MacRumors

Apple has partnered with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and health startup Evidation to determine whether data collected from the iPhone and Apple Watch can be used to detect early signs of dementia.

A research paper published this week and shared by CNBC lists researchers from Eli Lilly, Apple, and Evidation Health. The paper, called "Developing Measures of Cognitive Impairment in the Real World from Consumer-Grade Multimodal Sensor Streams," explores whether sensor data and activity info from smart watch devices can be mined for "physiological and behavior signatures of cognitive impairment."

The ubiquity and remarkable technological progress of wearable consumer devices and mobile-computing platforms (smart phone, smart watch, tablet), along with the multitude of sensor modalities available, have enabled continuous monitoring of patients and their daily activities. Such rich, longitudinal information can be mined for physiological and behavioral signatures of cognitive impairment and provide new avenues for detecting MCI in a timely and cost-effective manner.

In this work, we present a platform for remote and unobtrusive monitoring of symptoms related to cognitive impairment using several consumer-grade smart devices. We demonstrate how the platform has been used to collect a total of 16TB of data during the Lilly Exploratory Digital Assessment Study, a 12-week feasibility study which monitored 31 people with cognitive impairment and 82 without cognitive impairment in free living conditions. We describe how careful data unification, time-alignment, and imputation techniques can handle missing data rates inherent in real-world settings and ultimately show utility of these disparate data in differentiating symptomatics from healthy controls based on features computed purely from device data.

According to the abstract, 31 people with cognitive impairment and 82 without cognitive impairment were monitored over a 12-week period, with 16TB of data collected. The study claims that the data was able to be used to differentiate people with early signs of cognitive impairment from those who were healthy.

People who had symptoms of cognitive decline typed more slowly, typed less regularly, relied more heavily on support apps, and sent fewer text messages. The study did not reach long-term conclusions as more analysis is needed.

In a statement to CNBC, Evidation co-founder Christine Lemke said that data collected from the iPhone, Apple Watch, and Beddit sleep monitors was used for the study. Apple acquired the company behind the Beddit sleep monitor back in 2017.

"With this research, we looked at how everyday behavior data, such as those captured by iPhones, Apple Watches, and Beddit sleep monitors, may be effective in differentiating between individuals with mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer's disease, and those without symptoms."

Early detection of dementia is important because an early diagnosis can allow for better management of symptoms and quality of life improvements even though the progression of the disease can't be stopped. According to the World Health Organization, 50 million people around the world have dementia, with close to 10 million new cases surfacing every year.

Apple is facing a class action lawsuit [PDF] for employing contractors to listen to and grade some anonymized Siri conversations for the purpose of quality control and product improvement.

Apple's ‌Siri‌ practices were highlighted in a recent report where one of the contractors claimed that Apple employees evaluating ‌Siri‌ recordings often hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and other private information when ‌Siri‌ is activated accidentally.

The lawsuit, filed in a Northern California court today (and shared by CNBC's Kif Leswing), accuses Apple of "unlawful and intentional recording of individuals' confidential communications without their consent," violating California privacy laws when accidental ‌Siri‌ activations are recorded and evaluated by humans.

Siri Devices are only supposed to record conversations preceded by the utterance of "Hey Siri" (a "wake phrase") or through a specific gesture, such as pressing the home button on a device for a specified amount of time. California law prohibits the recording of oral communications without the consent of all parties to the communication.

Individuals who have purchased or used Siri Devices and interacted with Siri have not consented to Apple recording conversations where "Hey Siri" was not uttered or where they did not otherwise perform a gesture intending to activate Siri, such as pressing and holding down the home button on a device for a certain period of time.

As outlined in its privacy policies, Apple collects some anonymized ‌Siri‌ recordings for the purpose of improving ‌Siri‌ and, presumably, cutting down on accidental ‌Siri‌ activations. These recordings are analyzed by humans and can include details recorded when ‌Siri‌ mishears a "Hey ‌Siri‌" trigger word.

The lawsuit claims that Apple has not informed consumers that they are "regularly being recorded without consent," though it also highlights Apple's privacy policy where Apple does state that such data can be used for improving its services.

