Weekly Rewind: Sex Toys, Hacking, Apple’s Decline, Reviews, and More!

Danielle from Leaf and Core

6 years ago

Reading Time: 3 minutes.

Welcome to Leaf and Core’s weekly rewind! Here are the Leaf and Core stories you may have missed as well as stories from around the web. There’s a lot of tech news, it can’t all be covered here. But that’s okay! Here’s your weekly roundup to make sure you know everything that’s going on in tech.

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Leaf and Core Recap

Google Faces 3 Lawsuits Over Sexual Harassment Handling

… or lack thereof. Google asked Andy Rubin to resign after multiple credible claims of sexual harassment against him. They then gave him $90 million. Other harassers at Google have received similar treatment from the company. Now shareholders are suing Google over their lax attitude towards harassment and assault.

CES Sexism Leads to Banned Company

Lora DiCarlo has award stripped and is banned from CES for doing the same thing male-focused sexuality products have done for decades at CES. CES sent a clear message: woman founders and women’s sexuality is not welcome at the male-focused event.

Flip the Coin: How Duolingo Hired 50% Female Engineers in 2018

It’s not all bad news, ladies. Duolingo set out to make their company more female inclusive. They made mistakes along the way, but managed to hire a group of extremely talented engineers. 50% of those engineers were women. Here’s how they did it.

A Hacker Tried to Steal Germany’s Democracy

Just as Russia influenced the American election in 2016 to favor a far-right candidate, a hacker attempted the same tactics in Germany. His efforts were less successful thanks to more responsible media coverage and a more discerning public, but the motive was clear. The hacker released the information from hundreds of German politicians and celebrities. They intentionally left out alt-right fascist politicians. We still don’t know if he was working alone or with guidance.

Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

Apple’s stock rose higher than ever this year. Then it plummeted. Investors are angry at Apple for increasing prices and unexciting products. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, sent out a letter lowering expectations for the company but assuring investors that Apple’s upcoming products will bring the company back into their good graces.

(And yes, that was a reference to The Offspring’s 2008 album by the same name. It’s not bad, check it out!)

Click Clack, my Keycap Feedback

I love mechanical keyboards. They’re fantastic. My home keyboard is a Tada68 with Kailh Box Jade switches. I got Pulse SA keycaps for this setup about a month ago, and they changed my experience of this board. If you’re a keyboard enthusiast, check it out!

Around the Web

Apple Trolls Google Over Privacy: Juli Clover, MacRumors

Did you know that Apple privacy far outweighs that of Google? Apple cares about customer privacy, protecting users even from third party apps. However, Google itself tracks users movements, usage, and more in order to better send them ads. Google wants to know as much as it can about you so it can sell you to advertisers. Apple couldn’t care less about that.

A billboard in Las Vegas coinciding with CES teases Apple’s rival over this fact.

CES 2019 Was a Snoozefest: Adam Clark Estes, Gizmodo

Photo: Adam Clark Estes/GIZMODO

CES 2019 was kind of boring this year. Maybe it’s because they banned an exciting toy. Maybe it’s because years of sexism have left many popular brands reluctant to associate themselves with the expo. Whatever the cause, this empty booth with a man taking a nap was a metaphor for the conference, according to Adam Clark Estes of Gizmodo.

The People’s iPhone is More Popular than the iPhone XS: Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

Apple’s latest iPhones have been off to a rocky start. Their high prices have driven many customers away. Apple’s stocks took a nose dive recently as a result. However, despite going on sale a month after the iPhone XS, the iPhone XR has already caught up and surpassed it. At this rate, it’ll take the iPhone XS Max in a month or two as well.Perhaps Apple learned a valuable lesson about pricing: demand goes down when people need to sell their car for a new phone.

Beyoncé Lawsuit Shows How Bad Tech is for the Visually Impaired: Melanie Ehrenkranz, Gizmodo

Mary Conner is a fan of Beyoncé. She’s also legally blind. She tried to use Beyoncé’s website to make purchases, but was unable to navigate it. The page lacked alt attributes, which describe photos, and other important tools for screen readers. Many websites lack these tools. With iPhone design becoming less friendly towards the blind, and the internet itself being unfriendly, is tech becoming too hostile to those without vision?

We had better hope not, since our tech seems to also be damaging our vision.

Poll of 9to5Mac Readers Declares Apple Watch Series 4 the Best New Apple Product of 2018. iPhone XS and MacBook Air? Not so Much: Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

A poll of nearly 10,000 9to5Mac readers showed the Apple Watch Series 4 and new iPad Pro were the most popular new Apple products of 2018. Below “None of the Above” you can find the iPhone XR, $329 iPad, New MacBook Pros, iPhone XS, and, in last, the MacBook Air.

Seems as though Apple fans were a little disappointed this year.

That being said, even if they’re not happy about the new Mac Mini, app developers certainly are.