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The Unhappy-Credit Edition Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Goldman Sachs Will Let People Appeal Their Apple Card Credit Limit After Allegations Of Sexist Algorithms, by Isobel Asher Hamilton, Business Insider

CEO of Goldman Sachs Bank USA Carey Halio put out a statement on Twitter on Monday saying that it doesn't decide Apple Card customers' credit limits based on their gender.

She added that anyone unhappy with their credit limit for the Apple Card can appeal, and Goldman Sachs may reevaluate their credit line.

“It’s This Invisible System Of Harm”, by Aaron Mak, Slate

We don’t have enough information to know what was really going on there. The truth is they have all sorts of data about us that we don’t even know about, and our profiles, even if they’re not accurate, are available for corporations like Apple to purchase, even though we individuals can’t purchase our own. So there’s all sorts of things that could have happened in that particular case that might not have anything to do with gender. But on the other hand, we don’t know. It could have something to do with gender. The larger point is that it’s unaccountable and opaque, and Apple doesn’t really care. The most important point being that we should demand that they do better than that. We should demand accountability on the part of anybody who’s using an algorithm like that.

More Plusses

Disney+ App Now Available To Download On iPhone, iPad And Apple TV, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

You can get the app now, sign up to Disney’s new streaming service, and start streaming its extensive back-catalog as well as start streaming The Mandalorian.

[...]

Disney+ will offer apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Android phones and tablets, Roku, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Amazon Fire TV, and some smart TVs.

Disney+ Is Here—and It's A Fully Formed Streaming Juggernaut, by Brian Barrett, Wired

It’s hard to overstate the advantage this gives Disney over fellow newcomers like Apple TV+ and the forthcoming HBO Max. And it's important to understand that Disney’s head start comes not only from its extensive back catalog of TV shows and movies but also from a technological prowess in this space that that few companies can match.

Rumor Today

Apple Plans Standalone AR And VR Gaming Headset By 2022 And Glasses Later, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

A new iPad Pro for release as early as the first half of 2020 will feature a new module with two camera sensors, up from one on the current model, and a small hole for the 3-D system, letting people create three-dimensional reconstructions of rooms, objects and people. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant also plans to add the sensor to new high-end iPhones later in 2020, along with 5G networking capabilities, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced products.

Stuff

Tap Your AirPods Pro Case To Check If It’s Charged, by Charlie Sorrel, Cult of Mac

You can just tap the AirPods Pro case, and the LED will light up. This only seems to work when the case is on a Qi charging mat. If it’s plugged into a Lightning cable, this trick doesn’t work. A green LED means that the case and AirPods (if they’re inside) are charged to at least 80%.

Notes

Europe Is Toughest On Big Tech, Yet Big Tech Still Reigns, by Adam Satariano, New York Times

Regulators in Brussels have been heralded as the world’s leading tech industry watchdogs. But Mr. Stables and other veterans of the Continent’s antitrust battles are telling American authorities, who are investigating Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook, something else: There is a lot to learn from Europe’s mistakes.

Antitrust investigations in Europe have taken years to complete, in part because company lawyers use stalling techniques that give the tech giants added time to squeeze out rivals, according to companies, lawyers and consumer groups involved in the cases against Google. The inquiries have centered on single aspects of the companies, like Google shopping, rather than their entire business. And once regulators have stepped in, the penalties have focused on headline-grabbing fines rather than structural changes that would restore competitive balance.

A.I. Systems Echo Biases They’re Fed, Putting Scientists On Guard, by Cade Metz, New York Times

As new, more complex A.I. moves into an increasingly wide array of products, like online ad services and business software or talking digital assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, tech companies will be pressured to guard against the unexpected biases that are being discovered.

But scientists are still learning how technology like BERT, called “universal language models,” works. And they are often surprised by the mistakes their new A.I. is making.

A Step Too Far? How Fitness Trackers Can Take Over Our Lives, by James Tapper, The Guardian

Lewis is one of a substantial number of people who has embraced the idea of a “quantified self” (QS), a term invented by former tech journalist Gary Wolf to describe people who measure themselves – their bodies, their behaviour – in pursuit of things like weight loss, better sleep, great fitness: “self-knowledge through self-tracking”.

The movement was prompted by the emergence first of smartphones and then wearable tech – fitness trackers such as Fitbit, the Apple Watch, heart rate monitors and cycling computers. When Apple launched its watch in 2014, it seemed as though the quantified self could be the route to solving problems such as obesity.