The plaintiffs in the case, one of whom is a minor, claim to own an iPhone XR and an iPhone 6 that they would not have purchased had they known that their ‌Siri‌ recordings were stored for evaluation. The plaintiffs are seeking class action status for all individuals who were recorded by a ‌Siri‌ device without their consent from October 12, 2011 to the present.

The lawsuit asks for Apple to obtain consent before recording a minor's ‌Siri‌ interactions, to delete all existing recordings, and to prevent unauthorized recordings in the future. It also asks for $5,000 in damages per violation.

Apple has suspended its Siri evaluation program right now as it reviews the processes that are in place in light of the contractor's claims. Prior to the suspension of the program, Apple said that a small, random subset (less than 1%) of daily ‌Siri‌ requests are analyzed for improving ‌Siri‌ and dictation, with requests not associated with a user's Apple ID.

Apple in the future plans to release a software update that will let ‌Siri‌ users opt out of having their ‌Siri‌ queries included in the evaluation process, something that's not possible at the current time. All collected ‌Siri‌ data can be cleared from an iOS device by turning ‌Siri‌ off and then on again, while accidental recordings can be stopped by disabling "Hey ‌Siri‌."

Update: We were able to go hands-on with the new Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+, so make sure to check out our video for a closer look at Samsung's newest flagship devices.

Samsung this afternoon unveiled its newest flagship smartphones, which are in the Galaxy Note family. The Galaxy Note 10, for the first time in a Note device, is available in two sizes: 6.3 (Galaxy Note 10) and 6.8 inches (Galaxy Note 10+).

Both of the smartphones feature an AMOLED Cinematic Infinity Display (2280x1080 for Note 10 and 3040x1440 for Note 10+), with the Galaxy Note 10+ featuring the largest display yet in a Note device. The Cinematic Infinity Displays are close to bezel free, with a small chin and the bottom and a single hole punch camera cutout. There is an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor for biometric authentication, plus Samsung's face recognition, and no headphone jack.

The Samsung DeX feature that makes it easier for Samsung users to swap between a phone and a PC or Mac now allows for files to be dragged and dropped between devices when connected via USB. Mobile apps can be used with a mouse and keyboard through DeX, and the Galaxy Note 10 also has a feature for a one click connection to a Windows 10 PC.

The Galaxy Note 10 features new S Pen technologies, including a redesigned, streamlined look for the pen itself. A new handwriting to text feature lets users write notes that can be converted to digital text in the Samsung Notes app, and Air actions are supported, allowing for customizable gesture-based controls with the S Pen.

Samsung added a triple-lens camera to the Note 10 and a quad camera to the Note 10+. The Note 10 features a 16-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera, a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera. The Note 10+ has the same lenses but also adds a new DepthVision Camera.

There are new photo and video capabilities in the Galaxy Note 10, including a Live Focus Video option that adds depth-of-field adjustments to video and a Zoom-In Mic for amplifying audio. An improved super steady mode better stabilizes footage to cut down on shakiness.

A Screen Recorder feature captures what's on the screen for gamers, and a picture-in-picture feature can be used to add reactions while the S Pen can be used for annotations. Night mode, which brightens up dark photos, now works with the 10-megapixel front-facing camera.

An AR Doodle feature lets Note 10 users customize their photos with dynamic drawings, effects, and animations, while the new 3D Scanner (Note 10+) can take a scan of an object and turn it into a movable 3D rendering.

The smartphones are equipped with 7-nanometer 64-bit Octa-core processors, with the Note 10 offering 8GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The Note 10+ features 12GB RAM and up to 512GB internal storage. Samsung says the Note 10 devices are equipped with "the world's slimmest vapor chamber cooling system" for better gameplay performance.

There's a 3,500mAh battery in the Galaxy Note 10, and a 4,300mAh battery in the Galaxy Note 10+.

