Month: February 2024

The High Cost of Uber’s Small Profit ⇥ disconnect.blog

Paris Marx:

After being unable to turn a profit for well over a decade, Uber seems to have finally gotten there. But it didn’t do it by building a sustainable business that benefits all its stakeholders. To get to this point, it fired thousands of workers, hiked the prices for its millions of customers, and further turned the screws on the people most important to its business: the drivers and delivery workers. They need to suffer so investors can get a $7 billion share buyback and a maybe even a dividend.

Uber only seems to work financially if it behaves less like an aspirational tech company and more like a logistics broker flexing its leverage.

Data Broker Near Intelligence Linked Visits to Hundreds of Planned Parenthood Locations and Anti-Abortion Ad Campaign ⇥ politico.com

Alfred Ng, Politico:

A company allegedly tracked people’s visits to nearly 600 Planned Parenthood locations across 48 states and provided that data for one of the largest anti-abortion ad campaigns in the nation, according to an investigation by Sen. Ron Wyden, a scope that far exceeds what was previously known.

[…]

Wyden’s letter asks the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Near Intelligence, a location data provider that gathered and sold the information. The company claims to have information on 1.6 billion people across 44 countries, according to its website.

Scrutiny over Near Intelligence first began at the Markup before the Wall Street Journal reported how its data was used for this ad campaign.

Data brokers like Near provide the critical link that allows precise targeting for ad campaigns like this one. People are overwhelmingly concerned about the exploitation of their private data, yet have little understanding of how it works. It is hard to blame anyone for finding this industry impenetrable. That makes it easier for data brokers like Near to dampen even the most modest attempts at restricting their business and, because regulators have limited legal footing on privacy grounds, they must resort to finding procedural infractions. It is like Al Capone’s imprisonment on tax offences.

An effective privacy framework would make it more difficult for third parties to collect users’ data, would limit its use, and would require its destruction after it has served its purpose. Unfortunately, a policy like that would also destroy the data broker industry, sharply curtail Silicon Valley advertising giants, and limit intelligence gathering efforts. So, instead, users must nominally consent and pretend they — we — have meaningful control.

European Commission Finds iMessage, Bing, Edge and Microsoft Ads Are Not Gatekeepers ⇥ ec.europa.eu

The European Commission:

Yesterday, the Commission has adopted decisions closing four market investigations that were launched on 5 September 2023 under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), finding that Apple and Microsoft should not be designated as gatekeepers for the following core platform services: Apple’s messaging service iMessage, Microsoft’s online search engine Bing, web browser Edge and online advertising service Microsoft Advertising.

[…]

The non-confidential versions of the decisions will be published under cases DMA.100015, DMA.100024, DMA.100028 and DMA.100034 on the Commission’s DMA website.

The DMA case ’24 is actually related to Meta’s messaging services; I believe the iMessage decision will be published at ’22 when confidential information has been removed. One data point sure to be scrubbed is the precise number of iMessage users in the E.U., which Apple says falls below the governance threshold of 45 million regular users plus ten thousand business users. Based on some rough back-of-the-envelope math, I assume Apple is leaning heavily on a lack of business users to make its case.

Messaging client interoperability remains a particularly controversial imposition as end-to-end encryption must work between first- and third-party clients. That likely entails some kind of plugin architecture to avoid exposing secrets. I do not expect Apple to take advantage of third-party compatibility.

On another note, it sure is an interesting time in which the browser Microsoft ships with Windows and aggressively pushes — outside of Europe — is used so infrequently it is not considered a gatekeeper but Apple’s default browser is. It feels like some “Freaky Friday” nostalgia.

An Oral History of Apple’s ‘1984’ Macintosh Ad ⇥ nytimes.com

Saul Austerlitz, New York Times (unlocked link if you need it):

In recent interviews, several of the people involved in creating the “1984” spot — [Ridley] Scott; John Sculley, then chief executive of Apple; Steve Hayden, a writer of the ad for Chiat/Day; Fred Goldberg, the Apple account manager for Chiat/Day; and Anya Rajah, the actor who famously threw the sledgehammer — looked back on how the commercial came together, its inspiration and the internal objections that almost kept it from airing. These are edited excerpts from the conversations.

