We're minutes away from Apple's #WWDC21 developer conference. To stay up to date on what's new, follow this thread or watch it live right here at 10 AM PST: wired.trib.al/Cs8Hcep
Who had "Apple starts off their developer conference with a musical" on their bingo card? #WWDC21
Starting off with iOS 15 FaceTime updates:
✅Now has Spatial Audio and Portrait Mode
✅Ability to send FaceTime invite links
✅A new feature called SharePlay that allows you to watch movies and listen to music together
With iOS 15, Apple unveils a new feature called Share With You—a list of content that friends have recently sent to you so you can catch up on it later.
Apple is bringing identity cards to Apple Wallet. Now your driver's license can be encrypted and stored in your phone. Apple says TSA is preparing to be able to use this feature to get through security checks. wired.trib.al/Cs8Hcep#WWDC21
The next iteration of Apple Maps is significantly more detailed—outlining things like overpasses, tourist attractions, and cross walks in 3D animation. wired.trib.al/Cs8Hcep#WWDC21
As users pivot toward privacy, Apple is making things like emails and Safari browsing even harder to track. wired.trib.al/Cs8Hcep#WWDC21
A new feature called Legacy Contacts will allow trusted loved ones to access your iCloud data if you pass away. wired.trib.al/Cs8Hcep#WWDC21
Apple will now measure your "Walking Steadiness", a feature that tracks how stable you are, and how likely you may be to fall. It also comes with movement exercises to help your strength and balance. wired.trib.al/Cs8Hcep#WWDC21
Your iPhone will soon let you share your health data with your doctor securely. No more making up how much you exercise. wired.trib.al/Cs8Hcep#WWDC21
Apple is bringing a new design to Safari—with tab groups, a redesigned sidebar, seamless integration with your other Apple device, and swipeable tabs and web extensions for your iPhone.
NEW: Tulsi Gabbard, now the US director of national intelligence, used the same easily cracked password for different online accounts including a personal Gmail account and Dropbox over a period of years, leaked records reviewed by WIRED reveal. wired.com/story/tulsi-ga…
The password associated includes the word “shraddha,” which appears to have personal significance to Gabbard: This year, WSJ reported that she had been initiated into the Science of Identity Foundation, which ex-members have accused of being a cult. wired.com/story/tulsi-ga…
Security experts advise people to never use the same password on different accounts precisely because people often do so. As director of national intelligence, Gabbard oversees the 18 organizations comprising the US intelligence community.
DOGE is knitting together data from the Department of Homeland Security, Social Security Administration, and IRS that could create a surveillance tool of unprecedented scope. wired.com/story/doge-col…
The scale at which DOGE is seeking to interconnect data, including sensitive biometric data, has never been done before, raising alarms with experts who fear it may lead to disastrous privacy violations. wired.com/story/doge-col…
“They are trying to amass a huge amount of data,” a senior DHS official tells WIRED. “It has nothing to do with finding fraud or wasteful spending … They are already cross-referencing immigration with SSA and IRS as well as voter data.” wired.com/story/doge-col…
American police are spending hundreds of thousands on Massive Blue’s unproven and secretive technology that uses AI-generated online personas designed to interact with and collect intelligence on “college protesters,” “radicalized” political activists, and suspected traffickers.
Massive Blue calls its product Overwatch, which it markets as an “AI-powered force multiplier for public safety” that “deploys lifelike virtual agents, which infiltrate and engage criminal networks across various channels.”
404 Media obtained a presentation showing some of these AI characters. These include a “radicalized AI” “protest persona,” which poses as a 36-year-old divorced woman who is lonely, has no children, is interested in baking, activism, and “body positivity.”
The audit covers DOGE’s handling of data at several Cabinet-level agencies, including:
–the Departments of Labor, Education, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services
–the Treasury
–the Social Security Administration
–the US DOGE Service (USDS) itself wired.com/story/gao-audi…
It's being carried out after congressional leaders’ requests and is centered on DOGE’s adherence to privacy and data protection laws and regulations.
A Congressional aide said the requests followed media reports on DOGE’s incursions into federal systems. wired.com/story/gao-audi…
Dozens of federal employees tell WIRED that Trump's federal return to office order has resulted in chaos (including bad Wi-Fi and no toilet paper), with productivity plummeting and public services suffering. wired.com/story/federal-…
One effect of all this, many federal employees tell WIRED, is that they are travelling long distances in order to spend all of their time in virtual meetings.
A Treasury employee says they spend most of their time at the office on video calls as well. wired.com/story/federal-…
It isn’t just traveling to work to sit on Zoom calls—it’s that there may be no place to take the call, or no working internet to connect to it.
WIRED granted employees anonymity to speak freely about their experiences. wired.com/story/federal-…
SCOOP: Elon Musk’s DOGE has plans to stage a “hackathon” next week in Washington, DC. The goal is to create a single “mega API”—a bridge that lets software systems talk to one another—for accessing IRS data, sources tell WIRED. wired.com/story/doge-hac…
DOGE ops have repeatedly referred to the company Palantir as a possible partner in the project, sources tell WIRED.