Other features include super fast charging with 45W wired charging capability for the Note 10+, Wireless PowerShare for charging other Qi-based wireless chargers with the Galaxy Note 10, and 5G options for fast speeds. The Galaxy Note 10+ is available in a 5G variant for those who want 5G speeds, and the LTE models offer up to 2Gb/s download speeds and 150Mb/s upload speeds.

Samsung is offering the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ in Aura Glow, Aura White and Aura Black. The Galaxy Note 10 is priced starting at $949.99, while Galaxy Note 10+ pricing starts at $1099.99. Samsung will begin selling the Galaxy Note 10 and 10+ on August 23, with pre-orders set to kick off on August 8. The Galaxy Note 10+ 5G, priced at $1,299.99, will be a Verizon exclusive at launch. Samsung's livestream showing off the features of the new devices is available below.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10 will compete with Apple's upcoming 2019 iPhones, which are set to offer triple-lens camera setups, bilateral wireless charging, faster processors, and more.

Apple today released the sixth beta of iOS 13 to developers, introducing new bug fixes and adding and refining various iOS 13 and iPadOS features.

In the sixth beta, changes and updates are getting more minor than changes made in earlier betas, but beta 6 still has some notable additions that are worth highlighting.

- Dark Mode Control Center Toggle - There's a new Control Center toggle that lets you enable and disable Dark Mode with a tap.

- Folder Transparency - Apple has changed folder transparency in iOS 13 beta 6, making folder backgrounds better match the color of your background. Comparison image via the MR forums.

- Hide Link Previews - There's a new option when 3D Touching on a link on a webpage to Hide Link Previews, which disables link previews on a per site basis.

- Announce Messages - The Setting for allowing Siri to announce incoming text messages when connected to second-generation AirPods and some Beats headphones has been removed in iOS 13 beta 6.

- Three Finger Tap - You're now able to three finger tap anywhere in iOS to bring up undo, redo, cut, copy and paste icons, which may be a bug.

- Background Location Warnings - Apple warns iOS 13 users when apps are using their location in the background. In beta 6, the warning text has been tweaked slightly, and now reads "Do you want to continue to allow background location use?" instead of "Do you want to continue to allow this?"

- Bluetooth Permission Updates - When installing an and syncing a device over Bluetooth, Apple will warn that the app "may also use Bluetooth to know when you're nearby."

- Photos Splash Screen - There's now a splash screen highlighting the new features available in the Photos app in iOS 13.

- App Store Splash Screen - There's a new splash screen in the App Store app detailing Apple Arcade and the App Update changes in iOS 13.

- Analytics Privacy Policy - There's a new paragraph in Apple's analytics privacy policy: "If you agree to send Analytics information to Apple from multiple devices that use the same iCloud account, we may correlate some usage data about Apple apps across those devices by syncing using end-to-end encryption. We do this in a manner that does not identify you to Apple.

- Apple Pay Privacy Policy - Apple has slightly tweaked its Apple Pay privacy policy to mention location data collection for Apple Card: "‌Apple Pay‌ Merchant Identification: Your iPhone will use your current location to help provide more accurate merchant names when you use your physical ‌Apple Card‌."

- Location Privacy Policy - There's also a new addition to the location privacy policy: "System Customization: Your iPhone will customize system appearance, behaviors, and settings using your current location, for example by automatically enabling Smart Charging when you are at home. This customization data does not leave your device."

- Volume Tweaks - There are once again 16 volume increments instead of the 34 from the previous beta.

- LTE Icon - The LTE/4G icon is back to its regular size and is no longer larger to match the height of the LTE bars.

Know of a feature that's new in iOS 13 beta 6 that we left out? Make sure to let us know in the comments and we'll update this article. For more on what's new in iOS 13, make sure to check out our iOS 13 roundup.

Apple may have purchased image recognition startup Fashwell, a company that designed an engine able to recognize products in images to make photos shoppable.

Fashwell CEO Matthias Dantone, CSO Lukas Bossard, and CTO Michael Emmersberger all list Apple as an employer as of January 2019, suggesting an acquisition in late 2018.

Dantone's LinkedIn profile says that he works on Apple's machine learning team, while Bossard and Emmersberger are listed as machine learning managers at Apple.

