Ben Lovejoy: A former Meta product manager has claimed that the social network circumvented Apple’s privacy protections, as well as cheating advertisers, and fired him when he repeatedly raised the issue internally.[…]It was quickly alleged that Meta was using workarounds to continue to track users who had denied permission, alongside other privacy violations. A class […]

Ben Zotto:

Name every pioneering personal computer you can think of from the 1970s. The MITS Altair 8800. The Apple-1. The IMSAI 8080. You may even know about the SWTPC 6800 or Processor Technology Sol-20.

There’s a computer missing from that list, and it’s an important one: Sphere Corporation’s Sphere 1. While far ahead of its competitors in 1975 in what it delivered as an all-in-one PC, Sphere’s manufacturing operations and cash flow lagged immediately behind. The company collapsed so quickly that it was nearly erased from the collective memory of that period.

But I know about Sphere. So does Bill Gates! And it just might have sparked a few ideas in Steve Wozniak — though not as many as Sphere’s founder later claimed.

I have a story to tell about this remarkable Utah-based company, one that fills in the gaps in other histories of the era, and puts Sphere in the context of the computers we have heard about again and again for a half century. I want to tell you why Sphere was important and worth remembering — and explain why they were forgotten. While first to market with some important technologies, “firsts” are not as interesting as how their visionary, imperfect founder could see around corners. His reach far exceeded his grasp, leading to his early exit and the company’s quick downfall.

I’ll admit that before I encountered this Kickstarter campaign (via Glenn Fleishman, who edited the book), I can’t recall ever even hearing about Sphere. Count me in as a backer.

Lizzie Dearden and Amelia Nierenberg, reporting for The New York Times (gift link):

For years, London’s police assumed most of the phone thefts were the work of small-time thieves looking to make some quick cash. But last December, they got an intriguing lead from a woman who had used “Find My iPhone” to track her device to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport. Arriving there on Christmas Eve, officers found boxes bound for Hong Kong. They were labeled as batteries but contained almost 1,000 stolen iPhones. [...]

The police are now using that information to map where stolen phones are transported by street thieves. After the Heathrow seizure, a team of specialist investigators who normally deal with firearms and drug smuggling was assigned to the case. They identified further shipments and used forensics to identify two men in their 30s who are suspected of being ringleaders of a group that sent up to 40,000 stolen phones to China.

When the men were arrested on Sept. 23, the car they were traveling in contained several phones, some wrapped in aluminum foil in an attempt to prevent them from transmitting tracking signals. At one point, the police said at a news conference, they observed the men buying almost 1.5 miles’ worth of foil in Costco.

There’s shopping in bulk at Costco, and then there’s shopping in bulk.

Update: I forgot to apply one of the core tenets of Brian Kernighan’s wonderful book Millions, Billions, Zillions ($19 in hardcover from Amazon; BookShop.org link to indie booksellers): always do some back-of-the-envelope double-checking of the math in news stories. 1.5 miles of aluminum (or even aluminium) foil from Costco is just 12 rolls at 200 meters each. I wouldn’t blink my eyes at someone with a dozen rolls of foil in the cart at Costco.

Apple Newsroom:

Apple and NBCUniversal today announced the launch of the Apple TV and Peacock Bundle, available beginning October 20. The first-of-its-kind bundle offers the services’ complementary array of award-winning originals, marquee live events and sports, beloved franchises, and blockbuster movies, including Ted Lasso, Severance, The Paper, The Traitors, How to Train Your Dragon, the NBA (tipping off October 21 on Peacock), F1 The Movie (coming later this year), and much more, all through one convenient monthly subscription.

Customers in the U.S. can save over 30 percent by subscribing to the Apple TV and Peacock Premium bundle for $14.99 per month, or Apple TV and Peacock Premium Plus for $19.99 per month, through either app or website. Apple One subscribers on the Family and Premier plans can subscribe to Peacock Premium Plus and receive a 35 percent discount — the first benefit of its kind for Apple’s all-in-one subscription bundle.

CNBC:

Apple shares rose 4% on Monday as a new report showed iPhone 17 sales off to a strong start in the U.S. and China.

The iPhone 17 series, which dropped in September, has outsold the iPhone 16 series by 14% in the U.S. and China within its first 10 days of availability, according to data from Counterpoint Research.

Just because a research firm claims iPhone 17 sales are up 14 percent doesn’t mean they are up 14 percent. These are estimates, not hard numbers from Apple — and Apple doesn’t share actual sales numbers with anyone. Some headlines get this right, but most don’t.