Apple to give 3rd party repairers access to genuine parts, training & more
Victoria introduces registered engineer scheme, could expand to include IT engineers
Miscellaneous news
The UHD Alliance introduces Filmmaker Mode so your TV shows content the way it was intended
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Apple's copped a lot of shit over the years for how it treats third party iPhone repairers, even from our own ACCC. It’s good to see then that Apple has announced they'll "provide more independent repair businesses - large or small - with the same genuine parts, tools, training, repair manuals and diagnostics as its Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs)". The Independent Repair Provider program is launching in the US first, with other countries (you'd assume Australia would be one of the first) launching not long after. Great move from Apple, it can't hurt to make it easier to get an iPhone repaired.
Victoria's government passed the "Professional Engineers Registration Bill 2019" earlier this week, with the intent to get "engineers in civil, structural, mechanical, electrical and fire-safety domains" vetted for major infrastructure projects. However, the law has a clause in it to include "any other prescribed area of engineering" and Engineers Australia is in favour or expanding those who need to be registered to include IT and telecommunications. A similar system has been running in Queensland for decades with IT engineers included and the sky hasn't fallen in up in QLD, so yeah. Something to keep an eye on for Victorian nerds.
Apple's given out invitations to the press for an event at Apple HQ on the 10th of September. New iPhones for sure, maybe some other new stuff.
Plex will be adding "a package of library feature film titles from Warner Bros" later this year, that'll be free to watch with ads. US only unfortunately.
Netflix has a doco about Bill Gates going live on September 20th. It's called Inside Bill's Brain. Here's the trailer.
The Wall Street Journal has cited "people familiar with the matter" that Huawei is getting investigated again for stealing US technology.
Mozilla’s CEO is leaving. Chris Beard has been at Mozilla for 15 years, has been CEO since 2014 and will finish up at the end of the year. I like what Firefox has become lately, so god speed Chris.
Ever been to someone's house, sat down to watch a nice movie on their fancy new TV and seen a totally fucked image that makes you question if your generous host is blind but you never noticed? The UHD Alliance (a group of filmmakers, distributors, and electronics manufacturers) wants to make sure that never happens again, by creating a preset on TVs called "Filmmaker Mode" that automatically enables when metadata in the content (e.g: an Amazon Prime stream or a Bluray disc) says it is warranted. This mode will make sure the correct aspect ratio is set (I can't believe people fuck this one up), disable motion smoothing and enable the correct colour presets. Tom Cruise will be very happy.
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