Tag Archives: mobile

Why Does Apple Object to News About Drone Strikes?

Mother Jones

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Over at the Intercept, Josh Begley has a story that’s disturbing—but not in the usual Intercept way:

Five years ago, I made a simple iPhone app. It would send you a push notification every time a U.S. drone strike was reported in the news. Apple rejected the app three times, calling it “excessively objectionable or crude content.”

….In 2014, after five rejections, Apple accepted the app….But the following September, Apple decided to delete the app entirely. They claimed that the content, once again, was “excessively objectionable or crude.”…Well, Apple’s position has evolved. Today, after 12 attempts, the Metadata app is back in the App Store.

….Update: 2:32pm. Apple has removed Metadata from the App Store.

There is, needless to say, nothing objectionable or crude about this app. It merely aggregates news on a particular subject. Drone strikes themselves may be objectionable and crude—opinions differ, obviously—but reporting on them isn’t.

This matters. Upwards of half of all Americans get some or most of their news from their mobile devices, and for all practical purposes there are only two options in the mobile device world: iOS and Android. If you can’t get an app accepted on either platform, then no one will ever see your app. Apple and Google are the sole gateways to what we can and can’t see.

Now, there are obviously other ways of getting the news. There may even be a website that aggregates drone news the same way Begley’s app does. Still, there’s no question that an app can do things a news site can’t. It can make the news more immediate. It can make sure you don’t miss anything. It can allow you to share more easily with fellow activists.

When Google and Apple are just keeping out porn sites, no one really cares. Even when they’re nixing apps that happen to compete with Apple or Google, people mostly shrug. But when they start censoring apps based on their news content, we’re in trouble. If there were dozens of mobile platforms, and none of them had a big market share, it might not matter too much. Competition would probably sort things out. But when there are only two, it matters a lot. There may still be plenty of news outlets, but in a real-world sense we’re increasingly outsourcing our news to a tiny number of players—mostly Apple, Google, and Facebook. We may wake up some morning and be sorry we did that.

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Why Does Apple Object to News About Drone Strikes?

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What? Republicans Were Serious About Killing Obamacare?

Mother Jones

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Stop me if you’ve heard this story before:

Kathy Watson was anxious about her health coverage even before she woke up gasping for breath last month and drove herself to the emergency room with a flare-up in her heart condition. After struggling for years without insurance, the 55-year-old former small-business owner — who has battled diabetes, high blood pressure and two cancers — credits Obamacare with saving her life.

Watson also voted for Donald Trump, believing the businessman would bring change. She dismissed his campaign pledges to scrap the Affordable Care Act as bluster. Now, as she watches the new president push to kill the law that provided her with a critical lifeline, Watson finds herself among many Trump supporters who must reconcile their votes with worries about the future of their healthcare.

Watson, a proud, salty woman who was uninsurable a few years ago, isn’t ready to renounce Trump. But she’s increasingly frustrated by his vague promises to replace Obamacare with something better. “I’ve been through enough,” Watson said recently, sitting on the patio outside her mobile home, down a sandy road in a rural corner of northern Florida. “I don’t want to go back.”

“She dismissed his campaign pledges to scrap the Affordable Care Act as bluster.” A lot of people seem to have done that. But this isn’t just because Trump was such a ridiculous, blustery candidate. It’s also because it’s what we’ve come to expect from Republicans, and everyone tends to give them a pass for it. They say absurd things routinely, but the general reaction is a shrug: Oh, they have to say that stuff for the base. They’re just checking boxes.

But now a lot of moderate conservatives are learning that it wasn’t just affinity politics after all. They’re actually going to try to do all those things they’ve been talking about for years. At this point, our best hope is that they’re too fractious and too incompetent to pull it off.

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What? Republicans Were Serious About Killing Obamacare?

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A Travel Query for the Hive Mind

Mother Jones

Ben Cawthra/Rex Shutterstock via ZUMA

OK, hive mind, I have a question for you. My sister is heading to London later this year, and this time she has a shiny new iPhone to take with her. She’s on T-Mobile, so allegedly she’ll have access to calling, texting, and low-speed data without doing anything. So here’s one plan:

Download the maps she needs before she leaves.
Rely on T-Mobile for calling and texting.
Use WiFi whenever she’s at the hotel, in a coffee shop, etc.
Register for The Cloud, and use that when she’s out and about.
When all else fails, use T-Mobile’s low-speed data.

