adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Tech

Covid-19 contact tracing apps can now work across state lines – Vox.com

Published

 on


It may have gotten off to a slow start, but digital Covid-19 contact tracing apps are finally picking up steam in the United States — and may have surmounted one of their biggest obstacles to widespread use.

States are now able to create contact tracing apps that work with those from other states, thanks to a national server that works with the exposure notification tool developed by Apple and Google and stores information about potential exposures from all states that use it. This gives us the potential for a nationwide digital contact tracing system. Some states are already incorporating this technology into their regional efforts: the latest are New York and New Jersey, which unveiled new apps on Thursday.

While the national server has been around for a few months, the fact that a growing number of states are using it is a big deal. Because America’s federal government refuses to create a national contact tracing app, each state has so far needed to create its own, leading to a patchwork of apps across the country that used different technologies and couldn’t communicate with each other. Any given state app became effectively useless as soon as the device it was on crossed a state line.

300x250x1

This is no longer the case. Some states — New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware — have teamed up to form a regional alliance of apps with a common codebase. That means if you had the New York version of the app and traveled to New Jersey for a large, crowded superspreader event where you were exposed to the coronavirus, you’d still get a notification (assuming the infected person used one of those states’ apps and reported their positive results to the proper health authorities).

The public health authorities behind these new digital contact tracing apps are using the Apple-Google exposure notification tool, which uses Bluetooth to exchange anonymous “keys” with any devices that come within a certain proximity (and have opted into the tool). If someone tests positive for the coronavirus, their keys are uploaded to a server. Individual devices check the server every day, and if any keys on the server match keys received by the device, it will alert its owner that they may have been exposed to the virus.

Apple and Google worked together to make the tool interoperable with iOS and Android operating systems, and iOS 14 has the exposure notification tool baked into the system itself and notifies users about the feature, creating a relatively seamless process to enable it. While a contact tracing app doesn’t have to use the Apple-Google tool — in fact, some states and countries have elected to go their own way here — those apps have had technical and privacy issues, and can’t work with each other.

The Association of Public Health Laboratories launched the new national key server in July specifically for the Apple-Google tool, which means any state apps that use the tool and this national server will basically work together. If someone with Wyoming’s app tests positive, their keys are uploaded to a server and can be accessed by devices using apps from Delaware, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and parts of California that are participating in a pilot program.

Several other states, including Alabama, Nevada, Virginia, and the territory of Guam, are also using the Apple-Google exposure notification tool in their contact tracing apps, but they are not using the national key server. A few more — Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Oregon, Washingtons state, and Washington, DC — have announced plans to come out with their own apps powered by the Apple-Google tool.

New Jersey and New York are the newest states to roll out their apps. Along with Pennsylvania and Delaware, they’re touting a sort of regional effort at contact tracing. They’re using the national server, and the four apps are all very similar, from their name (“COVID Alert [state]”) to their source code: The apps were built using an open source codebase called COVID Green, which was initially developed for Ireland’s app. That gives all four apps a uniform look and function, and it means the process of building them was relatively fast compared to the time it would have taken for each state to build their own app from scratch.

The states were also assisted by the Linux Foundation Public Health (LFPH) initiative, which works with public health authorities to use open source software to fight the coronavirus.

“We’re really focused on making sure to build out an ecosystem around exposure notification, and making sure that there’s open source options in order to get these apps out more quickly,” Jenny Wanger of LFPH told Recode. “And to make sure that they’re secure and trustworthy, as well as building a community for everybody who’s actually implementing these apps.”

One testament to how the attitude toward digital contact tracing and the Apple-Google exposure notification tool in particular has changed: In May, Pennsylvania told Recode it was using a different digital contact tracing tool to assist human contact tracing efforts, while New York told Recode it was focusing on building its manual contact tracing program.

Apple and Google also recently announced an “exposure notification express” option that allows states to enable exposure notifications without having to build a standalone app. Several states that are part of the so-called Western States Pact — Washington, Oregon, and California — are currently piloting projects based on the exposure notifications express technology.

The new apps and region-wide efforts come at a time when there’s an increased awareness of and interest in contact tracing, and when infection rates are relatively low but could be on the verge of a fall spike — meaning contact tracing could come in handy very soon. As always, the effectiveness of the apps depends on how many people use them. With states working together, new technology allowing apps to work across state lines, and the device operating system updates in place that facilitate their use, we’re as close as we’ve ever been to having a nationwide digital contact tracing effort.

Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.


Help keep Vox free for all

Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what’s happening in the news, from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is, quite possibly, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower you through understanding. But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources. Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers, your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work. If you have already contributed, thank you. If you haven’t, please consider helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world: Contribute today from as little as $3.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Tech

Apple announces Worldwide Developers Conference dates, in-person event – CityNews Toronto

Published

 on


Apple has announced their annual developers conference will take place June 10 through June 14.

