#iPhone APP Development (2

[wifegideonnav]

what the fuck my best friend is currently playing through the mobile game cut the rope, which came out in 2010 and was originally a one time purchase of $1 for iphone and $2 for ipad. it’s now free with constant ads. it costs $10 a month to remove the ads. if you want to play fucking cut the rope without ads you have to fork over 120 usd per year. to play your toilet game without ads. i think we should start enacting greek myth style punishments on these app developers. they have to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity and the boulder is covered with ads and every time it slips out of their grasp and rolls down the hill there’s an unskippable minute of ads beamed directly into their brain as they jog after the fucking boulder

[andrioddeveloperscommunity]

DoktorTakvimi – Uzmanını Bul Clone Script: Simplifying Healthcare Appointments

The healthcare industry has always been an essential part of our lives, and the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for an efficient healthcare system that can cater to the needs of patients remotely. With the pandemic disrupting our daily lives, healthcare providers have had to adapt to new ways of providing care to patients. One of the ways that technology has helped is by providing patients with the convenience of booking appointments with doctors and healthcare professionals from the comfort of their homes.

DoktorTakvimi - Uzmanını Bul is a healthcare appointment scheduling app that has gained a lot of popularity in recent times. The app has made healthcare appointments more accessible and convenient for patients, and it has become a go-to app for people looking to book appointments with doctors and healthcare professionals.

In this blog post, we will explore the features, benefits, and development process of DoktorTakvimi clone Script. We will also discuss how Omninos Solutions can help you create a clone app like DoktorTakvimi - Uzmanını Bul that meets your requirements. Whether you are a healthcare provider looking to develop an app or an entrepreneur looking to invest in the healthcare industry, this blog post will provide you with valuable insights into the world of healthcare appointment scheduling apps.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Canada shouldn’t retaliate with its US tariffs

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

Five years ago, Trump touted his "big, beautiful" replacement for NAFTA, the "free trade agreement" between the US, Mexico and Canada. Trump's NAFTA-2 was called the USMCA (US-Mexico-Canada Agreement) and it was pretty similar to NAFTA, to be honest.

That tells you a couple things: first, NAFTA was, broadly speaking a good thing for Trump and the ultra-wealthy donors who backed him (and got far richer as a result). That's why he kept it intact. NAFTA and USMCA are, at root, a way to make rich people richer by making poorer people poorer. Trump's base hated NAFTA because they (correctly) believed that it was being used to erode wages by chasing cheaper labor and more lax environmental controls in other countries. Neither NAFTA nor USMCA have any stipulations requiring exported goods to be manufactured by unionized workers, or in factories with robust environmental and workplace safety rules.

The point of NAFTA/USMCA is to goose profits by despoiling the environment, maiming workers, stealing their wages, paying them less, all while poisoning the Earth. Trump's "new" NAFTA was just the old NAFTA with some largely cosmetic changes so that Trump's base could be (temporarily) fooled into thinking Trump was righting the historic wrong of NAFTA.

However, there was one part of USMCA that marked a huge departure from NAFTA: the "IP" chapter. USCMA bound Canada and Mexico to implementing brutal new IP laws. For example, Mexico was forced to pass an anti-circumvention law that makes it a crime to tamper with "digital locks." This means that Mexican mechanics can't bypass the locks US car companies use to lock-out third party repair. Mexican farmers can't fix their own tractors. And, of course, Mexican software developers can't make alternative app stores for games consoles and mobile devices – they must sell their software through US Big Tech companies that take 30% of every sale:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/09/free-sample/#que-viva

Shamefully, Canada had already capitulated to most of these demands. Two Canadian Conservative Party politicians, Tony Clement and James Moore, had sold the country out in 2012, throwing away 6,138 negative responses to a consultation on a new DRM law (on the grounds that they were "babyish" views of "radical extremists"), siding instead with the 54 cranks and industry shills who supported their proposal:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/15/radical-extremists/#sex-pest

When Canadian politicians are pressed on why these anti-interoperability policies are good for Canada, they'll say that it's a condition of free trade, and the benefits of being able to export Canadian goods to the US without tariffs outweigh the costs of having to pay rents to American companies for consumables (like car parts or printer ink), repair, and software sales.

Sure, when Canadian software authors sell iPhone apps to Canadian customers, the payments take a round trip through Cupertino, California and return 30% short. But Canadian consumers get to buy iPhones without paying tariffs on them, and the oil, timber, and minerals we rip out of the ground can be sent to America without tariffs, either (oh, also, a few things that are still manufactured in Canada can do this, too).

Enter Trump, carrying a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods, which he has vowed to impose on his first day in office. Obviously, this demands a policy response. What should Canada do when Trump tears up his "big, beautiful" trade deal and whacks Canadian exporters? One obvious response is to impose a 25% retaliatory tariff on American exporters:

https://mishtalk.com/economics/canada-says-it-will-match-us-tariffs-if-trump-launches-trade-war/

After all, Canada and the US are one another's mutual largest trading partners. American businesses rely on selling things to Canadians, so a massive tariff on US goods will certainly make some of Trump's business-lobby backers feel pain, and maybe they'll talk some sense into him.

I think this would be a huge mistake. The most potent political lesson of the past four years is that politicians who preside over rising prices – regardless of their role in causing them – will swiftly feel the wrath of their voters. The public is furious about inflation, whether it comes from transient covid supply chain shocks, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, or cartels using "inflation" as cover for illegal, collusive price-gouging.

Canadians are very reliant on American imports of finished goods. That's another legacy of NAFTA: it crashed Canada's manufacturing sector. Canadian manufacturing companies treated the US as a "nearshore" source of non-union labor and weak environmental and safety rules, and shipped Canadian union jobs to American scabs. Canada's economy is supposedly now all about "services" but what we really export is stuff we tear out of the Earth.

Countries that are organized around resource extraction don't need fancy social safety nets or an educational system capable of producing a high-tech workforce. All you need to extract resources is a hole in the ground surrounded by guns, which explains a lot about shifts to the Canadian political climate since the Mulroney years.

Since Canada is now substantially reorganized as an open-pit mine for American manufacturers, cutting off American imports would drive the prices of everyday good sky-high, and would be political suicide.

But there's another way.

Because, of course, Canada – like any other country – has the capacity to make all kinds of things, including high-tech things. Sure, it's unlikely that Canada will launch another Research in Motion with a Blackberry smart-phone that will put the iPhone and Android in the shade. The mobile duopoly has the market sewn up, and can use predatory pricing, refusal to deal, and other anticompetitive tactics to strangle any competitor in its cradle.

But you know what Canada could make? A Canadian App Store. That's a store that Canadian software authors could use to sell Canadian apps to Canadian customers, charging, say, the standard payment processing fee of 5% rather than Apple's 30%. Canada could make app stores for the Android, Playstation and Xbox, too.

There's no reason that a Canadian app store would have to confine itself to Canadian software authors, either. Canadian app stores could offer 5% commissions on sales to US and global software authors, and provide jailbreaking kits that allows device owners all around the world to install the Canadian app stores where software authors don't get ripped off by American Big Tech companies.

Canadian companies like Honeybee already make "front-ends" for John Deere tractors – these are the components that turn a tractor into a plow, or a thresher, or another piece of heavy agricultural equipment. Honeybee struggles constantly to get its products to interface with Deere tractors, because Deere uses digital locks to block its products:

https://honeybee.ca/

Canada could produce jailbreaking kits for John Deere tractors, too – not just for Honeybee. Every ag-tech company in the world would benefit from commercially available, professionally supported John Deere jailbreaking kits. So would farmers, because these kits would restore farmers' Right to Repair their own tractors:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

Speaking of repair: Canadian companies could jailbreak every make and model of every US automobile, and make independent, constantly updated diagnostic tools that every mechanic in the world could buy for hundreds of dollars, rather than paying the five-figure ransom that car makers charge for their own underpowered, junk versions of these tools.

