Apple Support App Expands to 20 New Countries and Regions

Apple’s Support app for iOS devices, which is designed to allow you to get help with your Apple products, today expanded to more than 20 new countries and regions, making the app more widely available around the world.

Several new languages have been added to the Support app as well, including Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.

Apple also now allows you to get help from the Support app in your preferred language regardless of where you are located.

For those unfamiliar with the Apple Support app, it provides access to support documents through a Discover section along with options to get help from Apple’s support team for all of your linked devices.

The Support App can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

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Instagram Expands Shopping to Stories

Instagram today announced that it is expanding its shopping feature beyond the news feed to Instagram Stories.

When viewing Instagram Stories from brands, stickers with a shopping bag icon can be tapped and will provide more details about the product along with purchase options.

Instagram has previously allowed users to view product information and make purchases through brand posts in the main news feed.

Instagram says that the new Stories shopping feature is available to a select number of brands that include Adidas, Aritzia, and Louis Vuitton, with support set to expand to additional brands in the near future.

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Apple’s New App Store Guidelines Restrict Apps From Harvesting Data From iPhone Users’ Friends

Apple last week updated its App Store Review Guidelines for developers after unveiling iOS 12, introducing rules for remote mirroring apps, banning cryptocurrency mining, and introducing clear rules to allow developers to provide free trials for paid apps.

At the same time, Apple also quietly expanded its data sharing rules, as Bloomberg points out, introducing strict new guidelines that prevent app developers from collecting user data to build advertising profiles or contact databases. The rules also prohibit apps from harvesting data from an iPhone user’s contacts. From Apple’s updated 5.1.2 data sharing guidelines:

(iii) Apps should not attempt to surreptitiously build a user profile based on collected data and may not attempt, facilitate, or encourage others to identify anonymous users or reconstruct user profiles based on data collected from Apple-provided APIs or any data that you say has been collected in an “anonymized,” “aggregated,” or otherwise non-identifiable way.

(iv) Do not use information from Contacts, Photos, or other APIs that access user data to build a contact database for your own use or for sale/distribution to third parties, and don’t collect information about which other apps are installed on a user’s device for the purposes of analytics or advertising/marketing.

(v) Do not contact people using information collected via a user’s Contacts or Photos, except at the explicit initiative of that user on an individualized basis; do not include a Select All option or default the selection of all contacts. You must provide the user with a clear description of how the message will appear to the recipient before sending it (e.g. What will the message say? Who will appear to be the sender?).

The wording of the updated 5.1.2 guideline puts an end to secretive data collection techniques, where developers collect data from an iPhone user’s contacts and then use it for marketing and advertising purposes. In the past, developers have used iPhone contact lists, which include phone numbers, email addresses, photos, and other information, for unsavory advertising and data collection purposes.

One developer explained to Bloomberg just how much data was accessible and how easily it could be obtained and abused without Apple’s knowledge:

“The address book is the Wild West of data,” the iOS developer said. “I am able to instantly transfer all the contacts info into some random server or upload it to Dropbox if I wanted to, the very moment a user says okay to giving contacts permission. Apple doesn’t track it, nor do they know where it went.”

Developers are now expressly forbidden from using apps to build user profiles and contact databases and from misusing contact information and other sensitive user data. Apple has also prohibited apps from sending out mass texts to a user’s contact list without explicit user permission. Developers who are caught breaking Apple’s new data sharing rules may be banned from the App Store.

The full App Store Guidelines for developers can be viewed on Apple’s website.

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Privacy virtual credit card service adds cash back for online transactions

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Back in 2016, Privacy launched its free service that allows shoppers to use virtual “burner” cards for all your online transactions — making your financial details anonymous on the internet. On Tuesday, June 12, the company officially launched a cash-back program, giving users a percentage back when they use Privacy to make a purchase.

After creating an account and setting up your preferences, every transaction you make moving forward will provide you with at least 1 percent cash back  — and can go all the way up to 5 percent for specific vendors. But it’s important to note that transactions using PayPal and other money services don’t qualify for the rewards.

Privacy needs to be installed as a Chrome extension, which will recognize any time you’re on a checkout page.  The online-only service works with Visa debit cards, and all you need to do is link your bank account when you sign up.

You’ll see Privacy’s icon where you need to add your card information — click on the logo and you’ll get the option to create a new virtual card for the service. These cards can be reused with the retailer, or terminated after a one-time transaction.

