Episode 269 — COVID Data

There were just too many COVID links for Michael, Michael and Andy to cover in this week’s episode, so they decided to major on the major, and include the rest in the show notes below.  Data looms large in how life will be, and the first story the team covers relates directly to the APIs that Apple and Google are enabling to provide a way to track and trace where a confirmed infection takes place, and those around that person who will need to be tested.  Other podcasts, such as Security Now go into depth on this story, and the transcript from the April 14th episode of Security Now provides greater insight into the challenges of dealing with this data in a secure way that also respects privacy.

There are some intriguing ways that map data are being used to help people during the pandemic, and while the team did not talk through these articles, you may find the links to what Waze and Apple Maps are doing in the show notes below.

Turning to the world of virtual meetings and a sense of place, Online Town is held high as an example for combining place with a virtual space — something that Michael, Michael and Andy all know very well from their experiences in the 3D Internet days.  The reference point of a virtual city serves as a place anchor so that people know “where” to meet, not just having a numeric ID to dial into.  And while one is in a VR space, the company Holoswitch provides an example of how notifications from the physical world could be represented in virtual spaces.  Joining (and augmenting) the visible world, the example use case given by WorldGaze provides contextual information to the voice assistant, filling in the subject based on where the user is looking, derived from a phone’s front and rear facing cameras.  Check out the YouTube link below – this is fascinating! 

This episode winds down on a pizza oven you can have in your own kitchen — just the thing for stepping up your #StayAtHome meals.

Other links of interest deal with the new iPad Pro trackpad keyboard, as well as other trackpad enabled keyboards for earlier editions of the iPad, and an article on what you can do to make your home based workspace better from Marie Kondo.  Here’s hoping that you too can spark joy while remaining physically distant and simultaneously socially connected.

We continue to hope that everyone is staying safe, healthy and well.  The team is looking forward to reassembling again for another episode next week! 

Selected Links

appleinsider article: EU to pressure Tim Cook about privacy in Apple & Google’s COVID-19 contact tracing — https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/04/16/eu-to-pressure-tim-cook-about-privacy-in-apple-googles-covid-19-contact-tracing 

Security Now podcast transcript from April 14, 2020 — https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-762.txt 

Boy Genius Report article: Waze has new features to help you navigate the coronavirus crisis — https://bgr.com/2020/04/15/waze-vs-google-maps-new-coronavirus-related-features-coming-to-waze-5817860/ 

MacRumors article: Apple Releases Maps Mobility Data Trends Tool to Help Mitigate COVID-19 Spread — https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/14/apple-maps-mobility-data-trends/ 

Mashable article: Online Town solves the most annoying thing about Zoom parties — https://mashable.com/article/online-town-video-chat-for-groups/ 

Online Town — https://town.siempre.io 

Jitsi Videobridge — https://jitsi.org/jitsi-videobridge/ 

VR Fitness Insider article: How ProxiMat Evolved to Meet the Needs of VR Gamers and Esports Athletes — https://www.vrfitnessinsider.com/how-proximat-evolved-to-meet-the-needs-of-vr-gamers-and-esports-athletes/ 

VentureBeat article: Holoswitch sends your smartphone notifications to you while in VR — https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/12/holoswitch-sends-your-smartphone-notifications-to-you-while-in-vr/ 

Holoswitch — https://holoswitch.com 

TechCrunch article: WorldGaze uses smartphone cameras to help voice AIs cut to the chase — https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/15/worldgaze-uses-smartphone-cameras-to-help-voice-assistants-cut-to-the-chase/ 

Enhancing Mobile Voice Assistants with WorldGaze — https://chrisharrison.net/projects/worldgaze/WorldGaze.pdf 

TechCrunch article: Ooni’s Koda 16 pizza over is the rare kitchen gadget that delivers on its promise — https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/14/oonis-koda-16-pizza-oven-is-the-rare-kitchen-gadget-that-delivers-on-its-promise/ 

iMore article: The iPad Pro is so great that you can run MacOS X 10.5 Leopard on it. But only if you hate yourself.  — https://www.imore.com/ipad-pro-so-great-you-can-run-mac-os-x-105-leopard-it-only-if-you-hate-yourself 

TechCrunch article: Apple’s iPad Pro Magic Keyboard arrives next week, ahead of schedule — https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/15/apples-ipad-pro-magic-keyboard-arrives-next-week-ahead-of-schedule/ 

MacRumors article: Logitech Keyboard Cases With Trackpad for 7th-Generation iPad and iPad Air Now Available — https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/15/logitech-ipad-keyboard-cases-trackpad-available/ 

Washington Post article:  Marie Kondo has advice for living and working at home in a pandemic — https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/marie-kondo-has-advice-for-living-and-working-at-home-in-a-pandemic/2020/04/13/c6315184-75bc-11ea-a9bd-9f8b593300d0_story.html

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