Month: May 2022

A family from Tennessee received an unexpected notification telling them that their AirTag had been found. Jennifer Gaston’s daughter, aged 13, received an alert from her iPhone saying that an AirTag was with them while she was walking towards her car.

“It stated that it was first detected with her at 7:09 PM, and we got the notification at about 11:33 PM,” Jennifer tells a Tennessee news station.

When the daughter clicked on the notification, she saw a map with a line connecting to all of the places the family had been in the last four hours.

“I had seen videos of other people warning people about them and what they were basically. “That’s how they knew I was there and that is why I didn’t ignore them,” my daughter stated.

After receiving an alert, the Gaston Family searched every item in their home but failed to locate the AirTag. When driving back to their hotel, they decided to call the police anyway.

According to their family, it is important to research these devices in order to be able to identify them. It’s important to have proper settings on your phone, so you can be notified if an unknown device ends up among your belongings.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office was unable to identify any criminal offense because the AirTag wasn’t located by the family. However, the office did create an incident report of the situation. OSCO thinks that the “erroneous .”

” notification was possible due to thousands of Apple products being within close proximity on that particular day.

Apple has updated AirTag tracking alerts

Apple recently changed to address AirTag stalking issues. A privacy warning now pops up after you create an AirTag. The message states that the device is meant to track belongings and not for stalking purposes. The message also mentions that the AirTag can be linked to your Apple ID, and law enforcement may request this information.

Apple updated the notification system to identify unknown Find My Devices. The Gaston family got this notification when the AirTag found moving with them was sent to them. Android users can also receive new notifications if they find an AirTag that is not listed.

9to5Mac’s Take

While it was a frightening situation for the family’s members, it appears that the notification was an error. The Gastons were close to many other people and couldn’t locate an AirTag. It seems likely that Apple made a mistake by not finding any AirTags. It seems like we may have to wait a bit longer for Apple to perfect its unknown device alerts.

Steam’s new Going rogue sales is set to challenge your definition of a “roguelike” or a “roguelite”. But that’s okay, because you still get some great deals.

The sale started Monday, May 2, and will run through May 9. It’s got four specific categories of games to pick from: roguelike, roguelite, Souls-like, and Metroidvania. There’s also an accompanying blog explaining the differences and similarities between all of the categories, if you take umbrage with the four genres being grouped together.

The Going Rogue sale appears to be more of an effort by Steam to curation games, rather than just a sale. There are plenty of great games listed worth picking up, even if they aren’t on sale, like Vampire Survivors, Elden Ring, Dead Cells, Hades, and quite a few more.

But games that are on Sale have steep discounts. Here are eight games worth picking up during Steam’s limited Going Rogue event:

If you’re specifically hunting for games to play on your new Steam Deck, note that of the recommended games above, Sekiro and Rogue Legacy 2 are the only two games that are fully supported. Jedi: Fallen Order is listed as “playable.”

It’s possible for Steam to add additional discounted games during the week but the eight listed games are the best choices.

After being fined 10 times by a Dutch watchdog group, Apple is still under fire for its actions regarding App Store policies relating to dating apps, with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) saying they are “insufficient.” The ACM says it will need up to several weeks to see what actions it will take next.

The journalist Nando Kasteleijn shared on his Twitter this update on Apple’s case as the ACM could be readying another penalty for the Cupertino company:

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) concludes that the changes Apple made on March 30 has made in the conditions for dating apps in the Netherlands are insufficient. Apple continues to use unreasonable conditions in relation to dating apps providers in the Netherlands. This is based on market research and expert advice.

That said, the Dutch watchdog group says it “does see an improvement in the proposal that Apple makes, but they are not sufficient to comply with European and Dutch regulations.”

For 10 weeks, Apple was fined around $5 million, but the ACM believes the “penalty did not have the desired result,” so this is why the “ACM is preparing a new order subject to penalty” that could take several weeks until a new announcement.

