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The Integrate-Tracking Edition Monday, July 26, 2021

QR Codes Are Here To Stay. So Is The Tracking They Allow., by Erin Woo, New York Times

QR codes — essentially a kind of bar code that allows transactions to be touchless — have emerged as a permanent tech fixture from the coronavirus pandemic. Restaurants have adopted them en masse, retailers including CVS and Foot Locker have added them to checkout registers, and marketers have splashed them all over retail packaging, direct mail, billboards and TV advertisements.

But the spread of the codes has also let businesses integrate more tools for tracking, targeting and analytics, raising red flags for privacy experts. That’s because QR codes can store digital information such as when, where and how often a scan occurs. They can also open an app or a website that then tracks people’s personal information or requires them to input it.

Stuff

Hands-on: How Apple’s New iPhone 12 MagSafe Battery Pack Compares To Anker’s For On-the-go Charging, by Bradley Chambers, 9to5Mac

Unless you want to charge with a lightning cable and like the iPhone battery widget integration, I can’t recommend it over the Anker model. So if you have a budget of $100 to spend, grab two of them.

Paramount+ And Showtime Apple TV Bundle Billing Issues Suggest End Of Deal, by Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider

A number of Apple TV channels customers are discovering their grandfathered bundle of Paramount+ and Showtime is being refunded, in what could be a sign that the deal is being discontinued.

Notes

Apple Business Model: A Naive Nostalgic Look, by Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note

This raises questions. What happens to priorities, to company culture? What will be sacrificed and what will be preserved? For example, if budgetary restrictions are needed, what will be prioritized: the next Ted Lasso or the next Apple Silicon processor?

Apple Officially Attending NAB For First Time In A Decade, by Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider

Apple was previously a regular attendee of NAB, but has been noticeably absent for ten years. In its last appearance, Apple used the FCP User Group SuperMeet in April 2011 to unveil the 64-bit Final Cut Pro X, which it would release later that year in June.

Bottom of the Page

I am now on a strictly sitcom/comedy diet for my television entertainment.

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Thanks for reading.