Jailbreaking cars doesn't stop with repair, either. Cars like the Tesla are basically giant rent-extraction machines. If you want to use all the "features" your Tesla ships with – like access to the full charge on your battery – you have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in subscription fees over the life of the car, and when you sell your car, all that "downloadable content" is clawed back. No one will pay extra to buy your used Tesla just because you spent thousands on manufacturer upgrades, because they're all downgraded when you sign over the pink slip.

But Canadian companies could make jailbreaking kits for Teslas that unlock all the features in the car for a single low price – and again, they could sell these to every Tesla owner in the world.

Elon Musk doesn't invent anything, he just takes credit for other people's ideas, and that's as true of bad ideas as it is for good ones. Musk didn't invent the extractive Tesla rip-off: he stole it from inkjet printer companies like HP, who have used the fact that jailbreaking is illegal to turn printer ink into the most expensive fluid in the world, selling for more than $10,000/gallon.

Canadian companies could sell jailbreaking kits for inkjet printers that disconnect them from "subscription" services and disable the anti-features that check for and reject third party ink. People all over the world would buy these.

What's standing in the way of a Canadian industrial policy that focuses on raiding the sky-high margins of American monopolists with third-party add-ons, mods and jailbreaks?

Only the IP laws that Canada has agreed to in order to get tariff-free access to American markets. You know, the access that Trump has promised to end in less than a week's time?

Canada should tear up these laws – and not impose tariffs on American goods. That way, Canadians can still buy cheap American goods, and then they can save billions of dollars every year on the consumables, parts, software, and service for those goods.

This is hurting American big business where it hurts – in the ongoing rents it extracts from Canadians through IP laws like Bill C-11 (the law that bans jailbreaking). Canada could become a global high-tech export powerhouse, selling "complementary" goods that disenshittify all the worst practices of US tech monopolists, from car parts to insulin pumps.

It's the only kind of trade war that Canadian politicians can win against Americans: the kind where prices for Canadians don't go up because of tariffs; where the price of apps, repair, parts, and upgrades goes way down; and where a new, high-tech manufacturing sector pulls in vast sums from customers all over the world.

Canada can win this kind of war, even against a country as big and powerful as the USA. After all, we did it once before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CK3EDncjGI

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/15/beauty-eh/#its-the-only-war-the-yankees-lost-except-for-vietnam-and-also-the-alamo-and-the-bay-of-ham

[the-sleepy-archivist]

Blocking Ads on Mobile Devices

Blocking ads on our phones is way harder than it should be so I figured I'd make some recommendations. These are not the only options out there, just the ones that I know and have used.

Please note that browser-level and system-level adblocking are complementary; you'll have the best experience if you use both of them together as they each block different things in different places. If you want a basic idea of how effective your combined adblocking setup is, you can visit this website in your mobile browser.

Lastly, there is some additional advice/info under the readmore if you're curious (EDIT: updated March 2025 to add more adblocking options for iOS and to add info about sideloading altered versions of social media apps that don't contain ads on Android and iOS).

Android

Browser-Level

uBlock Origin (for Firefox)

System-Level (works in all apps, not just browsers)

AdGuard

Blokada 5 (completely free version) OR Blokada 6 (has some newer features but they require a subscription)

iPhone/iPad

Browser-Level

AdGuard (Safari extension; free for basic browser-level blocking, requires a subscription or one time purchase of “lifetime” license for custom filters)

1Blocker (Safari extension from an indie developer; can enable one built-in or custom filter list for free, requires a subscription or one time purchase of “lifetime” license for enabling multiple filter lists and updating filter lists to the latest version automatically)

Wipr 2 (one time purchase from indie developer; simplest option to use, but also the least configurable. Best if you are looking for one time set and forget and don’t need any custom filters. Note that it does not have a system-level blocking option)

System-Level (works in all apps, not just browsers)

AdGuard (requires subscription or one time purchase of “lifetime” license for system-level blocking)

1Blocker (can activate without a subscription, but requires subscription or one time purchase of “lifetime” license to enable system-level blocking AND browser-level blocking simultaneously)

AdGuard DNS only (this is free and does not require the AdGuard app, BUT I would only recommend it for advanced users, as you can't easily turn it off like you can with the app. Credit to this Reddit thread for the DNS profile)

Some additional info: browser-level blocking is a browser addon or extension, like you might be used to from a desktop computer. This inspects the HTML code returned by websites and searches for patterns that identify the presence of an ad or other annoyance (popup videos, cookie agreements, etc.). System-level blocking is almost always DNS-based. Basically whenever an app asks your phone's OS to make a connection to a website that is known for serving ads, the system-level blocker replies "sorry, I don't know her 🤷‍♂️���" and the ad doesn't get downloaded. This works in most places, not just a browser, but be warned that it might make your battery drain a little faster depending on the app/setup.

Each of those types of blocking has strengths and weaknesses. System-level DNS blocking blocks ads in all apps, but companies that own advertising networks AND the websites those ads are served on can combine their services into the same domain to render DNS blocking useless; you can’t block ads served by Facebook/Meta domains without also blocking all of Facebook and Instagram as well because they made sure their ads are served from the same domain as all the user posts you actually want to see. Similarly, browser-level blocking can recognize ads by appearance and content, regardless of what domain they’re served from, so it can block them on Instagram and Facebook. However, it needs to be able to inspect the content being loaded in order to look for ads, and there’s no way to do that in non-browser apps. That’s why using both together will get you the best results.

These limitations do mean that you can’t block ads in the Facebook or Instagram apps, unfortunately, only in the website versions of them visited in your browser. It also means ads served by meta’s/facebook’s ad network in other apps can’t be blocked either (unless you're one of the rare beasts who doesn't use facebook or instagram or threads, in which case feel free to blacklist all Meta/FB domains and watch your ads disappear 😍; I'm jealous and in awe of you lol).

One note: some apps may behave unpredictably when they can't download ads. For example, the Tumblr app has big black spaces where the ads are, and sometimes those spaces collapse as you scroll past them and it messes up scrolling for a few seconds (UPDATE: looks like the scrolling issue may have actually been a Tumblr bug that they have now fixed, at least on iOS). Still way less annoying than getting ads for Draco Malfoy seduction roleplay AI chatbots imo though. And honestly *most* apps handle this fairly gracefully, like a mobile game I play just throws error messages like "ad is not ready" and then continues like normal.

One final note: on Android, you may actually be able to find hacked versions of Meta’s apps that have the ad frameworks removed. In some cases they are a little janky (unsurprisingly, apps don’t always take kindly to having some of their innards ripped out by a third-party), and they are often out of date. BUT in return you get an Instagram app with no ads whatsoever, and some of them even add additional features like buttons for saving IG videos and photos to your phone. However, use these apps at your own risk, as there is functionally no way to validate the code that the third-parties have added or removed from the app. Example altered IG app (I have not vetted this altered app, it's just a popular option): link.

It is technically possible to install altered apps on iOS as well, but Apple makes it much, much harder to do (unless you are jailbroken, which is a whole different ballgame). I'm not going to cover sideloading or jailbreaking here because even I as a very techy person eventually grew tired of messing with it or having to pay for it. If you're interested you can read more about the different ways to do sideloading on iOS here.

[leonw4nter]

Literally just brain rot. I want to share...

DI Leon Kennedy who refused to use any phone older than a 2005 Blackberry phone in his personal life. But his new young 23+ girlfriend makes him get a new up to date iPhone just so they can FaceTime and share location at all times. So him just randomly pulling out his new phone infront of everyone and not one person is not shocked by this new development and hes just grumpy because what do all these apps mean..? What did she download on his phone? Why were there so many damn steps to just make a phone call or send a text. Why did his phone need to update? Just him and his younger girlfriend figuring out his new phone and how to navigate it and her teasing him with “my old man~” and giving his pouty face kisses

YES OH MY GOODNESS.

