Don't try the iPhone 1970 date thing, just trust that Apple is fixing it. The bug crops up when you set the date on your iOS device to May 1970 or earlier, and then restart. Odds are your iOS device won't turn on any more, turning it into a high tech paper weight. Sure, you…
Adobe Creative Cloud Bug Deletes Files Without Permission
Warning! Creative Cloud bug could delete files without permission The bug deletes the contents of the hidden folder that's alphabetically first on user's hard drive when they log into Creative Cloud. In some cases, that folder holds system-critical files, or in the case of Backblaze subscribers, the data used to keep track of which drives…
My Classic Hard Disks Are Spinning Right into the Graveyard
This is happening in two stages. First, I have seen the community of Mac users steadily replacing the boot drives in their Macs with SSDs (or direct Flash memory). This started first on the MacBook Air and is now common on iMacs. I first did this in 2010 when I paid an extra US$400 to…
Immersion Sues Apple, AT&T Over Haptic Feedback Patents
Apple hit with patent infringement lawsuit over haptic feedback features Immersion named the Apple iPhone 6, Apple iPhone 6 Plus, Apple iPhone 6s, Apple iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport, and Apple Watch Edition in its lawsuit. The company named U.S. patents 8,619,051 “Haptic Feedback System with Stored Effects,” 8,773,356 “Method and Apparatus…
OS X: Turning Off Live Photos (For a Bunch of Images!)
Best. Pictures. EVER. In case you don’t know, you can select multiple items by holding down Command and clicking to select each one if they aren’t right next to each other. If you have a ton of pictures all in a row, however, just click to select the first one, then hold down Shift and…
VoIP-Pal Hits Apple, AT&T, Verizon with $7B Patent Lawsuit
VoIP-Pal sues Apple over iMessage, WiFi calling patent infringement According to VoIP-Pal's filing the system Apple uses to determine whether conversations in the Messages app should use iMessage or standard SMS, and the system for deciding when to use WiFi calling are covered by patents it owns. The company said Apple, AT&T, and Verizon all…
X-Doria Revel Apple Watch Case is Colorful, Durable
X-Doria has introduced the Revel line of four colorful Apple Watch cases. They simply snap on and leave all ports accessible. The case is flexible yet durable. I've been using one with my Apple Watch for two weeks, and it has grown on me. The first thing to note about this case is that it…
What Happens When Your Autonomous Car Crashes?
Autonomous cars are upon us. Sure, it'll be a few years before they are pervasive, but we're already on the leading edge of the technology. For some interesting and informative background, I refer you to the February 2016 issue of Car & Driver, p. 58, “Going to the Dogs.” From the intro: So while we're…
Study Shows Music Makes for a Better Love Life
Sonos rounded up 30,000 people from U.S., Canada, U.K.,Germany, The Netherlands, France, Sweden and Australia to participate in a study conducted by United Minds. Dr. Daniel J. Levitin—a neuroscientist and author of This is Your Brain on Music—was an advisor for the study. The study showed that listening to music out loud (as opposed to…
Hackers in Ireland Trying to Buy Apple Employee Logins
Hackers ready to buy Apple employee logins An Apple employee told Business Insider, “You'd be surprised how many people get on to us, just random Apple employees. You get emails offering you thousands [of euros] to get a password to get access to Apple.” Hackers are reportedly also targeting Apple employees for company information. Exactly…
Intego Warns of Fake Flash Update that Installs Scareware
To make matters worse, the malware is digitally signed with a valid Apple developer certificate. Intego says that certificate was issued to a “Maksim Noskov.” According to Johannes Ullrich, Ph.D., of the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center, the security researcher who first spotted the malware, Apple has since revoked that certificate. Mr. Ullrich posted a…
Infographic for Spotting Fake Apple Watches
Real Apple Watch Features by Watches2U.
