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Make older Macs feel new again by switching web browsers [Pro tip]

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Switch browsers to speed up an old Mac
Some browsers are better than others on older machines.
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Pro-tip-4

Got an old Mac that’s crawling to a halt every time you browse the web? It might not be your hardware that’s in need of a change. Before splashing out on new components, try switching browsers instead—or consider what to do with old MacBook to give it a new lease on life.

Tim Cook agrees to testify before Congress in antitrust probe

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Tim Cook goes to Washington
Apple chief Tim Cook will testify before Congress, and he’ll be joined by the CEOs of Amazon, Facebook and Google.
Screenshot: Apple

The CEOs of four of biggest tech firms will testify in the House of Representatives’s probe into antitrust activities. That includes Apple’s Tim Cook, along with the heads of Amazon, Facebook and Google.

This is part of an ongoing investigation by the House Judiciary Committee into whether the largest tech companies play fair with smaller competitors.

Google rival to Apple News+ will be free

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News app top stories
Apple News+ could be about to get fresh competition from a premium version of Google News.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Google will pay publishers so it can create “a new news experience launching later this year,” the company said Thursday. While the announcement is vague, Google seems to be putting together a rival for Apple News+, a subscription news-aggregation service for Mac, iPhone and iPad.

How to stop the Mail app from randomly interrupting you in macOS

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How to prevent Mail from randomly appearing on macOS

Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

If you use Gmail inside Mail on macOS, you may have noticed an extremely frustrating bug that can cause the app to randomly shove itself in your face. It’s particularly annoying when you’re using another app in full screen mode.

You don’t have to suffer that anymore. In this how-to, we’ll show you an easy fix that permanently prevents unwanted Mail popups from occurring.

Apple should buy privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo, analyst says

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DuckDuckGo offers great image search, plus it doesn’t track you.
Great image search, plus it doesn’t track you.
Image: DuckDuckGo

Even though Google pays a hefty sum to stay the default iPhone search engine, an industry analyst suggests Apple should buy rival DuckDuckGo anyway.

That likely wouldn’t be the end of Google and Apple’s cooperation on search, according to AllianceBernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi. But it would strengthen Apple’s bargaining position.

Even before its COVID-19 app launches, UK considers switching to Apple’s contact-tracing approach

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contact.tracing.5
Second thoughts on Apple/Google contact tracing by NHS?
Photo: World Health Organization

Great Britain’s National Health Service reportedly asked the developers of its COVID-19 app to investigate switching to Apple and Google’s contact-tracing approach even as its U.K. launch approaches. The move came after widespread concerns over privacy issues and battery life, according to a published report Wednesday.

Apple and Google’s contract-tracing system to ban Location Services access

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contact.tracing.workflow.2
New guidelines are meant to help developers create easy-to-understand contact tracing apps.
Photo: Apple/Google

Apple and Google released additional details about their coronavirus contact-tracing system Monday, informing public health officials that they will not be able to use Location Services to track people. The companies also said they will limit use of the contact-tracing API to one per country.

Both companies also showed off what an app might look like on people’s smartphones — and shared sample pieces of code local governments could use in their own mobile apps.

How Apple and Google became unlikely allies in fight against COVID-19

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Apple and Google's contract-tracing app could prove crucial to fighting COVID-19.
Insiders detail how Apple and Google created a COVID-19 contact-tracing system in just weeks.
Photo: Timon Studler/Unsplash CC

A handful of Apple and Google employees turned a novel approach to fighting COVID-19 from a spark of an idea to a pandemic-fighting tool in less than a month. The tech giants combined forces in March, intent on creating a contact-tracing app capable of monitoring the movements of people who might have come in contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.

CNBC reported inside details Tuesday on how Apple’s initial contact-tracing project — code-named “Bubble” — went from two employees to dozens, and enlisted the help of others at Google.

Apple and Google’s COVID-19 contact-tracing API rolls out April 28

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bluetooth-tracing
Coming later this month.
Photo: Apple/Google

The first version of Apple and Google’s contact-tracing API will reportedly roll out April 28, Apple CEO Tim Cook says.

As noted by French language website iGeneration, Cook revealed the launch date to European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who then shared it during a press conference held Wednesday.

Senator wants Tim Cook to take personal responsibility for contact-tracing data privacy

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Senator Hawley is concerned about Apple and Google's privacy for contact-tracing data.
Photo: Apple/Google

Sen. Josh Hawley wants Apple and Google to have some skin in the game when it comes to keeping data private in their joint coronavirus contact-tracing project. Hawley’s idea? That the Apple and Google CEOs — Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, respectively — should take personal responsibility for ensuring the data is kept private.

“If you seek to assure the public, make your stake in this project personal,” the Republican senator from Missouri wrote Tuesday in a letter to Cook and Pichai. “Make a commitment that you and other executives will be personally liable if you stop protecting privacy, such as by granting advertising companies access to the interface once the pandemic is over.”

Apple restrictions block France’s contact-tracing iPhone app

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Brace yourself for beautiful pictures. iPhone XS and XS Max pack the best cameras yet.
Apple's new platform just won't cut it.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

France is calling on Apple to loosen its Bluetooth restrictions on iPhone that are said to be holding back a government contact-tracing app designed to minimize the spread of COVID-19.

Apple currently prevents iOS apps from using Bluetooth connectivity in the background under certain circumstances. Its policy blocks France from moving forward with its app, a Tuesday report reveals.