Alternatively:

Buy a SIM when she gets there and use local calling, texting, and high-speed internet.

Do I have any T-Mobile readers who have been to London lately? What’s the dope? What do you think her best alternative is?

UPDATE: Thanks everyone! It sounds like T-Mobile’s native service works pretty well.

Visit site – 

A Travel Query for the Hive Mind

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Too Much Cheating? Shut Down the Whole Internet.

Mother Jones

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Tim Fernholz reports today that countries around the world have lost billions of dollars in economic output by shutting down the internet for various reasons:

The countries most affected? India, accounting for $968 million in lost output….shut off internet service during school exam periods to deter cheating. To keep students honest, India imposed a ban from 9am to 1pm in certain areas.

Say what? They shut down the whole damn internet for four hours to keep kids from cheating on exams? Yes indeed. And they aren’t the only ones:

India: “Mobile internet services will be blocked from 9 am to 1 pm in Ahmedabad….The Revenue Talatis Recruitment Exam is being conducted by ‘Gaun Seva Pasandgi Mandal’ (Gujarat State Subsidiary Selection Board or GSSSB) across the state….Considering the sensitive nature of the exam for recruitment of talatis, internet service providers have been asked to shut down all internet-based social media services from 9 am to 1 pm to prevent the misuse of mobiles during the exam.”

Uzbekistan: “Uzbek authorities suspended Internet and messaging services across the country on August 1 to prevent cheating at university entrance exams….The restrictions on the additional services have become an annual practice on exam day as authorities fight against corruption and cheating.”

Algeria: “Algerian authorities have temporarily blocked access to Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to try to stop cheats posting high school exam papers online, state media reported on Sunday….’This is to protect students from the publication of false papers for these exams.’ “

Iraq: “Iraq has shut down the entire country’s internet in efforts to prevent students from cheating in exams….Wondering why the Iraqi government chose to take such a drastic step just for sixth grade finals? The reason why preventing sixth graders from cheating is such a high priority to the government is because, according to Iraqi law, education is compulsory only till the 6th grade. As a result, the pressure is fairly high on sixth graders to score well, as those who don’t make the cut are almost definitely pulled out of school.”

As you can see, this practice extends all the way from sixth grade to high school to universities to civil service exams. I guess building Faraday cages at all the test centers was too expensive, while strip searching every test taker was considered a step too far. The only option left was to shut down the internet for everyone.

All this said, the most common reason for shutting down the internet was in response to protests and other forms of civil strife. So I guess everyone is sort of used to it.

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Too Much Cheating? Shut Down the Whole Internet.

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How to Choose the Right Solar Charger for Your Camping Trip

If you can’t bear to be unplugged when you go camping or backpacking, never fear. Now you can plug into a bevy of light, portable solar chargers to power your phone, camera, batteries, music player or other mobile device.

But first, what should you look for in a solar charger?

Portability

Portable solar chargers come in a wide variety of sizes that range from the dimensionsof a mobile phone to some as big as a small rug or medium-sized briefcase. Before you buy, be clear onhow much power you’ll need to to generate at any given time. If you’re backpacking, you’ll want lighter equipment. If you’re driving to your destination and setting up camp, you can take a heavier and more elaborate system.

Capacity

Hand-in-hand with size goes capacity. What kind of device or devices you’re charging, how many devices you need to charge and how many days, weeks or even monthsyou’ll need power willdetermine the size of the charger you’ll need. Inhabitat has put together recommendations for everyone, from “light packers” to “extreme adventurers” and more.

Price

Solar chargers come in all price points. Once you figure out how much capacity you need and the size charger that will do the job, compare prices and ratings online to get the most affordable charger to fit your budget. Outdoor Gear Lab’s ratings overview does a good job here.

Compatibility

Just about all solar chargers come with USB ports so you can charge any kind of phone or tablet that also has a USB port. However, some battery packs may only recharge using a wall outlet in which case your solar charger will be useless. Check to besure that your devices can plug into your charger before you buy.

