Month: April 2021

Enlarge / The 2020 iPhone lineup. From left to right: iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12, iPhone SE, and iPhone 12 mini. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Apple has begun rejecting app submissions that do not follow its updated privacy policies regarding device fingerprinting and user tracking, according to a report in Forbes. This move strongly suggests that the release of iOS 14.5—and possibly new hardware products—is imminent.

Here's a snippet from the rejection letter some developers told Forbes they have received:

Guideline 5.1.2 - Legal - Privacy - Data Use and Sharing

We found in our review that your app collections user and device information to create a unique identifier for the user's devices. Apps that fingerprint the user's device in this way are in violation of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement and are not appropriate for the App Store.

Specifically, your app uses algorithmically converted device and usage data to create a unique identifier in order to track the user. The device information collected by your app may include some of the following: defaultManager, NSLocaleCollationIdentifier, NSLocaleCountryCode, NSLocaleQuotationEndDelimiterKey, and NSLocaleGroupingSeparator.

Per section 3.3.9 of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, neither you nor your app can use any permanent, device-based identifier, or any data derived therefrom, for purposes of uniquely identifying a device.

This message to developers makes it clear that affected apps are in violation because they use a technique that seeks to track the user without consent (device fingerprinting). A few months ago, Apple announced plans to implement "App Tracking Transparency," which would require apps to request user opt-in to track them using IDFAs, a common tracking tool that is vital for many targeted advertising techniques. This change drew the ire of Facebook and other companies who rely on that type of tracking to maximize advertising revenue. But it's also clear that App Tracking Transparency means that apps that seek to nonconsensually track users by any means, IDFA or otherwise, are going to face rejection. Device fingerprinting has often been used as an alternative to IDFA when users or platforms prevent the use of the latter.

Enlarge / A new study attempts to connect the dots between opening video game loot boxes and replicating "problem gambling" behaviors. (credit: Getty Images / Aurich Lawson / Sam Machkovech)

We've had a lot to say about loot boxes in video games, and in the wake of our own reviews and rants about their growing prominence, regulation and public scrutiny have followed. Researchers have entered the loot box conversation in droves as well, but a new report published by researchers on Friday seeks to answer a key question that it claims has been left untouched by other academics: why do gamers buy loot boxes?

In trying to answer that question, the report, commissioned by gambling-protection advocacy group BeGambleAware, suggests that loot box purchasing motivations are directly correlated with "problem gambling" behaviors. That data drives the report's conclusion: regulators should apply the same rules to loot boxes that they do to other forms of gambling, because despite seeming differences, they have enough in common to merit stricter controls.

From Skinner boxes to FIFA cards

Much of the study, co-authored by four British universities and one private gambling-research firm, summarizes and describes both the history of loot box monetization and the subsequent blowback, whether from fans, critics, or regulators. The report also outlines the amount of internal regulation done by game companies in response. (Ars was not contacted ahead of this study's publication, so we only learned today that we are among the outlets cited.)

Enlarge / TSMC's headquarters, seen here, are in Hsinchu, Taiwan—but the company is expanding worldwide, with a $12 billion fab due to open near Intel's own facilities in Arizona. (credit: Sam Yeh via Getty Images)

Earlier this week, chipmaker TSMC—Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, who manufactures processors for Apple, Qualcomm, and AMD, among many other industry giants—announced a serious increase in spending on both facilities and research.

The total investment is roughly $100 billion total, projected over the next three years at $30 billion plus each year. This represents a roughly 43% increase over 2020's $17.2 billion capital expenditure and $3.72 billion spent on research and development.

The capital investment will in part go to several new facilities:

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  From the front, there's little to distinguish this box from the millions of others Nintendo has produced for Super Mario Bros.

A pristine-condition sealed early copy of Super Mario Bros. sold for a record-shattering $660,000 in an online auction today.

That includes $550,000 to the seller and a $110,000 "Buyers' Premium" paid to Heritage Auctions. The final gavel came after 13 bidders placed 36 distinct bids, including heavy proxy bidding before the live auction commenced Friday afternoon.

The sale obliterates the $156,000 Heritage Auction record for a video game, set by a rare variant of Super Mario Bros. 3 sold last November. Crowdsourced collectibles platform Rally paid $140,000 for a sealed Super Mario Bros. last year, the previous record for that game.

Enlarge / Do you notice the homeless person's tent or the city's skyscrapers? (credit: Wally Skalij / Getty Images)

The COVID-19 pandemic has helped draw attention to the persistent disparities in health care in the US, with minorities and the poor suffering disproportionately worse outcomes from the disease. When it comes to inequality, however, the pandemic is competing for attention with other indications of the US' problems, with issues ranging from income inequality to police brutality to minority participation in science making headlines.

But perhaps the most striking aspect is that, when polled, a substantial portion of the US public doesn't seem to recognize that disparities exist, or they think that dominant groups are victims of discrimination. This gap in perception makes it difficult to even discuss inequality, much less decide on policies to address it.

This week, a team of researchers published what may be a partial explanation for why people don't see things the same way: they don't actually see the same things. More specifically, people who are sensitive to inequality are simply more likely to notice instances of it.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

Cable company WideOpenWest (also known as WOW!) yesterday told customers that it is imposing a data cap and explained the change with a pizza analogy that would seem more appropriate for a kindergarten classroom than for an email informing Internet users of new, artificial limits on their data usage.

The email said WOW is "introducing a monthly data usage plan for your Internet service on June 1, 2021" and described the system as follows:

What's a monthly data usage plan? Let us illustrate …

Imagine that the WOW! network is a pizza. Piping hot. Toppings galore. Every WOW! customer gets their own slice of pizza, but the size of their slice is dependent on their Internet service plan. While customers who subscribe to 1 Gig get the largest slices, those with Internet 500 get a slightly smaller piece, and so on. But, it's all the same delicious, high-speed pizza that you know and love.

Now, say you're not full after your slice and you grab another. That extra slice is like a data overage. Don't worry—we got extra pizza... umm, data... just in case. If you exceed your data allowance, we'll automatically apply increments of 50GB for $10 to your account for the remainder of the current calendar month. Total overage charges will not exceed $50 per billing statement no matter how much data you use. Even better—the first time you experience a data overage, we'll proactively waive fees.

Email omits most important details

The email did not mention that, unlike pizza, Internet data doesn't run out and that there is plenty for everyone as long as a network is properly constructed and provisioned. And despite paragraphs of comparing data to pizza, the email literally never says how much data customers will be allowed to use before they are charged extra. The answer is in a newly updated "network management practices" document that says the monthly cap will range from 1TB to 3TB: the 50Mbps download plan gets 1TB, plans between 100 and 300Mbps download speeds get 1.5TB, the 500 and 600Mbps plans get 2.5TB, and the gigabit plan gets 3TB.

Enlarge (credit: US DOE)

More details have emerged about the climate and energy priorities of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, and they include support for nuclear power and carbon capture with sequestration (CCS).

In a press conference yesterday with reporters, White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy said the administration would seek to implement a clean energy standard that would encourage utilities to use greener power sources. She added that both nuclear and CCS would be included in the administration’s desired portfolio. The clean energy standard adds a climate dimension to the Biden administration’s recently announced infrastructure plan, seeking to put the US on a path to eliminating carbon pollution.

“We think a CES is appropriate and advisable, and we think the industry itself sees it as one of the most flexible and most effective tools,” McCarthy told reporters. “The CES is going to be fairly robust and it is going to be inclusive.”