Category: Links

This. All of this.

The GuardianApp team has discovered that a growing number of iOS apps have been used to covertly collect precise location histories from tens of millions of mobile devices, using packaged code provided by data monetization firms. In many cases, the packaged tracking code may run at all times, constantly sending user GPS coordinates and other information.

Many of these are extreme weather tracking apps. The kind you immediately allow location sharing to, and need to help stay safe when severe weather is incoming. Shameful.

It takes a good bit to get me to link to a site like The Outline, but this post from Paris Martineau is interesting. Martineau states:

Yes, Do Not Disturb mode, that underused feature on your Android or Apple device that silences all notifications and vibrations and was ostensibly designed to help you sleep better. Turn it on. Forever. Never turn it off.

It’s not a bad idea at all, and I’ve been thinking about being far more aggressive with notifications than I already am. What’s neat about this trick, is that you still see the notifications when you do check your phone. This is really how smartphones should work out of the box.

You should have to work to get these things to interrupt your day.

On September 1st, GORUCK is increasing prices by a lot. The GR1 specifically will be $395, which is a $100 increase. (Here’s a table of the increases.) GORUCK bags are buy it for life, and if you are on the fence, now the time to pull the trigger. These are the best backpacks out there.

I’ll have more thoughts on the pricing increases later.

Ryan Nakashima reporting:

To demonstrate how powerful these other markers can be, the AP created a visual map of the movements of Princeton postdoctoral researcher Gunes Acar, who carried an Android phone with Location history off, and shared a record of his Google account.

And guess what?

The map includes Acar’s train commute on two trips to New York and visits to The High Line park, Chelsea Market, Hell’s Kitchen, Central Park and Harlem. To protect his privacy, The AP didn’t plot the most telling and frequent marker — his home address.

All sorts of yikes in this.

Just released today in black only is the long awaited return of the 15L Bullet Ruck. It looks to be the same setup as the 10L, but with more width throughout and just a touch deeper. That’s about how I would want it too, I picked one up right away. I can’t wait to test it out.

Nikhil Sonnad:

There are certain things you do not in good conscience do to humans. To data, you can do whatever you like.

Fantastic article.

They’re back!

I don’t think cars get any better than this, unless you need to fit two car seats in it and be OK driving kids around in the car. Which is why I am selling what is perhaps the best car you can drive.

Noteshelf is getting really good these days, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t yet. When I opened it this morning I had a notice that there’s now support for handwriting recognition. I had a hell of a time figuring out how to work it, but it’ for searching only. And it seems to work well. This is likely a way better way to implement the tool, than converting handwriting to a typeface.

Update A couple of readers have pointed out that this also works to convert hand writing to text. I couldn’t figure it out, but I am told you select the hand written text with the cut tool then tap the tool again to get a dialog. Neat.

Speaking of mindfulness, it turns out most of the studies about it were far from scientific. So Ute Kreplin did his own very scientific study of it:

There must be a more balanced view of meditation, one that understands the limitations of meditation and its adverse effects. One day there will be a more complete picture of this potent and poorly understood practice. For now, our understanding is mostly warped.

Jamie Friedlander:

Although there is no direct English translation, wu wei (pronounced oo-way) could perhaps be described as “effortless action,” explains Edward Slingerland, a professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia and author of Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity. The concept, which has its roots in ancient Chinese philosophical writings, has seen a revival in contemporary science, Slingerland says, as scientists have begun to study the psychological mechanisms behind it.

This is a really interesting take on the mindfulness approaches currently dominating everyone’s inboxes. And perhaps way better.

Kashmir Hill reporting:

“We didn’t see any evidence that people’s conversations are being recorded secretly,” said David Choffnes, one of the authors of the paper. “What people don’t seem to understand is that there’s a lot of other tracking in daily life that doesn’t involve your phone’s camera or microphone that give a third party just as comprehensive a view of you.”

It’s even more creepy than I assumed. And way more clever.

Amazing deals on the GR1 and GR2, only in select colors and sizes. Typically these are the prices you pay for these bags used.

Nellie Bowles:

In more than 30 interviews with The New York Times, domestic abuse victims, their lawyers, shelter workers and emergency responders described how the technology was becoming an alarming new tool. Abusers — using apps on their smartphones, which are connected to the internet-enabled devices — would remotely control everyday objects in the home, sometimes to watch and listen, other times to scare or show power. Even after a partner had left the home, the devices often stayed and continued to be used to intimidate and confuse.

Looks like GORUCK has a new variant of that awesome 10L Bullet Ruck out. The major change seems to be the handle at the top of the bag. It is now the proper GR1 style handle instead of the nylon webbing loop. Very tempted to ditch my bullet to get one of these (if you want mine to help facilitate this swap for me reach out. I have a Steel color 10L SOLD). After the GR1 the 10L Bullet is my favorite GORUCK bag.

Rumor has it GORUCK has a 15L Bullet Ruck coming out this summer too.

Michelle Castillo reporting on this catastrophic trend of people not opting into SPAM:

“People are not opting back in,” says Michael Horn, the director of data science for digital marketing agency Huge. “It’s one thing for your customers who don’t have a relationship with the brand to decline and not respond, but you’re also losing a sales channel.”

Not to worry. I’m sure they’ll work out some new type of shit.

Sam Nichols:

With this in mind, I decided to try an experiment. Twice a day for five days, I tried saying a bunch of phrases that could theoretically be used as triggers. Phrases like I’m thinking about going back to uni and I need some cheap shirts for work. Then I carefully monitored the sponsored posts on Facebook for any changes.

You’ll not be shocked by the results.

(H/t to Steve)

Looks like this post has been disputed enough to warrant not reading it. Apologies.

By GABRIEL J.X. DANCE, NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MICHAEL LaFORGIAL:

“It’s like having door locks installed, only to find out that the locksmith also gave keys to all of his friends so they can come in and rifle through your stuff without having to ask you for permission,” said Ashkan Soltani, a research and privacy consultant who formerly served as the F.T.C.’s chief technologist.

Only difference: the Facebook users don’t give a shit.

Bradley Chambers:

Here’s what the iPads needs: a desktop version of Safari with external trackpad support. Yes, Mobile Safari has a “Request Desktop” mode. There are plenty of websites that completely ignore that request, though. Even for the ones that don’t, many of the designs and navigations are built for a mouse pointer. The iPad already has external keyboard support and an external trackpad support would go a long way to making the iPad a Mac replacement.

The iPad comes pretty close with iCab Mobile which is a great web browser when Mobile Safari isn’t working. However that’s not quite what Chambers is talking about here because this is more of a chicken and an egg issue. For instance many ‘modern’ websites rely heavily on the notion that there is such things as drag and drop, hover states, and generally speaking a cursor. Without a cursor a lot of the web doesn’t work, not because technically it cannot work, but because of lazy product design.

Because some product manager decided that their support response would be “use a desktop, sorry”. I don’t want iPad to have a cursor, because that’s not what iPad is. I want websites to pull their heads out of their asses and realize that there are far more people using mobile Safari than there are those sitting down at a desktop to work. Just as web designers had to learn to design responsive websites mobile first, web application developers need to make their apps work on iPhones and Android phones first and foremost, desktops second. Because if it works on an iPhone, it will certainly work on a MacBook Pro.