Apple Makes Changes to Siri Grading⇢

Earlier this month, Apple suspended its program that used collected audio samples from Siri interactions to improve the service. The service was made public when a story was broken by The Guardian back in July:

Apple contractors regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex, as part of their job providing quality control, or “grading”, the company’s Siri voice assistant, the Guardian has learned.

Although Apple does not explicitly disclose it in its consumer-facing privacy documentation, a small proportion of Siri recordings are passed on to contractors working for the company around the world. They are tasked with grading the responses on a variety of factors, including whether the activation of the voice assistant was deliberate or accidental, whether the query was something Siri could be expected to help with and whether Siri’s response was appropriate.

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Apple Releases macOS Mojave 10.14.6 Supplemental Update

Apple has released an update to macOS Mojave 10.14.6, with the following fixes:

  • Resolves an issue that may cause certain Mac notebooks to shut down during sleep
  • Fixes an issue that may degrade performance when working with very large files
  • Addresses an issue that may prevent Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iMovie, and GarageBand from updating

The update isn’t listed (yet?) in Apple’s Mojave update page, but is available now in System Preferences.

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MPU #497: Spotlight, Alfred & LaunchBar⇢

This week on MPU, David and I dig into a very robust set of applications: Spotlight, Alfred and LaunchBar. It’s an embarrassment of riches when it comes to app launchers on the Mac, and it was fun to compare them.

My thanks to our sponsors:

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Connected #257: Relay FM Family Feud⇢

This week on Connected:

Live in San Francisco, Stephen and Myke are joined by Jason Snell and nearly 20 other Relay FM hosts to celebrate the network’s 5th anniversary by playing a game of Family Feud, with answers provided by over 3,000 podcast listeners. That, and a round of co-founder company trivia. Also, trophies.

Last night’s live show was amazing, and I’m so happy with how it all came out. I hope you enjoy it!

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Emergency Kbase Article of the Week: How to Clean Your Apple Card⇢

Apple Support:

The titanium Apple Card is laser-etched with the card holder’s name and the Apple logo. A white finish is achieved through a multi-layer coating process that’s added to the titanium base material.

If your titanium Apple Card comes into contact with hard surfaces or materials, it’s possible that the coating can be damaged.

Some of the details here are amazing:

  • Some fabrics, like leather and denim, might cause permanent discoloration that will not wash off.
  • Place your card in a slot in your wallet or billfold without touching another credit card. If two credit cards are placed in the same slot your card could become scratched.
  • Don’t place your titanium Apple Card in a pocket or bag that contains loose change, keys, or other potentially abrasive objects.

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App Store Editorial Now Visible on Web⇢

Apple has changed how its App Store editorial content works on the web, as reported by Benjamin Mayo:

Apple has recently updated its App Store Preview pages for stories to allow users to view the full content of stories from inside their desktop web browser. App Store stories have always been shareable as links, but the web version was just a title and a navigation link to ‘open this story in the App Store’.

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