Privacy oriented search engine DuckDuckGo today released an updated version of its browser extension for desktop Safari users running macOS Catalina.

The launch comes after DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials had to be removed from the Safari extensions gallery following major changes introduced in Safari 12 that made the extension incompatible. From the DuckDuckGo website:

As you may be aware, major structural changes in Safari 12 meant that we had to remove DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials from the Safari extensions gallery. With Safari 13, new functionality was thankfully added that enabled us to put it back. Consequently, you’ll need Safari 13+ on macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or newer to install the updated version.

DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials blocks hidden third-party trackers on websites and features a Privacy Dashboard, which generates a Privacy Grade rating (A-F) information card whenever a user visits a site. The rating aims to let them see at a glance how protected they are, while providing additional options to dig deeper into the details of blocked tracking attempts.

While the extension doesn’t include private search, DuckDuckGo Search is built into Safari as a default search option, and they work together to help users search and browse privately.

DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials is only available for desktop browsers, however DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser is available for iOS and uses the same privacy protection technology.

This article, “DuckDuckGo’s Safari Privacy Browser Extension Now Available for macOS Catalina” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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BritBox, a streaming service offering shows from ITV, the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, has launched in the United Kingdom (via BBC).

Priced at £5.99 a month, the joint-venture between ITV and the BBC is being pitched as an additional streaming service for viewers who want to view classic British television programs and films, rather than as a direct competitor to Netflix.

BritBox will mostly feature classic series like Cracker, Prime Suspect, Brideshead Revisited, Ashes to Ashes, with comedies including Absolutely Fabulous, Extras, Blackadder and Fawlty Towers. Some archive programs that have been on services like Netflix will now move to BritBox.

More than 600 classic episodes of Doctor Who will be available to stream by Christmas, while shows and movies from Channel 4 and Film4’s back catalog will be available in 2020, and original shows from Comedy Central UK will also feature.

Other shows available on the service include Downton Abbey, Gavin & Stacey, Wolf Hall, Love Island and Broadchurch, but it will also include new shows, starting with the drama Lambs of God, which stars The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Ann Dowd, The End of the F****** World‘s Jessica Barden, and Essie Davis from The White Princess as nuns living on a remote island.

However, some of ITV and the BBC’s biggest hits of recent years, such as Killing Eve, Peaky Blinders, and Bodyguard, will not be on it at first, either due to deals with other streaming platforms or because they are still on the broadcasters’ own catch-up platforms.

The Guardian reports that the streaming venture has been given a major boost through deals with BT, Channel 4, and mobile company EE.

One of the deals will make BritBox available to tens of millions of EE mobile customers across the U.K., while a wider deal with BT – which owns EE – will make Britbox available to the millions of customers who subscribe to its pay-TV service.

Meanwhile, Channel 4 will provide thousands of hours of TV and film content to BritBox as part of a three-year deal, meaning shows from all the U.K.’s main TV channels will be available on one catch-up platform for the first time.

BritBox enters a streaming market long-dominated by Netflix and Amazon Video, but now quickly flooding with rival services jostling for attention. Apple TV+ launched last week featuring $2 billion worth of original programming, while Disney+ is due to arrive on November 12 boasting 500 feature films and over 7,500 shows, including the entire Pixar library and a raft of original content.

BritBox is available in the U.K. via iOS and Android apps, ‌Apple TV‌, web browsers, and “smart” Samsung TVs released in 2017 or later. BritBox launched in the U.S. two years ago with a different catalog of content and has attracted 650,000 subscribers.

This article, “BritBox UK Streaming Service Launches for £5.99 per Month” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today announced a new employee benefit that’s designed to ease the transition back to work for new parents, expanding on the 16 weeks of leave that parents are already provided with an additional four-week grace period.

Apple’s head of retail and human resources shared details on the changes with Fast Company.

“What we find a lot of times is people are really excited to get back to work,” says O’Brien, Apple’s head of retail and human resources. “At the same time, [they] feel like they need to make sure things are really stable and successful at home. And that weighs heavy on people’s minds, I think.”

Apple’s new policy will give parents a four-week period after returning from leave where they’ll be paid like full-time employees but will have the flexibility to work part-time or set their own hours with a manager’s oversight.