Him and his girlfriend could be laying in bed, she's on her phone or doing something else and you'd hear the "clack clack clack" coming from Leon and it's him tapping away on the keyboard of his Blackberry... bonus if he's squinting and every now and then he's bringing his phone close to his face to read the tiny text (he TOTALLY doesn't need any glasses).

One day he comes home and you surprise him with a heavy ass box and inside is his fully-paid new iPhone. He makes you do the set-up because it all looks so complex and foreign to him but he sits beside you and looks at the bright screen with interest, occasionally asking what this does and how you do that. He feels a little clumsy with the weight of the phone in his hands and pocket at first but he eventually adjusts to it.

What takes a little longer for him to adjust to, though, is how to navigate and use his phone. What is an "Apple ID"? He finds out that Safari is not a compass and Apple doesn't randomly have 2 compass apps on the phone, he doesn't know how to add his other friends' numbers, and he doesn't know how to turn Siri off if he does accidentally activate it.

Rebecca teaches him about .5 pics and she shows him how it's done and how the picture will look and finds it funny... so while you're napping and you look like you bargained your way into Earth, he'll take a .5 pic of you and set it as your contact photo... maybe even his home screen wallpaper if he's feeling extra devious :3

[wild-magics]

ADHD *Hacks* That Help Me Immensely

I just turned 30 this year and I feel like I've finally gotten more of a handle on my ADHD and developed some habits that make doing tasks MUCH easier. I still have my difficult days but overall I'm much better at getting done the stuff that I need to do, and I thought I'd share them so they may possibly help others. Some of them unfortunately do involve a monetary investment to purchase certain items but the way they have helped my mental health makes them 100% worth it to me. I also know some of these have been mentioned in guides before but it never hurts to hear them again.

*For people who are forgetful about taking their meds: DOWNLOAD A MEDICATION APP ON YOUR PHONE THAT SENDS OUT MULTIPLE REMINDERS UNTIL YOU'VE MARKED OFF THAT YOU'VE TAKEN THEM. This has been THEE most helpful for me and making sure I take my medications consistently and mostly on time. I use the free version of Medisafe on my iPhone. I put in the meds I need to take and a time I need to take them, and it sends me a reminder every day. If I don't take them immediately and mark it off, it sends me reminders every few minutes until I check off that I've taken them, and it tells me the time I took them. You can snooze the reminder if you need to take it later than usual, and you can turn on critical reminders that make noise. If you have a problem getting out of bed to take them, you can keep your meds and a drink next to your bed so that you don't have to even get up.

*For people who often forget their hot drinks for long enough they get cold: Buy a coffee mug warmer. I like to drink my coffee in bed in the morning, and I have it on my dresser next to my bed. It keeps it warm long enough for me to finish it, and if I forget to turn it off, it has an automatic shut off so it doesn't stay on all day. Mine has a cord so it needs an outlet nearby, but they probably have battery-operated ones if you don't have an outlet nearby and that you can probably move with you.

*For people who have trouble with oral health: buy an electric toothbrush and keep it visible on your counter, and buy floss picks. My electric toothbrush goes for the full 2 minutes recommended by dentists, but it buzzes in 30 second increments so that I can brush the 4 quadrants of my mouth equally. Also, for some reason I find it easier to pick up a floss pick to use instead of a pack of floss, probably because it takes less time.

*For people who find it difficult to clean up small messes: buy a cordless vacuum and a mini broom and dustpan and keep them visible. A lot of mini dustpans have a hole in the handle so they can be hung up, and I have mine on a hook on the side of my fridge that I only use on my counters. If I'm making toast or something and I get crumbs all over the counter, I can clean them up immediately. And if I drop small things on the floor, I can pick it up and move it over and quickly vacuum up the tiny particles. (I'd also recommend microfiber slippers if you have hardwood floors, because it's an easy and quick way to clean up dirt with minimal effort.)

*For people who spend too long in the bathroom: keep a clock visible. I know they sell clocks specifically to hang in the shower, but I have one that is on a shelf close enough to my shower that I can just peek out and quickly check the time.

*For people who have difficulty cleaning the bathroom, especially showers and toilets: buy a daily shower cleaner and keep it in the shower, and a toilet bowl cleanser that clings to the side. If you spray the shower cleanser after every shower, it means less soap scum to clean up later and helps keep mildew at bay. If you keep it visible in the shower (out of the spray of water), it makes it easier to just use it after every one, and you don't have to wipe anything down. And a toilet bowl cleanser that clings to the side generally takes less than a minute to install, lasts for a while, and helps keep the toilet cleaner so that if you are able to do a more thorough cleaning, you have less to clean.

*For people who have difficulty throwing things away: keep multiple trashcans around. This one is said all the time, but it really does help me to put trash where it belongs. I have one in my kitchen, one in my bathroom, one under my vanity, and even a miniature one that I keep on my bedside dresser for small things like q-tips and tissues.

*For people who have trouble remembering their perishables in the fridge: Buy a magnetic dry-erase board, put it on your fridge, and write down the stuff that goes bad. You can also write down the sell-by or expiration date if it has one, or the date you purchased the items and when it needs to be used by, or even the shelf life of each item. When you've finished them, you can erase it. You can also do this for non-perishables items like snacks and dry goods and stick it to the cupboard or pantry so you know what you have in their and what items you've run out of as soon as you've finished them up. **You can keep lists of ANYTHING honestly. I store many things in containers, like cleaning products, OTC painkillers and other meds, and stock-ups of toiletries and hygiene products when I'm about to run out of them, and having a list of what's in these containers helps me to not buy back-ups of things I don't currently need (I used to forget I already had things like contact solution and toothpaste, so I would buy a back-up when I was almost out of the one I was currently using and come home to find that I already had like, 3 of them). You can just write them on a post-it or something and like, tape it to the side of the storage container. When it's gone, you can cross it off/erase it, and then put it on the shopping list immediately. I would also suggest, if you can afford to, re-buying the things you need RIGHT BEFORE you run out, like when you have a few uses left, so that you don't have to stop-and-restart them.

*For people who have trouble remembering what groceries they need: download a list app on your phone, and write what you've run out of or what you need to buy immediately, as soon as you think of it. I use the free version of AnyList on iPhone. You can create your own lists, and I have two lists: one for food (Grocery List), and one for everything else (Shopping List).

For people who spend too much time on their phone scrolling: download an app blocker app. I use the free version of Opal on iPhone, but I'm thinking about upgrading to the paid subscription. The free version only lets you block a certain amount of apps and websites, but I use it for tumblr and ao3, because I spend the most amount of time on them. You can set the times you want them blocked and on what days (which are limited on the free version), but if you WANT to access a blocked app, you can take a break from the block in up to 15 minute intervals.

*For people who forget to eat during the day: keep non-perishable items visible on the counter. I have a fruit bowl for things like apples, oranges, bananas, etc. You can also place healthy snacks like granola bars, nuts, etc., in a visible container; or even unhealthy snacks like chips or cookies in them; eating SOMETHING AT ALL is better than nothing.

