Bytes: What’s new in tech
Apple’s new econo-size plans
Apple introduced a new batch of bundled subscription services, said Catie Keck in Gizmodo .com, that can offer meaningful savings. The most affordable subscription option is the Apple One Individual plan, which “includes Music, TV+, Arcade, and 50 GB of iCloud storage.” At $15 per month, it will save subscribers $6 if they are already paying for those services à la carte. The Apple One Family plan has the same offerings with 200 GB of storage for $20 a month. One step up, the
$30 Premier plan, for up to six users, offers 2 TB of storage plus News+ and Fitness+, which each cost $10 per month on their own. With that much storage plus Music, Arcade, and TV+, “you’re saving $25 per month”—if you’re actually using all those apps.
TikTok gets another reprieve
A group of TikTok creators convinced a federal judge to block another ban proposed by the Trump administration, said Sarah Perez and Matthew Panzarino in TechCrunch.com. For the second time in a month, Trump’s attempt to block the social-video platform from operating in the U.S. after Nov. 12 ran up against the courts. “This particular lawsuit, however, was not led by TikTok itself,” but by a group of popular influencers. The plaintiffs— Douglas Marland (2.7 million followers, Alec Chambers (1.8 million), and Cosette Rinab
(2.3 million)—argued “they would lose access to their followers in the event of a ban” and thus would lose access to sponsorship income. Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Pennsylvania called the government’s claim that TikTok poses a national security threat “hypothetical.”
Schools ‘Gaggle’ their students
The Minneapolis school district has spent more than $355,000 on an intricate digital surveillance tool to monitor students, said Mark Keierleber in The74million.org. A three-year contract for the tool, called Gaggle, was signed in May to keep tabs on students’ activities on “Google services, including email, Docs, a video platform, Hangouts, and Google Classroom.” Artificial intelligence scans for “trigger” words or phrases, like “drunk” or “gun,” and moderators flag content containing “references to self-harm, depression, drug use, and violent threats.” The surveillance “doesn’t stop when classes end for the day.” A message on one Minneapolis high school’s website under the headline “Don’t Get Gaggled” reminded students “there’s no such thing as confidentiality online.”