The big summer event will be live-streamed, but some select developers have been invited to attend in-person events at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California, on June 10.

The company typically showcases their latest software and product updates — including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AppleTV and Vision Pro headset — during a keynote address on the first day.

300x250x1

Contributing to a drop in Apple’s stock price this year is concern it lags behind Microsoft and Google in the push to develop products powered by artificial intelligence technology. While Apple tends to keep its product development close to the vest, CEO Tim Cook signaled at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in February that it has been making big investments in generative AI and plans to disclose more later this year.

The week-long conference will have opportunities for developers to connect with Apple designers and engineers to gain insight into new tools, frameworks and features, according to the company’s announcement.

The Associated Press

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Tech

iPhone 16 Rumors Point to Action Button and New, Vertical Camera Layout – CNET

Published

 on


The upcoming iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro are still months away from their expected launch this fall, but a new set of images published online may give us a better sense of their potential features. Among the revelations, the iPhone 16 may include an action button, similar to the one on last year’s iPhone 15 Pro, and it may have redesigned cameras in a vertical stack.

AppleInsider published a series of photos it says show dummy 3D prints of the upcoming iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro from an unnamed leaker. Aside from the action button and reworked cameras on the iPhone 16, AppleInsider also said its source found the iPhone 16 Pro to be “slightly larger” than its predecessor. Analysts had earlier said they expect the Pro model screens will grow somewhat.

Read more: iPhone 16: All the Major Rumors on Apple’s Next iPhone

300x250x1

The new details suggest that a series of expected hardware updates are likely for this year’s new iPhones. Apple typically announces new iPhones around September, and the company tends to offer incremental upgrades to each new phone, introducing, over the period of several years, better cameras, screens and battery life, features that end up seeming like major upgrades when people get around to buying a new phone

Last year, Apple added a new titanium frame, action button and USB-C charging to its iPhone 15 Pro, which starts at $999. For its entry-level iPhone, Apple followed its well-worn strategy of trickling pro features down to the mainstream, adding the iPhone 14 Pro’s well-received Dynamic Island to the $799 iPhone 15, along with USB-C charging.

AppleInsider didn’t indicate whether its leaker had divined a reason for the iPhone 16’s shifted camera placements, but the two lenses will now reportedly be stacked one on top of the other, instead of diagonally. Apple has previously said it uses stacked lenses on the iPhone 15 Pro for spatial video capture, a key new technology the company highlighted as part of its $3,499 Apple Vision Pro headset, released in February.

Though AppleInsider’s leaks appear to confirm many previous rumors, not all renders and 3D prints are accurate, something the rumor blog notes itself in its report. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the veracity of the leaks.

Watch this: What Google Gemini AI on the iPhone Could Look Like

08:16

I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites

See all photos

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Tech

Leaked iPhone 16 dummy units hint at larger sizes and new buttons

Published

 on

The iPhone 15 Pro Max, with a 6.7-inch screen
(Image credit: Future)

We’re already counting down to the arrival of the iPhone 16 series – most probably sometime in September – and a leak showing dummy units of the upcoming phones has revealed a few of the changes we can expect to see later this year.

These dummy units are usually based on supply chain information, and have various business uses – like helping case manufacturers get their wares ready for new phones before they’re launched, for example. In this case, the images were posted to Chinese social network Weibo, as spotted by MacRumors.

Perhaps the most interesting reveal from these blocks of plastic and metal is that they show the previously rumored increase in size for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max displays – up to 6.3 inches (from 6.1 inches) and 6.9 inches (from 6.7 inches) respectively.

That’s not a huge jump of course, but it does mean more screen space for apps and media. The bezels are apparently shrinking down to accommodate the larger screens, which means the increase in the physical size of these handsets is only a slight one.

300x250x1

On the button

iPhone 16 dummy units leak

The next iPhones might look a bit like this, but less blue (Image credit: Weibo)

Further reveals from this leak match up with what we’ve heard before: that all four models are going to get the Action button that replaced the Ring/Silent switch on the 2023 Pro models, as well as a brand-new Capture button for getting more creative with photos.

Also of note is the redesigned rear camera module that we think is coming to the back of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. The new vertical, pill-shaped look has been leaked already, but this is more evidence that it’s on the way – taking us back to a design that’s more reminiscent of the iPhone 12, which came out in 2020.

As always with such rumors, be somewhat cautious about reading too much into the look of these dummy units. That said, as more and more similar leaks pile up, it becomes more likely that they’re based on accurate information.

The next big Apple date for your calendar is WWDC 2024 – its Worldwide Developers Conference starts on June 10, at which time we should hear much more about what’s coming this year with iOS 18 and Apple’s other software platforms.

You might also like

Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

Leaked iPhone 16 dummy units hint at larger sizes and new buttons

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending