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Matthew Haughey

the funniest thing about Apple is the last version of MacOS features "video reactions" where if your camera sees you do a thumbs up or heart symbol with your hands, stuff happens behind you like fireworks in ANY video app you are using BY DEFAULT.

A friend was in an online therapy session, describing his trauma so the therapist asked if he was alright and he did a thumbs up and then HUGE FIREWORKS BEHIND HIS HEAD.

It's so bad that online therapy sessions now start with a warning dialog!

screenshot from apple showing reactions in online video, this one is fireworks
"Apple devices may show emojis during video calls" warning from an online therapy provider
143 comments
Brian Moon

@mathowie OMG

Hopefully those can be turned off?!

Matunos

@mathowie @lunarobverse they should turn off automatically if you flip the bird at the camera

kinyutaka

@matunos @mathowie @lunarobverse

I would punish people who flip off the camera by having a repeating 5 minute long animation of a bird doing flips that adds on every time it perceives an extended middle finger.

Susan A. Kitchens

@mathowie two cheers for "'first do no harm' design" principle

millennial falcon

@mathowie apple is to shit, unuseable software what tesla is to shit, unuseable cars

Officer-involved pooping

@falcennial @mathowie something something "...live long enough to become a luxury brand."

Tai xzo

@AKPAB @falcennial @mathowie Tesla was never not a luxury brand, they started out with a $250,000 roadster.

2xfo

@taixzo @AKPAB @falcennial @mathowie

Tesla specifically stated their goal was to start luxury and work towards economy. The model 3 is supposed to be the economy car, I think. It starts at $39k, which I don't think of as "economy."

Mike Taylor 🦕

@falcennial @mathowie Right — in part, because both of them USED TO be where you went to get good, usable stuff. Sequences of extraordinarily bad decisions have destroyed both.

DELETED

@mathowie each day we fall further from the presence of God.

RodneyPetersonTalentAgency

@carcosa @mathowie

Good. Basing beliefs on fairy tales has led to massive death and destruction throughout history.

DELETED

@RodneyPetersonTalent My brother in Christ, 2003 is calling, it wants its edgy internet atheism back. (Hail Eris, hail yes.)

RodneyPetersonTalentAgency

@carcosa

Nothing fucking edgy about it. It’s flat out in your face.

Acetopheles

@RodneyPetersonTalent @carcosa @mathowie I think this is a poisonous attitude to have.

There are times when religion does not harm and especially for those who grieve is used as a coping mechanism.

You can be aware of its many, many problems but also accept there are reasons and a purpose for its existence.

Not everyone prescribes to the bigoted ideology that anti-lgbtq+ zealots preach. There are those within the religion who hold these people to account and share positive messages for all.

Simon McGarr

@mathowie I had a version of this happen to me on a very serious litigation call with a client. I told them we had to focus on two points, in a very firm lawyerly tone.

Then a fleet of colourful balloons floated up around me to both our consternation.

Irenes (many)

@Tupp_ed @mathowie we have this whole thing where we think it's important to identify the good parts of early microcomputing culture, the stuff that's worth carrying forward into the future, and then protect that. fundamentally what we want is for computers to continue to be tools to expand the human potential for discovery and creation, by staying explorative. tools for self-expression are part of that...

BUT

it's hardly self-expression when a company's algorithm decides what you want to say?

Irenes (many)

@Tupp_ed @mathowie it's as if Apple remembers its past, from the days when nobody quite knew what computers were going to be good for yet, so they're trying to conjure up that creative spirit but they also have everything so locked down for security and usability reasons that it's not possible for third parties to make this stuff

so they try to foist their own corporate creativity on the public, and convince us it's the same thing as if we'd come up with it ourselves

Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

@Tupp_ed @mathowie it reminds me of how that American lawyer got "catified" by a filter (so he appeared on screen as a kitten) and had to tell the judge he wasn't a cat (in a Texas accent)...

Carrie

@vfrmedia “I’m not a cat.” Lol. A class internet moment.

groxx

@WeShall @vfrmedia on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

*Cats* are immediately found and defenestrated though. We don't serve their kind here.