What happens when you create a card? Privacy generates a random debit card number, security code, and expiration date. These are tied to merchants if you opt to reuse a card. The anonymous debit card number means you can use any name and billing address you want. This way, no one but you has your card information.

“It boils down to giving control back to you as the consumer,” Privacy co-founder and CEO Bo Jiang told Digital Trends. “You can definitely limit subscriptions … you don’t have to worry about data breaches anymore if such-and-such merchant gets hacked.”

Jiang says Privacy’s anonymity also protects you from debit card fraud and identity theft. For example, someone who accesses your virtual card information but can only use it with HBO Now will find it useless. The service also makes disputing a charge a piece of cake — just fill out a form and the information is sent to Visa.

Once the card is charged, the money is withdrawn from your account by Privacy. You can also add a charge limit to your card per merchant, to control spending at various online retailers; and you can pause or cancel cards at any time.

The company is able to provide the service for free as it takes a cut of the interchange fee with its issuing bank as well as with Visa.

Privacy is available to everyone. Support for Firefox, Safari, Google Pay, and Apple Pay are in the works. You can also download the iOS app and Android app to generate burner cards and view your transactions, just like the web app.

Updated on June 11: Privacy launches cash-back rewards for users.

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The worst internet trends of 2018, 2017, and beyond

The internet can be a powerful stage for new ideas and movements. In recent years, it has been home to countless trends and initiatives, including #MeToo and the March for Science, as well as acting as an invaluable platform to garner donations for important causes.

Some internet challenges, like the Ice Bucket Challenge (which reached its heyday back in the summer of 2014), help raise money and awareness for diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Challenges like this are capable of doing a lot of good thanks in part to the power of the internet.

Not all trends are so praiseworthy, however. Some are ill-advised or downright dangerous, and only exist to amass likes and views online. From eating Tide Pods to feather eyebrows, these are the worst trends to ever emerge from online culture.

Here’s how much Amazon Prime costs and how you can get it for cheaper

Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service that provides eligible Amazon members with a plethora of exclusive benefits, including free two-day shipping and access to on-demand music and videos. For the 100 million people already using the service, Amazon Prime is a great way to make the most out of your Amazon account. But how much does the service actually cost to use?

When Amazon first introduced the service in 2005, it cost $79 a year for free shipping within the contiguous United States. However, the membership fee has since increased (once in 2014, and again just recently) to accommodate the new services — such as Prime Video, Prime Reading, and the Whole Foods discount — that have been added to the service. Before you can figure out how much the service is going to cost you, though, there are several subscriptions and discounts you’ll want to be aware of.

Amazon Prime

Amazon recently announced some price changes to its Prime membership tiers. The standard Amazon Prime membership will still run you about $13 a month (for a total of $156 a year). Where the biggest change will be felt is in the annual membership, which is increasing by $20 (from $99 to $119). However, if you can afford to shell out for the annual membership, it’s still the better deal in the long run, as you end up saving yourself about $37 a year by not paying month-to-month.

Existing Prime members with an annual membership will renew at this rate ($119) starting on June 16. As of May 11, all new members will be charged this rate as well.

Amazon Student

If you are a student or professor (or anyone with a .edu email address), you may be eligible for the Amazon Prime Student membership which only costs $6.50 a month ($78 a year). If you purchase the annual membership, it will only cost you $59.

However, the one downside of this cheaper membership is that you will need to re-enroll as a student every year to keep this rate or Amazon will assume you’ve graduated and beginning charging you the standard rate.

Free Trial

Are you new to Amazon Prime and are not sure if you want to commit to an entire year’s worth of the subscription? Amazon also offers a 30-day free trial of its Prime service. You’ll need to put a credit card on file to sign up for it, and it’s only available to first-time members, but as long as you remember to cancel your membership before your 30 days are up, this is a great way to test run the service for free before you commit.

Prime Video Membership

While free shipping used to be one of the biggest draws to becoming an Amazon Prime member, that may no longer be the case since Amazon started streaming exclusive content like Mozart in the Jungle and Lore, with plans for an Amazon-exclusive Lord of the Rings prequel as well. You can enroll in a Prime Video-only membership, which will allow you to stream everything the service has to provide for only $9 a month ($108 if you pay monthly versus $99 for the annual Prime Video membership).

You won’t be able to get the free shipping or other services associated with the traditional plan without signing up for that one, but the Prime Video membership can be a good way to get some of the benefits of the Prime service for less money. You can also add additional services to your Prime Video account through participating partners such as HBO, Cinemax, and Starz (for another fee, of course).

