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The Serve-Humanity Edition Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Tim Cook: “Mental Health Is A Crisis”, by Charlotte Owen, Bustle

I’ve always thought that technology should serve humanity and not the other way around. And I always worried about people using technology too much. And so, we came out with Screen Time to try to give people a true reading of the amount of time they’re really spending on their devices because generally it’s a lot more than they say.

But that’s just one element. It’s also what you’re doing [on them]. I’ve often worried about the endless scrolling, the surrounding yourself with negativity and so forth. And so elevating a company like Shine and getting people to go check it out — that’s a great use of our technologies because that does serve humanity. Their whole company is based on this. And it’s how we look at the world. We want people to do things with their devices, like the photography exhibit that we both enjoyed, or connecting with family and friends with FaceTime. Not endless, mindless scrolling.

Stuff

Apple Launches New 'Everyone Can Code Early Learners' Guide For Elementary School Students, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

Everyone Can Code Early Learners guide is extending its coding curriculum resources from kindergarten to college. Educators can also try Apple’s new one-hour Inclusive App Design activity to introduce students to the world of coding and app development.

New AirPods Pro And AirPods Max Firmware Adds Updated Find My Integration, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

With the update, ‌AirPods Pro‌ and ‌AirPods Max‌ are able to take advantage of the ‌Find My‌ network, allowing them to be located through connections with the Apple devices owned by other people.

Apple Adjusting Balances For Missed Cash Back On iPhone 13 Preorders, by Mike Peterson, AppleInsider

Apple appears to be automatically issuing Apple Card "balance adjustments" to make up for the missed 3% Daily Cash that some iPhone 13 pre-order customers missed out on.

Leatherbound Is A Beautifully Designed And Free Way To Keep Track Of Your Books, by Brent Dirks, AppAdvice

The app offers complete management of all the books you are reading, want to read, and have already read.

ActiveTab: A Simple Extension To Tell Which Safari 15 Tab Is Active, by John Voorhees, MacStories

To make it easier to distinguish the active tab, ActiveTab draws a line underneath it along the top of the tab’s web content.

Notes

Insiders In Apple's Healthcare Organization Say Its Leaders Suppress Concerns And Mislead Executives, by Blake Dodge, Business Insider

People at Apple Health said that they saw colleagues face retribution for disagreeing with superiors and that concerns have been expressed on more than one occasion about the way health data is used to develop products. The situation has gotten so serious that some employees have lodged complaints with Apple's most senior executives, including Cook and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, who oversees the health effort.

Fred Sainz, a senior director of corporate communications for Apple, said in a statement that the company was still in the "early innings of our work in health technology" and that many of the assertions in this story "are based on incomplete, outdated, and inaccurate information."

Apple Pay Fees Vex Credit-Card Issuers, by AnnaMaria Andriotis, Wall Street Journal

Some banks are pushing back, nudging card network Visa Inc. V 0.62% to change the way it processes certain Apple Pay transactions, according to some of the people. The change would trim the fees that banks pay to Apple.

[...]

Currently, banks pay Apple a fee when their cardholders use Apple Pay. Under the planned new process, the fees wouldn’t apply on automatic recurring payments such as gym memberships and streaming services.

Bottom of the Page

I sure hope Apple One will include some sort of mental health app soon. It doesn't even have to come from Apple. Just partner with a third party.

Of course, given the scrutiny on Apple nowadays, I wonder if Apple can just partner with one particular company to include their services into Apple One without drawing the ire from other third-party companies.

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Thanks for reading.