In hindsight, it seems obvious to me that app developers would abuse "Background App Refresh" functionality of iOS to call home and send data.

So I went to Settings on my phone and found a giant list of apps with the Background App Refresh function turned on.

I turned almost all of them off. Especially those from companies whose business model relies on collecting my personal data: anything made by Google, Facebook (WhatsApp, Instagram), Amazon, Uber, Yelp, etc. Obviously, all those crappy adware/games my son downloads.

I only left the setting on for apps made by companies I trust because their business model is not about collecting data (Apple and to a lesser degree Microsoft) and only for apps I use often and I can see the value for the contents to be up to date by the time I open the app (Notes which may change on a separate device, Outlook, etc.).

The best part, this should improve my battery life – to what degree it's unclear and reduce my data usage.

I bet that Apple will, in the near future, default this setting to OFF and make apps ask you if you really want to grant them the ability to perform Background App Refresh.

Pretty neat: the ads about the iPad Pro were made completely using iPad Pro.

The A12X chip in the new iPad Pro is by far its most impressive feature. But the only thing I can think of is: Imagine is they start putting these in tiny MacBook laptops.

So who’s lying (or got it wrong?) Bloomberg or The rest of the world?

This is the demo used by Apple during the introduction of the new iPhones to show off the new CPU. I thought it was very impressive, and also the first time I see AR as something other than a gimmick.

Collection of iOS wallpapers, going back quite a bit.

Collection of macOS wallpapers. Goes back quite a bit although I doubt it's complete.

The dude's a slime ball for asking for donations, though. It's not like he made these.

A review from an actual audiophile who seems to know what he’s talking about and took actual measurements.

Weird and unexpected. I don't recall ever seeing an ad for FileMaker, which has been around since 1986!

Nicely done video. Except for the animoji part which I'm sure will help sell phones but I'm definitely not the target audience for. Still: want.

Incredible technology demo by Trixi Studios: Use iOS 11 ARKit to recreate the classic A-Ha music video "Take on me" in the real world.

I still see people doing this even though it’s never been a good idea.

I love these history tech articles.

It's the little things...

Funny

This ad is nice enough that I'll save the link.

The master list. Good to know.

I got a bunch of these. Very annoying.