*For people who have trouble remembering to drink water: buy a reusable water bottle and keep it near you at all times. It doesn't have to be a big one; you can use a small tumbler - water is water. If you can remember to do so, bring it with you whenever you leave a room. You can even buy multiple water bottles and keep them in multiple rooms if you can't remember to bring it with you - water doesn't go bad. If you prefer sparkling water in a can or bottle over regular water? Pour that in there too. It may go flat and loose its taste, but it is still drinkable. They even have apps you can download that send you reminders. I've even seen water bottles that light up to remind you, and even ones you can attach to the side of bottles that you already own. **It doesn't have to be reusable honestly, plastic water bottles work just as well (and don't require you to wash them, because I know some people have difficulty with), but I've found that keeping it in a container that I think is cute and/or keeps the drink cold (which I prefer over lukewarm) makes me more likely to drink it. **You can buy multiples of lots of stuff and keep them in different rooms, honestly. If you wear glasses and need to clean them often? Buy multiple glasses cleansers like microfiber towels or lens wipes and keep them in as many rooms as you need. Keep snacks in different rooms to remind yourself to eat. If you take pills, buy little containers and place them in different rooms. The world is your oyster.

***Of course there's the usual recommendations like cleaning as you go, setting a timer for like 10-15 minutes and doing what you can in that time frame, buying frozen fruits and veggies, etc., but these tips are repeated over and over, so I wanted to mention ones that I have found the most helpful personally.

****If you want recommendations of the exact ones I've bought, you can definitely reach out and ask, but honestly if you google each item and read the reviews it should work out the same.

I know so many people have made guides like these and may have already mentioned these tips, but you can honestly never have too much help when it comes to dealing with ADHD fuckery. If one of these ideas helps even one person, it would be worth the 30 minutes it took me to write out this post lmao.

[felassan]

Game Informer:

"The Dragon Age: The Veilguard Digital Issue Is Now Live! by Kyle Hilliard on Jun 18, 2024 at 12:30 PM If you subscribe to the digital edition of Game Informer, you can now learn all about our trip to BioWare for Dragon Age: The Veilguard! Following the cover reveal our digital issue is now live on web browsers, iPad/iPhone, and Android devices. Alongside our 12-page Dragon Age: The Veilguard cover story, you will also find big features on our trip to Warsaw, Poland to play The Alters, a deep dive on SFB Games the creators of Snipperclips and Crow Country, a look back at Silent Hill with with the developers it has inspired, a feature about how Sony and Microsoft created its specialty accessible controllers, reporting from Summer Game Fest, and lots more! We've also got previews for Assassin's Creed Shadows, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Black Myth Wukong, Star Wars Outlaws, Undermine 2, Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, and reviews for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, XDefiant, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Crow Country, Minishoot' Adventures, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, and much more! If you love print as much as we do, you can subscribe to the physical magazine: SUBSCRIBE NOW You get 10 issues for $19.91, or two years and 20 issues for $34.99. Individual issues are also now available for purchase at this link or in any GameStop store. You can download the apps to read the issue by following this link."

[source]

[goth-mami-writer]

Literally just brain rot. I want to share...

DI Leon Kennedy who refused to use any phone older than a 2005 Blackberry phone in his personal life. But his new young 23+ girlfriend makes him get a new up to date iPhone just so they can FaceTime and share location at all times. So him just randomly pulling out his new phone infront of everyone and not one person is not shocked by this new development and hes just grumpy because what do all these apps mean..? What did she download on his phone? Why were there so many damn steps to just make a phone call or send a text. Why did his phone need to update?

💓I LOVE THIS 💓

I think Leon would use Siri as a personal phone slave so he wouldn't have to navigate through the iPhone controls. That poor girlfriend would be an IT helpline in 10 minutes of the purchase.

1.) Green texts messages would PERPLEX him.

2.) He'd be the person calling Apple like, "I don't know my Apple ID?? 😠" THE ONE HE CREATED.

3. Having to buy the charger separately from the phone would PISS HIM OFF.

4. He would 1000% FaceTime with the phone held up to his eyeball, Like, Istg six inches from his face like this [0.0]

My dirty mind would want him to have his airpods in as he's leaving for work and id be watching him get in the car to just send the filthiest text message for Siri to read in his ear.

[rainbowsky]

Hi! What do you think of the new camera cpn? I don't think I saw you talk about it. I love reading long cpn analyses but I haven't seen many people analyze the camera thing so I'm very eager to know people's thoughts about it

Hi Anon!

I've been ill for the past few weeks (recovering, I'll be fine), so haven't been online much, which is why you haven't seen me talking about much or responding to asks. I don't really have the spoons right now to dig too deeply into this (you're not likely to see any long analysis from me for a bit) but I can give a few thoughts on it.

Fake, fan fiction, CPN.

GG has been seen using Leica cameras and other sophisticated camera equipment for years. He is, after all, a professional graphic designer and photographer who used to be the primary photographer for a photography studio he ran with friends.

He has been spotted using this specialized Leica that is optimized for black and white photography, and has shared black and white photos in the past.

Now suddenly we see DD - someone who, while he's had a lot of hobbies, has never shown any special interest in photography - wandering the streets of Paris with a new Leica that's an updated model of the same one GG's been using, that's optimized for black and white photography...

Not only does he appear to be taking up photography (or at least being public about his interest in photography, if it's something he's developed over time), but it's black and white photography, and he's using a Leica - a fairly niche, very expensive brand - of the same type and similar model as GG has been using.

Sometimes I feel like I have to remind everyone to have a sense of perspective on things like this, because it's easy to forget or overlook relevant context. And by that I mean, let's consider how something like this would be received if it was a man and a woman who had been rumored to be in a relationship and who suddenly appeared to be using the same camera brand of similar models in this narrow 'black and white' space. MF relationships have been completely 'outed' by less.

This is pretty damn unwashable in my eyes. Just like the phone case, this is another situation of these guys 'coincidentally' having the exact same taste in something that's not popular or mainstream.

Both of them using a credit card iPhone case, in CHINA, where everyone pays for everything via phone apps, not via credit cards?

Now this camera... BJYXSZD.

So those are my thoughts on this very 💣 candy.

However, for deeper analysis and some of the details, photos, etc. you can check out @accio-victuuri's posts on the subject. You can find those posts here:

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3

Post 4

Post 5

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Kidfluencers’ dreams of wealth clash with Brazil’s labor laws

The hum of midday traffic in Santa Rita do Sapucaí, Brazil, was a familiar soundtrack to Guilherme’s hustle. Fourteen, slight, and armed with a plastic box of colorful candies — Halls and Fini — he wove between cars stopped at a light near the city center. But it wasn’t so much the few reais from each sale that fueled his energy as the lens of a nearby iPhone capturing his every move.

The true reward for the day’s labor rested with his online audience. Guilherme’s accounts on Instagram, Kwai, and TikTok drew more than 2 million combined followers this February. His videos, carefully crafted by him and posted by his management team, held the potential for a staggering 6,000 Brazilian reais, or about $1,000 a month — a sum that dwarfs the average adult income in Brazil. This wasn’t merely about selling sweets; it was about building a brand, a future. 

“I want to be a big influencer, to be known globally,” Guilherme told Rest of World. 

Guilherme’s manager, Yuri Araújo, has even bigger dreams for the teenager. “This boy can be the new MrBeast from Brazil,” he told Rest of World. MrBeast, with about 592 million followers, is the world’s largest social media influencer.

Child social media influencers like Guilherme are growing globally, and 83% of Brazilians aged nine to 17 have social media and WhatsApp accounts. Many check them daily. There is also a growing number of “kidfluencers” in Brazil who promote online get-rich-quick schemes to other children. Some are paid by TikTok and the short-video app Kwai. Others receive free products and services, or do affiliate marketing and advertise to their followers. Rest of World found scores of teenagers on Instagram in Brazil advertising courses on how to become rich as an influencer. The courses were sold on the digital marketing platforms Cakto and Kirvano for commissions. Rest of World is not revealing the identity of any minors, and pseudonyms are used in this story to protect their privacy.

