A pilot is lost in the skies over the Pacific. He radios for help repeatedly until he hears a faint response. “Help! We are lost. Can you tell me where we are?” The voice replies, “You're in an airplane over the Pacific ocean.” The pilot then tells his copilot, “Hang a left and you should…
It's Goodbye Amazon, Hello Google for Apple's Cloud Services
Apple shifting cloud services from Amazon to Google Sources speaking with CRN said Apple began migrating some on its online infrastructure from AWS to Google last fall after signing a deal worth somewere between US$400 and $600 million. Apple isn't abandoning AWS completely, but is greatly reducing its reliance on Amazon's services. The transition away…
iOS Mail: Emailing Groups of People
Tap the suggestion of the group you’re looking for, and your device will fill in all of the addresses. Well, that’s just the weirdest group ever. So how do you know what groups you can currently send to? Well, if you visit the Contacts app and tap the “Groups” button in the upper-left corner, you’ll…
A Usable Stand-Up Desk for $25? Yes!
Episode #166 There’s no shortage of controversy in the debate over whether sitting or standing at your desk is healthier. There’s research to support that standing while you work is healthier, but there’s also research that seems to indicate standing still isn’t any healthier than sitting. I have chronic back pain (big surprise), so…
Apple Actively Working on More Secure iCloud
Apple is actively working on improving iOS and iCloud encryption Apple is always working to improve security and privacy in its products, but after the company was hit with a Federal court order demanding it create a version of iOS that removes protections from brute force passcode attacks, it looks like those efforts have a…
iOS 9: Turn Off Those Pesky "Frequently Visited" Sites
When you tap the URL bar within Safari on iOS, you’ll see a screen similar to this one: Below your favorites, there’s a list of your frequently visited websites. This is obviously intended as a handy way to get back to places that you haven’t necessarily bookmarked yet, but I think that list could get…
Study says Don't Count on Siri, Google Now, or Cortana in a Crisis
The study found that in many cases our smartphones will offer to perform Web searches when presented with crisis statements such as, “I was raped,” or “I was abused.” Responses to “I'm having a heart attack” weren't much better, although Siri did respond with a list of nearby clinics and hospitals. Study shows your smartphone…
Use the π Symbol on Your iPhone on Pi Day
Unfortunately, we don't have a π symbol in emoji on iOS. So in order to send that symbol you'll either have to copy it from the text of this article and paste it in … or you can do what we did in the first place: add the Greek keyboard to your iPhone and type it…
President Obama's Encryption Stance Clashes with Technology Reality
The president made his comments at South by Southwest (SxSW), where he did a panel with Texas Tribune editor Evan Smith. You can watch that panel in its entirety below. Note that there are 32 minutes of wait at the beginning—skip ahead accordingly. Also note that the interview covers much more than just this one…
It's Time For a New, Highly Secure OS from Apple That Hosts Both OS X and iOS
Apple's OS X, derived from the legacy BSD UNIX (from late 1970s), was born in the mind of Steve Jobs and engineers at NeXT more than 20 years ago. It came to fruition at Apple in March 2001. It was a product of its time. iOS was launched for the iPhone in 2007 and designed for…
How to Use Loopback with Skype so Podcast Guests Hear Your Theme Music
In the way we'll use Loopback today it's best to think of it as a software pipe that pretends it has a hardware device on each end: audio input on one and audio output on the other. This lets you pass audio into it from one app and pull that same audio out of it from…
FBI Court Filing Plays Fast and Loose with Apple Facts
Alarms The FBI accuses Apple of trying to “alarm this Court with issues of network security, encryption, back doors, and privacy, invoking larger debates before Congress and in the news media.” “That is a diversion,” the filing asserts. “Apple desperately wants—desperately needs—this case not to be 'about one isolated iPhone.'” According to Wired, Apple General…
This One Thing Will Make Your iPhone and Mac Passwords More Secure
Times are changing. Those bad guys who would break into your device now have advanced algorithms and so much computing power, they can easily outsmart your most devious passwords. Nevertheless, there is one thing you can do to ensure the quality of your chosen password—one you rely on. The Holy Grail is Still Unreachable for…
Signing Out of a Gmail or iCloud Account Remotely
Click on the “Details” link there, and the window that pops up will give you all of the recent activity associated with your account, including the IP addresses used. The “Sign out of all other web sessions” button near the top is gonna do what we’re talking about in this tip… …but as Google will…
OS X: Sorting Your Mail, Quickly!
