#and the idea of a bunch of third party apps being able to harvest and sell this location data

[brostateexam]

As first reported by Apple news site 9to5Mac, early builds of iOS 13 suggest that Apple is hard at work on a Tile competitor. Call it Apple Tag. The idea appears to fold the small hardware clip into Apple's existing "Find My" feature, alerting you when it gets far away, and helping you find it when it goes missing. Another Apple news site, MacRumors, has even suggested that it may contain an augmented reality component, with a virtual balloon floating over the tag when you look through your phone, to help you get an easier visual on it. Neither Apple nor the UWB Alliance, an industry group that promotes the ultra-wideband standard, responded to requests for comment.

Makes sense. But then think even bigger. Volkswagen and NXP recently demonstrated a UWB system for unlocking cars. The main benefit there is security; because UWB uses "time of flight" to ascertain location—it measures how long it takes for a radio wave to pass between two objects—it can help stymie so-called relay attacks, which spoof the radio signals of wireless key fobs. (The right signal coming from the wrong location won't work.) But if Apple can get automotive companies on board, maybe your U1-enabled iPhone automatically unlocks your car.

And Apple has already patented a UWB version of its ubiquitous iBeacons, which let your iPhone know if you're near a point of interest, like a store or a bus stop. Put enough U1-compatible sensors in a supermarket, and your iPhone will know not just which aisle you're in, but what cereal box you're looking at. That's more of an example of UWB's potency than a specific prediction, but consider that some museums are already using UWB for more precise audio tours. And that companies like Locatify already offer UWB systems as an improvement over existing iBeacon tech. (x)

Do you ever feel like the locationing present in bluetooth beacons and GPS positioning on all of your smart devices is not accurate enough? Introducing UWB. Now, anyone who has access to your phone’s location information can know exactly where you are, within about 1m.

So sure, all the various apps that monitor your location will have even more of an idea of exactly where you and your phone are, but now you’ll be able to find your phone easily when you lose it!!

[scribble-blog]

Soulmate AU part 14!!!

First • Previous • Here • Next

“We’ve got a few minutes,” Abeille said as they sat on the roof of a nearby building. “Let’s have some fun while we’re sitting here! I don’t know- swing around a few buildings. Beat up some thugs. Gotham’s gotta have a few of those snooping about.”

“No, Abeille.” Marinette shot the idea down immediately. “It’s our first impression with them. They need to see us as real heroes, not a bunch of kids fooling around.”

“You’re no fun ever since you got back from your date with Wayne,” Chloé pouted, igniting Marinette’s sigh of- “yeah, yeah, no identity stuff. But still. Go on one afternoon outing and now you’ve got just as much of a stick up your ass as he did.”

“Maybe they traded out.” Adrien grinned at her, cat eyes brilliant in the darkness. “Somewhere, Damian Wayne is being fun and happy and probably shocking everyone who knows him. And we got stuck with grumpy pants over here.”

Marinette groaned. “I just want this to go well, guys. I don’t think we’ll have a second shot at reaching out for help like this-“ she cut off as movement caught her eyes. The building she’d been watching now had three figures atop it, small but silhouetted against the night sky. Quickly, one vanished just as quickly into shadow again.

“I think we’re up,” Marinette breathed to the other two. “Chat, you’ve got Trixx?”

The Kwami poked his head out. “I’m ready. Just say when.”

“Now,” Marinette ordered, and with the kwami’s power Chat flickered invisible. With a look at Chloé and the count of three, they both leapt from the building, making their way to Wayne Enterprises. She could hear Chat’s movement if she tried, but she was looking for it. She just hoped their arrival would mask his, and that he could hide well enough that they wouldn’t see him immediately when the illusion ran out.

The Wayne Building was tall, and Marinette bounded up it, propelled by her super strength and the retracting of her yo-yo, wrapped around some jutting piece of architecture at the top. Chloé was right beside her as they vaulted the edge, landing neatly on the rooftop, and she just barely heard the soft landing that indicated Adrien had made it. In sync with them, it was unnoticeable.

There were two heroes waiting for them. Red Robin again, who looked almost- excited to see them. And the other had to be Robin, with the red-green-yellow ensemble. She assumed immediately that the third figure had been Batman himself- and that they had been trying to play the exact same game as them, in bringing a hidden extra party. She kept herself from smirking. Reputation or no, they had magic to hide Adrien. And she already knew someone else on their side was there.

“You must be Ladybug. And Reine Abeille.” Red Robin started, voice warm and welcoming. It set Marinette off immediately. “I’m glad Miss Dupain-Cheng was able to set up this meeting for you. From what I’ve gathered, there’s been some pretty terrible things going on in Paris.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow. He’d known absolutely nothing about it last night. So he must have been doing his research in the intervening hours. What all had he found?

“Then you know about the magical terrorists, Hawkmoth and Mayura,” Marinette let her inner Ladybug out, her voice commanding.