Such work under the age of 16 is considered unlawful child labor in Brazil, unless the creator receives authorization from a judge to perform “artistic labor” — an exemption that is reserved for child actors and similar artists, and could include influencers. “[The law] aims to protect children and teens, and ensure that they can enjoy each phase of their life at the right time,” Luísa Carvalho Rodrigues, coordinator of child and teen rights at the Public Labor Prosecutor’s Office, told Rest of World. “These kids’ [brains] are still developing.”

Continue reading.

[friendsfan04]

Blog Post #3

Do companies such as Apple benefit from the fact that their phones cannot be updated after a certain number of years? 

Companies, such as Apple, do tend to benefit from not allowing users to update their phones after a certain amount of time. Apple has been known for having the newest gadgets and the highest level of technology. People go as far as to describe it as a “luxury” brand. However, as many of us have probably experienced at some point, the IOS systems tend to run slower as time passes, making it hard for Apple users to keep up with the newest technology. They stop allowing older phones to download the newer versions of IOS, apps run slower, storage space disappears in the blink of an eye, battery life decreases, etc. All of these things start happening so that users will seek out the latest iPhone and buy more items from Apple. 

2. How does digital literacy feed into the digital divide in terms of older vs newer generations? 

When looking at the digital literacy of previous generations, it’s very different than younger generations. Older generations are used to platforms such as Facebook, AOL, MySpace, dial-up internet, etc. However, younger generations are hopping on all the new trends on a variety of social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc. When we compare these different does of communication, previous generations don’t have the same digital literacy as the newer generations because so much has changed in the last few years, and it’s hard to keep up with everything because things are constantly changing. 

3. What are some of the potential limits of “the New Jim Code” and how do they affect people? 

“The New Jim Code” is based on the previous “Jim Code Laws” which basically describe how things are changing in terms of technology. People are changing their opinions of things they see online and marking them as either objective or progressive, depending on the time period it’s coming from. This affects people because we tend to care a lot about how we are perceived by others, and whether or not they will agree with our views. 

4. Why do people often complain about facial recognition? How can we fix this problem? 

People complain about facial recognition technology because it’s often modeled after the generalized “white man.” I’ve also heard people say that this is just another way for the government to keep tabs on us, which may or may not be true. However, this code that was originally entered for facial recognition is failing humans because it is very inaccurate. For example, it’s basically implying that Black men and women look alike, and this is criminalizing innocent people. I think this problem should be taken into careful consideration and developed with more detail so that it can be more specific and precise, instead of putting innocent people behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. 

5. How does intersectionality coincide with social media? 

Intersectionality is defined as a frame, which when used, is able to single out the issues within institutions that might have been previously overlooked. I’ve seen instances of intersectionality pop up across social media platforms because some people will point out something that a business or institution is doing wrong, and will create a lot of noise around it. This allows more people to see the issue and in turn, causes the company to make a change.

Benjamin, R. (2020). Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Polity. 

Crenshaw, K. (2016, December 7). The Urgency of Intersectionality. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o 

Everett, A. (2002). The Revolution Will Be Digitized. Duke University Press. https://read.dukeupress.edu/social-text/article-abstract/20/2%20(71)/125/32619/The-Revolution-Will-Be-DigitizedAFROCENTRICITY-AND?redirectedFrom=fulltext 

[sonicenvy]

An AO3 app? -- The next installment in my AO3 posting.

I'm going to preface this by telling you that I don't entirely understand the urge or need to have an app for everything, but then again, I am closer to 30 than 20, so maybe that's the difference. Moving on.

So I've seen a lot of people saying that they wish there was an AO3 app. Presumably these people read AO3 on their phones or tablets. The thing is, there is NO AO3 app. If you see an app in the App Store or the Play Store claiming to be an AO3 app, it is fake, and you should not download it.

Say it with me kids:

"ao3 does not have an app and will not have an app."

The thing is, there's a really good reason why it will never happen. If you've been on this site (tumblr) long enough you'll either remember or have heard about the great tumblr porn ban (aka the ban on "female presenting nipples"). Believe it or not there was time where the tumblr (official) policy on adult content was "go nuts, show nuts. whatever." <-- actual quote btw.

A big reason why the tumblr porn ban ever happened was because of the tumblr app, specifically, the tumblr app for iOS. Apple decided one day that they thought that the tumblr app contained too much "sensitive content" and they banned tumblr's app from the Apple App Store, until such time as tumblr took what they believed sufficient corrective action for this "issue." Apple also believed that tumblr's app was hosting CP, which they considered a violation of their TOS.

So, in response to Apple banning them from the app store (which did not effect current users of the tumblr app, only potential new tumblr users), tumblr rolled out the adult content ban, so that they could get re-instated on the App Store. Like many other new "features" and "updates" to this site, the roll out was clunky, badly done and deeply unpopular. It was easily one of the worst changes for this site, in no small part because of how clunky it was; lots of innocuous posts were incorrectly flagged, and many bloggers found their entire blogs flagged, with little recourse in the initial wake of the ban. Critically, this event saw a great many users on tumblr leave this platform for twitter. How this affected site culture is up to debate.

Why am I telling you this? Well, as I am sure you, as an AO3 user are well aware, AO3 hosts a great deal of "adult content," of many persuasions and forms. They are explicitly against censorship of any kind. The app store is NOT against all censorship. These are two conflicting values. Since AO3 (and by extension OTW) has no interest in purging content from their site on behest of a megacorp (which btw is also why they rely on donations only and don't serve advertisements), they have no interest in developing an app, given the potential for restrictions.

Besides, AO3's website is simple, clean, and mobile responsive. Why fix something that ain't broke??

But, wait, if you're the target audience I'm hoping to reach with this post, you still want an app for AO3 on your home screen!

Never fear, my app loving youngsters! There is a way for you to create an "app" icon on your iPad or iPhone's home screen for AO3 (or any other site you like really) Apologies Android users; I don't have an Android, so I can't show you something analogous to this on Android, and don't know if they have it. Ditto on Kindle Fire.

This tutorial will use both safari and Firefox*. I won't show you Chrome (derogatory) because I don't have it and don't use it.

*Side note, switching to Firefox today is a great thing that you can do for yourself. You can easily import all of your Chrome bookmarks if that's what worries you.

In Firefox:

Step 1. Visit AO3 in the Firefox browser.

Step 2. Tap the hamburger menu in the right hand side of the top ribbon to reveal the browser and page settings and options menu, and locate the "Share" option (highlighted in blue below):

Step 3. In the "share" menu popup, locate and tap the "Add to Home Screen" option (highlighted in blue below):

Step 4. Give your new "app" (secretly just a bookmark) a title. You can leave it as the default, but I suggest shortening it so that the entirety of it shows on your home screen. You can name it whatever you want.

In Safari:

Step 1. Visit AO3 in the Safari browser.

Step 2. Tap the share icon in the right hand side of the top ribbon and scroll down until you find the "Add to Home Screen" option (highlighted in green below). Tap this option.

Step 3. In the "add to home screen" pop up, type whatever name you want in the name field (highlighted in green below). You can leave it as the default, but I suggest that you change it to something shorter so it displays in full with the icon on the home screen.

Either way, you should end up with an icon on your home screen that looks like this:

This is not an "app" BUT it is an icon on your home screen. When you tap the icon, it takes you to the home page of AO3, in whatever browser you created the bookmark in. You can move it around however you'd like, just like a real app, and put it any folder you'd like.

So that's all I have for this chat.

See you again next time I get inspired to write an ao3 chat/tutorial post for newbies!

Final note, If any of my followers have Android devices or Kindle Fire devices and want to add a photo tutorial for this on those platforms to this post, please feel free to, since I don't have any devices with either of those OSes, and thus could not do that myself.

[mariacallous]

Apple has a Spotify problem—and it just cost the iPhone maker a $2 billion fine from the European Commission.

