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The Associated-Technologies Edition Thursday, January 24, 2019

Apple Just Dismissed More Than 200 Employees From Its Autonomous Vehicle Group, by Lora Kolodny, CNBC

An Apple spokesperson acknowledged the lay-offs and said the company still sees opportunity in the space:

"We have an incredibly talented team working on autonomous systems and associated technologies at Apple. As the team focuses their work on several key areas for 2019, some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiatives, across all of Apple," the spokesperson said.

The Tech Revolt, by Cameron Bird, Sean Captain, Elise Craig, Haley Cohen Gilliland, and Joy Shan, The California Sunday Magazine

They Slacked. They messaged on Signal. They circulated pledges on Google Docs. They talked on the phone. They spoke quietly to one another in the cafeteria and spoke up at company-wide meetings. Whether it was protesting projects with ICE and the Chinese government or walking out to demand better treatment of women, political activism 
has entered tech with a force that the industry has never experienced.

Meet The App Creator Reducing Restaurant Food Waste While Making Dining Affordable, by Sarah Betancourt, NBC News

David Rodríguez is making waves in the tech industry with an app that lets users buy discounted, leftover food from local restaurants.

"Why can't people have quality food at a low discount, while also reducing waste?" said Rodríguez, the co-founder and CEO of Food for All.

Stuff

Apple Promoting Apple Pay Cash In Messages With New ‘They Send, You Spend’ Ads, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Apple has a new advertising campaign called ‘They send, you spend’ that highlights the newest Apple Pay features: Apple Pay Cash and Apple Pay in Messages. The campaign includes three micro-ads so far, demonstrating how fast and simple Apple Pay features can be.

Best Apple AirPods Accessories, by David Carnoy , CNET

Here's a quick look at some of our top AirPods accessory picks, based on my own hands-on experience with each product mentioned over the past few weeks and months. They're mostly cases and earbud enhancements, with a few other interesting things I've found.

A Closer Look At Darkroom For iPad, by Erin Brooks, The Sweet Setup

Overall, Darkroom is an app that is stuck in the middle: If you’re really utilizing all of the powerful controls it offers, It’s a bit too advanced for basic users. Yet because of the tools it lacks, it’s not quite advanced enough for pro users — at least not yet. It’s a great price, though, and if I didn’t have Lightroom Mobile, I’d use it along with Snapseed for final adjustments.

Microsoft Edge On Mobile Now Includes A Built-in Fake News Detector, by Taylor Hatmaker, TechCrunch

Microsoft’s Edge experiment with NewsGuard isn’t a solution to that issue, but baking some kind of news verification tool right into the browser does feel like a step in a compelling direction.

Notes

Apple Continued To Spend Near-Record Amounts Of Money Lobbying The Trump Administration In 2018, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Apple's lobbying expenses have increased significantly since the Trump administration assumed office two years ago, with the iPhone maker spending more than ever before to influence the current government on issues such as privacy, education, climate change, trade, immigration, tax reform, and patent reform.

You’re Never Going To Have A Legacy, So Give Up Trying, by Olivia Goldhill, Quartz

This is not a bad thing. It means our names and legacies are mortal, just like us. And so we are free to choose a more meaningful lodestar to guide our lives, rather than chasing the ephemeral possibility that our names will be spoken with gravitas once we’re dead.

Bottom of the Page

Every Friday afternoon, I'll go through every single task in my To-do lists, hover over the names of each of the tasks with my mouse cursor, and see if the task sparks joy in my heart. If no joy was sparked, I'll delete the task.

I wish.

~

Even if you are working on what you love, and loving what you are working on, there will be tasks that do not spark joy. That's why I believe; Either that, or I am doing this whole work thing wrongly.

~

Thanks for reading.