I had no idea the crowd was comprised of real fascists who, apparently, fought with each other on set.

Government of Canada Says It Will Improve Vehicle Theft Prevention Technologies ⇥ canada.ca

The Government of Canada today announced it would ban the Flipper Zero, a product which allows users to explore wireless signals under 1 GHz, hardware protocols, and infrared. That is the headline story emerging from yesterday’s National Summit on Combatting Auto Theft. But there is more to talk about.

There has been a significant spike in car thefts in Canada. (I am unable to link to the specific chart but, if you select “total theft of motor vehicle” from the “Violations” list, you will see the increase that occurred in 2022, and which has likely continued to rise.) These are not thefts of Hyundais and Kias because vehicle immobilizers have been required since 2007. Notably, the 105,673 auto thefts which occurred in 2022 — the most recent year reported by Statistics Canada — remains well below the 146,000 reported in 2007.

The main difference is in which cars are stolen. The top three cars are fairly typical, but at number four are Lexus RX models, and number five are Toyota Highlanders. The Range Rover came in at number eight, but take a look at the theft frequency: nearly four percent of insured vehicles were reported stolen. These cars often end up being exported.

Which brings me to the parts of the Government’s press release that actually interest me:

Additionally, the Government of Canada is using the tools and authorities it has to further curb auto theft:

[…]

  • Transport Canada will modernize the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to ensure they consider technological advancements to deter and prevent auto theft. […]

This, and a further statement pledging to “work with Canadian companies, including the automotive industry, to develop innovative solutions to protect vehicles against theft”, give me hope for a more secure standard that will help in the same way immobilizers did in 2007. Keyless entry exploits are not a new phenomenon. You can almost count on the subject appearing at DEF CON annually. Manufacturers have failed to take this seriously and stricter standards are overdue. Alas, there are currently no specifics and, it should be noted, millions of cars on the road in Canada will remain vulnerable even after new security requirements are introduced.

Meta Says Threads Users Will Not Be Recommended ‘Political’ Posts From Accounts They Do Not Follow ⇥ axios.com

Sara Fischer, Axios:

Meta will not “proactively recommend political content from accounts you don’t follow” on Threads, the company said in a statement provided to Axios.

[…]

Users who post political content can check their account status to see whether they’ve posted too much of it to be eligible for recommendation.

Fischer says Meta is using the same policies it has used for Facebook and Instagram, which Meta describes in vague terms:

As part of this, we aim to avoid making recommendations that could be about politics or political issues, in line with our approach of not recommending certain types of content to those who don’t wish to see it.

Still, there is a fundamental question: what are “political issues”? I looked through Meta’s documentation without finding a good answer. Does any topic which has been politicized count? Are all posts about global warming, trans rights, healthcare, and intellectual property law considered political, or just those which advocate for a particular position? If advocacy is demoted, it likely benefits the status quo and creates a conservative bias by definition. Surely the answer is not to restrict people telling stories which could be construed as politically motivated. Would a post arguing the advantages and disadvantages of different types of stoves be demoted depending on which specific disadvantages are listed for gas stoves? Is this something Meta is able to reproduce in different regions?

An investigation last year by Jeff Horwitz, Keach Hagey, and Emily Glazer of the Wall Street Journal was illuminating in highlighting the consequences of testing different policy adjustments on Facebook in 2021–2022:1

Just testing the broad civic demotion on a fraction of Facebook’s users caused a 10% decline in donations to charities via the platform’s fundraising feature. Humanitarian groups, parent-teacher associations and hospital fundraisers would take serious hits to their Facebook engagement.

An internal presentation warned that while broadly suppressing civic content would reduce bad user experiences, “we’re likely also targeting content users do want to see….The majority of users want the same amount or more civic content than they see in their feeds today. The primary bad experience was corrosiveness/divisiveness and misinformation in civic content.”