For years, the two companies have been at war as the streaming service lured users away from Apple’s iTunes and accused the tech giant of exploiting its dominance to stifle innovation. In their long-running conflict, each has made incursions into the other’s territory. When Apple launched its own streaming service, Apple Music, in 2015, Spotify claimed Apple was able to undercut the platform’s prices because Apple didn’t have to pay the same App Store fees as rivals. In 2019, Spotify began an ambitious podcast spending spree, splashing out on high-profile shows, in another direct challenge to Apple.

The feud’s early days were civil, with few barbs traded in public. “We worry about the humanity being drained out of music,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in 2018, a cryptic comment widely interpreted as a jibe at Spotify’s heavy use of algorithmic recommendations. But Spotify became more outspoken as EU politicians started to call for laws to reign in Big Tech. The €1.8 billion ($1.9 billion) fine on Apple announced by the European Commission today shows that its tactics are working. The fine originates in a legal complaint filed with the European Commission by Spotify in 2019, challenging the restrictions and fees Apple places on developers listing their apps in the App Store. Today the European Commission agreed, saying that Apple’s App Store restrictions amount to unfair trading conditions that may have led iOS users to pay significantly higher prices for music streaming subscriptions.

“For a decade, Apple abused its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through the App Store,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, in a statement. “They did so by restricting developers from informing consumers about alternative, cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem.”

Apple’s App Store rules restrict music streaming companies and other apps from informing their users on Apple devices about how to upgrade or sign up for subscription offers outside of the app. Instead, app users can only see sign-up options for in-app subscriptions via Apple’s payments system, where prices are likely to be higher because Apple takes a cut. Some app makers, including Spotify, do not offer in-app purchases because they don’t want to pay this commission. "Some consumers may have paid more because they were unaware they could pay less if they subscribed outside the app,” Vestager said. “This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.” Apple, which says the EU has failed to provide credible evidence of consumer harm, has pledged to appeal.

Big Number

The fine is far bigger than expected, prompting Apple’s stock to drop 3 percent on Monday. Media reports based on unnamed sources had predicted a penalty of around €500 million. It’s also one of the biggest fines the EU has ever issued against a tech company, ranking below only two Google fines of $5.1 billion and $2.4 billion. Vestager explained in a press conference that the scale of the fine is intended to prevent the company from breaking rules in the future. She added that the amount includes a “lump sum” to “achieve deterrence.” $1.9 billion amounts to 0.5 percent of Apple’s global turnover, she said.

Although Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has expressed disapproval of Apple’s business tactics, he’s also something of a reluctant figurehead in Europe’s fight against Apple. The self-described introvert has adopted the role of spokesperson for disgruntled European app developers who finally feel their complaints about Big Tech are being heard.

On Monday, Ek posted a video on X in which he described Apple as a threat to the open internet. “Apple has decided that they want to close down the internet and make it theirs, and they view every single person using an iPhone to be their user and that they should be able to dictate what that user experience should be,” he said. Ek also claimed Apple wants to effectively levy a tax on Spotify while exempting its own music service, Apple Music.

Apple hit back at Spotify in a statement posted to its website. The company pushed back on the idea that Spotify had suffered as a result of its policies, instead describing the platform as an App Store success story, pointing out that Spotify’s app has been downloaded, redownloaded, or updated more than 119 billion times onto Apple phones.

“We’ve even flown our engineers to Stockholm to help Spotify’s teams in person,” Apple’s statement said. For all that, Apple says, Spotify pays them nothing. “But free isn’t enough for Spotify,” the statement continues. “They also want to rewrite the rules of the App Store—in a way that advantages them even more.”

Spotify is one of the few European consumer tech companies with a significant global business, so people in the continent’s tech community listen when it speaks out. Spotify’s latest criticisms are spurring more European developers to complain about what they consider to be unfair treatment by the tech giant—putting the European Commission under even more pressure to act. “Apple holds app providers ransom like the Mafia,” Matthias Pfau, CEO and cofounder of Tuta, an encrypted email provider based in Germany, told WIRED last month, echoing frustrations also voiced by US app developers such as Epic Games.

For Apple, Spotify’s success today is potentially an omen of future action from the EU. This week marks the deadline for compliance with Europe’s Digital Markets Act, a new antitrust law designed to prevent the internet from coming under the control of only a handful of big—usually American—platforms. The new law gives Europe the power to fine tech companies up to 20 percent of their global turnover, meaning future fines could make dwarf $2 billion levied on Apple today.

“This is the commission saying, ‘We're going to be tough, particularly on Apple,’” says Max von Thun, Europe director of the Open Markets Institute, of the decision today. “I see this as kind of small compared to what's to come.”

[adarkrainbow]

Lost media quest: H&G Epic Tales (part 2)

In this second post (first one is here) I will collect and compile all the information I could find from the official outlets about "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales".

First, the last "official" post of the Twitter account, in 2013, long before it got overtaken by some little girl, shared a link to an article on the Erasmus Rotterdam University website. The article is now gone, but it seems it was linked to the app being used in some sort of cultural program, because here was the title of the article, as described by the URL: www.eur.nl/ ese/ english/ information_for/ students/ bachelor_students/ bhc/ cultural_programme/ jagten_by_thomas_vinterberg/

There was also a certain big deal made on the official accounts about the price of the game being lowered "by popular demand" at 3.99 euros, 4.99 dollars.

The Twitter account shared a video of the Dutch news during which their application appeared as part of an example of (what seems to be the digital market boom within Dutch startups?). The video is still available here but we don't see too much of the application, just the initial "tableau", the first chapter, during which Hansel and Gretel sit by the stream in front of thir house. What we do see is that during the entire scene their father is chopping wood in the background, and we can spot two interactions possible in the tableau: touching a bird will make it fly in circle while chirping, touching the stream will make a fish (a trout I think?) jump out.

The exact date of the application's release was the 20th of April, 2012.

The Twitter account also shared an official "Release announcement" article that was posted on PrWeb. The article is down since, but it is available through the Wayback Machine. Here is what it said:

From pesky gnomes to cunning witches; from witty and wacky humour to eloquent storytelling Award winning animation studio announces EPIC TALES™, a new interactive storybook developer that goes beyond the classic fairytales.

Award winning animation studio Anikey and Cloud Castle Interactive proudly announce: EPIC TALES™, the interactive storyteller.

EPIC TALES is a new developer and publisher of interactive storybooks for the iOS platform (IPad, IPhone) and delivers a unique interactive adaptation of the imaginative and magical stories found in fairytales, folklore and world mythology. EPIC TALES allows you to not only enjoy enchanting tales, but to experience their magical worlds more closely than ever before.

“Fairytales just never seem to lose their magic, but having said that, what we envisioned for EPIC TALES was not to merely reproduce them; we wanted to go beyond that,” says Paul Hanraets, founder of EPIC TALES. “To conjure up new worlds and the peculiar creatures that inhabit them: with characters ranging from pesky gnomes to witty dwarfs; from a brave woodsman to a cunning witch. And as much fun as it is to revamp the classics, we also want to find those unsung folktales that have not yet been exhausted, to reveal their magic, and breathe life into the world around them.”

Each of EPIC TALES storybooks are digitally hand-drawn and offer stunning 2d animations, professional voice actors, original music scores, and spellbinding interactive environments that are sure to draw readers deep into the story. The alternating witty and wacky humour, the high production value, and the high degree of interaction are amongst some of the things separates EPIC TALES from other storybooks; however, what ultimately distinguishes EPIC TALES is the implementation of a central storyteller.

