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The Last-For-Two-Days Edition Monday, May 15, 2023

Why I Fell In Love With My Apple MacBook Air, by Allisa James, TechRadar

But what I truly love about the MacBook Air is its excellent battery life. Considering that battery life is one of the most considerable drops among Windows laptops this generation and last, having a work machine that can last for two days without charging is an incredible feat. I don’t have to carry around a charger anymore, as a simple hour-long charge every couple of days is more than enough.

Apple Launches Satellite Emergency SOS Service In Australia And New Zealand, by Jordyn Beazley, The Guardian

Apple has launched a new emergency feature on all iPhone 14 models in Australia and New Zealand that enables users to message emergency services and alert family and friends if they’re in strife, even when there is no phone reception.

Coming Soon?

Apple Begins Testing Speedy M3 Chips As It Pursues Mac Comeback, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

So what does the M3 look like? Well, at least one version in testing has 12 CPU cores, 18 graphics cores and 36 gigabytes of memory. That’s according to data collected by an App Store developer and shared with Power On. The CPU, the chip’s main processor, is made up of six high-performance cores that handle the most intensive tasks and six efficiency cores that kick in for operations that need less power.

The chip itself in this particular test is running in a future high-end MacBook Pro with the upcoming macOS 14.0 and likely is the base-level version of what will be the M3 Pro coming next year.

Stuff

Online Marketplace Shef Is Serving Up Tasty Home-cooked Meals And Celebrating The Moms Behind Them, by Joy Saha, Salon

Launched in the Bay Area in 2019 by Joey Grassia and Alvin Salehi, Shef connects local, food safety certified cooks with customers in their community who are craving their favorite childhood meals and dishes. At its heart is the "shefs," a portmanteau of "she" and "chef," who are the mothers, stay-at-home parents and aspiring chefs behind each and every tasty recipe.

6 Apps That Provide Everything A Skateboarder Needs, by Hashir Ibrahim, MakeUseOf

There are a lot of apps out there for skateboarding that can help improve your experience. Here, we have rounded up six apps every skateboarder must have to practice their tricks, explore new skating spots, and connect with other skateboarders around them.

Notes

Cannes: Why Martin Scorsese And Backers Declined A Spot In Competition For ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’, by Scott Feinberg, Hollywood Reporter

Scorsese — who has previously had numerous films play at Cannes both in competition (including Taxi Driver, which won the Palme d’Or in 1976, and After Hours, for which he was awarded 1985’s best director prize) and out of it (numerous documentaries) — and Apple have opted not to take up Fremaux on his offer. That begs the question: why would a legendary filmmaker and a flush distributor, armed with what Fremaux describes as “an extremely strong film” that drove him to tears, not want to screen a film in competition at the world’s most prestigious film fest?

PwC Tax Leaks: Apple, Google And Microsoft Believed To Be Named In Firm Emails, by Neil Chenoweth and Edmund Tadros, Australian Financial Review

Apple, Google and Microsoft are believed to be among 23 US tech firms that PwC Australia contacted hours after treasurer Joe Hockey announced an anti-tax avoidance law in the May 2015 budget, to say the big four firm had a workaround plan for the legislation.

[...]

The crisis has now gone global for the consulting firm – it involves not only a group of major US tech companies, but partners from around the world. The redacted PwC emails show partners shared confidential Treasury information obtained by the firm’s then head of international tax, Peter Collins, about Australia’s MAAL and other new laws targeting multinationals, to win new tech clients.

Bottom of the Page

All these streaming companies -- except Apple, I guess -- are all cutting back costs to lessen their losses. And with no end in sight with the writers' strike, revenue may well be going down in the near future.

So, dear streaming companies, maybe it is time for you to put back some of your titles onto the iTunes Store, bundle in some extra content, and see if you can get some more money for what you have already paid for?

(Actually, all I want to say is this: Disney, when can I buy Hamilton on iTunes?)

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Thanks for reading.