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Wednesday, 8 July 2020

Racist Tech CEO Harasses Family at Dinner: 'Trump's Gonna Fuck You'

The man caught on camera delivering an anti-Asian diatribe at a restaurant in Carmel Valley, California has been identified by multiple news outlets as Michael Lofthouse, founder and CEO of the cloud computing company Solid8. Footage of the racist incident, which occurred on July 4 and was published to Instagram and …

Amazon's Alexa App Gains 'Hands-Free' Voice Activation Feature

Amazon is making it possible to use Alexa "hands free" from within its Alexa mobile app for iOS, reports TechCrunch.

Up until now, you had to tap the blue Alexa button at the bottom of the screen before you could issue a voice command.

After updating the app, users will be able to simply speak to Alexa to make lists, control smart home devices, and more, without having to touch their iPhone.

While Amazon calls it "hands free," it's not like you'll be able to invoke the company's digital voice assistant if your phone is locked or when you're in another app.

What users will be able to do, however, is ask Siri to open the Amazon Alexa app, and then they can start using the new hands-free experience from there.

After updating the app, users will be presented with the option to enable the hands-free detection and can then begin to use the feature. According to TechCrunch, a setting is also being made available that will allow users to turn the feature off at any time.

Amazon says the feature is rolling out over the next several days to users worldwide on both iOS and Android.

Tags: Amazon, Alexa

This article, "Amazon's Alexa App Gains 'Hands-Free' Voice Activation Feature" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/2VVZCq2

Apple Stores in Victoria, Australia to Reclose Following Return of Lockdown

Four Apple stores in Victoria, Australia are set to reclose for up to six weeks from July 9, following a spike in coronavirus infections in the state.

As reported by 9to5Mac, Apple Highpoint in Melbourne was the first store to reclose on July 2 as the deteriorating health situation prompted a reintroduction of stage three lockdown measures across the state capital.

Apple's other retail stores in Victoria will now also reclose. They include Chadstone, Southland, Doncaster, and Fountain Gate. All four stores had been operating on a reduced pickup and appointment-only Genius Support service since last week.

The reimposed stay-at-home measures are expected to last at least six weeks, with only essential travel like buying groceries and medicines allowed. Restaurants and cafes have been ordered to shut, although shopping malls and other retailers are technically allowed to remain open, suggesting Apple took the decision to close its stores of its own accord.

Melbourne's stage three restrictions were reintroduced on Tuesday following a record high of 191 new coronavirus cases.

Tags: Australia, Apple retail, COVID-19 Coronavirus

This article, "Apple Stores in Victoria, Australia to Reclose Following Return of Lockdown" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/2O7Wtzf

Some iPhone Users Report Significant Battery Drain Due to Music App Background Activity

A significant minority of iPhone users have taken to Apple's Support Communities and Reddit to report battery drain issues related to the Music app and high levels of background activity.

Hundreds of users, many running iOS 13.5.1 on devices both new and old, are experiencing rapid battery drain when the Music app is not in use. In some cases, the background activity occurs over several hours each day, even if the app has not been used for weeks or even at all.

User: Mojo06
I just purchased a new iPhone 11 a few days ago, and my battery is crashing so fast. I haven't even used the Apple Music App yet and it says that it has been running in the background for over 18 hours and has used 95% of my battery. My phone is also getting very hot from this. I am concerned this will kill my battery on my new phone.

User: Brianwpi
Phone is burning up. Switched off background app refresh. Restarted phone. Battery health 91%. ‌iPhone‌ X running iOS 13.5.1. Had to recharge several times during the day just to keep up. Help?

User: svphies
I'm having this exact same problem with my ‌iPhone 11‌, recently updated to IOS 13.5.1. I never had Background App Refresh turned on and I haven't found any downloading song in the Music app. I might try to backup my phone to iTunes and do a reset later. I hope Apple fixes this issue soon.

While reports of the Music app draining battery in the background go back to April, there has been a rapid uptick in reports over the last week, suggesting Apple may have recently changed something on the server side which is causing the problem.

Below are some of the steps that users have taken to try to resolve the issue, but which appear to have a low rate of success.

Force quit the Music app.

Restart / Restore ‌iPhone‌.

Delete Music app then reinstall it.

Turn off Automatic Downloads (Settings -> Music -> Automatic Downloads).

Disable background app refresh (Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh -> Disable Music).

Turn off Mobile Data (Settings -> Music -> Mobile Data).

Cancel all downloads in the Music Library.

Some users have resorted to deleting the Music app on their device, which brings the battery usage to an end. For those with ‌Apple Music‌ subscriptions, however, this isn't even a short-term solution, so we're bringing these reports to the attention of the wider community in the hope that it will prompt Apple to investigate.

Tag: Apple Music

This article, "Some iPhone Users Report Significant Battery Drain Due to Music App Background Activity" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/38zCPpe

Tuesday, 7 July 2020

This Stop-Motion Build of the Lego Millennium Falcon Is Jaw-Dropping

Three years ago, I spent 34 hours building the biggest Lego set ever created: the Star Wars Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon, which clocks in at 7,541 pieces. You may have even seen the video (and if not, you can watch it here). It was a fun but tedious and grueling experience. I mention this because what…