Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Zoom is adding a way for hosts to report meeting participants, according to the app’s release notes published on April 19th (via PC Mag). In theory, that could help the company track down trolls that take over Zoom calls and share inappropriate material, a practice more colloquially known as “Zoombombing.” Zoom says the reporting feature will be available in an update that’s scheduled to release on Sunday, April 26th.
“This feature will generate a report which will be sent to the Zoom Trust and Safety team to evaluate any misuse of the platform and block a user if necessary,” Zoom said in the update notes. Account owners and admins will be able to turn on the setting. Zoom declined to comment when The Verge asked for more details about...
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Palantir, an analytics company co-founded by Trump ally Peter Thiel, is supporting the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in building a tool to track the spread of the coronavirus, according to a new report from The Daily Beast.
The tool, which is reportedly called HHS Protect Now, is already up and running as of April 10th and it helps officials compile reports on the coronavirus’ spread through the US by collecting data from state and local governments, healthcare institutions, and colleges. It is unclear what exactly this data is, where it comes from, or how it’s being used. It’s also unclear if Palantir is the sole technology provider of the tool, or if other partners are involved.
Reports earlier this month first...
The Uncarrier keeps on trying to do Uncarrier things.
The T-Mobile and Sprint merger was just recently approved, and the companies are taking no time in bringing the strengths of both of their networks together for all of its customers.
In a press release today, T-Mobile announced that it would be expanding its 5G network, bringing 5G support to more devices, and giving Sprint customers access to its LTE network.
Neville Ray, T-Mobile President of Technology, posted a video to the company's YouTube Channel saying that they are committed to continuing the buildout of 5G as it sees the technology as playing a critical role moving forward.
"Connectivity is more important than ever today, and the challenging time we're all facing shows just how critical 5G for All is ... While our amazing team safely works to keep people across the country connected to work, school and family, we aren't slowing down on building out the broad and deep network that only this combined company can deliver. We won't stop because this network can do so much GOOD across the country!"
The company announced that it is bringing its 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum to parts of Philadelphia and New York City. While Philadelphia is already live with mid-band, New York City will be a special rollout as, when it occurs, the city will be the only to have access to both low-band, mid-band, and mmWave 5G. T-Mobile is also continuing its 5G rollout to more cities like Detroit, St. Louis, and Columbus, Ohio. Sprint customers now have access to T-Mobile's LTE network, effectively doubling Sprint's current LTE coverage.
While the company is bringing 5G support to Android phones like the Galaxy S 20 and OnePlus 8 Pro, it still awaits the 5G iPhone. The iPhone 12 is expected to be Apple's first iPhone with 5G connectivity, so it will be interesting to see the effect for those who have service with T-Mobile.
You can read the full press release or watch the announcement video below:
30 million more customers in Germany can now use Apple Pay.
Apple Pay's latest expansion is bringing support for the service to over thirty million banking customers in Germany.
According to a new report by Focus, the digital payment platform is now available for customers of Volksbank and Raiffeisenbank. The Federal Association of Volksbank and Raiffeisenbank is a consortium of over one thousand independent credit unions and Germany's largest banking group.
While support for Apple Pay has been added for all of the banking group's customers, it is only available for credit cards offered by the institutions. Debit card support is planned, but is currently unavailable.
Volksbank and Raiffeisenbank joins dozens of other banks who are already supporting the service, according to the Apple Pay website. The full list of supporting banking instituions in the country currently include:
Customers who are part of the network can now add their credit cards for use on their iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. Credit cards can be added to Apple Pay through the Wallet App by tapping on the "plus" icon at the top right of the app.
She seems cold at first, but you can befriend Sable behind her sewing machine.
As you progress in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you will meet and befriend the Able sisters. These three hedgehogs are responsible for most of the clothing in the Animal Crossing world. We've already told you how to get the Able Sisters tailor shop on your island and how to win at Label's fashion theme style exercises, but did you know you can also befriend the shyest of the Able sisters too? Sable takes more work to engage than her sisters, but it's definitely worth the effort!
The eldest of the three Able sisters, Sable has a surprisingly sad past for such a cheerful game. When Mabel was too young to remember, the Able sisters' parents died in a car crash and Sable took over, raising Mabel and Label. Sable worked hard, and her hard work paid off! She and Mabel were able to open their very own shop, selling most of the clothing you'll ever own in Animal Crossing. Label, on the other hand, took off to learn about fashion around the world and create her own haute couture clothing line.
Despite the success of the Able sisters, Sable is hardly ever seen away from her sewing machine, and she will shoo you away if you try to talk to her. She leaves the customer end of the business up to Mabel, preferring to spend her time sewing their products.
Upon first meeting, Sable will insist that she is too busy to talk to you, eventually asking Mabel to get you out of her spikes. She will continue to brush you aside day after day. Fear not though! It's not because she doesn't like you or even that she is too busy to talk, but rather because she's quite shy. While Mabel excels at customer service and Label is the very public face of her own haute couture fashion line, Sable has very few friends. The most notable of her friends is Tom Nook, who was her best friend, only to have moved far away from the countryside where they grew up together. It takes a lot of consistent effort to earn her trust.
After talking to her every day for several days, however, she will warm up to you. By the sixth day, Sable will even consider you a friend, and she will begin to open up to you about her and her sisters' past. A few days after that she will reward you with a special gift each day! You have to make sure to talk to her every day though. If you miss a day, you might find you've lost some of the progress you made.
