Technology

AppleHomePod now runs software based on tvOSas it moves to develop a more sophisticated smart home platform.

Homes are computers

Smart home technology is evolving.It is becoming clear that connected devices inside homes need platforms powerful enough to deliver the convenience on which these things are sold, while also bringing the security, privacy and automation advantages we used to read about in sci-fi novels.

I&ve written about some of the unexpected problems that have shown themselves since the first HomeKit device appeared.As the intelligence inside these devices grows, those challenges will become more complex to resolve.

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Apple has released detailed mobility datagleaned from its Maps app that dramatically shows how the public's walking, driving and public transit use has changed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

We&re traveling a lot less

The information shows huge reductions in travel taken across most countries and larger cities globally.In London, people are using public transit 89% less frequently than they were before, the data shows, while in San Francisco transit travel has fallen 84%.

Apple published this information to provide government and health authorities with information that may help them make informed decisions during the pandemic, the company said.

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This pilot fish supports a couple of clients that use satellite internet. Fish has used his own email address to set them both up with the small service provider, and itnot a problem because the login is by client number.

But then that small service provider is bought by a bigger one, which gets bought by an even bigger one, which in fact is one of the tech behemoths. That company sends fish an email saying he has to re-register.

Actually, it sends two mails, one for each customer fish represents. Fish goes to the registration website and inputs all the information for Client 1. No problems, but he suspects the account login is now linked to his email address.

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Chromebooks started out all about simplicity. Lately, though, they've gotten kinda complicated.

Maybe it's an inevitable side effect of growth — or maybe just the piecemeal manner in which Google's Chrome OS platform has expanded — but Chromebooks today have so many program-running possibilities, it's damn near impossible to keep 'em straight. The computers can still run web apps, of course, just like in their earliest days, but they also now support the similar-looking-but-more-powerfulprogressive web apps, the on-their-way-out-but-still-present Chrome apps, the familiar-from-your-phone Android apps, and even the clunky-but-capableLinux apps. Sheesh!

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You&ve lost your job and now you face an obsolete, sluggish unemployment system that feels like it was written in the 1950s. Actually, itmore than a feeling. If you&re in New Jersey, New York or Connecticut, your unemployment system was written in 60-year-old Cobol. Meanwhile, if you want to apply for unemployment benefits online in Washington, D.C., the system insists you use Internet Explorer. As I recall, IE was put out to pasture five years ago.

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