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Apple CSAM scanning plans may have been abandoned, but that hasn’t ended the controversy. An Australian regulator has accused the Cupertino company of turning a blind eye to the sexual exploitation of children. She said that both Apple and Microsoft fail to take steps to protect “the most vulnerable from the most predatory” … Background The usual way to detect Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) is when cloud services like Google Photos scan uploaded photos and compare them against a database of known CSAM images....

The Apple Watch is only shipping early next year, after being announced earlier this month, and Apple engineers are reportedly already sporting the wearable in the wild. According to reports on Twitter, Apple engineers have been spotted with the sport model at their usual bus stops en route to work: Of course, they were carrying the new iPhones, too. We’ll know how the battery life is if they’re still wearing the watches when they return to the bus stop tonight....

After opening up 400 free spots at this year’s Apple Developer Academy in Italy last week, Apple has now announced its first developer academy in Asia. As reported by The Jakarta Post, Apple is opening its newest developer academy in Jakarta… Similar to other countries around the world, Indonesia has a 30 percent local content requirement for “all 4G gadgets.” This number is based on manufacturing, software, and innovation development, thus part of the reasoning for Apple’s decision to choose Jakarta as its latest developer academy....

Update: Tim Cook has retweeted a link to an ABC News piece on the partnership. Inspired by the work of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, Apple has announced that it is supporting her work to provide educational opportunities to girls in developing countries. Apple says its funding will enable a ‘significant expansion’ of the work of the Malala Fund, and help it reach a goal of providing secondary education to more than 100,000 girls who would otherwise be unable to attend school …...

Anthem was always going to be divisive. For the devotees of BioWare’s back catalogue, the game is an ugly reminder that the studio’s parent company, EA, will always loom large over each development decision. What could have been a new Dragon Age or a renewed effort to salvage the disaster that was Mass Effect: Andromeda instead became a game that very clearly wanted to occupy the same space as Bungie’s Destiny....

Apple is aiming to sign up a massive 100M subscribers for its streaming music service, according to a source cited by the Associated Press (reproduced in the NY Times). This would be more than double the subscriptions for all other streaming music services combined. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry says that existing worldwide streaming subscriptions total around 41M across all services. The market leader, Spotify, has around 4.7M subscribers in the USA … The same source confirmed the $10/month subscription we’ve reported previously, noting that existing Beats Music subscribers would be migrated to the Apple Music service before the Beats-branded service is closed....

The newly released character of Apex Legends is the deadly assassin, Revenant. Revenant provides avid Apex players with a stealth-oriented playstyle that reinforces elusive players to find even more success in the game. The titular character for Apex’s season 4, Revenant is both an aesthetically appealing design while providing some meta shifting gameplay implications to the Online landscape. The character’s breadth of abilities will surely be optimized by top players and will serve as an excellent offensive/support hybrid for competitive and casual players alike....

“We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped. Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running. “Another snag we have run into is our use of the word “push” in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella....

In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Jordy Witteman from Root3 to discuss SupportApp as a free way to support remote employees with macOS. Sponsored by Mosyle: Managing Apple devices at work shouldn’t be difficult. Mosyle makes it easy. Links Download SupportApp Jamf Marketplace Connect with Bradley Twitter LinkedIn Listen and subscribe Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Pocket Casts Castro RSS

Apple is experiencing some issues with some of its web based services as its system status page has now been updated to reflect multiple outages. While Apple won’t acknowledge it directly, only noting “slower than normal performance” with some of its services, users and third-party developers are reporting that they are not able to access their iCloud data. The company’s status page is reporting issues with Back to My Mac, Documents in the Cloud, Find My Friends, Find My iPhone, and a slew of other iCloud services, noting that only “some users are affecting”....

