Apple’s Chinese iCloud Data Moved to Servers Managed by State-Owned Mobile Operator

Apple’s Chinese iCloud operator has agreed a deal with state-owned China Telecom to transfer local customer data to the company’s Tianyi cloud storage business, according to TechCrunch.

China Telecom reportedly announced the agreement in a WeChat post, saying that local Apple partner Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD) had migrated all Chinese iCloud customer data to Tianyi servers. Apple separately confirmed the change to TechCrunch.

Back in January, Apple controversially announced that its iCloud services in mainland China would be overseen by GCBD, which was already known to have ties to the Chinese government. GCBD was brought on board to manage Apple’s new $1 billion data center, which opened in the region last year.

Customer data stored on iCloud includes emails, text messages, and the encryption keys that protect it. Customers who did not want to use iCloud operated by GCBD were given the option to terminate their account or select a country other than China for their iCloud account.

Apple made the transfer to comply with the latest laws enacted in China regarding regulations on cloud services, requiring foreign firms to store data within the country. The move means Chinese government can use its own legal system to ask Apple for its users’ iCloud data, whereas before the government had to go through the U.S. legal system.

Today’s development is unlikely to quell the concerns of human rights and privacy advocates, who criticized Apple’s original decision to rely on GCBD and questioned whether it will be able to maintain and protect its customers’ privacy under the new Chinese laws.

At the time, Apple said, “While we advocated against iCloud being subject to these laws, we were ultimately unsuccessful.” Nevertheless, Apple assured customers that no backdoors had been created into any of its systems, and that it retained control of the encryption keys. Whether the new GCBD-Telecom arrangement impinges on Apple’s original assurances remains to be seen.

Tags: China, China Telecom, iCloud, privacy
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Our favorite Amazon Prime Deals priced $10 or less

Take advantage of these inexpensive deals while they last.

We’re almost at the close of Prime Day 2018, and if you’re anything like me, you’re praying that you won’t see any more great offers to make you pull out your wallet once again. If your Prime Day funds are running low, there are still some great deals you can grab for $10 or less. Of course, as with most of the deals popping up during Prime Day, a majority of these offers are exclusively available for Prime members. If you’re not a member, you can still get in on these deals by starting a free 30-day trial.

Avid reader? You’ve probably already heard of Kindle Unlimited which offers unlimited access to over 1 million books for a monthly fee, but did you know you can try out the service for three months at just $0.99 total? Its books can be read either on a Kindle device or via the free Kindle app. If you don’t have much time for books, consider Audible instead and have someone else read to you. Right now, you can grab three months for $5 each as opposed to the regular $15 monthly price.

If you’re one of those people with headphones always on, like me, you also won’t want to miss Amazon’s offer for four months of Amazon Music Unlimited for $1. The service gives you access to your favorite music and new releases so you can listen whenever on your iOS or Android device, or computer.

There are even some money-making opportunities during Prime Day. For example, if you buy some of these $1 Dash Buttons, you’ll receive a free $5 credit upon pressing them for the first time, and you can get a credit for each one you buy.

Some of the other great deals under $10 today include:

• Groot Planter Pot for $6.86
• Plinrise Animal Desk Phone Stand for $7.99
• Panasonic Wired Earphones for $6.79
• 14oz Aquaphor Healing Ointment for $7.40
• Jenga for $10.27

Prime Day 2018 has just a few hours left, so you might want to take a last look at the remaining Prime deals while they’re available.

If you buy one Amazon device on Prime Day, make it the Fire TV Cube

Treat Yo Self.

I think more-often-than-not deals are about saving on the essentials. After all, if we have to buy it, we might as well save some money on it. If you’re going to buy new silverware or charging cables, you should get them at a discount. If you’re going to start your smart home, you should go with a bundle that gets you what you need without breaking the bank. If you’ve got a baby on the way or one already gurgling in his crib, you’re going to need every dime that can be spared. But days like Prime Day afford us a little extra wiggle room with deals. There are so many devices and tools and groceries on sale that it becomes the perfect time to do something you probably don’t do as often as you should – splurge a little.

