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COVID Alert app nears 3 million users, but only 514 positive test reports

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OTTAWA —
New numbers out of the Public Health Agency of Canada show only a gradual increase of downloads of Canada’s COVID-19 exposure notification app since the start of the month, while the number of Canadians using the tool to report their positive test remains low.

The organization told CTVNews.ca on Tuesday that the app has been downloaded 2.94 million times since July 31, however, only 514 users, all of whom are located in Ontario, have actually notified the app about their positive test results, despite the province having recorded more than 9,000 cases since the app came into effect. This is up from about 2.2 million downloads and 100 test disclosures in the first active month.

The new statistics come as politicians once again ramp up calls for Canadians to download the software amid climbing case counts nationwide.

After weeks of relative quiet about the use of COVID Alert, it got two prominent mentions last Wednesday during the much-anticipated Liberal throne speech and then again during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s address to the nation later than evening.

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“We’ve got the COVID Alert app. Take the teacher who felt fine, but he gets a positive after the app warned her she’d been exposed. COVID Alert meant she went home instead of the classroom. It’s a powerful, free tool that’s easy to use and protects your privacy. So if you haven’t already, download it off the App Store or Google Play,” said Trudeau.

COVID Alert allows users to disclose a positive coronavirus test and alerts anyone who has come close to that person within 14 days via Bluetooth tracking. Public health officials have stressed that it does not track location and has no way of knowing an individual’s location, address, contacts, or health information.

A spokesperson within the prime minister’s office told CTVNews.ca downloads of the app spiked immediately following his public address. Numbers show there were at least 100,000 downloads by Apple and Android users during the hour following.

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, and Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam echoed Trudeau’s remarks on Tuesday during a public health update.

“Please download the COVID-19 Alert app and join the three million Canadians that have done so to date,” said Hajdu.

Tam also pointed to another online tool dubbed “COVID Trends” released by the Public Health Agency of Canada, which “provides [users] with a number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in your area within the last 14 days.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford made an urgent plea for Ontarians to download COVID Alert on Monday when the province reported 700 new cases, the highest daily infections ever recorded.

Ontario was the first province to embrace the software in late July but since then, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan have all adopted the technology.

Questions still linger though about whether the app is achieving its intended goal of breaking “the cycle of infection.”

EXPERT OPINION

A July report in the Harvard Business Review argues that when adoption is voluntary, “contact-tracing apps present the classic chicken-and-egg — or “cold start” — problem experienced by any platform seeking strong network effects: They have virtually no value until they reach a critical mass of users.”

The solution goes beyond design features and marketing tactics, the authors state, but relies instead on localized uptake followed by national implementation.

“The contact-tracing app should be designed so it is instantly valuable to anyone in the targeted community who downloads it…One way to make the app instantly valuable is for it to provide information on local contagion so users know the risks. Another is to include a symptoms-tracking function so users can enter their symptoms and be told when to seek medical help.”

University of Waterloo Professor Plinio Mortia, who heads up the Ubiquitous Health Technology Lab, echoed the need for user customization.

“It’s one of the principles of persuasion design, that tailoring of the solution to the specific user. We’re trying to make an app that will be downloaded by 35 million people across Canada, but we’re being very generic to target everybody, which is not always the best solution,” he said, adding that there’s a key talking point missing from public health directives about the app: motivation.

“They need to tell the public why they should be doing this, why it’s important, why [Canadians] need to download it beyond the fact that it’s safe,” he said. “They still haven’t told people what the real impact having the app on your phone and reporting a COVID-19 diagnosis will have on the population.”

Blayne Haggart, associate professor at the department of political science at Brock University, who’s written extensively about technology use in public policy settings, argues the federal government’s messaging has been misguided.

“For a health policy intervention, you would think you would start with saying ‘this is going to have a great effect on you know, boosting the economy, or stopping a pandemic in this way’ but instead everyone was talking about it in terms of its privacy,” he said.

“That’s not a healthy way to design any kind of government policy.”

Haggart says while privacy is important, effectiveness is equally as vital.

At the time of publication, government officials had not yet responded to a CTVNews.ca inquiry about whether they had identified a threshold to measure success or failure of adoption and the impact of those results on public health.

“This is a general issue with technology and tech design when it’s put into the public policy sphere. It’s not considered in its full context,” said Haggart.

Manitoba and Quebec have also indicated they too will introduce COVID Alert into their regions. LeBlanc said the government is committed to working with and supporting provinces in their contact-tracing capabilities.

“Our government is actively working with other provinces and territories and [the app] will be rolled out to more Canadians very shortly, and I encourage everyone to download it,” he said.