The actual problem Meta has is that users spend time in the fun house mirror maze of its recommendations and the real world. Politicians operating in bad faith use nuanced issues circulating on social media platforms as an opportunity to create publicity materials that, in turn, perform well on those same platforms. Ideological obligations transform fact-based policy into thoughtless dunking.

Meta is in this mess because it believes it should recommend things to users it think they might find interesting. It transformed its platforms from opt-in systems where users affirmatively agree to see posts from particular users and topics into places where they must take steps to exclude unwanted things from their feed. It puts Meta in a position where it influences what users see, something which many people find objectionable when it does not comport with their values.

As a reminder, Meta says this only affects the recommendations of posts from accounts users do not follow. You should still see posts from the reporters, pundits, and activists you follow which, if you follow any, are likely ideologically consistent. Oh, and Meta still sells a way for people and organizations to advocate directly.

  1. Another tidbit from this story:

    The company is still debating whether it should also restrict how it promotes other types of content. When newsfeed dialed back the reward for producing inflammatory posts on politics and health, some publishers switched to more sensationalistic crime coverage.

    I wonder if this partly explains that wave of panicked shoplifting stories. ↥︎

Microsoft Will End Mixed Reality Support in Windows Later This Year ⇥ blogs.windows.com

Amanda Langowski and Brandon LeBlanc of Microsoft:

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26052 to the Canary and Dev Channels.

[…]

Plugging in to use a Windows Mixed Reality headset will not work starting with this build. Windows Mixed Reality is no longer available to users as Windows Mixed Reality has been announced as deprecated. This includes the Mixed Reality Portal app, and Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR and Steam VR Beta. Existing Windows Mixed Reality devices will continue to work with Steam through November 2026, if users remain on their current released version of Windows 11 (version 23H2) and do not upgrade to this year’s annual feature update for Windows 11 (version 24H2). This deprecation does not impact HoloLens.

Perfect timing to pull back from this space.

Lawsuit Alleges Wrongly Accused Person Landed in Jail Thanks to Facial Recognition False Positive, Then Assaulted ⇥ vice.com

Matthew Gault, Vice:

In January of 2022, Harvey Murphy was arrested and thrown in jail while trying to get his driver’s license renewed at a local DMV. According to a $10 million lawsuit Murphy has since filed, a “loss prevention” agent working for a Sunglass Hut retail store used facial recognition software to accuse Murphy of perpetrating an armed robbery at a store in Houston, Texas. In reality, Murphy was more than 2,000 miles away at the time of the robbery.

According to a lawsuit 61-year-old Murphy has filed against Macy’s and Sunglass Hut, “he was arrested and put into an overcrowded maximum-security jail with violent criminals. While in jail trying to prove his innocence, he was beaten, gang-raped, and left with permanent and awful life-long injuries. Hours after being beaten and gang-raped, the charges against him were dropped and he was released.”

Via Tim Cushing, Techdirt:

Law enforcement loves to portray detentions that only last “hours” to be so minimally detrimental to people’s rights as to not be worth of additional attention, much less the focus of a civil rights lawsuit. But it only takes seconds to violate a right. And once it’s violated, it stays violated, even if charges are eventually dropped.

As usual, nobody is posting the original text of the lawsuit, so I pulled a copy myself.

What happened to Murphy is obviously the product of several failures at a human level. However, it is hard for me to believe any of this would have materialized without a false positive facial recognition which, allegedly, was conducted by EssilorLuxottica and Macy’s, not law enforcement. Even for the regulation reluctant, this must be one area where much stricter oversight and policies are enforced.

Update: I adjusted the headline for clarity.

Wide Lightning ⇥ ifixit.com

iFixit has been tearing down Apple’s Vision Pro, and there is much to look at in this thing. There are jam-packed boards if you are into nitty-gritty details, there are many complicated parts sandwiched together, and there are the “highest-density displays [iFixit has] ever seen”.

So I think I will focus on the strange connector used at the pack end of the battery.

