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The On-Behalf-of-the-Planet Edition Saturday, July 13, 2024

Sustainability Leader Lisa Jackson On Apple's Inspiring Mission To Make Tech Planet-friendly, by Georgia Brown, Hello!

"Well, the fun part of the job is putting all the incredibly brilliant and talented people who work for Apple to also work on behalf of the planet. We don't just want to make the best products in the world, they need to be the best planets for the world as well," Lisa says proudly.

"My team is quite small and we call on people throughout the company to step up and help us figure out the challenges that we might be dealing with. For example, mechanical and metallurgical engineers are thinking about recycled materials. They evaluate how we can make our products from recycled materials so we can spare the environmental burden of having to mine material out of the earth.

Vision Pro: As Apple Headset Reaches Europe, Will VR Ever Hit The Mainstream?, by Zoe Kleinman, BBC

Apple and Meta are the two big players but VR is a crowded market - there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of different headsets already out there.

But what unites them all is none have quite hit the mainstream.

India Antitrust Probe Finds Apple Abused Position In Apps Market, by Aditya Kalra, Reuters

An investigation by India's antitrust body has found that Apple exploited its dominant position in the market for app stores on its iOS operating system, engaging "in abusive conduct and practices", a confidential report seen by Reuters showed.

Data Breach

AT&T Says Criminals Stole Phone Records Of 'Nearly All' Customers In New Data Breach, by Zack Whittaker, TechCrunch

U.S. phone giant AT&T confirmed Friday it will begin notifying millions of consumers about a fresh data breach that allowed cybercriminals to steal the phone records of “nearly all” of its customers, a company spokesperson told TechCrunch.

In a statement, AT&T said that the stolen data contains phone numbers of both cellular and landline customers, as well as AT&T records of calls and text messages — such as who contacted who by phone or text — during a six-month period between May 1, 2022 and October 31, 2022.

What The AT&T Call Records Data Breach Means For You, by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, TechCrunch

Sandvik said it’s more concerning for higher-risk individuals affected by the breach. “Some may consider changing their numbers and using a different provider, but it just really depends on the circumstances.” Higher-risk individuals can also include those who have a reason to shield their identity, such as survivors of domestic abuse.

Sandvik also said that using encrypted chat apps — like Signal, which doesn’t hold the type of metadata AT&T just lost; and WhatsApp — could be better for security because these companies have a better track record of protecting user data.

Checking the Weather

‘I Find Them Quite Magical’: The UK’s Obsession With Weather Apps, by Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian

Several times a day, Francesca Simon, the author of the Horrid Henry children’s books, gets out her phone to check the weather – not just for where she is, but where friends and family live, where she has been on holiday, where she was brought up.

“I love weather apps. I find them quite magical,” she said. With about 10 locations logged, her friends make fun of her “weather porn” habit. “If I don’t like what I’m seeing on one app, I’ll check another.”

Should I Bring A Brolly? Five Of The Best Weather Apps, by Oscar Allen, The Guardian

Meteorological institutions record observations using a network of instruments and tend to share them freely, so most weather services start with roughly the same data. But differences arise in how each office analyses and models the data to produce a forecast, and the chaotic nature and complexity of the climate system means small changes can produce huge variation.

A good weather app may not brighten this so far lacklustre British summer, but it can help people prepare for drizzle or occasional sunshine. Here is our pick of the five best weather apps.

Stuff

Apple Shares 'Suerte' Shot On iPhone 15 Pro Max Short Film, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

In the film, Cornejo goes on a journey to Mexico to seek inspiration from his roots for a new hit, and he ends up on a great adventure. His song "Intercambio Injusto" is included, and there is a soundtrack for the film available on Apple Music.

Develop

Apple Confirms visionOS 2 Will Not Be Available In A Public Beta, by Ryan Christoffel, 9to5Mac

Apple’s public beta website confirms every platform that will be getting public beta releases soon, and the Vision Pro unfortunately isn’t among them.

Notes

At 25, Metafilter Feels Like A Time Capsule From Another Internet, by Steven Levy, Wired

Jessamyn West used to describe Metafilter as a social network for non-friends, a description belied in part by the tight-knit camaraderie that emerges in an online group of only a few thousand people. West herself is an example: She met her partner on the site. She also describes the Metafilter cohort as “a community of old Web nerds.”

This month, the venerated site celebrates its 25th anniversary. It’s amazing it has lasted that long; it made it this far in great part thanks to West, who helped stabilize it after a near-death spiral. You could say it’s the site that time forgot—certainly I’d forgotten about it until I decided to mark its big birthday. Metafilter is a kind of digital Brigadoon; visiting it is like a form of time travel. To people who have been around a while, Metafilter seems to preserve in amber the spirit of what online used to be like. The feed is strictly chronological. It’s still text-only. Some members may be influential on Metafilter, but they don’t call themselves influencers, and they don’t sell personally branded cosmetics or garments. As founder Matt Haughey, who stepped down in 2017, says, "It's a weird throwback thing—like a cockroach that survived.”

Bottom of the Page

Here's wishing MetaFilter many more 25 years.

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Thanks for reading.