Five of six other former Fashwell employees also now list Apple as an employer on their LinkedIn profiles, with many of those also on Apple's machine learning team. Fashwell's website is still up and running, but hasn't been updated since late 2018, and the same goes for the company's Twitter account.

Based on information shared on the Fashwell website, Fashwell developed a Visual Search tool to allow shoppers to search for products using an image.

FASHWELL's Visual Search is a search by image solution that we distribute through a flexible API. Add a camera icon to every search bar & allow your customers to shop with any image on your mobile applications and website.

Visual Search improves search success and prevents shop drop-offs, and it's 2x faster than text-based searches - leading to 35% m-o-m growth in usage, higher than any other user channel.

Fashwell's API also supported image tagging to make any image shoppable using its Virtual Search technology, making it easy for companies to auto-tag images with "speed, precision, and at scale." A product tagging API could be used to tag images with different attributes, such as category and design.

Fashwell also offered a visual recommendation tool, allowing image recognition to power product recommendations for product detail pages. Companies could use the feature to embed visually similar products on websites to recommend additional products to customers.

Apple could perhaps adopt Fashwell's technology for its Apple Store website and its ‌Apple Store‌ app in the future, improving the ‌Apple Store‌ shopping experience. We've emailed Apple for comment and will update this article if we hear back.

Apple has acquired several similar AI and machine learning companies over the course of the last few years, including Silk Labs, Laserlike, Perceptio, and more.

Update: Apple gained possession of the Fashwell.com domain name on May 1, 2020.

Apple today seeded the sixth betas of iOS 13 and iPadOS to developers for testing purposes, a little over a week after releasing the fifth betas and two months after unveiling the new operating system at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

Registered developers will need to download the profile for the iOS 13 and iPadOS betas from Apple's Developer Center. This beta, like earlier betas, can be downloaded over-the-air once the proper profile has been installed.

Apple split iOS 13 and iPadOS into separate updates in 2019, one designed for iPhone and one designed for iPad. iPadOS is identical to iOS 13 in almost every way, though there are some iPad-specific features such as new multitasking capabilities. For the most part, the two operating systems share the same features.

iOS 13 is a huge update with a long list of new features. Perhaps the most noticeable outward-facing change is a systemwide Dark Mode that changes the entire look of the operating system from light to dark, darkening everything from system elements to apps.

Apple overhauled the Photos app, introducing a new ‌Photos‌ tab that curates your entire ‌Photos‌ library and shows you a selection of highlights organized by day, month, or year, and there are revamped Photo editing tools.

For the first time, you can edit video right in the ‌Photos‌ app, cropping, rotating, applying filters, and adjusting lighting and color. There's a new High-Key Mono lighting effect, and for Portrait Lighting in general, intensity can be adjusted.

There's a less obtrusive volume HUD, a new Find My app that combines ‌Find My‌ iPhone and ‌Find My‌ Friends and lets you track your devices even with they don't have an LTE or WiFi connection.

A Sign In with Apple feature (not yet active) gives you a convenient and data safe way to sign into apps and websites, providing an alternative to Facebook and Google sign in options. Apple's even able to generate single-use randomized email addresses so you don't have to give your real info to apps and websites.

Maps features a new street-level "Look Around" mode and a Collections feature for making lists of places, Reminders has been entirely overhauled to make it more functional, there's a profile option in Messages along with new Memoji and Animoji stickers, and Siri has a new voice.

CarPlay in iOS 13 has been overhauled with a new look, multiple sets of AirPods (or Powerbeats Pro) can be connected to the same phone so you can share music with a friend, ‌Siri‌ on HomePod can detect multiple voices for multi-user support, and ‌HomePod‌ also supports Handoff.

There are a ton of additional new features and changes coming in iOS 13, and for a full rundown of what you can expect, you should check out our iOS 13 roundup. Each new beta brings new features and changes to iOS 13, and the fifth beta added a new option for adjusting the number of apps on the ‌iPad‌ Home screen, made adjustments to the volume, updated the look of the Share Sheet, and more.