Charlie Sorrel, in “part one” of the iFixit teardown:

On the left side is the proprietary battery cable connection, which snaps into place with a magnet and then twists to lock. We understand why Apple used a non-standard connector here, even if we don’t love it — at least it can’t be yanked out by a passing child, or when the cord inevitably catches on your chair. But the plug at the other end of the cable is unforgivable. Instead of terminating with a USB-C plug, it connects to the battery pack with what looks like a proprietary oversized Lightning connector, which you release using a paperclip or SIM-removal tool.

This connector means that you can’t just swap in the USB-C battery pack you already own. Lame.

It only took four days and the second part of the iFixit teardown for Sorrel to suggest some reasons for the use of a proprietary connector:

The pack is also outputting a non-USB-standard 13 volts to keep up with the Vision Pro’s processing demands, which is one explanation for the bespoke “big Lightning” cable — so you don’t accidentally plug other devices in and fry them. It also explains why you can’t just plug it straight into a USB-C battery pack. In fact, the Vision Pro’s battery pack has enough tech to act as an uninterruptible power supply, providing it specific, clean power even when plugged into the wall.

Oh, so maybe it does not seem so “unforgivable”?

Whether Apple would have used a USB-C connector if it were able to make the headset’s power demands compliant with the typical voltage of a USB-C device is something you can speculate about if you would like. It seems to me that Apple’s choice of a non-USB-C connector might not require it to use something proprietary; there are other options. But this seems entirely fair in context. The Vision Pro is not compatible with standard batteries, but the power bank it comes with does have a standard connector on it. It sure is a bizarre connector, though.

Chris Dixon’s ‘Read Write Own’ ⇥ citationneeded.news

Molly White, following an excoriating review of venture capitalist Chris Dixon’s new book on her Citation Needed newsletter, which is a great name I would steal if I had a time machine:

Although there are no footnotes marked in the text, I was briefly pleased to find a section for notes at the end of the book, where Dixon does lightly cite various sources — mostly news articles, and many from crypto media outlets. However, my relief that I might be able to easily fact-check the long list of questionable claims I had noted quickly faded as I discovered that citations were included to verify things like his statement that “people hated the irritating alien Jar Jar Binks”, and not the much bolder claims he makes throughout. Many claims go completely unsubstantiated, and one subsection — the one on “Blockchain networks” — cites just one source (for the epigraph).

Even knowing that Dixon is an extraordinarily influential and wealthy person, White’s review makes it sound like this is some self-serving promotional nonsense he must have self-published. In actual fact, it appears to be some self-serving promotional nonsense from the “world’s largest English-language general trade book publisher”. Judging by the feedback Dixon is receiving, it seems to be good enough for the true believers.

How Apple Is Demonstrating the Vision Pro ⇥ michaelsteeber.substack.com

Michael Steeber:

Compared to other new platforms, Apple is relatively early to the spatial computing category in a consumer context. In addition, Apple Vision Pro is intensely personal, much more so than even the Apple Watch. Trying your buddy’s Vision Pro is more like trying on their shoes than playing with their iPhone: it might work if you’re the same size, but it’s going to be awkward and maybe even a little bit gross.

All of this makes a great demo absolutely critical. That’s mostly new ground for Apple. Even the Apple Watch demo experience was essentially a more sophisticated and personal way to try the product and explore band options. Today, it’s not even possible to walk into an Apple Store and hold Vision Pro without an appointment.

This is a good look at what it is like to try a Vision Pro in one of Apple’s stores — something those of us outside the United States are unlikely to experience for many months. Even if you are uncertain about Steeber’s frankly fawning coverage of the retail experience, it is worth your time to understand how such a unique and personal device can be shown to so many people in a relatively organized fashion. This is unlike any product Apple has tried to sell in its stores and, so, demands an entirely different approach.

Judge Allows FTC Case Against Kochava to Proceed ⇥ therecord.media

Suzanne Smalley, the Record:

An Idaho federal judge on Saturday ruled that a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement action against the data broker Kochava — which the agency asserts sells vast amounts of non-anonymized data belonging to millions of people — may continue, a reversal of a prior ruling to dismiss the case.

