Tech Digest Daily Roundup: Apple iOS15 to offer greater privacy functions
Apple device users will now be able to see when individual apps request access to features such as the microphone, camera and phone gallery, plus which third parties they have connected with in the last seven days. The new “app privacy report” feature was unveiled at the firm’s annual developers’ conference, WWDC. Apple has prioritised privacy lately, including a war on ad-tracking. No new hardware was announced at the event, despite earlier speculation. BBC
Also announced by Apple was a feature that will enable users to ignore late-night emails from the boss. A software update in the coming months will introduce a “Focus mode” that stops devices from sending notifications from certain contacts or apps in an attempt to battle employee burnout. Users can activate different modes, such as one for work and one for home, that will limit alerts depending on the time of day or location. Telegraph
Apple has also announced a host of new upgrades for its range of AirPods wireless earbuds and headphones, alongside the launch of iOS 15 at the company’s annual WWDC keynote. First up, is Conversation Boost, which is designed to help you hear in face-to-face conversations, allowing the AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max to reduce ambient noise. AirPods will also be able to announce notifications with Siri, thanks to an update coming with iOS 15. Tech Radar
GPs have called for an immediate delay to the government’s plans to share people’s personal NHS medical data with third parties. The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) and British Medical Association (BMA) are concerned patients haven’t been given enough warning regarding the move, which is touted to happen on July 1. As it stands, you can opt out of the data share – which has been dubbed the ‘NHS data grab’ – however you need to do this by June 23. It’s likely you won’t have heard much about it, as communication surrounding the event has been pretty scarce. So here’s what you need to know. HuffPost
Numerous websites were unavailable Tuesday after an apparent widespread outage at the cloud service company Fastly. Dozens of high-traffic websites including the New York Times, CNN, Twitch, Reddit, and the U.K. government’s home page, could not be reached. San Francisco-based Fastly acknowledged a problem just before 1000 GMT. It said in repeated updates on its website that it was “continuing to investigate the issue.” AP News
The Government is advertising a contract worth £200,000 for a design team to develop a public electric vehicle chargepoint that will become similarly iconic to the UK’s traditional red phone and pillar boxes. Details listed online by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) – part of the Department for Transport (DfT) – say the brief is to develop an “iconic, functional public EV chargepoint” that has the potential to become “a piece of iconic British street furniture”. The design, OZEV says, will be “a guide for local authorities and companies who wish to use it”, with the aim of generating “excitement” for the public EV chargepoint rollout. AutoExpress