Other options

Besides Prime Day, which is known to offer exclusive deals (including Prime memberships) for current membership holders, you may also be able to get a Prime membership through another service you already have (such as Sprint) for a potential discount. Be sure to check with your cell phone or cable provider for more details and to see if you are eligible.

Even at its most expensive ($156 a year if you opt to not get the annual membership), Amazon Prime is a great way to make the most out of your Amazon account, if you use the service regularly.

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The biggest Apple disappointments, flops, and failures

Another WWDC 2018 has officially come and gone. The annual conference, which Apple uses to highlight its latest-and-greatest software initiatives, saw the announcement of iOS 12, ARKit 2, and MacOS Mojave, as well as increased functionality for AR emojis and Siri. In the past, the tech giant has also used this event to announce new iterations of the iPhone and Mac but, alas, that wasn’t the case this year.

And while Apple showed off some cool refinements coming to its desktop and mobile operating systems, not everything the company has done in the past has been as elegant. To prove our point, we went back and reflected on some of Apple’s biggest failures over the past 40 years, from Bendgate to that U2 album nobody wanted.

Here’s what we found.

Ping, the failed music social media network (2010)

iTunes Ping, often referred to as just Ping, was Apple’s attempt at a social media network, one that combined music-oriented social networking with a recommendation system for finding new music. The service allowed users to follow artists they liked and see short posting from said artists and friends. While in many ways a spiritual predecessor to services such as Spotify and Apple Music, Ping was considered a major flop. The service launched with a million members in 2010, but didn’t manage to keep them around for long.

The immense amount of spam and fake accounts on the network, along with its lack of integration with Facebook and other social media platforms, led to the service’s demise in 2012. Before the announcement of Apple Music, Apple replaced Ping integration in iTunes with links to Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps Ping was just ahead of its time, but it seems a lot more likely that it was just something that people never wanted. Whatever the reason for its lack of engagement, we weren’t particularly sad to see it go.

Bendgate (2014)

Americans aren’t exactly well-known for their clever naming conventions when it comes to controversies, so when people started reporting that the iPhone 6 was bending in their pockets, Bendgate — a terrible play on Watergate — was born. The phrase has since expanded and often references structure issues across various electronic devices, but it was originally created in response to the bendy iPhones of 2014, a fact Apple would probably prefer most of us to forget.

According to Apple, the company only received nine complaints regarding bent devices following the initial launch of the iPhone 6. This isn’t very many, especially when you consider that first-weekend sales topped 10 million units. Nonetheless, the controversy quickly spread across the web, prompting Apple to issue an official response. In a press release, Apple determined that any damage to the iPhone 6 during regular use was “extremely rare,” despite online reactions.

Wait, where did the headphone jack go? (2016)

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

With the release of the iPhone 7, Apple made the bold decision to get rid of the smartphone’s 3.5mm headphone jack, opting instead for a lightning port that will charge the device and act as a port for compatible headphones. But many people weren’t impressed. From the initial lack of compatible devices to the fact that people were now having a harder time using what they considered an essential function of their phone, removing the headphone jack did not go over well with consumers at all.

Apple stuck to its guns, however, and no flagship since has featured a headphone jack, including the iPhone X. And while it’s important to innovate and challenge previously held notions regarding technology, getting rid of something that many people use regularly — and preventing them from using their headphones while charging — was probably not the best way to go about it. Wireless headphones and charging have helped alleviate this problem, but we won’t be so quick to forget what Apple did.

Antennagate (2010)

Does anybody else remember those weird bumpers everybody had on their iPhones back in 2010? Shortly after the release of the iPhone 4, many users began noticing reception issues and an increased frequency of dropped calls that simply didn’t exist with previous iterations of the iPhone. The issue? The iPhone 4’s antenna, which ran nearly three-quarters of the length of the phone on the outside of the device, without any coating or insulation, where it was often covered by the hand of the person using it.

The design was a callback to the cellphone antennas of days past and was, in theory, supposed to improve reception. Sometimes things don’t work out like was planned, however, and if you put your hand or finger over the antenna, it would wreak some serious havoc on your reception. While the malfunction was an issue in and of itself (some of which was alleviated by those weird bumpers), Apple managed to make the matter worse when it accused its user base of simply holding their devices wrong.