The Guardian reports that Apple has acknowledged growing complaints that third-party repairs to the Touch ID home button of an iPhone 6 can brick the device when iOS is updated, and that it is a deliberate security feature. There have been growing reports of an ‘error 53‘ following an iOS update to an iPhone 6, leaving the phone dead. A Guardian freelancer was one of those affected. Freelance photographer and self-confessed Apple addict Antonio Olmos says this happened to his phone a few weeks ago after he upgraded his software....

As part of its keynote, Apple has officially announced new versions of its iWork suite — Pages, Keynotes and Numbers. Each of the apps have received some ‘flattening’ UI changes to match the aesthetic of OS X Yosemite. Each of the productivity apps also have other improvements, relevant to each task. In Numbers, you can now transpose tables in one step for example. Pages adds a new sidebar, with comments and other outline views....

Image via The Verge Apple just announced two new MacBook Pros while on stage at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro is priced at $1,199 and $1,499, features a 1,440-by-900 display and Ivy Bridge processor, and it comes in two versions. The first has a 2.5GHz dual-core i5, 4GB of RAM, 500GB HDD, and 7-hour battery life, while the second has a 2.9GHz dual-core i7, 8GB of RAM, Intel HD Graphics 4,000, and 750GB HDD....

An internal survey organized internally by Apple employees shows that many inside the company are concerned about the proposed hybrid work model that will go into effect in September. As reported by the Verge, nearly 90% of respondents to the internal grassroots survey say that having flexibility is important to them. The report explains that employees defined “location-flexible” as having the option to work from home indefinitely. 58.5% of respondents to the survey said they “strongly agree” with the statement, “I am worried that some of my colleagues will have to leave Apple due to LACK of location-flexible work options....

Long before Eddy Cue was brought into the spotlight with his promotion to senior vice president of Internet software and service at Apple, the Duke-graduate had a major role under Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. Adam Lashinsky’s Inside Apple (available January 25) profiles Cue as Apple’s “dealmaking executive.” Cue has been at Apple in several capacities over the past several years, and he has been cutting deals with music labels for iTunes, and most recently the music based services under iCloud....

Apple today launched a new MacBook & MacBook Pro service program that it says covers a small percentage of users that might experience sticky, repeated characters or unresponsive keys. Apple adds that the process “may involve the replacement of one or more keys or the whole keyboard.” Users that are experiencing any of the issues described above with their MacBook or MacBook Pro can get the servicing done free of charge through Apple stores or an Apple Authorized Service Provider....

Anthem has not had the kind of launch BioWare was hoping for. Releasing to critical reviews and a lukewarm reception at best from many players, it was hardly the gaming revolution that had been promised. Now, even some of those steadfast players who stuck with Anthem’s potential are losing faith. BioWare is best known for its single player, story-driven RPGs, and so the move towards a Destiny-esque loot shooter was met with a fair few raised eyebrows....

Dataminers have discovered new details in Apex Legends that could potentially reference the Titanfall series. Apex Legends and Titanfall are both made by Respawn Entertainment and it has been confirmed that both series take place in the same universe. This also isn’t the first time that players have uncovered connections between the two series either. The current map in Apex Legends, World’s Edge, features several construction signs that have been put up by Hammond Robotics....

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Mosyle, the leader in modern mobile device management (MDM) and security for Apple enterprise and education customers. Over 28,000 organizations leverage Mosyle solutions to automate the deployment, management, and security of millions of Apple devices daily. Request a FREE account today and discover how you can put your Apple fleet on auto-pilot at a price point that is hard to believe. For many years, I’ve been reading articles and listening to podcasts about how Apple’s OS quality has gone downhill over the years, and Snow Leopard was peak reliability....

The city of Claremont, NC has agreed to annex the land necessary for Apple to build a third solar farm near its data center in Maiden, the Hickory Daily Record reported (via MacRumors). Apple will make an initial investment of $55 million and indirectly create 75 jobs while constructing the 17.5-megawatt farm, which will be located at 3123 Kelly Blvd. The farm won’t actually be located at the Maiden data center—or even in the city of Maiden, for that matter—though it will still be located in the same county as the other property....