The updated transition period will be available to all new parents, including those who adopt or take in foster children (non-birth parents are allowed six weeks of paid leave rather than 16). Retail workers are also able to take advantage of the parental leave changes.

Along with the new transition period, Apple is expanding leave for adoptive parents by four weeks through a Paid Family Care benefit that lets parents take time off for family illness. Apple is also tripling its financial assistance for families that choose to adopt, providing up to $14,000 towards an adoption.

For all employees, Apple is improving its mental wellness benefits and will double the number of free counseling sessions available to employees per year along with providing telemedicine options.

According to O’Brien, Apple is hoping to make it easier for parents to ultimately return to work after a period of leave. “I think many times working parents feel like they need to deal with that quietly and make it seem perfectly seamless,” O’Brien told Fast Company. “We all know life is complicated. So [we’re] making it really clear that we’re supporting them in that journey.”

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Following the release of iOS 13.2 on October 28, Apple today stopped signing iOS 13.1.3, which means downgrading to this version of iOS is no longer possible.

iOS 13.1.3 was a minor update released in mid-October with bug fixes for issues with Phone, Mail, Health, iCloud, and more.

Apple routinely stops signing older versions of software updates after new releases come out in order to encourage customers to keep their operating systems up to date. Apple has also stopped signing iOS 13.1.2, which was another minor bug fix update.

iOS 13.2 is the current public version of iOS, and it brought support for AirPods Pro, included new emojis, added Deep Fusion for the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro, and more.

Developers and public beta testers can also download iOS 13.3, an upcoming update that introduces Communication Limits for Screen Time.

This article, “Apple Stops Signing iOS 13.1.2 and iOS 13.1.3 Following the Release of iOS 13.2” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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“See” director Francis Lawrence, who also directed the “Hunger Games” movies, recently sat down for an interview with Business Insider where he shared some details on the filming of “See” and the research that went into the show.

According to Lawrence, rumors that “See” cost $240 million for two seasons were incorrect. “See” is “an expensive show,” said Lawrence, but that budget “got blown out of proportion.” It’s nowhere near the scale of other big shows like “Game of Thrones.”

When filming “See,” Lawrence had a “think tank” with blind consultants, an evolutionary biologist, and a survivalist to brainstorm ideas. “See,” for those unfamiliar with the show, is set in a post-apocalyptic timeline where most of the world was wiped out by a virus, and those who were left were rendered blind.

How long after civilization had vanished does the story take place and what would things look like and what would remain? We built out a blindness bootcamp with our consultants and [figured out] how that crosses over with our art and props department. What do the huts [in the village] look like? How are people navigating?

The actors in the show are made to look blind using special effects rather than contacts, as Lawrence said that it was impractical to use contacts for so many people due to the risk of cornea issues and the cost of hiring optometrists.

While much of the cast of “See” can see, some of the main tribe are low vision or blind. “See” aimed to find low vision or blind actors, and hopes to improve upon that in the second season.

Primarily the cast can see. Some of our main tribe, like Bree Klauser and Marilee Talkington, in the first couple episodes are both low-vis. Some of the actors in the Queen’s court are blind. We tried to find as many blind and low-vis actors as we could. The goal would be to improve upon that in the next season.

Much of the show was filmed out in the wilderness and “pretty far from any cities,” which made it difficult. The battle in episode one, for example, took four days to film because it involved a lot of people and a lot of stunts.

“See” has a rather surprising introductory scene introducing Queen Kane, who is the queen of the region, which Lawrence also commented on. When he saw that part of the script, he said, he “loved it.”

The blindness idea fed into every [creative] choice we made. To connect spirituality with the senses and euphoria and pleasure in that way was really interesting. I also loved when I watched the episode the feeling of getting to the Queen and discovering a new facet of the world. Two-thirds of the way through the [first] episode, you kind of feel like you know the kind of show you’re [watching]. Lou Reed is playing on a record player. It opens up the show tonally.

Lawrence’s full interview, which goes into even more detail on filming, can be read over on Business Insider. “See,” which stars Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard, is available on Apple TV+ now.