(Eddie: oops. Meant to stick this on another thread. Sorry for the incoming duplicate!)
(Edit: why in the world did Gboard autocorrect to *Eddie*? :blobfoxconfused: )

0x10f

@vfrmedia @Tupp_ed @mathowie "That's exactly what a cat would say! Take him away."

groxx

@0x10f @vfrmedia @Tupp_ed @mathowie on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

*Cats* are immediately found and defenestrated though. We don't serve their kind here.

Sir_Osis_of_Liver

@vfrmedia @Tupp_ed @mathowie

Damned near died laughing the first time I saw that. Just epic.

The early days of Zoom/Teams online meetings were pretty funny in general.

Michael Porter

@Tupp_ed @mathowie On the bright side, at least you weren’t a cat.

Xilabar the Dice Goblin

@Tupp_ed @mathowie what prompted the balloon emotes? Just curious. Did you hold up 2 fingers, and the phone interpreted it as a peace sign?

Hanno Terbuyken

@mathowie The fact Apple turned this on as default was a terrible decision. I've also run into this (much less severe, the "thumbs up" emoji showed up in a business meeting).

PSA: You can turn this off under "Reactions" in the little green camera symbol on the top of your screen, but you apparently need to do this for every app that uses your Mac's camera.

Bastian Hodapp

@dailybug @mathowie Also happened to me in a business meeting. It was kinda funny to us, though.

George Station

@mathowie I wonder how it works for "Hide the Pain Harold" when he's in a meeting? 🤨

Locksmith

@mathowie Just accept it and fall in line. This is Apple, not a democracy.

Lightning Bjornsson
@mathowie I could see this being used by pts and therapists who are Extremely Online
Alan James

@mathowie Well this should make zoom calls even more embarrassing for some people.

Kyle Bradbury

@mathowie it was awesome in a business meeting when I was indicating we needed 2 or something and suddenly confetti started falling all around me

joel b

@mathowie but according to the Apple marketing research sad people don’t use their products!

Beanface42 :ch_Fribourg: ⏚

@mathowie Laughing or crying, I sincerely do not know. What a silly feature….

McNulla

@mathowie
Hard to see but that’s the camera being covered by default on my MacBook Pro.

📡 Daan Berg

@leo @ant_pruitt Just wanted to bring this to your attention, maybe it's worth covering on one of the :twit: shows in the next few days

Daniel Schaaff

@mathowie I was doing a talk for an AWS community event when I found about this haha

sebsauvage

@mathowie
The fuck.
Who had this stupid idea :facepalm:

RodneyPetersonTalentAgency

@sebsauvage @mathowie

Probably the same fucking moron who says “ya know, we really should be advertising on Twitter still.”

Stacy

@pixelpusher220 @mathowie

🤣 🤣 🤣 That would be interesting in my line of work!!!

William Conner

@dancinyogi @pixelpusher220 @mathowie
The on by default is my issue. Actually might be considered cruel in a therapeutic setting.

heather gold

@mathowie I wrote about how terrible videochat design is--especially from Apple-- for Medium a few years ago.

This was so sadly predictable. And stupid.

medium.com/s/story/video-chat-

Kevin Karhan :verified:

@mathowie shit like this should be an #OptIn-only thing, as it's totally unprofessional and inappropriate to make this a default setting.

Whoever at #Apple thought this was a good idea should have some serious talk about this!

Gukkey

@mathowie I feel bad for laughing for a second. Is there any option to disable that?

nev

@mathowie reminds me of how a guy's Facebook photos were pretty much all just from a car crash he was in, and so that's what his automatically generated Friends Day video was: youtu.be/8OzZxjqKG10

ding dang

@nev @mathowie i feel bad for this guy but also this video sends me into hysterics every time i see it

“here’s your friend. here’s your one friend again. here they are again. remember your car crash? but anyway, do you remember that time you were in a car crash? do you remember the fucking car crash? what a great year you’ve had!”

DELETED

@nev @mathowie
Jeezum crow, that’s insane!
But it figures FB never thought of this scenario.

Maarten Stolte 🍋

@Peace_out_art @nev @mathowie not just the accident but also the same friends photo over and over, really not well tested

nev

@maarteuh @Peace_out_art @mathowie well, there's only so much it can do if those are the only photos!