“The tales are narrated by Silvertongue, a most likeable dwarf,” Says Albert ’t Hooft, co- founder and producer of EPIC TALES. “Silvertongue, who once travelled the world in search of the most intriguing tales and stories, now resides in his humble bookstore where he personally sees to your storybook collection. Silvertongue is a gifted storyteller who can take an audience from a gasp of fright to a roar of laughter in just the twist of a phrase".

For their first storybook release EPIC TALES has chosen to bring off their version of one of the Brothers Grimm’s most celebrated fairy tales. EPIC TALES; the tale of Hansel and Gretel is expected to hit the Appstore January 2012 and will be available for IPad and IPhone.

About EPIC TALES™

EPIC TALES™ is a The Hague (Netherlands) based developer and publisher of interactive storybooks for the iOS platform, and delivers a unique interactive adaptation of the imaginative and magical stories found in fairytales, folklore and world mythology. EPIC TALES™ is a joint venture between award winning animation studio Anikey and Cloud Castle interactive.

If you want to check yourself here is the url:https://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/11/prweb8981778.htm. The website on the Wayback Machine notably contains an in-article save of the EpicTales.com website... A website I will be looking at in a minute.

Here are two more articles that covered the app. Unfortunately they are only available on the Wayback Machine now. (I will put a "d" in front of the URLs so that Tumblr doesn't turn them into active links): dhttp://iheartthisapp.com/hansel-and-gretel-epic-tales-animated-storybook-classic-childrens-story/ ; and dhttp://www.theipadfan.com/review/review-hansel-gretel-epic-tales-animated-storybook

The official trailer for the animated storybook contains this exact description of the interactive projective:

From pesky gnomes to cunning witches; from witty and wacky humour to eloquent storytelling, EPIC TALES™ is a new interactive storybook developer that goes beyond the classic fairytales…

EPIC TALES™ brings off an original and humorous version of the Brothers Grimm's most celebrated fairy tale. The tale of Hansel and Gretel is an interactive storybook that offers a combination of prime storytelling, brilliantly animated scenes, and dynamic interactions!

The Tale of Hansel & Gretel Feature Set:

Classical tale, original adaption

2D animations and cut scenes from Award winning animators

Beautiful hand drawn environments

Dynamic interactive surprises on every page

Professional storytelling and voice acting

Original music score and sound effects

Intuitive navigation

The tale of Hansel & Gretel tells of a young boy and his soft spoken sister who have been abandoned in a gloomy and remote forest. After being lost for days the children are lured into a house constructed of delicious candy and sweets. Foolhardily, the children fall into a trap set up by an old and cunning witch.

The Facebook account doesn't offer any much new info, as it pretty much doubles the Twitter account... Though they did posts screenshots of the positive reviews of the app which propelled it to the #1 rank of the Dutch Appstore at one point:

Plus a list of positive reviews from the United-States (honestly with how many reviews and notes this got, which means tons of downloads, how come nobody seems to have preserved the app today? That's crazy, somebody MUST have it stored in their iPad or iPhone somewhere!)

The Facebook account also shared links to many dead articles and missing reviews - that however can be found back on the Wayback Machine (praise our lord the Internet Archive for saving us of the digital oblivion)! Mind you these reviews don't bring much but they're still evidence. One is here: dhttp://thesmartphoneappreview.com/ipad/ipad-mini-review-hansel-and-gretel-epic-tales/. Another is here, a list of Dutch releases: dhttps://www.metronieuws.nl/entertainment/zonder-deze-spullen-kun-je-niet-op-zomervakantie/SrZlgD!2tXHqyT0qzBsg/. Finally, the Daily App Show had a page for this app - which contained a video-review of the storybook. The article doesn't exist anymore, though it is on the Wayback Machine. As for the video, the Wayback Machine seems to not have preserved it? That or my computer can't download it... I'll try to fetch this one another day: dhttp://dailyappshow.com/hansel-and-gretel-epic-tales-animated-storybook.

Finally, let's conclude this post by looking at the defunct Epic Tales website thanks to the Wayback Machine.

Here is what we could read on the Home Page:

Available on the App Store for IPad and IPhone. Our first release; Hansel and Gretel - animated storybook brings off an original version of the Brothers Grimm’s most celebrated fairy tale. The tale of Hansel and Gretel tells of a young boy and his soft spoken sister who have been abandoned in a gloomy and remote forest. After being lost for days the children are lured into a house constructed of delicious candy and sweets. Foolhardily, the children fall into a trap set up by an old and cunning witch.

Hansel and Gretel - animated storybook offers a combination of prime storytelling, brilliantly animated scenes, and surprising interactions!

Hansel and Gretel Feature Set: Classical tale, original adaption Produced and animated by award winning animation studio Professional storytelling and voice acting 23 chapters filled with beautiful hand drawn environments Over a 100 interactive and dynamic surprises Cinematic cut scenes Original music score and sound effects Intuitive navigation Options : Read to me, Read by myself or Play around

There was a "Titles" page (the use of plural indicates the then hope of creating a full line of animated storybooks).

It repeats the text copy-pasted above, while adding this:

Silvertongue, the dwarf Storyteller, will welcome you into his magical bookstore hidden deep within the swampland forest. Once inside the bookstore, Silvertongue will gladly display you his collection of tales that are available for purchase or free demonstration. Once you’ve selected and purchased your book, it will be added to your private bookshelf where Silvertongue will keep them safe for future reading. Besides exploring the store, Silvertongue offers you the chance to engage in some challenging mini-games that can be unlocked as a reward for helping him catch the pesky gnomes that dwell throughout his magical storybooks.

EPIC TALES™ Storyteller App is our free App for the iPad and iPhone. Within the App you have direct access to the bookstore, your own bookshelf, and various mini games.

EPIC TALES - Storyteller Feature Set: EPIC TALES Bookstore, titles for purchase or demonstration Private bookshelf Gnome Mini games 2D animations from award winning animators Professional storytelling and voice acting Original music score and sound effects Intuitive navigation

There was also a "News" page which contained a very interesting article pointing out that the release of "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales" was notably made to match the 200th birthday of the brothers Grimm fairytales!

Let me copy-paste this article, called "Epic Tales celebrates 200th Anniversary of Grimm's fairy tales with Hansel and Gretel animated storybook"

Collaboration Between Award-Winning Animation Studio and Game Design Veterans Brings Classic Tale to Life On iPad and iPhone

“This version of Hansel and Gretel is a fully immersive, wonderfully engaging romp of a tale, complete with just the right amount of multimedia, professionalism and upstanding quality." – Luke Patrick, TheiPhoneAppReview.com

March 18, 2013 – Two hundred years after first being published, the magical and undeniable Brothers Grimm fairy tales continue to enchant and entertain children worldwide. Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales animated storybook celebrates this bicenntenial with the first in a series of classic, interactive tales from award-winning animation studio, Anikey, and the game veterans at Cloud Castle Interactive. For the month of April, the app will be available on the Appstore for iPad and iPhone for a special 200th anniversary price of $1.99, and thereafter will be priced at $3.99.

This EPIC Tales adaption stays true to the original Grimm Brothers' "Household Tales” – folklore laced with trepidation, morality, great joy and fun – but propels it into the 21st century. The storybook is digitally hand-drawn by award winning animators, and offers 20 chapters filled with over 100 dynamic and interactive surprises, professional voice acting, original music scores and ambient sounds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKvoy7QU_vc

Offering spellbinding interactive environments that will draw readers even deeper into the story, Epic Tales’ Hansel and Gretel’s world is filled with whimsical characters ranging from pesky gnomes to witty dwarfs; from brave children to wicked stepmothers and cunning witches. At its center is the narrator, Silvertongue, a truly gifted storyteller who can take an audience from a gasp of fright to a roar of laughter in just the twist of a phrase.

