Linked List: September 29, 2021

Wednesday, 29 September 2021

Nintendo Denies Bloomberg Report on 4K Development Kit for Switch ★

Nintendo:

A news report on Sept. 30, 2021 (JST) falsely claims that Nintendo is supplying tools to drive game development for a Nintendo Switch with 4K support. To ensure correct understanding among our investors and customers, we want to clarify that this report is not true.

We also want to restate that, as we announced in July, we have no plans for any new model other than Nintendo Switch — OLED Model, which will launch on October 8, 2021.

What news report? This news report, from Bloomberg reporters Takashi Mochizuki and Olga Kharif. Quite the strident denial. It’s certainly possible Nintendo is lying here, or stretching the truth to the point of absurdity (like, say, if they supplied 4K Switch development tools in the past, but are not “supplying” them now).

We should know the answer soon — if Bloomberg’s report is simply wrong, I’m sure they’ll promptly issue a correction and retraction.

(“Big Hack” snark aside, here’s a theory that adds up: third-party developers are working on games for a 4K-capable Nintendo gaming console, which console is probably Switch-like and will play Switch games, including updated 4K versions of existing Switch games, but that new console (a) is not imminent, and Nintendo doesn’t want to Osborne the actually imminent Switch OLED in the meantime, and (b) will not be called a “Switch”.)

Jason Snell’s iPhone 13 Upgrader’s Guide ★

Jason Snell, Six Colors:

The problem is that most people don’t buy a new iPhone every year. The primary upgraders to the iPhone 13 will be coming from the iPhone 7, or 8, or X, or XS, or XR. For them, several years of Apple innovations will be rolled into a single purchase. But reviews of the new iPhones will not address what happened in 2018, or 2019, or 2020.

Here’s an attempt to provide a little more of a big-picture overview for owners of older iPhones who are wondering what’s new in the iPhone 13. I’ve simplified matter a little — if you own a “plus” or “max” model of iPhone, obviously your phone will be a little larger, and you may want to consider the direct upgrade to the iPhone 13 Pro Max to continue with your large phone. The iPhone 13 mini is also a great option for those who prefer a smaller phone with all the same power as the larger iPhone 13.

This is a fantastic idea. You just scroll down to whatever iPhone you’re currently using, and boom, there’s a list of the top upgrades you’d experience if you upgrade to an iPhone 13. Apple’s excellent iPhone Compare page has all this information, but the Compare page also tells you everything that’s the same or roughly equivalent between models. Snell’s guide focuses on the big changes from iPhone Old and iPhone New.

Apple ‘Still Investigating’ Unpatched and Public iPhone Vulnerabilities Originally Reported in March ★

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, reporting for Motherboard:

On Thursday, a security researcher published details of three iPhone vulnerabilities that are unpatched as of today. The security researcher, whose name is Denis Tokarev, said he decided to publish the bugs’ details as well as the source code that makes it extremely easy to reproduce and exploit them, because he was tired of waiting and felt like Apple ignored him.

Tokarev reported the vulnerabilities to Apple between March 10 and April 29, but the last time he heard back from Apple about the three vulnerabilities was August 6, August 12, and August 25, respectively. Then the researcher said he told Apple on September 13 he would publish details of the bugs unless he heard back.

It was only after he went public with details about the unpatched bugs that Apple reached out, according to Tokarev, who shared Apple’s email with Motherboard.

“We saw your blog post regarding this issue and your other reports. We apologize for the delay in responding to you,” an Apple employee wrote. “We want to let you know that we are still investigating these issues and how we can address them to protect customers. Thank you again for taking the time to report these issues to us, we appreciate your assistance. Please let us know if you have any questions.”

Tokarev, in his follow-up post:

Indeed, I do have questions.

YouTube Is Banning Prominent Anti-Vaccine Activists and Blocking All Anti-Vaccine Content ★

Gerrit De Vynck, reporting for The Washington Post:

YouTube is taking down several video channels associated with high-profile anti-vaccine activists including Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who experts say are partially responsible for helping seed the skepticism that’s contributed to slowing vaccination rates across the country.

As part of a new set of policies aimed at cutting down on anti-vaccine content on the Google-owned site, YouTube will ban any videos that claim that commonly used vaccines approved by health authorities are ineffective or dangerous. The company previously blocked videos that made those claims about coronavirus vaccines, but not ones for other vaccines like those for measles or chickenpox.

Misinformation researchers have for years said the popularity of anti-vaccine content on YouTube was contributing to growing skepticism of lifesaving vaccines in the United States and around the world.