Source:- CTV News

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The Ultimate Recap of Sea Otter 2024 – Pinkbike.com

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Vittoria Releases New Peyote & Mezcal XC Race Tires
Maxxis Team Spec Aspen ST Tire
New DT Swiss 240 DEG Hubs
Kali Protectives’ New Full Face Helmets
Industry Nine’s SOLiX M Hubs & Wheelsets
Michelin’s Aggressive New Wild Enduro Tires
Praxis’ New Flat Pedals, Stem, & Carbon Bottle Cage
Transmission Cage Upgrades from Kogel, Ceramicspeed, and Cascade Components
Randoms Round 1 – Sea Otter 2024
Madrone Cycles’ SRAM Eagle Repair Kits & Prototype Derailleur
Vorsprung’s New Telum Coil Shock
EXT’s Vaia Inverted DH Fork & Updated Coil Shocks
Randoms Round 2: New Tools, Goggles, Grips, Racks, & More – Sea Otter 2024
What’s New in Women’s MTB Apparel at Sea Otter 2024
Even More Randoms – Sea Otter 2024
Randoms Round 3: Dario’s Treasures
What’s New for the Kids at Sea Otter 2024
Deity Releases New Stems, Grips, & Pedals
Dario’s Final Sea Otter Randoms
Brian’s Randoms from Sea Otter 2024

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With roots dating back to 1991, the Sea Otter Classic is one of the biggest biking events and tradeshows each year and brings together all sides of the biking industry from athletes to brands, spectators and consumers. Taking place in April in the sunny hills of Monterey, California, that means this event really feels like the official start to the biking season in North America. Christina Chappetta covers why it’s much different to an indoor European biking tradeshow, a World Cup racing weekend or even Crankworx mountain bike festival, in that it encompasses nearly ALL of the biking disciplines, including road cycling, enduro, downhill, dual slalom, XC, trials riding and more.

In the past fortnight, we have seen large amount of new tech releases. However, Sea Otter 2024 represents some of the first opportunities for many riders to see these things in the flesh, as well as take a deeper dive into what the product aims to do.
Welcome to a video summary from Day 2 of the Sea Otter Classic.
There are so many giveaways, interesting new products and colourful characters at Sea Otter Classic that it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. Ben Cathro takes a lap of the venue to find his favourites.



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Apple iPad Air 2024: Insider Makes Hasty U-Turn On New Feature – Forbes

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Well, that was quick. On May 18, a respected industry insider predicted a new display technology for the iPad Air that’s expected in the coming days—Apple just announced its latest special event.

The new 12.9-inch iPad Air, the report claimed, would have the same miniLED backlighting currently found on the larger iPad Pro, using the leftover inventory from the current Pro as that model switches to OLED. That was exciting news.

But now, Ross Young, the analyst who made the claim, has changed his mind. The new prediction, shared with paid subscribers only, is that the miniLED technology won’t be coming to the iPad Air, in either size.

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While it made sense that the inventory could be maximized in this way, it now “makes sense” that it won’t.

Young says that while he’d heard from supply chain sources that it would, he’d now had contact from “even more supply chain sources” that it won’t.

And the reason this change of heart now makes sense is that this miniLED technology is expensive, so it would be surprising if it made it to the iPad Air, which is more affordable than the Pro.

That’s not quite all the analyst shared. He also said that there are now reports of a new iPad coming later in the year. This is a 12.9-inch iPad, with miniLED backlighting and it could arrive between October and December this year.

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This is intriguing. What could it be? Assuming that the iPad Pro and iPad Air are released in May, it’s extremely unlikely either will be updated later in the year. And if the iPad Air isn’t pricey enough for miniLED to be included, what tablet could Apple be introducing that is the same size as the bigger Pro, with a pricey screen tech, which would sit between the Air and the Pro, it seems?

Young is highly reliable, but this seems slightly preposterous to me. The only other iPad in the range due a refresh is the regular iPad (at 12.9-inches, the iPad mini is clearly out of the picture) and that doesn’t seem likely either.

It seems to me that any regular iPad will almost certainly have the same screen size as now, 10.9 inches. The regular iPad only grew to this size screen in the current generation, and Apple almost never changes designs after one iteration.

Perhaps things will become clearer as the year goes on.

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Woman who left beaten dad on floor for 2 days was 'overwhelmed' with his care, judge told – CBC.ca

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A Calgary woman who abused her sick, 77-year-old father was “overwhelmed” at the task of caring for him, a judge heard Wednesday at a sentencing hearing. 

In January, Tara Picard, 52, pleaded guilty to charges of assault and failing to provide the necessaries of life after her father (whom CBC News is not naming) was found injured on a basement floor, where he’d been lying for two days. 

On Wednesday, prosecutor Donna Spaner and defence lawyer Shaun Leochko asked the judge to allow Picard to serve her sentence in the community under conditions as part of a conditional sentence order.

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Justice Indra Maharaj agreed to a two-year conditional sentence for Picard followed by a year of probation. 

“There is no doubt she became overwhelmed,” said Spaner in her submissions. “There is no question Ms. Picard has remorse.”

Leochko told the judge that caring for her father “was really more than [Picard] could handle.”

Maharaj heard that Picard is Indigenous and was the victim of abuse growing up. She lives in a sober dorm-style facility and is working with a mental health and addictions navigator, according to Leochko.

A ‘willingness to give back’

As part of the sentence, Picard must complete 300 hours of community service. 

Justice Maharaj commended Picard for “taking that on.”

“That shows me Ms. Picard sincerely does recognize what has happened here,” said the judge. 

“What I interpret from that is Ms. Picard’s willingness to give back to her community.”

During Picard’s plea, court heard that in November 2021, Picard and her father fought over his drinking. 

Nurses discover victim

The victim suffers from a number of medical issues, including diabetes, heart disease, dementia and alcoholism.

At the time, home-care registered nurses were assigned to help provide supplementary care.

Nurses found the victim wearing a soiled adult diaper and suffering from two black eyes with blood on his head. 

He told the nurses who discovered him that he’d been there for two days. 

Picard admitted she knew her father had fallen and she had “administered a number of physical blows.”

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