There are still some great Amazon devices on sale. Not just devices at good prices but devices we know are really worth the investment. The Echo Dot is still just $30, which is the same as its Black Friday pricing. You could even get two for $50, which is a bargain given the Dot costs $50 by itself on a non-giant-sales-day. You get a smart home hub, access to Alexa’s voice control, and a Bluetooth speaker all in one tiny device. But that’s a boring choice and a decision you’ve probably already made.

Instead, you should go with the Fire TV Cube. It’s new, it’s not nearly as tested as the Echo Dot, and it’s a little more splurgy. But it’s not too bad because right now the Cube is down to $89.99, which is the same price Amazon offered to Prime members willing to pre-order it back in June. You might not have been willing to take the risk when you didn’t know what it was, but that’s a mystery solved thanks to this thorough CordCutters review.

The Fire TV Cube takes the best of what the Echo Dot has to offer, combines it with the Fire TV, and gives you one device you can use to control your entire living room… with your voice. When you buy it for yourself, it comes connected to your Amazon account out of the box. After the initial setup, you’ll be ready to stream from Amazon Prime Video in no time. You can control your cable and satellite boxes, your speakers, and all your favorite media. With Alexa’s Smart Home Skills, you’ll be able to access your video doorbell, lights, and other devices as well. It’s not perfect, and some of those skills need to ironed out, but it’s trying to do more in one device than any of the rest of Amazon’s lineup.

You might not have jumped at the opportunity to get Fire TV Cube before, but you’ll miss out on its best-ever savings by failing to take the leap right now. If you’re going to buy one Amazon device on Prime Day, make it the Fire TV Cube.

See at Amazon

These are the top 10 items that our readers purchased on Prime Day

There were some clear winners this year.

Amazon boasted that Prime Day 2018 would have more than a million deals available worldwide, which is pretty insane when you think about it. Even though there were so many deals, there were a bunch of clear-cut winners this year. We took some time to break down what the top 10 deals were during this sale, as decided by what you have been buying.

Given the price drops that each of these items received, and the popularity of the products on their own, it’s not a huge surprise to see any of them on the list. Of all the products, the one that surprises me the most is the Amazon Cloud Cam, given the level of competition in the home security camera space at around and even below this price point. The top 10 items that you all purchased on Prime Day include:

Amazon Fire TV Stick
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K
SanDisk 128GB microSD Card
Amazon Echo Dot (2nd-Gen)
Toshiba 50-inch 4K Fire TV Edition
Instant Pot DUO60 6-Quart
Amazon Cloud Cam Security Camera
Kindle Paperwhite E-Reader
Roku Streaming Stick
Amazon eGift Cards

Some of these items have finally sold out, and others are still available. It’s rather impressive to see Amazon maintain stock on such a wide variety of items for nearly the entire duration of the huge shopping event. The Amazon Gift Cards are likely on the list thanks to this promotion which basically gave you free money to buy a $25 card.

Last year, Amazon’s biggest seller was the Echo Dot, though this year the company says that early data shows that the $20 Amazon Fire TV Stick took the top spot and that the Toshiba Fire TV was the best-selling TV deal in all of Amazon’s history. Following closely behind the Fire TV Stick was the Instant Pot and Echo Dot, which is no big surprise.

If you haven’t finalized your Prime Day shopping, be sure to check out all of the best deals that are still available and get it done before the event ends.

How to Enable iOS 12’s New Do Not Disturb at Bedtime Feature

There’s nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night, glancing over at your iPhone to check the time, and seeing a bunch of notifications that demand your attention and distract you from getting back to sleep.

Apple is aiming to prevent this in iOS 12 with a new Do Not Disturb at bedtime feature that prevents notifications from being displayed on the iPhone’s Lock Screen during your downtime, removing the temptation to start opening up apps in the middle of the night.

Enabling Bedtime Mode

Open up the Settings app.
Scroll to the “Do Not Disturb” section and tap on it.
In the Do Not Disturb section, tap on “Scheduled” to toggle it on.
Select your Do Not Disturb time period, which, for most people, should be from when you go to bed until when you typically wake up.
Tap on Bedtime Mode to toggle it on.
With Bedtime Mode enabled, when you activate the display on your device, the entire screen is dimmed and black, offering up only the time, the current device charge, and a notice that Bedtime Mode is turned on.

In this mode, all incoming calls are silenced as are all incoming notification messages. Your notifications are still listed in the Notification Center, accessible by swiping down from the top of the display, but you won’t see them on the Lock Screen.