“You’re holding it wrong,” a reference to Apple’s response to the controversy, quickly became a meme.

iOS 11 glitches galore (2017)

The first iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 11, had more than a few glitches when it first launched. From a bug in the QR code reader that direct users to malicious sites, to instances where receiving certain characters would cause iMessage to crash, it was prone to all sorts of issues. There was even an issue where a letter “A” and a symbol would appear when you typed the letter “I,” which caused all sorts of problems. New OS releases are always a little buggy, yes, but this one was particularly bad, and it’s still fresh on our minds.

That U2 album no one wanted (2014)

In an idea that probably sounded a lot better on paper, Apple managed to anger hundreds of thousands of users in 2014 by adding U2’s 13th album, Songs of Innocence, to everyone’s iTunes accounts. Whether you’re a fan of the band or not is kind of beside the point; the fact you couldn’t remove the album from your Song Library was infuriating on multiple levels.

It was such a bad PR disaster that Bono, lead singer of U2, even apologized for the album’s release, saying that “I had this beautiful idea and we got carried away with ourselves.” Apple eventually was eventually forced to release a tool that would allow customers to remove the album from their accounts, and the giveaway was ultimately deemed worse than spam.

The Apple III (1980)

The Apple III was Apple’s attempt at a business-focused desktop computer, which turned out to be a thing that no one actually wanted or asked for. Released in 1980 as the successor to the Apple II series, the 8-bit Apple III was considered a remarkable failure, selling only 120,000 units (including the Apple III Plus). Several factors contributed to the machine’s failure, including FFC radio interference qualifications and the 16-bit IBM Personal Computer that was released the following year.

The original version of the machine was also recalled due to serious stability issues that required a complete design overhaul. That, coupled with competition from IBM, meant the Apple III was never quite able to bounce back. In his 2006 memoir, iWoz, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak attributed the Apple III’s failure to the fact that the system was designed by Apple’s marketing team, and not the engineering team, instead of just admitting it was a bad idea from the start.

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This algorithm turns World Cup games into 3D augmented reality

The men’s World Cup kicks off this week. As exciting as it promises to be, however, most of us will only get to watch it on flat television sets, as opposed to getting the three-dimensional experience of seeing it live and in person. Researchers from the University of Washington have come up with an augmented reality alternative, though. While it probably won’t be available to the masses in time for this year’s tournament, it does hint at one way in which fans at home may be able to enjoy sports games in the future.

What the researchers have developed is a machine learning algorithm capable of transforming 2D soccer clips into 3D reconstructions, which may be viewed using AR headsets like Microsoft’s HoloLens. The results allow viewers to turn flat surfaces like their desk or kitchen table into a virtual pitch, complete with three-dimensional action that you can circle around to view from different angles.

It’s not quite the equivalent of watching it in person, but it’s much closer than regular TV. And significantly cheaper, too!

“Our goal is to enhance the viewing experience of sports,” Konstantinos Rematas, one of the researchers on the project, told Digital Trends. “Instead of watching a soccer game or highlights on a flat 2D screen, we convert the original video into 3D and visualize it in augmented reality. Essentially the game becomes a hologram, where you can move around and look from different viewpoints, generating a more immersive experience.”

Konstantinos Rematas

As its input, the algorithm generating the AR experience requires just a single YouTube soccer video. Because this is not enough information to train an entire rendering system to “upconvert” 2D players into 3D, the neural network learned to estimate depth by playing the playing the EA video game FIFA 2018. Using the totality of this information, it can do a passable job of accurately gauging where players are on the pitch.

At present, the system is still a work in progress. For instance, the ball is not yet properly rendered (something which turns out to be pretty darn important in soccer) and the players remain two-dimensional cutouts. These are two improvements the researchers hope to make.

“The next steps are about increasing the quality of the game reconstruction,” Rematas continued. “In particular, we want to estimate precisely the location of the ball and reconstruct better the players — occlusions, full 3D shape estimation, [and more].” In addition, the researchers plan to extend the framework to also cover other sports such as basketball, hockey, and football.

A paper describing the work is available to read online.

Dual-screen Andromeda headlines Microsoft’s leaked 2018 Surface lineup

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This year’s E3 conference is proving to be a veritable treasure trove of Microsoft news and leaks. After the company revealed during its E3 keynote that it was “deep into architecting the next Xbox consoles,” we are hearing reports that Microsoft may be on track with releasing its oft-rumored and highly anticipated dual-screen computing device this year. Although Microsoft initially killed off its Courier concept, the idea was more recently revived under the Andromeda codename.