Maarten Stolte 🍋

@nev @Peace_out_art @mathowie yeah like have a minimum and not send this if your format does not support it

Clarissa C. S. Ryan

@mathowie jfc this is just so cheesy to begin with

no part of this was a good idea

I hate it

Infoseepage #StopGazaGenocide

@mathowie "tyranny of the default" isn't quite the right sentiment, but boy is this a strange choice for a default.

Deb4+ aka Deborah DT 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

@Peace_out_art @mathowie

Invasive. And it's downright aggressive against those of us with startle reflex issues

Juleselt

@mathowie I'm really beginning to wonder about the programmers of UI's in the tech industry...

They've been messing with a number of UI's lately and its annoying that every single update makes some unexplained change for no obvious reason. A change should be an obvious one and work for nearly everyone.

This one lacks all self awareness.

PhDog 🇮🇪

@mathowie

Your poor friend... I hope he is getting the help he needs. I mean, he helped me; because I am laughing so f'cking hard right now.

Eli the Bearded

@mathowie We noticed this in a work meeting the other day and four SREs needed about five minutes to work out where it was happening (both Apple and the video conference tool have "recognize gestures" functions and they each respond to slightly different gestures).

Bracken

@mathowie we discovered this in a work meeting today, I love it!

Alf No Problem

@mathowie Hmmm... Never been a fan of Apple. Maybe because I subconsciously perceive Apple as a competitor for my wife's love (she is a designer and a huge Apple fan). Anyway, big corporations like Apple are more evil than most people think.

bkardell

@mathowie I am not that friend, but this happened to me in my therapy too...

Waldo Jaquith

@mathowie Therapist: So do you feel like you’ve made good progress with your crippling fear of fireworks?

Patient: 👍

🎇 😨

acm

@mathowie I DO NOT WANT APPLE TO CHOOSE MY REACTS FOR ME!!

Joe Beam

@mathowie
This is getting blown out of proportion. Are we going to make into a ‘Something Something Gate’?

Mattstamatic

@mathowie

"How can we train our AI to classify people's actions without being charged for labelling?"

"Gimmicky opt-out fireworks"

"Fucking genius, Brad"

Roy Wiggins

@mathowie This would be too over-the-top for Black Mirror

Jason Petersen (he)

@mathowie (wait the setting is on the receiver not on the sender?)

Bally

@mathowie So it's basically the same mistake Google made with that minion gif that automatically attached itself to emails.

Marie (she/her)

@mathowie that happened to me in a therapy session the other day, too. it was terrifying lol!

Montgomery Gator

@mathowie Leave it to Apple to do something this wildly inappropriate...

kamiljk87_amigo

@mathowie nothing new that "things" happens when someone else aka apple owns the whole device and allowed to change system and its default settings as them only wish to...

deedeewms

@mathowie
Now I know why my client kept saying there were hearts and fireworks on the screen during a drug and alcohol assessment. We could not figure out what was going on. I am mortified!

Louie Mantia, Jr.

@mathowie I scanned comments and didn’t see this, but I also feel similarly weird about sending sarcastic “congratulations”in iMessage because it sends it with confetti. No way to turn it off.

finite;crystal 🖤💎

@mathowie Whoever thought enabling that by default was a good idea should be sent to the time out corner to think about what they've done.

DELETED

@mathowie

Also, they are definitely not listening in on your conversations and training an AI based on it.

Dextor

@mathowie That's what an innovation means in Apples dictionary.

Darth Osler

@mathowie I'm pretty sure it is schadenfreude that I am feeling as I reread that for the hundredth time

AAA365

@mathowie I’ve given thumbs up during formal online meeting While others speak and would have been mortified if my face was swapped out for a smilie emoji or fireworks appeared! Thanks for letting us know about this.