Bedtime Mode vs. Do Not Disturb

With Do Not Disturb turned on without Bedtime Mode, all of your incoming calls and notifications are still silenced, but the notification messages themselves will all be visible right on the Lock Screen.

Enabling Calls From Certain People

If you want family members to be able to contact you even with Do Not Disturb and Bedtime Mode turned on in case of emergency, there’s a setting for that.

Open the Settings app.
Tap “Do Not Disturb.”
Scroll down to the Phone section where it says “Allow Calls From.”
Select Everyone, No One, or “Favorites,” which can be set up in the Contacts app.
You can also toggle on “Repeated Calls” in the same section of the Settings app so a second call from the same person within three minutes won’t be silenced. This is an ideal way to screen out unwanted calls while still allowing for potential emergencies as most people will try again if you’re unreachable in a crisis.

Waking Up

When it’s time to wake up, and when Bedtime Mode is scheduled to go off, your iPhone or iPad will display a “Good morning!” message and it will let you tap to reveal all of the notifications that were silenced during the night.

Turning Off Bedtime Mode

If Bedtime Mode isn’t for you, you can turn it off in the Settings app where it was enabled.

Open the Settings app.
Tap on “Do Not Disturb.”
If you want to turn off your scheduled Do Not Disturb session entirely, toggle off “Scheduled.”
If you want to leave Do Not Disturb on but disable Bedtime Mode, tap the Bedtime Mode toggle to turn it off.
Note: To quickly access Do Not Disturb settings, swipe to open up the Control Center and then 3D Touch or long press on the little moon icon.

This will provide you with options to enable Do Not Disturb for an hour, a few hours, until the end of an event, or until you leave a specific location, and it also offers up a “Schedule” option at the bottom that opens straight into the Do Not Disturb toggles in the Settings app.

Related Roundup: iOS 12
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The UN and Yale unite to build a ‘smart’ tiny house for the future

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More than 7.6 billion people currently inhabit the Earth, each one an eating, breathing, space-occupying bundle of atoms. By the year 2050, experts estimate that the global population will rise by more than a quarter, bringing the total to around 9.7 billion people. That is a lot of mouths to feed and a lot of bodies to find shelter for. Already, around a billion people live in shoddy settlements, while many more reside in structures that aren’t environmentally friendly.

In an effort to design more sustainable and affordable housing for future populations, the United Nations and Yale University recently teamed together and created the Ecological Living Module, a roughly 240-square-foot tiny house, which they designed to test ways to minimize water and natural resource use.

“We clearly need more housing but the key thing is that we also need smarter housing” Erik Solheim, head of the United Nations environment program, UN Environment, said. “The housing sector uses 40 percent of the planet’s total resources and represents more than a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. So making them more efficient will benefit everyone and it’ll mean lower bills, too. Innovations like the Ecological Living Module are what we need more of.”

Constructed mainly from locally sourced, renewable materials, the Ecological Living Module is powered entirely by renewable energy. Using built-in technology, the structure has its own solar energy generation system, on-site water collection setup, basic agricultural infrastructure for growing greens, and plant-based air purification system. The unit is designed to let in natural light to lessen its energy demand, and is capable of being modified for living and working. It can accommodate up to four people, albeit in rather tight quarters.

The Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture worked with Gray Organschi Architecture to design and fabricate the house.

“Adequate housing is at the heart of sustainable urbanization,” said Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of UN Habitat, the UN’s human settlements program. “The use of proper building materials, better planning, and improved construction techniques can make energy use in buildings more efficient. If adopted widely, this practice can create jobs and prosperity with lower greenhouse gas emissions.”

A prototype of the Ecological Living Module is on display in the UN Plaza in New York City through July 18. Future models will be designed to adapt to local climatic and cultural contexts.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Homes in the Netherlands are concrete example of 3D printing’s potential
• These 3D-printed houses could be one-tenth the price of regular homes
• Think your apartment’s tiny? This micro-house is no wider than three human hairs
• Smart door attachment slows house fires with devilishly simple technique
• Peek inside the outlandish mansions of tech titans, from Musk to Zuckerberg

New VR horror game gets scarier if your heart rate isn’t fast enough

A bit like spicy food, the effectiveness of horror titles varies from person to person. What makes me break out in a sweat may not be enough to elevate your heart rate. Fortunately (or, if you’re of a nervous disposition, perhaps, unfortunately,) the good folks at game developer Red Meat Games have come up with a neat way around this problem. It includes medical technology that would more commonly be used for helping people than scaring the bejesus out of them.