The beta testing period will allow Apple to work out bugs ahead of the release of iOS 13 and iPadOS, and it will let developers build iOS 13 and iPadOS features into their apps ahead of a public release coming in the fall.

Apple today continued on with its "Shot on iPhone" series, uploading several new videos, but this time with a twist -- the videos are focused on ASMR, a popular YouTube trend that uses sound to evoke an "autonomous sensory meridian response."

Apple shared four videos in the series, all of which are between six and 10 minutes in length. The first, "Whispers from Ghost Forest," features a woman whispering about the legend of Ghost Forest.

The second video focuses on wood shop sounds, featuring a man turning a piece of wood into a work of art, while the third video features a man walking on a trail and crunching leaves and brush underfoot.

The fourth video, "A calm rain at camp," features the sound of rain pounding on various items at a campsite in the woods.

Apple has these videos labeled as ASMR Season 1 on its YouTube channel, which means more ASMR videos could potentially be coming. Apple also uses the tagline "Apple SMR" when introducing each video, and recommends people use headphones when watching.

These are the oddest of the "Shot on iPhone" videos that Apple has shared, but each one was created using an iPhone (with additional hardware and equipment for the sound) and features impressive visuals to go along with the sound.

Apple will likely launch a foldable device within the next two years, analysts at investment bank UBS predict. In a research note obtained by CNBC, the analysts said the device is more likely to be an iPad than an iPhone, and they also believe it is more likely to launch in 2021 than 2020.

Emphasis should be placed on "predict," as this is likely just speculation, and proven sources like Ming-Chi Kuo or Mark Gurman have yet to report that Apple is actively developing a foldable iPhone or ‌iPad‌.

That's not the only reason to be skeptical. As noted by VentureBeat's Jeremy Horwitz, folding display technology is still in its infancy, as evidenced by the troubled launch of Samsung's Galaxy Fold, which experienced serious display issues that led the device to be postponed for several months.

Apple also has a reputation for releasing thin, sleek devices, and early folding smartphones are anything but that. That doesn't mean Apple can't do it better, but 2020 or 2021 could be quite an ambitious timeframe for a foldable iPhone or ‌iPad‌ that upholds the company's strict industrial design standards.

Rumors of a foldable iPhone have popped up on numerous occasions over the past few years. In both 2016 and 2017, for example, it was reported that Apple was working with LG on a foldable iPhone. And in 2018, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan predicted that a foldable iPhone will launch in 2020.

Apple has filed several patents for a folding iPhone, so it has at least explored the idea, but whether it happens any time soon remains up for debate.

Apple Music today announced a new initiative called the "Apple Digital Masters" program, which aims to combine all of its "Mastered for iTunes" songs into one streaming catalog (via Billboard).

According to Apple, it's slowly been introducing Mastered for iTunes songs into ‌Apple Music‌ for some time. The company said that 75 percent of the Top 100 songs in the U.S. are Apple Digital Masters, and 71 percent of the Top 100 global songs are also part of the new program.

Apple began the Mastered for iTunes program in 2012, allowing engineers to optimize music for the digital download format by encoding from high-resolution masters. This placed the iTunes songs as close to possible as the original master recordings, and were designated specially as "Mastered for iTunes" in the store.

In ‌Apple Music‌, Apple doesn't designate whether a song is under its Digital Masters program or not. Still, for people who care about lossless audio, it's a good sign that the company has formally acknowledged a plan to move forward with adding more high-quality audio tracks to ‌Apple Music‌.

Numerous other streaming music services have lossless audio plans that are priced separately from the standard streaming tiers. Namely, Tidal offers a HiFi subscription for $19.99/month (compared to the base $9.99/month plan) that lets users stream lossless audio on demand.

Microsoft contractors are listening to conversations between users on Skype who use its translation feature, according to Motherboard. This is done only if users are performing a translation function in Skype and not during any other typical Skype voice or video call.

The information gathered includes Skype audio regarding intimate conversations between couples and more. The data also suggests that Microsoft contractors listen to voice commands spoken to Cortana, the company's smart voice assistant. The information seen by Microsoft contractors is anonymized and doesn't contain any user identifiable information.