“Well, not so much,” Red Robin tilted his head, and Marinette suddenly pinned it in her mind: this was some sort of- gimmick. A test? They wanted to see how much she’d just go spilling to them. “There isn’t much that makes it onto accessible news sources. Everything I know comes straight from your LadyBugOut App.”

“Tt. The app barely tells us anything, Red Robin. For all we know, they could be playing us for fools.” Robin leaned away from his casual, dismissive stance on the wall, in towards them. “Why should we believe you when the only proof you have is your own word and videos that could have been created and edited by you?”

As he stood up and walked closer, Marinette felt anger thrumming in her veins. So this was their strategy- one of them open and ready to listen and believe, the other derogatory and making them angry so they revealed more than they wanted to. “I suppose when you put it like that, the evidence doesn’t hold up,” She said coldly. “But if you wish, I also suppose I could bring you back to Paris and wait a bit. Proof comes just about once a day now, and the last akuma was almost twenty hours ago.”

The boy didn’t answer her, but under his mask she could practically feel the weight of his disinterest and disbelief, whether or not it was an act to pry information from her.

“No need for anything like that,” Red Robin soothed.

“No,” Abeille cut him off. “I think there is a need. We didn’t come here to be baited for information by you. If you want to know something, ask. But don’t play games and don’t try to trick us. We’ll pull our third out of hiding, if you want to bring your other two members up here and actually talk to us.”

“Two?” Red Robin gaped. “But-“

Marinette gazed at him coolly as he floundered. If Chloé was bluffing, she’d bluffed wrong. But both her senses and Chat’s were a bit higher strung than hers...

She said, “Chat?” And out of the darkness her partner sprang, vaulting off the roof and returning half a moment later with Red Hood clutched beside. As he did so, Batman slunk out of whatever corner of shadow he’d hidden in, and immediately Chat separated himself.

“That’s what I thought,” Chloé smirked, and Marinette turned back to Red Robin, who’s face was open and bemused, and Robin, whose face didn’t give nearly so much away. But all of the hostility that had been there before had melted away, so she felt it prudent to stop glaring.

“Now, if we could all behave like adults and actually discuss the situation in Paris,” Chat Noir dusted himself off. “It’s getting late, and this cat has a nap he’d like to get back to.”

“Late?” Red Hood looked up at the sky, which had only just lost the last color from dusk. There weren’t any stars.

“In Paris,” Marinette said dryly. “We’re a bit ahead of you.”

“Tell us about Hawkmoth,” Batman ordered, and she felt herself almost snap to attention. The man had a voice that made you want to listen, funnily enough for his seemingly reclusive nature as a vigilante.

“We’ve been fighting him for four years now,” Marinette started. “Our abilities are powered by the jewelry we wear- called the Miraculous- and Hawkmoth has two that we believe were stolen at least ten years ago, but it is quite possible that he has possessed them for longer. The Butterfly Broach gives him the ability to find people with large amounts of emotion- he generally targets those who are sad or angry- and he turns them into monstrous versions of the victims called Akuma. His partner, Mayura, uses the Peacock broach. It grants a similar ability, but it is able to transform items and not people into Sentimonsters that usually assist the Akumas Hawkmoth creates. She appears much less frequently, and her monsters are less reliable- they’ll disappear before battles are over, without warning.”

“And what do they want?” Robin asked, face hard.

She faced him again. “Hawkmoth’s ultimate goal is to claim both mine and Chat Noir’s Miraculous. They grant us, individually, the powers of Destruction and Creation. With the two combined, he would be able to rewrite the world in any way his heart desires- which is terrible enough, but each wish also comes with a severe price. The kind of price that once started the Black Plague, or sank Atlantis into the Sea.”

“He could rewrite history, crown himself King of everything, and then the world might split in two to balance it out or something?” Red Hood chuckled. “Kid, pull the other one.”

He was met with three faces of stone.

“We have watched Paris burn.” Chat said coldly, voice like ice. “We have watched it’s people drown. The whole city, reduced to rubble, people enslaved by the whims of this madman. Maybe, at the beginning, we laughed it off like you did. But this- monster- has attacked people for years, with no repercussions, and it is only by the grace of my Lady’s Miraculous Cure that Paris still exists.”

“Each time he does this- each time someone dies in battle, each time the Eiffel Tower is obliterated, each time we have to usher our people into safe houses and subways so they don’t have to see the bodies and the destruction-“ Abeille shook her head. “Each time could be the time he wins. Each time could be the time Ladybug can’t cast the Cure. Each time is another layer of proof that no matter what he wishes for, Hawkmoth could never wish for anything that wouldn’t be hurting someone, in some way, that he would never care or even think about.”

“And the Wish itself, Monsieur Hood,” Marinette took up, “is as ruthless as it is fair. Balance between luck and misfortune, between good and bad, between creation and destruction is the balance the fate of our world relies on. One man’s wish for a successful harvest after several lean years resulted in the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii. With what Hawkmoth has shown he is willing to do- I would not trust him with these jewels if he were the last living hands on earth to place them into.”

The three heroes watched, silent, as their words sank in to the stunned vigilantes of Gotham.

TAGLIST:

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