Leading into the weekend, Apple has shared a new ad for the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, this one entitled “Growth Spurt”. This particular ad has a special place in this writer’s heart because it stars, however briefly, an awesome corgi. Otherwise, the rest of the ad sees real life things, like the aforementioned adorable pup, a fish, a cookie, Mario from Super Mario Run, a toddler, and other items getting larger after they have been photographed with the iPhone XS Max.
This video, as noted on Friday by AdWeek, features the song “Catch My Breath” by Confidence Man and was directed by John Hillcoat. It measures in at about a minute in length and you can watch it below.
Apple has published a few different videos starring their latest flagship smartphones, including “Everything to Know in :54” about the iPhone XS and XS Max. This latest ad will likely see Apple getting a bit more creative with their ads, as we have come to expect from the company over the years.
This week, Facebook suffered a major breach, which left millions of accounts vulnerable to an outside, malicious attack.
On Friday, Facebook officially announced that hackers accessed the Facebook network on Tuesday. According to the post “nearly 50 million” accounts are affected by the illegal intrusion. The company also revealed that the hackers were able to gain access via the platform’s “View As” code. That particular feature allows Facebook users to see how their Facebook profile appears to folks who look at it.
The hackers gained Facebook’s access tokens, which are individual codes that allow Facebook users to remain logged in.
“On the afternoon of Tuesday, September 25, our engineering team discovered a security issue affecting almost 50 million accounts. We’re taking this incredibly seriously and wanted to let everyone know what’s happened and the immediate action we’ve taken to protect people’s security.
Our investigation is still in its early stages. But it’s clear that attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted “View As”, a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts. Access tokens are the equivalent of digital keys that keep people logged in to Facebook so they don’t need to re-enter their password every time they use the app.”
At this point, Facebook says that it has informed law enforcement of the situation and has already patched the vulnerability. Facebook does not make it clear if the accounts in question have had any personal information stolen or otherwise obtained, or how those accounts might be misused in the future.
The social network has reset the access tokens to the nearly 50 million accounts that were affected by the breach. The company also confirmed it took precautions with an additional 40 million accounts that were accessed with the View As feature within the last year.
Finally, Facebook says that no one needs to change their passwords.
It’s widely known that Google pays Apple a certain amount of money on a semi-regular basis to make sure that it remains the default search engine option on iOS devices.
It has been said in the past that iOS devices equal about 50 percent of Google’s search revenue on mobile devices, so it’s imperative to the company to keep that spot on Apple’s devices. Before the end of 2017 it was reported that Apple was getting upwards of $3 billion from Google to secure that spot. But now, more than a year later from that report, it sounds like the company may be paying a lot more to Apple.
Business Insider is reporting information shared by analyst Rod Hall that states Google is now paying $9 billion this year to retain its default situation on iOS devices. What’s more, Hall actually thinks that number will increase by next year, and Google could be paying Apple for those default rights to the tune of $12 billion. Hall also echoes those earlier reports, saying ““Apple is one of the biggest channels of traffic acquisition for Google”, so it sounds like Google will continue to pay what it needs to in an effort to make sure nothing changes in that regard.
Nothing is official, so we don’t know for sure that Google is paying $9 billion to secure these default rights on iOS devices. However, if that is indeed the case, the price for the spot has indeed been going up year to year. $12 billion is quite a steep price tag, to say the least.
The iPhone XS and iPhone XR have a brand new feature. After you click a Portrait Mode photo, you can go into the Edit menu and change the intensity of the bokeh. Basically, you can change the background blur (make it softer or more pronounced) after you’ve already clicked the photo. Apple is touting this as one of the best new features in iPhone XS. But you can get it on iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus and even the iPhone 7 Plus using a third party app.
The new depth effect sensor in iPhone XS blurs photos different parts of the background at a different rate. So the effect you get is similar to that on DSLR. This is not the same as what phones like Pixel 2 do.
Since the app in question requires depth data to work, it will not work on iPhones with a single camera at the rear like the iPhone 6, iPhone 7, or the iPhone 8.
How to Edit Background Blur in Photos on iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone 7 Plus
The app in question is called Focos and we’re big fans of the app. The app made it to our best iPhone X apps roundup and our best Camera apps roundup as well. And for good reason. Focos solved one of the most frustrating things about clicking photos in Portrait mode. iPhone would almost always mess up the blur in the resulting image (even though it looked fine in the live view).
Portrait mode has trouble dealing with ears, glasses and smooth edges. Focos allows you to not only edit the intensity of the blur effect but to change the focus point itself. So you can go into a photo and choose to focus on a subject that’s farther away and Focos will adjust the depth effect accordingly. The app is shockingly good at what it does. And you can get the basic functionality for free.
Here’s how it works. After you install the app, just open it. You’ll see the camera view on the top and below, you’ll find a grid of your Portrait Mode images. Tap on an image and it will open up in edit view.