Flexibility

Will your charger only collect sunlight if it’s lying on a flat or angled surface? Or does it some in a case with a grommet so you can clip it to your backpack and let it charge while you’re hiking? Can you clip a few chargers together to maximize your solar collection time?

Durability

What happens if you drop your solar charger? Does it come in a case to protect it from damage? Especially for devices the size of a cellphone, make sure they will be protected against breakage. Also, check the warranty on the product as well as online performance reviews to get consumers’ feedback on how well a device does its job. And if you need something that’s waterproof, you can find it on this list.

Weather and Sun Availability

An important consideration as you ponder your trip has to do with the sun itself. If you’re going to Costa Rica during the rainy season, I can tell you from personal experience that you can’t count on your solar charger to stay powered up. On the other hand, if you’re heading to the desert or just going camping when it’s likely to be mostly sunny, you won’t have any trouble recharging. The point is, a solar charger will operate most effectively when it can tap into solar power. There are lots of reasons to check the weather report before you leave on your trip. Add this one to the list.

Back-Up Battery Pack Instead?

If you’re going on a relatively short trip, say three days or less, a fully charged back-up battery pack for your phone and tablet may work just fine. Ifweight isn’t an issue, you may want to take both an extra battery and a solar charger. Plan your trip in advance so you can make an informed decision.

Or…simplify the entire process and just leave your mobile devices home. Isn’t that what getting into nature is all about?

Related:

5 of the Best Ways to Recharge Batteries
Solar-Powered Backpack Charges Gadgets

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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How to Choose the Right Solar Charger for Your Camping Trip

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Ozone Hole Shows Signs of Shrinking, Scientists Say

Three decades after a treaty to phase out the use of chemicals known as CFCs, there are indications that the hole in the ozone layer is healing. Link to original:  Ozone Hole Shows Signs of Shrinking, Scientists Say ; ; ;

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Ozone Hole Shows Signs of Shrinking, Scientists Say

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Growing Greens in the Spare Room as ‘Vertical Farm’ Start-Ups Flourish

LED lighting and short growing periods have helped the rise of indoor farming, but scaling up is tougher. Link:   Growing Greens in the Spare Room as ‘Vertical Farm’ Start-Ups Flourish ; ; ;

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Growing Greens in the Spare Room as ‘Vertical Farm’ Start-Ups Flourish

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Donald Trump once backed urgent climate action. Wait, what?

Donald Trump once backed urgent climate action. Wait, what?

By and on Jun 8, 2016Share

As negotiators headed to Copenhagen in December 2009 to forge a global climate pact, concerned U.S. business leaders and liberal luminaries took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for aggressive climate action. In an open letter to President Obama and the U.S. Congress, they declared: “If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.”

One of the signatories of that letter: Donald Trump.

Also signed by Trump’s three adult children, the letter called for passage of U.S. climate legislation, investment in the clean energy economy, and leadership to inspire the rest of the world to join the fight against climate change.

“We support your effort to ensure meaningful and effective measures to control climate change, an immediate challenge facing the United States and the world today,” the letter tells the president and Congress. “Please allow us, the United States of America, to serve in modeling the change necessary to protect humanity and our planet.”

In every conceivable way, the letter contradicts Trump’s current stance on climate policy. On the campaign trail, Trump has said he is “not a big believer in man-made climate change.” Last fall, after Obama described climate change as a major threat to the United States and the world, Trump said that was “one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever heard in politics — in the history of politics as I know it.”

The 2009 ad also argues that a shift to clean energy “will spur economic growth” and “create new energy jobs.” But these days, Trump contends that U.S. action to limit greenhouse gas emissions would put the country at a competitive disadvantage. In 2012, he went so far as to claim: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

The Copenhagen conference that inspired the open letter was part of the same two-decade-long U.N. negotiating process that led to a global climate deal in Paris last year. But whereas in 2009 Trump supported the process via the ad, now he wants to sabotage it, promising recently to “cancel” the Paris accord.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Trump’s signature on the ad, which ran in the Times on Dec. 6, 2009, stands out on a list dominated by liberal media and business figures, including the founder of Patagonia, the cofounders of Ben & Jerry’s, the president of CREDO Mobile, the executive producer of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, actors Kate Hudson and Adrian Grenier, media heavyweights Martha Stewart and Graydon Carter, and New Age author Deepak Chopra.