Background

On March 30, Apple started accepting requests from developers of reader apps to allow the use of external links for customers to sign up and manage their accounts outside the App Store. Meanwhile, Apple has also changed its policy on dating apps in the Netherlands after coming under fire by Dutch regulators.

As for Apple’s changes to its policies on dating apps forced by regulators, Dutch developers can now:

1) continue using Apple’s in-app purchase system, 2) use a third-party payment system within the app, or 3) include an in-app link directing users to the developer’s website to complete a purchase.

The changes also include :

• Removal of the Separate Binary Requirement: Apple is eliminating the requirement that developers of dating apps in the Netherlands who choose to use the above entitlements must create and use a separate binary.
• Payment Service Provider Criteria: Apple is providing updated and more-specific criteria to evaluate non-Apple payment service providers that developers of dating apps in the Netherlands may use.
• Consumer Disclosures: Apps that use either entitlement need to include an in-app modal sheet that explains to users that they’re going to make purchases through an external payment system, and the potential impact that choice could have on the user.

Now, we have to wait and see what the Dutch watchdog’s new penalties will be. 9to5Mac will report back when we hear more about this case.

Apex Legends‘ next season, “Saviors,” will double down on the Storm Point map that the hero battle royale introduced just six months earlier, adding a beached kaiju as a new point of interest, and letting everyone fight it out in, on, and around the beast’s carcass.

“This thing is kind of like a big, stuffed, loot pinata,” Jeff Shaw, a lead level designer for Respawn Entertainment, said during a media preview last week. The best loot can be found in the stomach of the beast .”

So, no, the monster seen in last week’s launch trailer doesn’t represent some kind of new PvE threat or limited-time game mode. Shaw explained that the monster’s decomposing and rotting presence was actually an effort to make Storm Point more competitive. “And we wanted to do it additively without removing any that we thought was important.”

As seen in last week’s trailer, the jumbo shrimpbeast attacks Storm Point and all the Legends put aside their differences to bring it down, peeled, deveined, tail-on. The Downed Beast, as the point of interest is called, rests between two loot locations with high value — The Mill and North Pad — and one, Checkpoint which is a middle-tier loot area. Players can land atop it (or depart) via gravity cannon, or ziplines, or make their way inside through its mouth or four large wounds. Players will find shelter and gear opportunities around and inside the hulk.

“We’re really hoping that this is going to pull some of the action away from Barometer,” a popular, mid-tier loot location on Storm Point, Shaw said.

Grid View

Last week’s trailer indicated that the kaiju’s seismic presence activated an inactive security protocol. This raised three Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation Armories near it. These are support structures, filled with weapons and gear, put in place long ago. That’s the canonical explanation. These armories can be used to trigger PvE missions and loot large amounts of money. Entering one starts a 60-second fight against waves of Spectre robots awakened to the infiltrators. Importantly, the door to the armory shuts when this PvE fight begins, so that opposing human players can’t get in.

” Loot is provided in […]new types of bins which are filled with loot that’s based on scanning the equipment and weapons you have.” Samantha Kalman (respawn senior game designer) said. The loot can be used to upgrade or add new weapon attachments and equipment. Either it’s upgrading what you have already, or it’s supplementing your equipment and weapon attachments that you don’t yet have.”

Strategically speaking, players “can hot drop to one of these armories for a decent random weapon and a great starting kit,” Kalman suggested, “or you can drop nearby, boot up a little, and then rotate to the armory. And then you’ll get upgraded versions of equipment and attachments that you bring into it.”

Elsewhere on Storm Point, developers added a new Prowler den near Cenote Cave, and built up an existing den near The Mill, as part of a “global tuning pass” Respawn designers gave to Storm Point, said Keith Jensen, senior level designer. He said that hundreds of QoL improvements were made to improve the user experience on the entire map.