EVHaste

@mathowie I just wrote an article about this. The therapists in my network are losing their minds.

evhaste.com/blog/read-the-room

Alex Cook

@mathowie this happened in a meeting I had earlier this week when one of our VPs put his hands up while talking and balloons started flying up. It was quite surprising 😂

@martlund 🌲🐶🇸🇪🇨🇱

@mathowie I HATE APPLES DEFAULTS. They should at least allow us to turn them off. Is this one that can be turned off?

einfeldt

@mathowie I use Linux because Apple has become too aggressive. Linux is like Apple formerly was way way back in the beginning when it was warm and fuzzy. Plus, with Linux, you actually OWN your software. Not so with Apple.

Tofu Musubi

@mathowie Just another reason to place a post-it over your computer’s camera 24/7/365.

balkongast

@mathowie

Funny?

No.

Dangerous.

And people are really buying/paying that kind of 'privacy'?

0xblaze

@mathowie you can always switch them off in the effects.

DELETED

@mathowie i used macos for a bit longer than two years (11, 12, 13, 14) and it's the buggiest os i've ever used out of the big three. so happy to finally sell my m1 macbook and buy a thinkpad. i missed sensible window management (sway/i3) among other things

Abbie 🏳️‍⚧️

@mathowie @lisamelton having it show up in an interview was fun. I don’t think the interviewer appreciated it.

anarchy79

@mathowie The enshittification of literally every platform except the FOSS ones.

Steve Lhomme

@mathowie good job overcoming your fear of fireworks 👍

DELETED

@mathowie Damn, I checked and they are on. Just turned them off. Starting interviews tomorrow for new jobs! (Very serious jobs, where this could totally tank the interview)

Deesaroo68

@mathowie gee,…,special effects! I am impressed.

schoolingdiana

@mathowie I had a bunch of balloons deploy “behind me” during a Zoom class this week, when I held up 2 fingers. Zoom for iOS thought it was the V for Victory sign from WW2, apparently.

Timur O.

@mathowie

"My first girlfriend turned into the moon"

"That's rough buddy" *fireworks*.

Sam :flag_nonbinary:​

@mathowie Fucking hell, who thought that was a good idea. : (

翠星石
@mathowie Have you learnt the consequences of proprietary software yet?
Paul Taylor

@mathowie I can be quite animated with my hands so this could be quite entertaining for me, or others.

Alex

@mathowie I'm so sick of computers in general making assumptions about what I'm trying to do.

anonguy2006

@mathowie funny enough this happened to me this morning in a therapy session and the video froze until I turned my camera off and on again

helplessduck

@mathowie

This gives me pause. Part of the game when it comes to telehealth is accepting the limitations of privacy. A non-collateral participant may overhear conversations or read messages between a patient and a provider. Fact of life. My email signature says "...any use of this information..."
That means anyone who accidentally reads it knows not to use it, and had better not. Simple enough, but it's still an honor system.

helplessduck

@mathowie

I don't have a good enough grasp on the tech side of this, but I do know compliance. It seems to me that if the software is analyzing expressions that it must, therefore, be compliant with HITECH. That means a BAA with virtually every telehealth platform on earth, when considered in the context of Apple's device saturation. That's a lot. Even for a company like Apple.
Any other compliance folks have thoughts?

I would be inclined to send this up to counsel. It reeks of liability.

@mathowie

I don't have a good enough grasp on the tech side of this, but I do know compliance. It seems to me that if the software is analyzing expressions that it must, therefore, be compliant with HITECH. That means a BAA with virtually every telehealth platform on earth, when considered in the context of Apple's device saturation. That's a lot. Even for a company like Apple.
Any other compliance folks have thoughts?

Jim Hughes ☢️

@mathowie there was a phone brand years ago that auto inserted emojis into texts etc based off words used.
So if you messaged someone to tell them their dog had been killed by a car, the word car got replaced with a cutesy cartoon putt-putting along like Chitty Bang bang.
Kinda hoped that lesson had been learnt!

Tim M

@mathowie Apple never learn - reminds of when (pre-Intel) Macs first had system-wide voice recognition enabled by default and if you learned the correct intonation for the default voice you could reboot anyone else's Mac (without saving open docs) by loudly saying "Computer - Shutdown - Yes" and the hjinks that followed this discovery

Beared_Pip

@mathowie @rawx i found this in my therapy session too. It was funny, but not the right time or place. I did a sarcastic thumbs up too. So it could have been bad things I was talking about.

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