None of the signers that Grist interviewed this week could recall who had organized the letter or knew who had asked Trump to sign. The website of the group listed on the ad, businessleaders4environmentalchange.us, is now defunct, and no information was available on who had registered it.

Beyond the Times ad, Trump has supported climate causes and expressed concern about global warming at least twice before. In 2014, Trump sent a $5,000 check to Protect Our Winters, a climate advocacy nonprofit for skiers and snowboarders, after a Celebrity Apprentice contestant requested his support.

The second time was when climate change hit The Trump Organization’s bottom line: His golf course in Ireland is threatened by coastal erosion, so the company recently applied for a permit to build a seawall to protect the property from “global warming and its effects.”

Other than that, Trump has been fairly consistent in his views on climate change — or consistent for Trump. Two months after signing the open letter, he told members of the Trump National Golf Club that Al Gore should be stripped of his Nobel Prize because that winter had been cold. “Gore wants us to clean up our factories and plants in order to protect us from global warming, when China and other countries couldn’t care less,” he said. “It would make us totally noncompetitive in the manufacturing world, and China, Japan and India are laughing at America’s stupidity.”

Now that sounds more like the Republican nominee.

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Donald Trump once backed urgent climate action. Wait, what?

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Welcome to the New Mother Jones

Mother Jones

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Forty years ago, operating out of a dingy office above a McDonald’s on San Francisco’s Market Street, a group of writers and editors inspired by Watergate decided to launch the equivalent of a crowd-funded media startup—a spiffy-looking new magazine, devoted to investigative journalism and supported by its readers. From the very first day, Mother Jones has emphasized making in-depth journalism look good, because powerful storytelling shouldn’t feel like homework.

In keeping with that spirit, we’ve decided to celebrate our 40th anniversary with a new design. These days when a magazine overhauls its look, the process normally works something like this: A new editor or creative director walks in, decides whatever came before was crap, hires an outside design firm or three, commissions a custom typeface or maybe 10, gets a team of web designers and app developers to translate that vision to the digital space, and lines up some celebrity buzz, and many, many months later, voilà! A redesign is born.

We did pretty much the opposite. First, except for the inspirational input of Luke Shuman, who helped our brilliant creative director, Ivylise Simones, design our new logo, we did this all in-house. We did it with the resources at hand. We did it in a few all-too-short months, amid our already awesomely hectic jobs. And, though we are over the moon about the new look for both the magazine and the site you are now on, we reverse-engineered the typical process, beginning with article pages on our mobile site and working back up the food chain, as it were, to the home page of MotherJones.com and then on to the print magazine. We did it that way, in part, because for far too long these three “products” looked nothing like each other; they’d each grown uniquely fusty. And we did it that way because every month 9 million people read our journalism—multiple new stories each day—via their desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones.

We wanted to give those 9 million people a better experience; one that was clean, easier on the eyes. We ditched a lot of clutter. Buttons for bygone social networks and services were banished from the page. So were an overwhelming number of links on the home page. We even cut down on the number of ad units per page.

We also wanted to make it easier for you to find our one-of-a-kind coverage about food politics and science and our signature investigative deep-dives. Both now appear on our navigation bar at the top of each page.

A new home page feature, called Exposure, will give you a dose of our commitment to photojournalism (the stunning pictures in our feature on Flint’s toxic water crisis are an excellent example). And for signature stories, we’ll deploy a photographically lush wide format, which will look eye-popping on your laptop and your cellphone.

We are also obsessed with our new favorite color, orange. We’ve used it to make links and other text easier for you to spot. And we are thrilled to be using a new display font called Mallory, from the Frere-Jones Type studio, that, in the words of the designers, “was built to be a reliable tool, readily pairing with other typefaces to organize complex data and fine-tune visual identities.” Our body font is Calluna.

Okay, now back to the “investigative journalism” part. Like most in our trade, we do a lot of things these days. But at the core of what we do, and why you read Mother Jones, is the promise that we’ll rake the muck, that we’ll afflict the comfortable and, as our namesake put it, “fight like hell for the living.” Our dedication to investigative journalism ripped the lid off the Ford Pinto cover-up soon after the magazine launched in 1976, and we exposed Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” remarks during the last election—a story that, though it arguably altered the course of history, notably never took a spin through print.