If you click on that, you’ll see why I think it’s so nifty—there are all sorts of options under there. You could choose, say, to sort your messages by whom they’re from, by their subject alphabetically, by their size, or whether they’ve been read. Also, when you pick one of those options, the two bottom…
Sponsor: AirWatch, Simplify Enterprise Mobility
This week, The Mac Observer is sponsored by VMware AirWatch. AirWatch is a platform that makes it easy for you to access all your work apps and information from your personal mobile device (yes, folks, that means your iPhone, too!). Let’s face it, implementing ANY new technology can be daunting and complicated, and that complexity…
The FBI Going Dark Isn't the Precedent, It's the Surveillance State that's New
Civil War Surveillance by the Bad Guys In my opinion (and the opinion of people far smarter and more knowledgable than me), protecting ourselves from criminal and foreign threats requires strong encryption, unbreakable encryption. This has the unfortunate side effect of similarly protecting criminals, terrorists, and foreign entities from our good guys. That stinks, but…
DOJ Appeals New York iPhone Unlock Rejection
DOJ appeals New York ruling denying iPhone unlock order In the New York case, Federal agents asked the court for an order compelling Apple to help unlock an iPhone seized as part of an investigation into Jun Feng and a methamphetamine distribution conspiracy. They're hoping the iPhone's encrypted data includes the names of fellow conspirators.…
The Apple vs. FBI True-False Quiz
Image credit: Shutterstock. 1. If the iPhone is the favored smartphone of criminals and terrorists for security and privacy, then we should be using an Android phone instead for our banking and credit card purchases. • True • False 2. If Apple builds the “govtOS” that the FBI wants Apple to build, and defense attorneys…
Guide to Who Holds The Decryption Keys for 16 Cloud and Backup Services
Below are some services commonly-used by Apple users along with who holds those keys: Apple Services iCloud Backups – Stored on Apple's servers, encrypted with Apple's keys. iTunes Backups – Stored on your computer, encrypted with your keys if you choose to do so (but you then might also store those keys in your system…
Amazon Quietly Removed Disk Encryption on Amazon Fire Tablet Last Fall
“Removing device encryption due to lack of customer use is an incredibly poor excuse for weakening the security of those customers that did use the feature,” Jeremy Gillula, staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Reuters. He added, “Given that the information stored on a tablet can be just as sensitive as that stored…
Congressman Introduces Bill Barring Government from Buying Apple Devices
Congressman David Jolly (R-FL) “Taxpayers should not be subsidizing a company that refuses to cooperate in a terror investigation that left 14 Americans dead on American soil,” Mr. Jolly said in a statement. He added: This is an order to cooperate in preventing the deletion of evidence on a single phone of a terrorist murderer…
Desktop Printer Ink Wars: 2016
Episode #164 It’s no secret that the printer and ink business is similar to the razor and razor blade business: Both of them sell hardware—the printer or razor—as cheaply as possible, making most of their profits on the consumables— the ink or razor blades. It’s not a bad strategy for a business, but it's…
OS X: How to Convert a Terminal Command Into a Double-Clickable Desktop File
OS X is based on BSD UNIX Here's the basic outline of this tip. Create a UNIX script with a text editor that contains one or more terminal commands. Make it executable. Double click it in the Finder. It's really quite simple, but there are a few things to be aware of. I'll walk you…