Privacy advocates consider the court decision to be significant for several reasons, including that the case is the FTC’s first against a geolocation data broker to be fought in court. The decision also lays the foundation for a widely anticipated FTC rulemaking on commercial surveillance, which could further limit data brokers’ activities.

The FTC, under Lina Khan, is scoring victories for consumers worldwide by beating back data brokers like Kochava and X-Mode, as they cannot be certain they are only collecting data on U.S. customers. If the FTC prevails in this suit, it could put significant restrictions on this industry based on the fundamental principle that exposing private data is inherently subjecting people to potential harm.

Bluesky Opens to the Public ⇥ washingtonpost.com

Will Oremus, Washington Post:

“I didn’t see the future,” [Jay] Graber said in an interview Monday, referring to the subsequent ouster of Dorsey as Twitter’s CEO and sale of the company to Elon Musk. “But as I like to say, the captain can always sink the ship.”

Today, Bluesky is opening to the public after nearly a year as an invitation-only app, with Graber as its CEO. With a little over 3 million users, it’s mounting a long-shot bid to take on the company that spawned it — and to set social media on a course that no single captain can control.

Bluesky does not need to become more popular than behemoths like Twitter or Threads to be successful. Twitter itself proved that: it was big, sure, but despite operating nowhere near the scale of Facebook or Instagram, it was disproportionately influential.

Bluesky’s interpretation of a text-based social network is compelling. It is familiar, fast, and feature-rich, without being overwhelming. I just wish there was a good Mac app. If you have not had an opportunity to check it out, now is a great time. I will bury my five unused invitation codes alongside the 99 Gmail invites I never used.

Update: I finally got an account set up for this website so you can follow it on Bluesky if you would like. A reminder of the Mastodon account too, which will probably work on Threads whenever it federates.

Fixing Google’s Most Recent Pixel Storage Issue Requires Developer Tools and the Command Line ⇥ arstechnica.com

Thomas Claburn, the Register, in October:

Bug reports filed to Google’s Issue Tracker on October 17 and 24 describe Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 devices that can no longer access locally stored photos and other documents, or conduct updates, because the hardware reports having no space to store files. They also describe being stuck in a loop of constant reboots.

More than 500 comments have been posted to the October 17 thread, many from Pixel device owners who claim they too have been affected.

Joe Hindy, PC Magazine, November 7:

The storage glitch essentially locked affected Pixel owners out of local storage if they had multiple users, including guests, restricted profiles, and child users (but not if they just had more than one Google account on the device). At worst, the bug caused boot loops that made the phone totally inoperable without a factory reset, which erased data that had not been backed up.

After releasing a Google Play system update to patch it temporarily, Google this week launched its monthly software update for November 2023, which should fix the issue on the Pixel 6, Pixel 6a, 6 Pro, 7, 7 Pro, 7a, Tablet, Fold, Pixel 8, and Pixel 8 Pro.

Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, last week:

Google has another fix for the second major storage bug Pixel phones have seen in the last four months. Last week, reports surfaced that some Pixel owners were being locked out of their phone’s local storage, creating a nearly useless phone with all sorts of issues. Many blamed the January 2024 Google Play system update for the issue, and yesterday, Google confirmed that hypothesis. Google posted an official solution to the issue on the Pixel Community Forums, but there’s no user-friendly solution here. Google’s automatic update system broke people’s devices, but the fix is completely manual, requiring users to download the developer tools, install drivers, change settings, plug in their phones, and delete certain files via a command-line interface.

Like the October problem, this seems to disproportionately impact devices with multiple user profiles, according to Amadeo. And, like those past Pixel problems and the Google Drive issues in November, the only support many users were able to find for days was in communal commiseration on user forums.

Secretive Intelligence Firm With Alberta Government Contract Reveals Limitations of Public Disclosures ⇥ ricochet.media

Ethan Cox, Ricochet:

On Thursday, February 1 a strange tweet was sent from the Twitter account of Welund, a secretive multi-national surveillance company run by former law enforcement and intelligence operatives with a track record of spying on activists and public figures.

