‘Game of Thrones’ e-books make it easier to keep up with the action

To properly celebrate the 20th anniversary of George R. R. Martin’s best-selling A Game of Thrones, there’s a new iBooks edition of the series that offers features to help you keep up with all of the action. The first installment is officially called A Game of Thrones: Enhanced Edition and all of the e-books pack in character maps, annotations, house summaries, a glossary of terms and other handy tools. As books two through five are added to the collection, that glossary will expand alongside developing storylines.

For example, when you come across a character, the e-books will remind you where they were and what was happening the last time they were discussed in the text. As new characters are introduced, readers can tap on the name for a pop-up introduction and details. Additional annotations are marked with crowns and offer historical details with a tap.

There’s also an Appendix that explains all 92 house sigils with details about the symbolism, house seat, region and, perhaps most importantly, info on alliances. For those who have been champing at the bit for the sixth book, a preview of The Winds of Winter is also included with the iBooks-exclusive editions. A Game of Thrones: Enhanced Edition is available now for $9 with new digital versions of A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons up for pre-order for $12. With the HBO series on hiatus for another few months, at least this gives you something Westeros-related to fill your time. Or you could opt for GoT coloring book.

Via: Time

Source: Apple

Restauranteur hopes the Apple Watch will improve fine dining

Danny Meyer is considered to be quite the progressive restauranteur. His employees don’t rely on tips to make ends meet (the practice is outlawed at his establishments, in fact), and they get various benefits including a share of profits. Aside from running his hospitality empire in an unorthodox way, he’s also the mastermind behind Shake Shack. His next forward-thinking initiative doesn’t involve any new management strategies, however. Rather, at one of his flagship restaurants he’ll soon be ceding some of that responsibility to the Apple Watch.

When the Union Square Cafe in Manhattan reopens next month, Apple Watch-toting managers and sommeliers will roam the floors, being made aware of every minor interaction by an enterprise app created by mobile booking platform Resy. Taking cues from other front of house employees, ResyOS will notify the appropriate people when customers are first seated, the kitchen runs out of crab, a bottle of wine is ordered, when a group is done and requires their coats, or when someone vaguely famous strolls through the door.

In the future, it’ll be improved with a consumer-facing twist, too. Guests will be able to share booking information with their group, thereby telling the restaurant who else is in the party. A diner will also have the opportunity to flag when they’re running late, and a floor manager will be notified on their wearable. Furthermore, the platform will soon allow groups to split the bill and pay separately via smartphone. And if all goes well, Meyer could introduce the system at other eateries.

The new Apple Watch Series 2 is a slightly better fitness tracker than the first-gen model, but otherwise it’s much as the same as every other smartwatch: A companion device lacking that killer, standalone purpose. Perhaps enterprise-focused roles are where smartwatches will have a renewed impact. That said, ResyOS sounds like it could easily lead to better customer service and restaurant efficiencies, or send managers into perma-notification comas. Either way, we’re sure they’re looking forward to the first system outage.

Source: Eater

Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 14 With New Emoji Support and Fixes for WebDriver

Apple today released another update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview release 14 includes bug fixes and updates for Safari Extensions, Custom Elements, Fetch, JavaScript, Web APIs, Apple Pay, and Web Inspector. Starting with release 14, Apple says Safari Technology Preview will include regular updates and bug fixes for Safari’s WebDriver implementation. Today’s update also adds support for new emoji group candidates.

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Versions are available for developers running both macOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple’s goal with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can be run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.
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Apple logs your iMessage contacts and could share them with police

Apple’s iMessage had a few security holes in March and April that potentially leaked photos and contacts, respectively. Though quickly patched, they are a reminder that the company faces a never-ending arms race to shore up its security to keep malicious hackers and government agencies out. But that doesn’t mean they will always be able to keep it private. A report from The Intercept states that iMessage conversation metadata gets logged in Apple’s servers, which the company could be compelled to turn over to law enforcement by court order. While the content of those messages remains encrypted and out of the police’s hands, these records list time, date, frequency of contact and limited location information.

When an iOS user types in a phone number to begin a text conversation, their device pings servers to determine whether the new contact uses iMessage. If not, texts are sent over SMS and appear in green bubbles, while Apple’s proprietary data messages appear in blue ones. Allegedly, they log all of these unseen network requests.

But those also include time and date stamps along with the user’s IP address, identifying your location to some degree, according to The Intercept. Like the phone logs of yore, investigators could legally request these records and Apple would be obliged to comply. While the company insisted that iMessage was end-to-end encrypted in 2013, securing user messages even if law enforcement got access, Apple said nothing about metadata.

Apple confirmed to The Intercept that it does comply with subpoenas and other legal requests for these exact logs, but maintained that message content is still kept private. Their commitment to user security isn’t really undermined by these illuminations — phone companies have been giving this information to law enforcement for decades — but it does illustrate what they can and cannot protect. While they resisted FBI requests for backdoor iPhone access earlier this year and then introduced a wholly redesigned file system with a built-in unified encryption method on every device, they can’t keep authorities from knowing when and where you text people.

Source: The Intercept

Apple chooses Battersea Power Station for new London HQ

Apple has settled on a new base of operations in London: Battersea Power Station. The iconic landmark, situated on the Southwest side of the city, has laid mostly dormant since its closure in 1983. A huge regeneration effort is now underway, however, which will include a mixture of offices, restaurants and stores. Apple has agreed to take six floors inside the central Boiler House, accommodating 1,400 of its workforce. As the Evening Standard reports, this will cover its “central function” staff who are currently based in other offices, such as the one in Hanover Street, Mayfair.

The company will move in 2021, once the bulk of the new campus has been completed. The money involved is a mystery, but the deal has been described as “the largest office letting in London’s wider West End” for the last 20 years. The new space will cover 500,000 square feet, making Apple the largest office tenant in the area. It’ll fit up to 3,000 people, ensuring the company can comfortably hire and transfer more staff down the road if needed. “It’s a great opportunity to have our entire team working and collaborating in one location while supporting the renovation of a neighbourhood rich with history,” an Apple spokesperson said.

If you’re curious, here’s an artist’s impression of the new site:

Source: Battersea Power Station, Evening Standard

Your health insurance might score you an Apple Watch

Apple will exclusively provide its Watch, iPad and iPhone products to Aetna for new app-oriented fitness tracking program, the US insurance giant announced. A cornerstone of the project is health tracking, so Aetna will subsidize the cost of a Watch for select customers and offer it free to its 50,000-strong workforce starting next year. Apple will also help Aetna develop new apps around medication reminders, billing (with Apple Wallet) and care management.

Aetna provided a clue as to how the Watch would be used by writing that its own employees “will participate in the company’s wellness reimbursement program, to encourage them to live more productive, healthy lives.” It could presumably also also collect detailed health and fitness data to help refine its actuarial tables and other insurance data, assuming user opt-in.

Aetna will be the first major health care company to subsidize a significant portion of the Apple Watch cost, offering monthly payroll deductions to make covering the remaining cost easier.

Apple also has a ResearchKit program that helps scientists relate heart-rate and other health data to cancer, heart disease and other maladies. It recently signed up the first major drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, which will use it for a rheumatoid arthritis study.

Apple has been working hard to getting its HealthKit app into the US health care system, so Tim Cook is understandably “thrilled” with the cozy relationship. An Aetna spokesperson told Ars Technica that “Apple will have employees devoted to providing support to Aetna on this initiative [and] … will also have a dedicated employee unit focused on this collaboration.” The Watch Series 2 may have convinced the insurer to get onboard, since it’s more focused on health and fitness than the original model.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Aetna