In its latest virtual reality game Bring to Light, players have the option of strapping on a heart rate monitor to personalize the game’s fear factor. Get too comfortable with the experience, and the game’s artificial intelligence will know to ramp up the terror. Because who wants a relaxing, enjoyable game experience, right?

“Back in 2013, gaming conferences were plastered with mobile game ad companies selling their ad services,” Red Meat Games CEO Keith Makse told Digital Trends. “I had the thought at the time that rather than automating the ad systems, as was proffered by every ad company, there could be a tool that could automate game design in some way.”

Red Meat’s first attempt at doing this resulted in a tool Makse calls DAISy (Distributed A.I. System), which tweaked a trivia game based on real-time user interaction. However, Makse wanted to go further than this and utilize biometric technology. “When I was brainstorming another game, I thought we should be able to use biometric feedback as user input, and we quickly thought of using a heartbeat,” he continued. “That was the easy part. We’ve probably spent about 12 months in total designing, building, and testing this system to get it to where it is today.”

Bring to Light puts players in control of the sole survivor of a subway accident, which turns out to be just the first step in a terrifying Lovecraftian horror experience. The $20 game launched on Steam earlier this month, available for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, as well as a “flat” version you can play on PC without the need for a virtual reality headset.

“While I still think it’s too early to tell if this will be picked up by any others out there, I do think that using biometric feedback will eventually become an option for games and other apps out there,” Makse said. “More biometric devices are released every day and constant improvements are being made.”

Lyft wants to partner with cities to add bike and scooter sharing

With its announcement of Lyft Bikes and Scooters, San Francisco-based Lyft took another step to position itself as a force in multi-modal urban transportation and mobility. This announcement follows Lyft’s recent acquisition of Motivate, the largest U.S. bike-share operator.

According to Lyft president and co-founder John Zimmer, adding bicycles and scooters to the company’s platform will accelerate the demise of individual car ownership which, in his view, is a good thing. Zimmer and Lyft co-founder Logan Green characterize private vehicle use as a failed transportation model, especially for cities. “Just last year, 250,000 Lyft passengers gave up their cars,” Zimmer noted as a significant win.

In Lyft’s new initiative, Zimmer outlined four key tenets guiding the introduction of bikes and scooters: transportation equity, safer streets, transit integration, and environmental sustainability.

To promote greater transportation access and equity, Lyft will invest $1 million to support bike and scooter programs, partnering with local nonprofits and community groups such as TransForm. Part of the plan involves developing income eligible programs along with outreach efforts to get news of the programs to those who need it most.

Lyft will also work with groups like Together for Safer Roads to promote bicycle rider safety. Lyft is partnering with city mayors and other individuals and organizations working to expand protected bike lanes, reduce speeding, and curb preventable traffic violence in the Vision Zero endeavor.

Focused on first-mile and last-mile mobility, Lyft believes that most bike and scooter trips will start or end at transit stops. Integrating all transportation modes including local transit stops and rideshare pickup locations into the Lyft app will simplify mobility access for all.

The ridesharing company also announced a carbon neutral initiative to seek ways to offset emissions from Lyft rides, underscoring its statements about reducing transportation’s environmental impact.

Lyft’s co-founders point out that the bike and scooters addition to its transportation platform will benefit the growing Lyft Relief Rides program developed in partnership with United Way and 2-1-1, a free, confidential referral helpline that connects people with essential services. Lyft launched Relief Rides in June with a $1.5 million fund to provide free rides to people in need.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Lyft takes the bikesharing battle to Uber after buying largest operator in U.S.
• Lyft may join the party by putting its own electric scooters in San Francisco
• Lyft pledges to offset its carbon emissions, commits to carbon-neutral rides
• Uber vs. Lyft: Which ridesharing app goes the distance?
• Lyft’s All-Access subscription plan picks up steam, now boasts a wait-list

To celebrate World Emoji Day, Google’s blobmoji are back as sticker packs

Apparently, it’s World Emoji Day, and while that probably doesn’t mean much for most of us, for Google it means the return of what many consider to be the rightful emoji on Android — the blob emoji, or blobmoji.