These contractors (who mostly work from home) do manual translations of Skype audio conversations, sent by Microsoft along with a series of approximate translations generated by Skype's AI program. The contractor has to select the most accurate translation or provide their own, and they send the information back to Microsoft.

Microsoft warns users that it analyzes audio of translated calls in Skype to improve its services, but it does not mention that some of the analysis will be done by humans. The translation feature lets users perform real-time audio translations during phone and video calls, powered by artificial intelligence.

"The fact that I can even share some of this with you shows how lax things are in terms of protecting user data," a Microsoft contractor who provided the cache of files to Motherboard, said.

The contractor said, "I generally feel like that while we do not have access to user identifiable information, that if Microsoft users were aware that random people sitting at home in their pajamas who could be joking online with friends about the stuff they just heard that they wouldn't like that."

According to Microsoft, the company's terminology on its Skype translator feature and on Cortana are clear and straightforward in how it uses voice data to improve each service. "We strive to be transparent about our collection and use of voice data to ensure customers can make informed choices about when and how their voice data is used," the company said.

Microsoft also said that the audio data sent to contractors is through a secure online portal, and that it ensures any identifying information (like the user's name or device identification numbers) are removed. Despite all of this, Microsoft's terminology still doesn't mention that human workers might listen to your Skype translation conversations, or Cortana commands.

The Skype story from Motherboard emerges today following previous articles centered on human workers listening to Siri recordings at Apple and Google Assistant recordings at Google. Following these reports, Apple suspended its own program wherein contractors listened to anonymized ‌Siri‌ recordings for quality control purposes.

Right to Repair advocates continue to lobby the U.S. government, arguing that large tech companies like Apple are monopolizing repairs of consumer electronics in order to preserve profits, reports Axios.

In testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law last month, Nathan Proctor of the non-profit U.S. Public Interest Research Group claimed that "repair hurts sales," giving Apple "an incentive to restrict repair of their devices."

Similarly, in a letter submitted to the subcommittee last month, The Repair Association's executive director Gay Gordon-Byrne wrote that "manufacturers have no reasons for blocking repair other than money," referring to the "monopolization of repair" as a "huge profit opportunity."

In March, California became the 20th state to introduce Right to Repair legislation in the U.S., according to iFixit. Apple representatives have continually opposed these bills, which if passed would require companies to make repair parts, tools, and documentation available to the public.

In a statement, an Apple spokesperson told Axios that Apple's goal is to ensure its products are "repaired safely and correctly," while touting the company's growing network of Apple Authorized Service Providers:

We want to make sure our customers always have confidence their products will be repaired safely and correctly, and in a way that supports recycling. We are continually growing our network of certified technicians and most recently announced that any Best Buy store in the U.S. is now an authorized service provider.

Apple Authorized Service Providers have access to certified parts and service guidelines from Apple. There are over 1,800 of these authorized locations in the United States, which Apple said is "three times as many locations as three years ago." As of June, that includes every Best Buy store in the country.

Right to Repair legislation aims to make these parts and documentation available to independent shops and customers directly.

Apple today highlighted various app prototypes that educators came up with during five weeklong Teacher Coding Academies it held this summer. The workshops were part of Apple's Community Education Initiative, which introduces coding opportunities to underrepresented communities across the United States.

Educators from nearly 70 institutions attended the first of these academies in Houston, Austin, Boise, Nashville, and Columbus, according to Apple, presenting prototypes of their apps to various community organizations. Together, the educators and community organizations plan to continue working on the apps.

Examples:

In Boise, the teachers designed an app to help the police department better serve and communicate with the city's homeless population, connecting the community to open shelter beds and food banks.

In Austin, teachers focused on Ronald McDonald House, a charity that provides housing for families whose children are receiving critical medical care. In this case, they created an app prototype to help families communicate with the charity during their stay.

And in Columbus, the educators devised an app that helps firefighters log and monitor the amount of time they were exposed to dangerous carcinogens while on the job.

Learn more about the educators and their app prototypes on the Apple Newsroom.