Expands Test On Its Downvoting Feature
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Apple’s M1 chipset is a little over a year old now. The company first launched their M1 Macs towards the end of 2020, and then released variants of the M1 in 2021 with the M1 Pro and M1 Max, and if the rumors are to be believed, the company is expected to follow up with new M2 chipsets this year.
Now according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, his latest Power On newsletter claims that we should be able to expect at least four new M2 Macs to launch in 2022. Off the top of our heads, we can most likely expect to see refreshes made to the MacBook Air and Mac minis which were part of the original M1 lineup, so it stands to reason that they could be refreshed with the M2 this year.
We have heard rumors that Apple is also planning on launching a 27-inch iMac Pro and also a new Mac Pro computer, but those are expected to be powered by even more powerful variants of the M1 chipset, so it is unclear what the other two M2 computers we can look forward to.
In any case, if you are thinking of grabbing a new Mac but don’t necessarily need a super powerful one, then maybe holding off until the M2’s announcement could be a good idea to see what kind of changes Apple will be bringing to the table.
At Least Four M2 Mac Computers Expected For 2022
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We have heard many stories in the past of how kids have taken their parents’ credit cards and gone on an in-app shopping spree, only for their parents to get a shock when the bill comes. This is something that Twitch streamer Verloren was concerned about when he received a donation of 120,000 Bits last December, which is worth around $1,200.
According to Verloren, he reported the donation to Twitch expressing his concern that a “15-year old was mishandling their parents’ money” without their permission. However, for doing the right thing by taking precautions, for some reason Twitch decided to punish the streamer by disabling his ability to receive future Bits donations.
Verloren was told in an email that his account had been flagged for “engaging in or supporting conduct” that went against Twitch’s ToS and said, “After careful and extensive review of your account history, we have decided to terminate your participation in the Bits Program. Please accept this as notice of our decision to terminate your access effective immediately.”
However, the good news is that after a couple of months of back and forth, Verloren’s account has been fully restored. In an email that was also seen by PCGamer, it reads, “We received your appeal request and conducted an investigation into the matter where it was determined that your ability to receive Bits can be restored. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this delay. Please accept this email as confirmation that your ability to receive Bits has been reactivated.”
It is unclear why Verloren was even penalized in the first place, but it’s good to see that he managed to get his account fully reinstated and can now receive Bits donations again.
Twitch Punished A Streamer For Doing The Right Thing
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