What To Do When Your Apple Watch Tells You NOT to Eat the Candy Bar
____________________________ One of the modern day technology mantras is that if something can be done, it will be done. A way to earn a profit will be conjured up. We know that wearables, and the Apple Watch in particular, are going to get better and better at monitoring our body chemistry. When it comes to…
Sharp Ready for Foxconn Buyout
Foxconn's bid for Sharp won out over INCJ With its bid getting the green light, Foxconn wants to move quickly to wrap up the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal. If all goes well, Foxconn hopes to finish the transaction in the next few days. Foxconn's strong push makes sense because there's still a…
How to Save and Autofill Arbitrary Online Forms with 1Password
Try using your password manager! I use 1Password, but this tip should work with other password managers as well. Let's say you're looking for a job on indeed.com, and have filled out the site's advanced search from. Have a Web form you need to fill in over and over? 1Password can help. To save the…
Lynktec ReelJuice Portable USB Battery is Unique: Capable, Flexible & Includes a Take Up Reel
There are many ho-hum and many good portable battery chargers for our iDevices. Most are just little boxes with a battery, LED lights and USB ports. However, the new Lynktec (5,300 or 8,000 mAh) charger has a multitude of thoughtful features, expansion options and usage profiles. It sets a new standard. This product has so…
Why Google/Alphabet Is Worth More than Apple
GOOGL (Alphabet's ticker symbol) ended Tuesday's trading session at $780.91, a gain of $10.14 (+1.32 percent), on heavy volume of 6.3 million shares trading hands. Shares of AAPL ended the day at $94.48, down $1.95 (-2.02 percent), on light volume of 37.2 million shares trading hands. That left Alphabet's market cap at $537 billion, while…
How to Delete iPhone Apps Stuck on Installing Updates
Stuck installing app… so frustrating, but there is a fix The trick to getting out of the perpetual stuck-on-install loop with iPhone and iPad apps is to delete the problem app. Since using tap-and-hold to show the app delete button doesn't work, you have to go about it in a different way. Here's what to…
Harvard Study: The Internet of Things is a Surveillance Playground
The study was coauthored by several signatories under the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. It's stated purpose was to evaluate claims by law enforcement and governments, both the U.S. and in other countries, that end-to-end encryption in our communication devices is crippling surveillance efforts. The umbrella term used for this argument…
Apple Doesn't Have an Anti-Abortion Agenda
Apple Maps became big news after Fast Company called out the company for abortion-related search results. The publication said it performed searches in locations around San Francisco and was shown an adoption center outside the city instead of clinics providing abortion services. Abortion search or gun search: both show accurate results in Apple Maps The…
OS X: Adjusting Your Login Options
Well, if you visit System Preferences > Users & Groups, you’ll find that there’s a “Login Options” choice near the bottom-left. There’s where you can adjust all sorts of things about how the login process works and acts. In order to make changes to those settings, though, you’ll need to click on the lock in…
Satechi USB-C Hub is Small & Has Pass Through Power
The owners of the 2015 12-inch MacBook have a small problem. There is only one USB-C port and no USB-A ports. The assumption has been that 3rd party hubs would solve that problem, and now, post CES, new ones are shipping. The Satechi USB-C Hub with pass through power and two USB-A ports is small,…
Tim Cook's Strategy: 'We believe in investing in downturns'
Apple CEO Tim Cook Tim Cook made a series of pointed declarations about Apple's intentions during the current worldwide economic slump. We believe in investing during downturns. Is CEO Cook trying to put a good face on a downturn that could slow the company's growth? The fact is that Apple has dealt with this before,…
Barclays CEO Commits to March Apple Pay Launch
When Barclays customer Oli Foster-Burnell emailed Mr. Vaswani asking about Apple Pay support, he got a reply saying it's coming in the “next 60 to 75 days,” which would put the launch somewhere between the middle and end of March. Barclays finally commits to Apple Pay support in U.K. Apple Pay is an NFC-based mobile…