This article, “‘See’ Director Used Blind Consultants, an Evolutionary Biologist, and Survivalist When Filming” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today seeded the first public betas of upcoming iOS and iPadOS 13.3 updates to its public beta testing group, one day after seeding the first developer beta and a week after the release of iOS 13.2 with new emoji, Siri privacy controls, Deep Fusion, and more.

iOS and ‌‌‌iPadOS‌‌‌ 13.3 can be downloaded over the air after the proper profile has been installed from the public beta testing site.

iOS 13.3 brings Communication Limits for Screen Time, a feature that Apple promised would be coming in an iOS 13 update. Communication Limits allow parents to control who their children are able to contact both during downtime and during Screen Time.

The iOS 13.3 update also addresses a multitasking issue where iOS 13.2 users were seeing poor RAM management that caused apps like YouTube and Safari to reload more frequently than normal. After installing iOS 13.3, affected users are now seeing fewer refreshes when accessing these apps, doing another task, and then opening them again.

In the Keyboards section of the Settings app (under General), there’s a new toggle that prevents Animoji and Memoji stickers from being displayed as an option on the Emoji Keyboard. Apple has also tweaked the Apple Watch app icon, changing the color of the Digital Crown from black to gray.

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Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming tvOS 13.3 update to its public beta testing group, one day after seeding the first beta to developers and one week after releasing the tvOS 13.2 update.

Public beta testers can download the new update by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under “System.” “Get Public Beta Updates” will need to be toggled on, and once it is, the ‌‌Apple TV‌‌ will download the beta software.

Those who want to beta test the software can sign up to do so on Apple’s beta testing website.

tvOS updates (aside from major releases) have historically been minor in scale, focusing on under-the-hood bug fixes and improvements rather than major outward-facing changes.

Apple provides little to no information on what’s included in tvOS beta updates, so we may not discover any major changes after installing the software. There were no significant updates found in yesterday’s tvOS 13.3 beta.

This article, “Apple Seeds First Beta of tvOS 13.3 Update to Public Beta Testers” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today announced an update to its privacy website that touches on various new privacy benefits found in iOS 13, iPadOS 13, watchOS 6, and more. Apple’s updated website includes white papers on how the company approaches privacy in Safari, Sign in with Apple, Location Services, and Photos, providing visitors with a deeper insight into the company’s privacy mission.

The website reinforces Apple’s four core privacy principles: minimizing the data collected from users, processing the data on the device when possible, transparency when collecting data and how it’s used, and strong device encryption. You can visit the website for yourself at Apple.com/privacy, which is now highlighting iOS apps like Maps, ‌Photos‌, and Messages, and how they each enhance iPhone users’ privacy.

According to Apple, there are multiple recent privacy and security innovations that it has accomplished with its latest software updates:

• Contacts: Any notes stored in the notes section of the Contacts app will not be shared with third party applications when they are granted access to the Contacts app.
  
• Find My: Apple uses end-to-end encryption to communicate with other Apple devices nearby in order to find lost iPhones and Macs, ensuring that it doesn’t know the location of the device or the identity of the device that discovered it.
  
• Arcade: No advertising or third-party tracking is ever permitted.
  
• Background tracking notifications: iPhone owners now get notifications when apps are using their location in the background, providing them with a chance to turn this feature off.

You can click on different tabs on the website to view the new white papers for services like Safari, Face ID, Location Services, and more. While the website itself remains a straightforward look at how Apple handles user data, each white paper offers a more nuanced dive into specific programs and services at Apple, and how the company is aiming to enhance privacy with every new update.

The site also includes a tab for its transparency reports, showcasing how Apple is committed to being transparent about responding to government requests for user data around the world. Here you can scroll through each region to see how often Apple has shared user data with the local government, beginning as far back as 2013 and stretching to 2018.

This article, “Apple’s Revamped Privacy Site Highlights ‘Everyday Apps, Designed for Your Privacy’” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today announced that its partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to roll out access to the Health Records feature for iPhone has launched, with veterans who receive care through the VA now able to access their information right in the Health app on iOS.

“Helping veterans gain a better understanding of their health is our chance to show our gratitude for their service,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “By working with the VA to offer Health Records on iPhone, we hope to help those who served have greater peace of mind that their health care is in good hands.”

Apple announced the initiative back in February, but it’s taken a number of months to get everything in place to launch it to country’s largest medical system covering over 9 million veterans at over 1,200 medical facilities.

This article, “U.S. Veterans Can Now Use Apple’s Health Records Feature” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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