For the uninitiated, blobmoji were basically the default emoji on Android for a number of years, before Google replaced them with more standard emoji last year. While the switch was largely aimed at keeping emoji a little more uniform across platforms, many still considered it an unwelcome change. Now, however, it looks like users once again have access to blobmoji, if they want it.

Technically, blobmoji were still available inside of Allo, Google’s now-fading messaging service that debuted in 2016. But most people don’t use Allo, and Google’s has even shifted development of the service to Android Messages, so it’s possible Allo will be depreciated entirely at some point.

But now there is a new way to access blobmoji, and that is through sticker packs in Gboard, Google’s mobile keyboard. According to The Verge, they will be coming to Android Messages too. Now, bringing blobmoji back in sticker packs isn’t quite as useful as returning them to their system-wide status, but it’s at least a consolation for long-time Android fans that have been missing blobmoji over the last year or so.

If you’re interested in getting the blobmoji sticker pack for yourself, you can do so straight from Gboard by downloading blobmoji as an add-on. The sticker pack doesn’t seem to have made its way to Android Messages just yet, but it will likely do so in the near future. There are a few other ways to get blobmoji on Android, but most of them are user-side only — meaning that when you send a blobmoji, only you will actually see it as a blobmoji, and the recipient will see it converted into a standard emoji.

There are other ways to check out blobmoji if you don’t want to download them as sticker packs. For example, you can check out the entire pack of blobmoji over at emojipedia.org, If you’re on iOS, you can even download an iMessage sticker pack — in case you’ve always felt left out of the magic of blobmoji as an iPhone user.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Google wants to replace texting
• Google Assistant: Everything you need to know
• Android P beta 3: Everything you need to know
• Google’s Android Messages for web finally lets you text on your computer
• Everything you need to know about Google’s Wear OS for smartwatches

Don’t let today end without checking out these Prime Day discounts on kids’ toys and baby essentials

You have just a few hours left.

Prime Day 2018 is slowly coming to a close and, luckily for the hopeful shoppers out there, there are still tons of deals in stock and new offers being uncovered by the Thrifter deal team. If you’ve been keeping up during the event, you’ve already witnessed the onslaught of discounts which arrived in waves over the past 24 hours. With so much going on at once, it’s easy for great deals to slip by, which is why we’ve put together the following guide to the best Prime Day discounts for kids’ toys and baby essentials. Of course, you’ll need a Prime membership to take advantage of any of these deals, but if you’re not yet a member, you can start a free 30-day trial to get in all of the discounts.

Though we’ve seen a wide variety of tech and home goods on sale during Prime Day 2018, toys and baby products didn’t seem to earn Amazon’s focus as much. In any case, there are some great deals to be found with a bit of searching, such as 20% discounts or more on Safety 1st car seats and nursery essentials which includes everything from cribs and mattresses to blankets and rocking chairs. You can also grab the Radio Flyer 4-in-1 Stroll ‘N Trike for only $56 right now; it’s versatile enough to support children from 9 months old up to five years old.

It’s about time to start stocking up the closet with Christmas presents too, which is why this 40% discount on a wide range of indoor toys is not worth missing out on. It features toys for all ages and includes options like board games and princess dolls. STEM toys are discounted up to 30% too, like the $150 Cozmo robot which can express hundreds of emotions and has a personality of its own.

However, no major sale on toys would be complete without discounts on Nerf and Lego products, and Prime Day is no exception. Nerf deals include the two-pack of Phoenix LTX Lazer Taggers for $45 and a Strike Pack Bundle for $40 which includes three Nerf blasters, 150 Elite darts, and a tactical vest. Meanwhile, Lego fans could grab the Air Race Jet kit on sale for $112 — almost $50 off its regular price — or the Batmobile set based on the Lego Batman Movie for just $39.

There are only a few hours left of Prime Day, so make sure to get everything you want in your cart and checkout before 3 AM EST hits on July 18. Head over to our best Prime Day deals page to take a last look and then start counting down the minutes ’til your packages arrive.