ACLU wants COVID-19 tracking program loaded with privacy safeguards

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contact-tracing
Privacy groups want to make sure contact tracing technology keeps your data safe.
Photo: MIT Lincoln Lab

The American Civil Liberties Union said Friday it is cautiously encouraged by a commitment to privacy by Apple and Google as they develop Bluetooth-based contact-tracing technology to track the spread of COVID-19.

But the civil liberties group says the two tech giants must resolve “certain important privacy-related questions” key to winning trust from a public growing wary about who sees their data.

EU might welcome Apple and Google’s contact-tracing API to fight COVID-19

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bluetooth-tracing
Bluetooth tracing is an anonymous way to assess exposure to COVID-19.
Photo: Apple/Google

The European Union might adopt Apple and Google’s contact-tracing API to help stop the spread of COVID-19, a Reuters report published Wednesday suggests.

The article cites Chris Boos of the Pan-European Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing initiative. Paraphrasing Boos, it notes that adopting the Apple/Google tech “will make it quicker to get systems for tracing coronavirus infections up and running.”

Google throttles Nest camera quality to reduce network strain

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Nest-camera
It's only temporary.
Photo: Nest

Google has confirmed in an email to Nest customers on Tuesday that it is throttling camera quality to “conserve internet resources.”

The temporary measure, which will roll out to every Nest user over the coming days, is one of many Google and other tech giants have made in an effort to reduce network strain during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Google is making its own chips for phones and laptops. Sound familiar?

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iFixit teardown of pixel
A new in-house chip may power the Google Pixel next year.
Photo: iFixit

Google will take a play out of Apple’s playbook as it reportedly ramps up development of its own processors for use in Chromebooks and Pixel smartphones.

Under the code-name Whitechapel, Samsung is collaborating with Google on the design of the chip. Samsung also supplies chips to Apple.

Apple, Google detail coronavirus contact tracing system with privacy at its core

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Apple Google
Apple & Google gives specifics of their contact tracing system it is developing to better track and protect people from COVID-19.
Photo: Apple/Google

Apple and Google have given further details on their plans for a joint contact tracing technology to combat coronavirus, saying the program will focus on privacy, will be voluntary, and that data will only be shared with public health organizations.

Will contact-tracing apps do more harm than good?

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iPhone showing coronavirus that causes COVID-19
Can a tracing app protect your health and privacy.
Photo: Cult of Mac/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The world was starting to develop a healthy skepticism for tech companies and their claims of making data privacy a priority. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal seemed to get our attention and we began to understand how easy it is for groups to track our digital lives.

Then COVID-19 spread with bullet speed across the world and now surveillance of our movements to track the virus is sounding to many like a good idea.

Apple registers domain name Applecoronavirus.com

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apple
Perhaps the domain name will be used for Apple's COVID-19 screening site.
Photo: Apple

Apple has registered its first COVID-19-related domain name as the total number of global confirmed cases inches towards 2 million this week. The iPhone-maker scooped up the domain name AppleCoronavirus.com but the site isn’t being put to use yet.

Explainer: Contact tracing and how Apple and Google will make it work

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COVID-19
Electron microscope image of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Photo: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Apple and Google revealed Friday that they’re teaming up to take on one of the most colossal tasks in the fight to stop the spread of COVID-19: contact tracing.

If you’re like me, you probably hadn’t heard about contact tracing until the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it’s proven to be an important tool in countries that have seen a drop in their reported cases of the coronavirus.

With a little background, here are the basics of contact tracing and what you need to know.

Apple and Google team up to build COVID-19 contact tracing apps

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Apple Google
Apple and Google join forces using Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Photo: Apple/Google

In a rare moment of collaboration, Apple and Google said Friday they have teamed up to create a contact-tracing program that uses smartphones to stop the spread of COVID-19.

The privacy-focused solution created by the companies will use anonymous Bluetooth “chirps” from phones as a way to tell where an infected person has been and who they’ve come in contact with.

TikTok commits $375 million to COVID-19 relief

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2020 is the year everyone wants to be TikTok famous.
TikTok has been keeping us entertained while stuck at home.
Photo: Aaron Yoo/Flickr CC

TikTok is chipping into the global fight against COVID-19 with one of the largest financial contributions we’ve seen yet from a major tech company. The video-sharing platform has been one of the biggest bright spots of joy and inspiration during this quarantine age, and now it’s ready to pay it back.

On Thursday, the company revealed it is pledging $375 million in relief that will be distributed in various ways to individuals, hospitals, companies and other organizations.

COVID-19 might not kill on-site Apple internships this summer

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internship
Apple internships are a bit more serious than those portrayed in the horrendous movie The Internship.
Photo: 20th Century Fox

Apple and other big tech companies are scrambling to update their summer intern roles in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.

Google, Microsoft, Twitter and IBM all revealed to Axios that they will be moving all of their internships to online-only positions for the summer. One of the only major companies that plan to have on-site roles is Apple, but many of them will be online too.

Apple TV 3 owners plagued by YouTube errors

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Apple TV
There is a workaround.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A growing number of third-generation Apple TV owners are experiencing errors when attempting to watch YouTube content.

It seems the problems occur when watching certain videos, while others play just fine. One user who contacted Apple was told that the problem is on Google’s end — not with Apple TV.