“Obstruction charge against Indigenous journalist Brandi Morin proceeds,” read the tweet, linking to an article on Welund’s intelligence platform — an article that can only be accessed by corporations, law enforcement agencies and governments who pay huge sums to access Welund’s “intelligence.”

It seems kind of strange for Welund to be tweeting a stream of locked-down links. Surely there must be a better front-end for clients to follow the latest relevant news from within this platform, right? Weird stuff.

I am linking to this article primarily because it shows how obfuscated and unaccountable these private intelligence firms are. For example:

Another wrinkle is that Welund’s services are offered in a format designed to thwart access to information requests. Instead of sending intelligence reports to government officials by email, they publish them on their own secure site, where government officials are able to sign in and access them. Because the documents are never in the possession of the government, they can’t be compelled to disclose them.

Cox also found Welund’s connection to the Alberta government through a barely documented branch known as the Provincial Security and Intelligence Office. According to a description on page 153 of 2022–2023 government estimates (PDF), it is overseen by the Chief Firearms Office; it is not mentioned in the current year estimates (PDF). The most comprehensive public explanation of the PSIO can be found on page 22 of the transcript of a March 2022 hearing (PDF). I would not assume the government is being deliberately withholding. Rather, this is likely one of those cases where even standard government transparency is not enough to understand the powers and decisions made by this Office.

Of course, it could be worse. Cox:

[…] multiple subsidiary companies are often created to decrease the likelihood of journalists or others piecing together the business relationship between such a company and government, law enforcement or other clients. We’ve identified at least four distinct business entities that all trace back to Welund, including Foresight Reports, Welund North America Ltd. and Falling Apple Solutions.

This is a clever tactic. If a contract is between some minor office within an agency and a consulting firm instead of, say, directly between an agency and a private intelligence firm, it makes it harder to track spending. For example, if you were looking at this agreement between Public Works and Government Services Canada and Carahsoft, you would not be aware it is for Palantir access unless you also searched the contract number and found Carahsoft’s press release.

This required transparency is better than the entirely voluntary private sector. The vast majority of us have zero insight into the supply chains and contractors for everything we buy. But the public sector could do a better job of ensuring visibility into the true nature of every party in a contract. Also, the Alberta government should more fully disclose its intelligence services, and they should not be spying on journalists.

There is one thing I am not certain of from Cox’s investigation:

Welund also did not respond to a request for comment sent last night, but within minutes of our request being sent the tweet referencing Brandi Morin was deleted from their Twitter feed.

Then, after we sent comment requests to the government bodies this morning, their entire site was locked down. Instead of the landing page detailing their services that previously greeted visitors, their site now leads only to a secure login portal for clients.

The first part of this quote is entirely correct; the tweet was removed from Welund’s account. So far as I can tell, the second claim — that the company locked out an inquiring public — is questionable.

Like many websites, Welund’s can be accessed via http and https protocols but, unlike most, visiting the https one is entirely different. The http version contains the same marketing page as appears in Cox’s report and which, this article says, was “locked down” following inquiries. The https version redirects to the sign-in page. In Safari, I can access both pages no problem. However, in the Chromium-based Vivaldi, the http version redirects to the https version because it automatically “upgrades” connections. Archived versions of Welund’s website from last year exhibit the same behaviour.

It seems plausible to me this was the reason why Welund’s website appeared to be closed off, though I am not sure how Cox would have seen the http version first. (Perhaps in a different browser?) I have flagged this for Ricochet in an email. Right now, Welund’s stripped-down site — a classic trait of bizarrely successful government contractors — works fine for me if you view it in a browser which still supports http connections.

The Layoffs Will Continue Until Morale Improves ⇥ npr.org

Bobby Allyn, NPR:

Now in 2024, tech company workforces have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, inflation is half of what it was this time last year and consumer confidence is rebounding.

Yet, in the first four weeks of this year, nearly 100 tech companies, including Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, TikTok and Salesforce have collectively let go of about 25,000 employees, according to layoffs.fyi, which tracks the technology sector.

