AppleInsider - Automated fraud protections tuned up to make Apple Savings withdrawal
Apple’s first savings account for customers
After a tumultuous period between Apple and Apple Card partner Goldman Sachs involving Apple Savings customer withdrawals, the issues appear to be mostly solved with loosened anti-fraud protections.
Shortly after Apple Savings launched, there were a flurry of customers complaining that it was difficult or impossible to extract money from the high-interest savings account. It’s been relatively quiet on that front for months — but apparently Goldman Sachs has resolved at least some of the systemic issues leading to problems.
The report on late Friday by The Information claims that the automated fraud detection systems are now less likely to flag transactions with small volumes to an outside account. Furthermore, Goldman Sachs has also reduced the number of days it says a transaction should take, and is said to be communicating with consumers better if there are issues, instead of not telling customers at all, and allowing time to tick by instead.
An Apple Savings customer representative cited in the report says that transfers shouldn’t take weeks or months, but if they are, the system, has flagged a large transfer because the bank is being cautious about unauthorized users. This is said to be alleviated some by a three-way call between the call center, the customer, and the bank selected to take the withdrawal.
After the April launch, the saga started with a report in June. Nathan Thacker said that he’d been trying to withdraw $1,700 from his Apple Savings account to his JPMorgan Chase account since May 15. However, upon calling Goldman Sachs’ customer service department, he was told that the money would be in his account in a few more days.
The money was finally posted to his account on June 1, more than two weeks after he initiated the transfer.
Thacker wasn’t the only one who has noticed issues, either. Some customers said that upon initiating the transfer, the money seemingly vanishes. The disappeared money didn’t show up in either their Apple account or the bank account they were trying to move it to.
In another example, a man from Minnesota had attempted to transfer $10,000 from his Apple account to a U.S. bank on May 16. The money was flagged for security review, leaving it in limbo until the review was finished.
Goldman Sachs went on record at the time saying that most customers do not see any delays. The ones that do, however, see them because of behind-the-scenes processes that have been put in place to protect customers’ accounts.
New accounts, such as those opened by Apple Card owners, may trigger anti-money-laundering alerts. The transfers must then be manually approved. On average, these delays take about five days.
Delays were longer for those who transferred money to an account that differed from the account the money originally came from.
Still, despite this, Apple Savings has done quite well for itself. The first week of Apple Savings proved Apple’s ecosystem strength with more than 240,000 new accounts being created and nearly $1 billion in deposits being made.
It’s not clear how strong the relationship between Apple and Goldman Sachs is, beyond contractually. Reportedly, Goldman Sachs is looking for an exit on the Apple Card and Apple Savings deal.
News - Disney Speedstorm’s Aladdin-Inspired Season Moves Off The Start Line Next W
Image: Gameloft
Just as Disney Speedstorm prepares to leave early access and speed into the free-to-play realm next week, publisher Gameloft has today announced that it will be marking the occasion with the start of a new Aladdin-themed season on 28th September.
Much like the previous Lilo and Stitch-inspired chapter, the upcoming Season 4 will be introducing us to a whole new world (sorry) with four new racers — Aladdin, Jasmine, Genie and Jafar — a new ‘Cave of Wonders’ course and we’d expect a helping of new customisation options and crew members too.
Gameloft previously announced that Disney Speedstorm will be leaving early access on 28th September too, so it’s likely that Aladdin and co. will be the first faces that many of us see when we get to try out the free-to-play racer next week. To ensure that you are up to date on all of the available drivers before this launch, you can check out our complete character guide below.
Are you excited to take Disney Speedstorm for a spin next week? Drive down to the comments and let us know.
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AppleInsider - Apple Watch glucose tracker gets Apple Silicon executive as project l
Apple Watch offers essential health tracking
Apple’s vice president of platform architecture in charge of developing Apple Silicon, Tim Millet, has been assigned to head the Apple Watch glucose tracker project.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple has assigned a new head to the glucose monitoring project after months without a dedicated executive in place. Tim Millet, Apple’s vice president of platform architecture, has been tapped for the position.
It may be many years before the Apple Watch or other wearables will introduce non-invasive glucose monitoring. However, if Apple can get ahead of the competition with this technology, it would make the Apple Watch even more of a must-have health product.
The Fedora Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Fedora Linux 39 Beta, the next step towards our planned Fedora Linux 39 release at the end of October.
Get the the prerelease of any of our editions from our project website:
Or, try one of our many different desktop variants (like KDE Plasma, Xfce, or Cinnamon) from Fedora Linux Spins.
You can also update an existing system to the beta using DNF system-upgrade.
Beta release highlights
In some ways, this release might seem notable largely for what isn’t here. We’d planned to update the DNF package manager to a new, speedier version. We also hoped to showcase a long-awaited refresh to the user interface for Anaconda, our installation program. However, we decided these things just weren’t ready in time.