In addition to being a friend to a prickly hedgehog and learning more about the Able sisters, you will also be rewarded for the time you spend talking to Sable. Once you have befriended her, she will gift you with a set of custom patterns every day. You can use these patterns to customize your furniture. While not every piece of furniture can be customized, many can, and with each set consisting of 20 new patterns, there are hundreds of customization options available. Currently, we know of ten different Sable pattern sets:
These are all the sets we know of so far, but it's certainly possible Sable will offer more patterns in the future, so make sure you tallk to her every day!
Once you've been gifted a special pattern, you can use it to customize many different pieces of furniture. Not every piece of furniture can be customized and even fewer can be customized with fabric, but the ones that can can be given a bit of personal flare using Sable's patterns. To customize with Sable's patterns, just follow these easy steps:
Press A to select **"Customize something."
Press A to select the piece of furniture in your inventory. I went with a Wooden Simple Bed because it's easy to craft and can be customized in both paint color and fabric pattern. However, you will be able to select anything that can be customized at all.
If you want to customize the paint color, press A to select a paint color.
To customize the fabric pattern, press A to select pattern. This will open up a new menu with your patterns.
Press A to select the pattern you want.
Press + to customize.
Press A to select "Yeah."
And tada! You've taken a boring piece of furniture and made it all your own.
Do you have any questions about befriending Sable? Have you found a custom pattern set we've missed? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check out our many other Animal Crossing: New Horizons guides for all of your Nook approved goodness!
With the internet abuzz with privacy concerns and the potential changes coming to net neutrality, you’ve likely heard about virtual private networks, better known as VPNs. When used correctly, a VPN can greatly strengthen your online privacy, assist in keeping your personal information secure, and even spoof your location in the world—allowing you to access websites or services that would otherwise be off limits due to region-locking.
In a declining industry, Apple continues to pave the way to its future.
The iPad continues to dominate the tablet industry, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics.
The analytics firm released a new report today with data about the market's performance in 2019. According to the data, Apple continues to hold the largest share of revenue in the market with Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek, and Samsung trailing behind.
Apple actually gained market share last year, increasing its share of revenue in the entire industry to forty-four percent. Qualcomm and Intel tied for second place with sixteen percent market share each.
"Strategy Analytics reports that Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek and Samsung LSI held the top-five revenue share spots in the global tablet applications processor (AP) market in 2019. Apple gained market share and extended its tablet AP market share leadership with 44 percent revenue share in 2019 followed by Qualcomm and Intel, each with 16 percent revenue share."
According to the report, the entire Applications Processor market grew two percent year-over-year, becoming an almost two billion dollar industry.
"The global tablet Applications Processor (AP) market grew 2 percent year-over-year to reach $1.9 billion, according to Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service report."
Sravan Kundojjala, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics, says that while Apple continues to grow market share, other tablet manufacturers fight for a piece of the currently declining industry.
"The tablet shipment decline trend continues to be a challenge to tablet AP vendors even as average selling prices (ASPs) show strength. Strategy Analytics estimates that x86-based tablet APs accounted for 11 percent of total tablet APs shipped in 2019. Intel accounted for the majority of Windows tablet AP shipments in 2019. Qualcomm, however, is trying to expand into the Windows ecosystem with its cellular Snapdragon Compute platforms 8cx, 8c and 7c."
Workers are getting impacted due to the current lack of sales.
Apple's retail stores have been closed since March, and the company has experienced one of the worst sales quarters in recent history due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy.
The drop in sales of Apple's products is apparently taking effect on its suppliers now, says a report from Financial Times. According to the report, supply chain partners responsible for manufacturing and assembling Apple products are reducing staff and cutting overtime hours.
While many factories in China were trying to ramp up production after its staff began to return to work when the country began to ease its social distancing restrictions, that initial boom in the hiring of workers has come to a halt. According to workers at Foxconn's Zhengzhou complex, the company has stopped hiring new workers and began to lay off some of the temporary employees it had brought in to ramp up production.
The workers say that overtime has been cut so much that no one has worked overtime hours since April 10th and that Foxconn is encouraging employees to take a vacation.
A worker at Pegatron, an electronic manufacturing company in Taiwan, says that the company has laid off over a thousand temporary and third-party workers since the demand for Apple's products has fallen.
"The US orders are not coming, so why would we keep all the workers."
Thankfully, Apple has begun reopening its retail stores. Its stores in Greater China have been open for about a month already, and the company just reopened its first store in South Korea. While it is not clear when the rest of its stores will reopen, Apple says it will occur over time, with the company evaluating the local conditions for each location.
Apple Pay—the company’s flagship mobile payment platform—has grown at a breathtaking rate since its introduction in 2015. Apple Pay transactions continue to rise, and more banks, retailers, and countries continue to join. You can use Apple Pay to complete web transactions via Safari, too.
You can even use Apple Pay for peer-to-peer payment transactions—similar to Venmo and Square Cash—through an iOS 11 update that introduces Apple Pay Cash.
With all of these Apple Pay options, it’s high time you jump on the mobile payment bandwagon if you’re not there already. Read on to learn more about how Apple Pay works, how to get your iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac ready for it, and most importantly, where you can go use it.