Paul Farhi, the Atlantic, on Tuesday this week:

For a few hours last Tuesday, the entire news business seemed to be collapsing all at once. Journalists at Time magazine and National Geographic announced that they had been laid off. Unionized employees at magazines owned by Condé Nast staged a one-day strike to protest imminent cuts. By far the grimmest news was from the Los Angeles Times, the biggest newspaper west of the Washington, D.C., area. After weeks of rumors, the paper announced that it was cutting 115 people, more than 20 percent of its newsroom.

Sara Fischer, Axios, one day later:

The Messenger, a digital news startup that launched with $50 million in funding last May, plans to shut down operations, a source familiar with the situation told Axios Wednesday.

There is a huge roundup of coverage of the Messenger’s failure in today’s issue of Today in Tabs. While many layoffs have been conducted poorly, the Messenger shut down with another level of brutality, to the extent that former staff are suing.

There are an awful lot of tech workers and journalists whose jobs have been taken from them this year. It is only the first of February. The reasons behind the layoffs in each sector are different; Allyn notes how shareholders are rewarding the tech companies eliminating jobs. The pain, however, is the same.

Tim Cook, Apple CEO, Is ‘Really Excited’ for Apple’s New Product ⇥ vanityfair.com

On the eve of Apple’s Vision Pro release, Vanity Fair published a preview from Nick Bilton. It is a fun, light-touch article, notable mostly for its photos of Tim Cook wearing the headset, answering a perplexing obsession.

Bilton interviewed Cook about the Vision Pro and got a glimpse into how Apple describes its origins “maybe six, seven, or even eight” years ago.1 It is predictable, but the text I bolded in this paragraph caught me off guard:

It was at Mariani 1, a nondescript low-rise building on the edge of the old Infinite Loop campus with blacked-out windows. This place is so secret, it’s known as one of Apple’s “black ops” facilities. Nearly all of the thousands of employees who work at Apple have never set foot inside one. There are multiple layers of doors that lock behind and in front of you. But Cook is the CEO and can go anywhere. So he strolls past restricted rooms where foldable iPhones and MacBooks with retractable keyboards or transparent televisions were dreamed up. Where these devices, almost all of which will never leave this building, are stored in locked Pelican cases inside locked cupboards.

These products are certainly from Bilton’s imagination even though they are presented as though they exist. Its inclusion alongside stuff Cook apparently told him makes the piece land somewhere between fiction and documentary, in an uncanny valley of access journalism. That does not mean it is not an entertaining piece to read, though.

  1. Or maybe even longer. ↥︎

Alberta Government Proposes Discriminatory Policies Against Trans Youth ⇥ egale.ca

Paula Tran, Global News:

In a social media post on Wednesday afternoon, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the government will require parental notification and consent if a child 15 years or younger changes their name and pronouns at school.

In the video on X, formerly known as Twitter, Smith said parents of children aged 16 and 17 will not need to consent to the changes but will need to be notified.

These are only the start of a long list of unsubstantiated policies aimed at discriminating against trans youth. Yet Smith’s video wraps them in the language of civil rights and inclusion. It is an unsettling effect.

Smith’s specific objections are a grab bag of familiar grievances, none of which are supported by experts in this field. An article published last year by Evan Urquhart is a good if U.S.-centric overview of common beliefs; Calgary’s Skipping Stone Foundation has a list of resources, too. Smith’s policy proposal is purely based on vibes, which means it cannot be disputed with facts. Kids in this province will feel the disproportionate hurt it will cause. Smith had the gall to claim her goal was “depoliticizing” the rights of transgender kids in this province by inserting politics between patients and doctors.

From a joint statement issued by Egale Canada and Skipping Stone Foundation:

The draconian measures announced run directly counter to expert guidance and evidence, violate the constitutional rights of 2SLGBTQI+ people, and will lead to irreparable harm and suffering.

Egale and Skipping Stone will bring legal action to protect our communities.

Canadian Women and Sport also expressed their firm disagreement.