“[Storm Point] was created through the lens of looking ahead […]. Building it using this method allowed us to add new content and not be destructive, Shaw stated. We didn’t have to sacrifice or eliminate anything we felt was important to the map with the Downed Beast POI. And we really, really hope to continue this trend with the future of Apex maps.”

Apex Legends season 13, titled “Saviors,” launches May 10 for the game across all platforms — Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. In addition to the reworked Storm Point map, it will bring a new Battle Pass of content, and a new Legend, Newcastle, the long-lost brother of mainstay legend Bangalore.

Warren Buffett shared information about a large Apple stock buy his company made recently at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting. Buffett stated that he will continue to buy as much AAPL stock as possible, provided the price is right.

Early this year, AAPL shares dropped from highs near $180 to $150 by mid-March. Speaking to CNBC‘s Becky Quick, Buffett revealed that Berkshire Hathaway purchased $600 million worth of Apple stock after seeing it dip for three days in a row.

Notably, he said that he would have kept buying in Q1 if the price had stayed low. However, it increased back up to nearly $180 by the end of March.

“Unfortunately the stock went back up, so I stopped. Otherwise who knows how much we would have bought?” the 91-year-old investor told Quick on Sunday after Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting.

Writing in Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting letter, Buffett praised Apple CEO Tim Cook for how he approaches customers as well as the impact of his management skill:

It’s no secret that Tim Cook is Apple’s genius CEO. But he treats Apple users as his first love. All of Tim’s other constituents also benefit from his managerial skills.

Buffett also endorsed Apple’s stock repurchase program which was just increased by $90 billion at the company’s latest earnings call.

Interestingly, since Buffett’s $600 million AAPL purchase in Q1, Apple stock has fallen again close to the lows of March. If $150 is in the buy range for Berkshire, the conglomerate could be picking up more shares now.

This comes in contrast to Buffett revealing last year at this time that Berkshire sold almost 10 million AAPL shares with him admitting that it was “probably a mistake.”

Berkshire Hathaway, the biggest single shareholder of Apple shares other than ETFs or other funds is . For Berkshire, Apple makes up 47. 5% of its holdings with a value of just under $160 billion.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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Stories discussed in this episode:

• Kuo: Apple Watch Series 8 could feature body temperature measurement, depends on algorithm quality
• EU announces preliminary view that Apple abused dominant market position for Apple Pay by restricting access to NFC chip
• Apple shares criteria for removing ‘abandoned’ software from App Store, extending response window

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After adding support for Apple TV+ back in 2019, Roku is expanding the availability of Apple services with the addition of Apple Music. Today, the streaming company revealed that Apple Music is available now on Roku devices. This includes streaming devices and premium audio devices.

Apple Music comes to Roku

In a press release, Roku detailed that the Apple Music experience on its devices includes full support for 90 million songs, playlists, and more. There’s even support for live lyrics, 4K streaming of music videos, and Apple Music Radio.

Starting today, Roku users can access over 90 million songs and 30,000 expert-curated playlists for any occasion, ad-free on the Apple Music app. In addition, Roku users with an Apple Music subscription can live stream today’s hits, classics, and country with the award-winning Apple Music Radio, as well as listen to songs, albums, and playlists from their own music library. The Apple Music app also allows users to watch music videos in 4K on compatible devices and sing along to their favorite songs with time-synced lyrics. Subscribing users will also gain access to Apple Music original shows, concerts, and exclusives, as well as personalized recommendations.

This isn’t the first time Apple Music has expanded to the living room. Apple Music is available for use on gaming consoles and smart TVs from Samsung. Roku is a popular smart TV platform, and this expansion is expected to make Apple’s market share even more.

Apple Music access on Roku devices is rolling out today. You can find the Apple Music app by heading to the Roku channel store, where you can also unlock a free one-month trial. And of course, if you’re already an Apple Music subscriber, you can simply log-in with your details.

Are you going to test out Apple Music on your Roku device? Please let us know in the comments.