Don’t let this get you down, though — this is a healthy process at work. Years ago, we didn’t always have a good way to alter course once we’d accepted a change proposal. We often found ourselves in a situation where the only reasonable way forward was to forge ahead, even if we weren’t happy enough with the change for general users. Now, even though it’s somewhat disappointing, we’re recognizing that these big changes need more time to bake, and putting them back into the oven is a good thing.
I’ve got a kid that always wants to get 100% (or higher!) in every class. I keep telling her, “Really, you learn best when you’re right 80% of the time. Otherwise, you’re not getting enough of a challenge.” To keep up with Fedora’s commitment to innovation, we also need to take risks. If everything went according to plan, that would mean we’re not trying hard enough. At the same time, our process now allows us to take these risks while still making sure the Fedora Linux OS we ship for general use is of A+ quality.
We still plan to bring you these features in the near future, and if they’re of interest to you, please keep your eyes open for upcoming test announcements.
In the meantime, enjoy the many updates across all of Fedora Linux updates, ready for you to test in this new beta.
Notable updates
Fedora Workstation 39 Beta brings us GNOME 45 (itself also in beta). For everyone who needs a free and open source desktop suite, there’s LibreOffice 7.6.
Fedora Cloud images for AWS now default to less-expensive gp3 storage volumes.
We also have an update to the GNU Toolchain (gcc 13.2, binutils 2.40, glibc 2.38, gdb 13.2). Of course, developers appreciate that we include the latest tools, but these updates also include improvements to security and performance that will benefit everyone who uses Fedora Linux.
Testing needed
Since this is a beta release, we expect that you may encounter bugs or missing features. To report issues encountered during testing, contact the Fedora Quality team via the test mailing list or in the #quality channel on Fedora Chat. As testing progresses, common issues are tracked in the “Common Issues” category on Ask Fedora.
A beta release is code-complete and bears a very strong resemblance to the final release. If you take the time to download and try out the beta, you can check and make sure the things that are important to you are working. Every bug you find and report doesn’t just help you, it improves the experience of millions of Fedora Linux users worldwide! Together, we can make Fedora rock-solid. We have a culture of coordinating new features and pushing fixes upstream as much as we can. Your feedback improves not only Fedora Linux, but the Linux ecosystem and free software as a whole.
More information
For more detailed information about what’s new on the Fedora Linux 39 Beta release, you can consult the Fedora Linux 39 Change set. It contains more technical information about the new packages and improvements shipped with this release.
News - Soapbox: Nintendo, “THE Prime Asset” In Xbox’s Content Quest? It’s On
Image: Nintendo Life
The FTC case examining Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, depending on your perspective, is either the gift that keeps on giving or an eye-scrapingly dull, never-ending saga. Still, you can’t deny that it’s turned up some tasty behind-the-scenes morsels to chew on, giving gamers a fascinating glimpse of the day-to-day correspondences and conversation topics between some of the biggest names in the gaming industry.
Today’s revelations will be keeping our friends over at Pure Xbox busy for some time, and we can’t imagine Microsoft’s top brass is happy to have its product plans, next-gen timelines, and unannounced projects ejected into the vacuum of the internet for all to see (although let’s face it, nothing on that roster of potential games is particularly groundbreaking — holy crap, they’re working on another DOOM and some remasters?! Unprecedented!).
Obviously, around these parts, we’re more interested in an email between Xbox boss Phil Spencer and Microsoft CMOs Chris Capossela and Takeshi Numoto in which he explains his feelings around a potential acquisition of Nintendo by the US firm.
It’s juicy stuff, and it’s unusual to see such frank discussion of the topic between Microsoft’s bigwigs. However, it should come as precisely zero surprise to anyone that Nintendo is, as Spencer puts it, “THE prime asset for us in Gaming.” Given its historic place in the industry and its ability to craft evergreen, genre-shaping software while sticking to its core tenants of surprising and delighting a fiercely loyal audience, Microsoft being keen to co-opt Nintendo’s prestige and expertise — not to mention its huge catalogue of all-ages IP — is the definition of a no-brainer.
‘1-2-Switch, only on Xbox.’ You know what, that sounds fine, actually — Image: Nintendo Life
Can you imagine the explosive overnight expansion in the Xbox demographic if it were suddenly the home of all Mario, Pokémon, Zelda, Animal Crossing, Kirby, and Metroid games? Any software-starved, cash-rich company in its right mind is keeping a watchful eye on Nintendo at all times, ready to make a move should “opportunities” arise.
Massive coroporation would like to get its hands on Mario? Shocker. You know what? Sony wouldn’t mind that, either.