You’ll see a slider below the image. Just slide it to the left to decrease the blur intensity and to the right to increase it. And that’s it, you’ve just changed the background blur! The app uses depth data from the photo itself so even if you increase the blur all the way, the edges won’t be blurred a lot.
Focos lets you change the aperture size (the blur intensity) from f/20 to f/1.4 (iPhone XS, on the other hand, has the range of f/16 to f/1.4). Tap on the Shape option and you can even change the shape of the blur effect. You can view the bokeh effect in 3 and even manually change the front and back bokeh limits. There’s a tool to edit lighting in 3D space as well.
That’s what you can do in the free app, and for most users, that’s more than enough.
But if you want to access more features like specialized lenses and highlights, you can pay $0.99/month to unlock app features.
Some of the cases Apple is involved with, especially related to patent infringement, take years to complete. And that’s the case with this particular one.
Back in 2015, Apple was ordered to pay millions of dollars to the University of Wisconsin, as the university was able to plead its case that Apple’s A-series chips (the A7 and A8, specifically in this case) infringed on a method of boosting the efficiency of integrated circuits. Apple, of course, appealed, and things have been a bit topsy-turvy ever since.
The bill Apple was facing was originally set at $862 million. After that, a subsequent judge considered the valuation of that determination and reduced the payout from Apple’s end, down to $234 million. The determination was that Apple’s infringement of the patents was ruled inadvertent. However, most recently, it was determined that Apple continued to infringe on the patents after taht ruling and therefore Apple was ruled to pay $506 million.
Apple, still appealing, was determined to get that amount of money reduced or vacated altogether. Apple argued that the judgements were “fraught with error”.
Now, Reuters is reporting that Apple has “persuaded” a federal appeals court to throw out the $234 million decision against the company:
“Apple Inc persuaded a federal appeals court on Friday to throw out a $234 million damages award in favor of the University of Wisconsin’s patent licensing arm for infringing the school’s patent on computer processing technology.
The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. said no reasonable juror could have found that Apple’s processors infringed the patent, based on evidence presented during the liability phase of the 2015 trial.”
We have already seen the iPhone XS Max being torn down, drop tested, and compared to other flagship Android devices out there. Now, let’s see just how durable the phone is. Apple has come a long way since its #bendgate days of the iPhone 6 Plus, with the iPhone XS Max featuring a stainless steel chassis and the most durable smartphone glass ever.
As a durability test done by YouTuber JerryRigEverything shows, the iPhone XS Max has the same hardness level on the Mohs scale as previous iPhones. This also means that it scratches at around the same hardness as older iPhones. Here’s hoping the durable glass shows its worth when one drops their $1,000 smartphone. As for the stainless chassis, it is extremely durable, though there should be no surprise in this regard.
Despite Apple claiming that it uses a sapphire crystal lens on the iPhone XS rear camera setup, the camera lens scratches at a Mohs hardness level 7 similar to the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. This means that Apple is not using a pure sapphire crystal lens on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, something which it has been doing since the iPhone 6 days.
In the burn test, the iPhone XS Max display survived for over a minute which is definitely impressive.
Finally, in the ultimate bend test, the iPhone XS Max despite its sheer size and heft did not bend all thanks to its premium and strong stainless steel chassis.
Once you upgrade to watchOS 5 on your Apple Watch, your life is going to get a lot more seamless. For example, Siri is actually really quick and surprisingly reliable on the Series 3 Apple Watch. And just for the Series 3 users, there’s a new feature called Raise to Speak for Siri.
You can now talk to Siri without pressing and holding the Digital Crown. It seems like a small change but the real-life difference is staggering. And its way more reliable than using the Hey Siri phrase.
Before we begin, let’s make sure that Raise to Speak feature for Siri is enabled on your Apple Watch. After updating to watchOS 5, you’ll see a notification about the feature. If you pressed Continue from the notification, the feature would be activated. Still, let’s make sure of it.
On your Apple Watch, press the Digital Crown to go to the App Launcher. From here, select Settings -> General -> Siri. Make sure that Raise to Speak is turned on. While you’re here, you can check out the new feature at the bottom of the page that lets you independently control Siri’s voice feedback volume.
The Art of Raise to Speak for Siri
Now all you really have to do is raise your arm and start talking. But there’s an art to it. To get this feature to work reliably all the time, you need to raise your wrist way up then you’re used to. Way higher than if you’d be checking the time.
For this feature to be bang on, your Apple Watch needs to be less than 6 inches from your face. If you can do a jerkier motion to make sure the screen comes on, then that’s even better!
But once your wrist is close enough, just start speaking. Directly speak the command, There’s no need for Hey Siri. In a split second. Apple Watch will realize what’s happening and will throw the Siri waveform on the screen. Next, your speech will be transcribed and will show up on the screen. Another second and Siri would have taken the appropriate action already!
Your Experience
In my testing, I found the Raise to Speak feature to be reliable most of the time. And I experienced way fewer failures. But your mileage may vary depending. So please do let us know your experience in the comments below.