In a video discussing the company’s hardware road map spotted by OnMSFT, Thurrot.com writer Brad Sams stated that Andromeda is targeted for a launch this year. “Andromeda was mentioned in this content that I was able to view,” Sams said. “It says a release date of 2018, which is this year.”

Microsoft, however, won’t be the only one to embrace the dual-screen computing form factor — its hardware partners may also be planning their own devices, which could be timed around the same time as Microsoft’s big unveiling when that happens. “So we’re looking at a pocketable device, also the documentation says that OEM partners are also going to release similar devices,” Sams added.

This shouldn’t be too surprising given the news coming from chipmakers Intel and Qualcomm. The latter recently unveiled its Snapdragon 850 processor, which is not only geared toward Microsoft’s Windows on ARM platform known as Always Connected PCs, but was designed with innovative form factors in mind. The latter part may hint at the dual-screen computing devices on the horizon. Similarly, rival Intel showed off its Tiger Rapids prototypes with dual-screens. Although Intel has no plans on commercializing Tiger Rapids — the concept comes with one traditional LCD screen and one E Ink display to save power — partners Asus and Lenovo are adding their own spin to bring the idea to market. Asus showed off its Project Precog concept at the show, highlighting Intel’s dual-screen design while adding artificial intelligence capabilities.

Unlike the dual-screen PC prototypes shown at Computex, Microsoft’s Andromeda is said to be a pocketable device, bridging the gap between a smartphone and a laptop, Sams noted. It’s unclear if Microsoft will maintain its 2018 target for Andromeda given the company’s recent leadership changes.

In addition to Andromeda, Microsoft also has some updates to its Surface hardware lineup. A Surface Pro 6 — the current Surface Pro is the company’s fifth iteration — is in the works, as is a new Surface Tablet, Sams said. The Surface Pro 6 is also referred to by its Caramel code name, while the new Surface Tablet is known internally as Libra. The Surface Tablet is said to come in at a lower price point and is likely positioned as a Surface 3 successor aimed at competing against Google’s Chrome OS and Apple’s iPad devices in the education space. These devices are expected to arrive this year. The next-generation HoloLens is expected to arrive in the first quarter 2019 as is the new Surface Hub 2.

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Plume is launching a $60/year subscription service for its Wi-Fi routers

You can also spend $200 for a lifetime subscription.

Mesh Wi-Fi systems have exploded in popularity over the last few years, with some of the standouts including the likes of Google Wifi and Eero. Plume debuted in late 2016 as yet another entry into this niche, and today the company announced that it’s completely redoing its business model to be centered around a yearly subscription.

See at Plume

The Plume Pods.

Dubbed as Plume Adaptive WiFi, the service costs $60 each year (or $200 for a lifetime membership) and grants you access to things like parental controls, speed tests, and things Plume refers to as “security products” and “active management.” It’s still unclear what that “active management is”, but according to The Verge, Plume’s CEO described it as something like this:

We’re attaching more and more devices to our routers — from computers to phones to streaming boxes to speakers to smart home gadgets — and it’s all getting really complicated and needs additional work… from somewhere or something… to run smoothly.

However, perhaps the biggest change is that you’ll now be required to have a Plume Adaptive WiFi subscription to actually purchase any of Plume’s products. The prices of these are heavily discounted (a three-pack of Plume Pods now costs $39 instead of the regular $179), and while prices will still rise as you add more to your cart, you’re going to save a substantial amount of cash compared to retail prices of Plume’s competitors.

Bet you didn’t wake up this morning thinking your Wi-Fi would be turning into a subscription service, did you?

Also, if you sign up for the service, buy a few Plume Pods, but decide not to renew, your routers won’t be completely bricked. They’ll continue to work, albeit not as well compared to a paying subscriber. It’s unclear what sort of differences we’re talking about, but it’s likely that Plume will do what it can to keep you handing over those $60 each year.

In addition to the new subscription model, Plume also announced the Superpod — a more powerful version of its Plume Pod that’s capable of tri-band networks. There’s currently no word on how much Plume Adaptive Wi-Fi members will have to pay for it, but orders will begin soon on June 15.

Whether or not you’re an existing Plume customer, what do you think about the transition to a subscription model? This is the first time we’ve seen it enter the router space, but it likely won’t be the last.

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