Looking at the email text, it’s the mention of applying pressure for increased stock performance via Nintendo’s Board of Directors, and the potential destabilisation and “opportunities” this might create for Microsoft to move closer to Nintendo, which feels like the most hostile, underhanded, and unsavoury detail. But again, while the naked, aggressive Capitalism of it might make Nintendo loyalists and lovers of the medium uncomfortable (and go against Spencer’s magnanimous, inclusive ‘Uncle Phil’ persona), it’s Business 101. There’s really nothing incendiary about these revelations. Massive corporation would like to get its hands on Mario? Shocker. You know what? Sony wouldn’t mind that, either.
Reading the text, you might come to the conclusion that Spencer’s perspective that Nintendo’s “future exists off of their own hardware” is totally pie-in-the-sky. And you wouldn’t be wrong, although the troubled Wii U was fresher in people’s minds back then. This email dates from 2020 and although Switch was doing very nicely at the time (Animal Crossing: New Horizons had launched three months prior), the idea that its success could be a pendulum swing before another disappointing console was far from crazy. And, to be fair, we’re still in the dark about exactly what a ‘Switch 2’ will be and how it will fare; it’s entirely possible that Nintendo’s next consoles won’t click with a mass-market audience in the same way. The ball is Nintendo’s to drop.
2020 was a while ago now, but Nintendo’s strength has only grown since then — Image: Nintendo Life
However, even if the next console were some colossal disaster, Nintendo has diversified its business in the past few years for precisely this reason. Its gradual evolution into a Disney-like ‘entertainment’ company (as Doug Bowser recently called it) — an evergreen and familiar brand built around not just video games, but theme parks, movies, and merchandising up the wazoo — is, in part, a risk avoidance strategy to weather any storms in its console hardware business. You can’t just put all your eggs in one hybrid basket and rely on every single console to be a stonking success.
[sharks are] always circling, whether there’s blood in the water or not. That’s just business.
Ultimately, as Spencer referenced in his email, Nintendo’s cash reserves are substantial and the company would need to produce several Wii Us in a row before it would be in any financial danger. Yes, the sharks would be circling, but if this email reveals anything, it’s that they’re always circling, whether there’s blood in the water or not. That’s just business.
Could Microsoft make a move on Nintendo in the future? It’s not impossible, but it would involve the Kyoto company stepping on multiple rakes and dealing itself catastrophic financial damage over a decade or more. The ongoing Microsoft/Activision saga demonstrates just how many hurdles big acquisition deals can throw up. Add in competition from other corporations worldwide, from China and the Middle East, and the required chain of events that lead to a Microsoft-owned Nintendo from where we are right now would be…not inconceivable, but far-fetched enough to be farcical. Spencer himself writes that Microsoft is “playing the long game,” which is just as well. It’ll be a very long game indeed.
Image: Nintendo
So no, there’s very little for Nintendo loyalists to worry about after seeing these three-year-old emails. If increased cooperation between Microsoft and Nintendo leads to boons like getting Ori and Cuphead on Switch, Banjo in Smash, and — oh, I don’t know — Diddy Kong Racing on Nintendo Switch Online, perhaps, or a Rare Replay Switch port (now there’s a pipedream worth fixating on), Nintendo gamers only stand to gain right now.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 09-20-2023, 09:47 AM - Forum: Lounge
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News - Marvel Snap’s Ravonna Renslayer arrives just in time
It’s new card Tuesday in Second Dinner’s superhero CCG, with Marvel Snap’s Ravonna Renslayer arriving in style to join as part of the Loki For All Time season. This character might not have a mask or cape, but she’s already finding their way into some of the best Marvel Snap decks thanks to an effect that makes powerful cards like Knull, Arnim Zola, and Hobgoblin easier to play.
Joining the roster of Marvel Snap cards as a three-cost three-power summon, Ravonna Renslayer’s effect reads as ‘Ongoing: Your cards with one or less Power cost one less. (minimum 1).’ This effect makes Ravonna a combo starter for plenty of deck types, from making it easier to create multiple copies of Knull with Arnim Zola, to creating some chaos by getting Mister Negative out on the board for one less power.
In terms of counters to Ravonna, cards like Enchantress and Echo can shut down ongoing cards in a second, so it’s best to take one of either or both into a battle if you’re expecting to face the TVA agent. There’s also the Super Skrull option, whose effect allows you to steal Ravonna’s ongoing ability and use it for yourself. Considering a lot of players test out new cards in the week they’re released, it might be an idea to add a copy of the overpowered Skrull warrior to your deck.
Next week sees the arrival of another character from Disney’s Loki series in the form of Mobius M. Mobius. There’s hope in the community that one of either of the two new arrivals can help to counter the Loki meta decks currently occupying the top tier or Marvel Snap decks. Whether we can see a new archetype capable of taking down Thor’s trickster brother is entirely up to the deck-crafting abilities of the community, but we wouldn’t bet against them.
There you have it, all you need to know about the arrival of Marvel Snap’s Ravonna Renslayer. While you’re here, be sure to check out our Roblox game codes, including links to Blade Ball codes, Type Soul codes, and plenty more.
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