Today, when a Pandora’s box full of vulgarity, obstructionism, and authoritarianism has been let loose upon the political landscape, when spin has tucked tail in the face of bald-faced lies, when people from every walk of life and every political persuasion feel like the deck has been stacked against them and the dealer is cutting cards to boot, the fight for justice is more important than ever.

We have your back and we hope you have ours. This publication—which might more properly be dubbed a nonprofit, digital-first news organization with a magazine’s secret sauce, if that weren’t such a mouthful—has always relied on reader support. It was readers who pitched in eight years ago when we wanted to expand past a six-times-a-year collection of freelance pieces to become what the PEN American Center recently called “an internationally recognized powerhouse” that often puts “more well-known and deep-pocketed news divisions to shame.” You built this.

We’ve tripled the size of the newsroom and grown our audience twenty­fold, but we’re not done yet. In the coming months we’ll unveil some truly blockbuster investigations as well as our ambitions to be far bigger and better still. We’ll be asking for your help and your input on how to get there. You can read why you should consider joining our community of sustainers here. Let’s fight the good fight, together.

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Welcome to the New Mother Jones

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What Are the Best Apps for Ordering Groceries Online?

If you like to cook but don’t have time to shop for food, there are plenty of mobile apps that can make it easy for you to do your shopping online.

Why bother?You’ll save time driving to the store and strolling the aisles. You may get better organized about what you cook, since you can look at recipes while you shop to figure out exactly what ingredients you need. Maybe you’ll reduce waste, too, since you won’t be tempted by impulse products while you’re standing in the check-out line.

Plus, I found when I was shopping online for groceries that often, the food I got delivered was of better quality than what I found in the store.

A big disadvantage of online grocery shopping is that food comes in a lot more bags and containersthan I would use if I shopped myself. For example, I rarely put loose apples or oranges in a plastic produce bag, but if I order them online, they come in a bag that’s not very easy to re-use. Because groceries are packaged and then boxed up so an order is easy to deliver, it’s hard to avoid all that packaging waste.

WHAT APPS TO USE?

Grocery Store – Many grocery stores have their own apps so you can shop online but keep it local. For example, the Giant chain in the Washington, D.C. area calls its online service Peapod. You get a $20 discount on your first order if it’s over $100, and the first two months delivery charges are free. They offer “natural and organic” options as well as conventional ones. A mobile app means you can order from your phone if you’re in a meeting or on the go and realize you need food but don’t have time to shop.

Boxed – Boxed is a service that lets you order packaged groceries and household products in bulk. Delivery is free on all orders over $50 and there’s no membership fee. Boxed doesn’t deliver meat, fish or fresh produce. But for cereal, cookies, toothpaste, baby food, pet supplies, coffee and tea, you order online and receive your order in 1-3 days.

Instacart – This app allows you to shop from several stores in your zip code (if they’re working with Instacart). For example, where I live outside Washington DC, I could use Instacart to shop online at Whole Foods, Costco, Harris Teeter, Safeway and Petco. The first delivery is free; thereafter, delivery fees depend on when you want your groceries delivered. Within 2 hours, the cost would be $9.99; otherwise, it looked like it would cost about $5.99 for deliveries. When I clicked on Whole Foods, a number of discounts showed up, which was appealing. Otherwise, prices online seem to be about the same as in the store.

WeGoShop – Want a sort of personal shopper to take your order, do the shopping and deliver everything to your home? Take a look at WeGoShop. It differs from other services in that the shopper goes to the stores of your choice rather than a limited selection. For example, you might want items from a liquor store, grocery store, food coop, deli and specialty store. Your WeGoShop assistant could make all those stops for you without a problem. You pay for your groceries and a service fee upon delivery by cash, check, debit, credit card or by using a WeGoShop gift certificate. You need to call to place your order.

What online grocery apps do you use? Please share.

Related
Best Grocery Shopping Apps to Help Manage Your Next Party

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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What Are the Best Apps for Ordering Groceries Online?

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