The Verge Making sense of Apple’s messy MagSafe charging ecosystem, where the first-party options are far from the best ones. Wireless charging is inefficient in many ways. It charges your phone more slowly than using a cable, uses more energy, and requires near-perfect alignment on a charging pad to even work. But inefficiencies aside, it’s just so dang convenient. So when Apple added a ring of magnets to the iPhone 12 and dubbed it “MagSafe,” things got much more interesting. Not only do the magnets guarantee perfect alignment every time but also, with a MagSafe-certified charger, your iPhone can charge at up to 15W — double the 7.5W they get with other wireless chargers. And the magnets also allow for…

Macworld On Tuesday, Apple and Google announced a joint initiative to prevent the misuse of Bluetooth online tracking devices, such as Apple’s AirTag. The two companies have developed a specification that is being proposed as an industry standard for iOS and Android and has the backing of many third-party companies that offer such trackers, including Chipolo, eufy Security, Pebblebee, Samsung, and Tile. “Apple launched AirTag to give users the peace of mind knowing where to find their most important items,” said Ron Huang, Apple’s vice president of Sensing and Connectivity. “We built AirTag and the Find My network with a set of proactive features to discourage unwanted tracking–a first in the industry–and we continue to make improvements to help ensure…

Apple and Google are partnering to make it harder for tracking beacons like AirTag to be used for stalking, by proposing a standard to prevent misuse.AirTagWhile intended to keep track of lost items, products like AirTag have also been used for malicious purposes, such as stalking. Apple and Google want to change that by working together on a new standard for the product category. Read more...

Apple and Google are partnering to make it harder for tracking beacons like AirTag to be used for stalking, by proposing a standard to prevent misuse.AirTagWhile intended to keep track of lost items, products like AirTag have also been used for malicious purposes, such as stalking. Apple and Google want to change that by working together on a new standard for the product category. Read more...

Apple and Google are partnering to make it harder for tracking beacons like AirTag to be used for stalking, by proposing a standard to prevent misuse.AirTagWhile intended to keep track of lost items, products like AirTag have also been used for malicious purposes, such as stalking. Apple and Google want to change that by working together on a new standard for the product category. Read more...

Dr. Geoffrey Hinton’s journey from A.I. groundbreaker to doomsayer marks a remarkable moment for the technology industry at perhaps its most important inflection point in decades. “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” Dr. Hinton says. Cade Metz for The New York Times: Hinton was an artificial intelligence pioneer. In 2012, Dr. Hinton and two of his graduate students at the University of Toronto created technology that became the intellectual foundation for the A.I. systems that the tech industry’s biggest companies believe is a key to their future. On Monday, however, he officially joined a growing chorus of critics who say those companies are racing toward danger with their…