According to The iPhone App Review’s Luke Patrick, “This eBook is a monument to what can be accomplished within the realm of iPad design. Hansel and Gretel doesn’t just offer pages of content, but rather a fully engaging experience. There’s incredibly good voice acting for each and every chapter, as well as Disney quality animations. You’ll also get fully animated trailer sequences for key plot points, in addition to interactive elements hidden within the pages. This version of Hansel and Gretel is a fully immersive, wonderfully engaging romp of a tale, complete with just the right amount of multimedia, professionalism and upstanding quality." http://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2012/08/hansel-and-gretel-ipad-app-review/

EPIC Tales’ Hansel and Gretel features include:

Classical tale, original adaption

Produced and animated by award winning animation studio

Professional storytelling and voice acting

23 chapters filled with beautiful hand drawn environments

Over a 100 interactive and dynamic surprises

Cinematic cut scenes

Original music score and sound effects

Intuitive navigation

Three Options : Read to me, Read by myself or Play around

“It is wonderful that The Brothers Grimm anthology, a collection of 86 folktales, is still read and beloved by children today, 200 years after its first publication,” said Paul Hanraets, EPIC Tales founder and producer. “We are honored to celebrate the bicentennial of these enduring and highly entertaining fairy tales with the re-release of our animated version of one of its most popular stories, Hansel and Gretel.”

"We didn’t cut any corners with Hansel and Gretel, and it has paid off. We are pleased that initial reviews have highlighted its production value, the high quality of our animations and our alternating witty and wacky humor,” said creative director Albert ‘t Hooft. “And, the layout of the pages is clean and intuitive with hidden interactive elements offering lots of surprises.”

EPIC TALES™ is a series of high-quality, interactive fairytales that allows you to not only enjoy enchanting tales, but to experience their magical worlds more closely than ever before. Children will love the sense of wonder and discovery, while adults will certainly appreciate the clever and wacky humor.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales animated storybook will be available on the Appstore for iPad and iPhone for a special promotional price of $1.99 in April, and thereafter will be priced at $3.99.Review copies upon request.

ABOUT EPIC TALES™ EPIC TALES™ is a The Hague (Netherlands) based developer and publisher of interactive storybooks for the iOS platform, and delivers unique, interactive adaptations of the imaginative and magical stories found in fairytales, folklore and world mythology. EPIC TALES™ is a joint venture between award winning animation studio Anikey and Cloud Castle Interactive.

There was also a "Contact" page, and an "About" page - however I will keep the "About" segment for a third post, because this one is getting slightly too big for now.

[fortunatelycybercloud]

10 Reasons The Dark Side of Siri Can Be a Threat to Your Privacy

Issue 1: Accessibility Issues and Language Limitations with Apple Siri

Dark side Siri's limited language support and reliance on voice commands exclude many users, in particular those with diverse languages or speech impairments.

Issue 2: When is apple siri listening? 

iPhone Siri's constant listening raises privacy concerns, risking unauthorized access to personal data. The collected data may be used for security risks or targeted advertisements, even with Apple's restrictive settings.

Issue 3: Siri Goes Shopping

Dark side Siri integration with shopping apps may save time, but it also gives businesses access to private information, which raises privacy concerns.

Issue 4: IoT Devices

Dark side Siri increases convenience by enabling control of IoT devices like lights and thermostats. However, weak security in these devices can expose users to cybercriminals, risking personal data and device control.

Issue 5: Your Conversations in the Cloud

In order to increase accuracy, Siri stores conversations in the cloud, which presents privacy issues and runs the risk of accidentally disclosing private information.

Issue 6: Battery Drain with Siri Usage

The "Hey Siri" feature drains the battery by continuously listening, especially on older devices, with frequent interactions further worsening power depletion.

Problem 7: Reliance on Siri Too Much May Lead to Cognitive Decline

Using Siri excessively for tasks could impede cognitive development. especially in teens, reducing critical thinking, memory retention, and problem-solving skills.

Issue 8: Hacking Risks

Siri and other smart assistants run the risk of exposing private information due to accidental recording or data sharing, even with Apple's emphasis on security.

Issue 9: Privacy Breaches

In 2019, contractors who were looking through recordings criticized Siri, citing privacy issues and claims that some of the data was being used for advertising.

Issue 10: Misleading Health Information

Siri may give false information or fail to handle emergencies with tact, so depending on it for medical advice can be dangerous.

If you want to read more about the dark side of Siri,

then read more...

[talkingtothetallman]

Swirls, adapters, film, and other stuff

Hi-ho! It's been awhile. Life has been busy to say the least! Christmas is here in the cold whirlwind that is December, and with it the icy windshields, low-hanging frigid mist, and the blasting of both the car heater and Christmas songs. But enough about what's been happening in life, let's talk about my newest hobby.

Vintage Lenses. Oh yeah, the good stuff.

Years ago in July of 2019, I purchased a Canon FD 50mm f/1.8 from a swap meet for $10-15. I looked up what it would take to use on my Sony a7iii, and turns out it was a little metal adapter that cost about the same. Pretty simple!

So that's where it started! I didn't really pursue anything else beyond it since, after all, they didn't have autofocus and weren't as convenient (or sharp) as modern glass. Just a fun little exploration into using old tech on the new stuff!

But a few months later, I watched a video about an infamous Russian lens, the Helios 44-2. Based on the Carl Zeiss Biotar lens design that they stole from the Germans during WWII, the Russians began pumping out their own version of the Biotar, the Helios 44 series, with the most recognizable one of the line being the aforementioned 44-2. Its signature? Producing a swirly effect to the bokeh (out of focus part of the image). And so being curious, I picked one up for under $50. And that swirl effect... yeah, it's pretty cool!

But still again, I didn't really pursue anything else beyond it. They were cool, no doubt about it, just not something that totally piqued my interest.

Flash forward nearly five years later, and it's safe to say that my interest has be piqued! I now have acquired eight lenses to my collection, and yes I most am certainly shopping of more, how nice you to ask!

Okay, so I know it’s not a lot at the moment. But that’s okay, because at the end of the day, they are just buckets of fun. Cliché as it may sound if you are a photographer like me, but having a more tactile experience while doing photography is really cool and rewarding. It isn't better, and it isn't somehow an elitist claim per say, but it’s still indeed pretty rad and adds an extra element to your photography, causing (or enabling, depending on how you want to look at it) you to slow down and take more time to make your images.

Speaking of taking more time, let's talk about good ol' 35mm film. For awhile now, I've had a hankering to at least try shooting a roll of film. It isn't a thing that a lot of my generation has experience with as digicams, point-and-shoots, and now smartphones, have been the photography experience for 95% of people my age. Nonetheless, film photography had this sense of mystery behind it, keeping your photos tucked away from you, often times for weeks, without you knowing how perfect that shot actually looks.... or more likely how you actually messed up and will be kicking yourself over it for the next few weeks! So naturally, when I had the opportunity to purchase a Minolta SRT-201 and a few lenses for $30 from a local on OfferUp, I went out and bought my first roll of film; some Kodak Portra 400, regarded by film enthusiasts as one of the great film stocks for about every kind of photography.

The next few weeks consisted of me filling up that roll and sending it off to Gelatin Labs in New Jersey to get developed and scanned into TIFFs for any further editing on my part. Not gonna lie, I was nervous for how they were going to turn out, especially since I was exposing the film based on a light meter app from iPhone (the one on the camera isn't functioning at the moment; would like to get it fixed). But they turned out beautiful! Aaaaaaand now I want to shoot more film lol

But yeah, this year has been a journey in terms of my photography career/passion! A lot of highlights (no pun intended) that I'm excited to reflect on as the weeks wind down in this year. My photo-a-day-lets-me-use-my-camera-okay?! challenge is going strong, and I've only missed a few days total this year. I'm looking forward to pouring over those photos, sharing them with you, and taking what learned this year into next year!