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Andrew Orr

Since 2015 Andrew has been writing about Apple, privacy, security, and at one point even Android. You can find him most places online under the username @andrewornot.

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Articles by Andrew Orr

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Underclocked iPhone SE More Powerful Than Android Phones

Andrew Orr ·

Some impressive news for Apple: Not only is the iPhone SE more powerful than the most expensive Android phones, it’s doing that while underclocked.

More powerful than Android phones:

Building your own mobile chipset brings many advantages, and Apple is leveraging them today. Google really needs to do the same, and soon.

Underclocked processor:

Looking at the result breakdown of the iPhone SE (2020), the CPU and GPU yield is closer to the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max that are powered by an A12 Bionic platform. Memory speed is the only thing pushing the 256GB iPhone SE way ahead of the XS family with the result of 77,968, which is in line with the iPhone 11 trio.

No speculation on why it’s underclocked, but one possible reason is heat.

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Netatmo Smart Indoor Security Camera Patched After Security Issue Found

Andrew Orr ·

Following an investigation by PCMag and Bitdefender, a patch has been issued for the Netatmo Smart Indoor Security Camera.

The Bitdefender IoT Vulnerability Research Team discovered that the device is susceptible to an authenticated file write that leads to command execution (CVE-2019-17101), as well as to a privilege escalation via dirtyc0w—a local privilege escalation bug that exploits a race condition in the implementation of the copy-on-write mechanism in the kernel’s memory-management subsystem.

Many smart home devices are notoriously insecure, and this is the main reason why I don’t have any of them (Besides my robot vacuum, but I explained my reasoning).

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FaceTime Didn’t See Much Growth due to COVID-19

Andrew Orr ·

A survey of 1,630 people found that among other video chat apps, Apple’s FaceTime got the highest satisfaction score, but didn’t see significant growth in users now that everyone is working from home.

Respondents consider FaceTime to be the easiest service to use, by far: it was ranked highest in terms of video quality and overall satisfaction. However, almost everyone reserved the service for one-on-one calls, and use of the app has barely changed since stay-at-home orders were put in place. Because FaceTime is only accessible to people with Apple products, it makes sense that current circumstances haven’t had a significant impact on the app’s popularity—it is quite likely that users interact with the app in much the same ways they did pre-COVID.

I’m thinking the biggest factor for this is the fact that FaceTime is only available on Apple devices. It’s not a good video conferencing app for businesses with multiple operating systems.

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Pixelmator 2.5 Adds File Browser, Photo Browser, Image Size Presets

Andrew Orr ·

Announced in March, Pixelmator 2.5 is officially released today, bringing features like a native File browser, photo browser, and image size presets.

This update is a really big deal for Pixelmator for iOS. These new features might not be amazingly flashy but they’re incredibly important to the future of Pixelmator for iOS. And the headline feature is the awesome Files-based document browser, bringing a much-improved file browsing and opening experience along with great features like file search, tagging, and more.

App Store: US$4.99

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ClimaCell Aims to Replace Dark Sky’s Weather API

Andrew Orr ·

After Apple acquired Dark Sky, one announcement noted that its weather API would no longer be available. ClimaCell recently upgraded its API with new features and pricing, hoping to entice developers. The company has some impressive clients it works with, like the U.S. Air Force, Ford, United, Delta, and others. One new feature is a new data layer to track pollen.

With more than 50 million Americans allergic to some form of pollen, this proprietary index includes data on when airborne irritants are in season to inform people who suffer from pollen-related aggravations, such as asthmatics. API users can add this data layer into their app to offer users alerts when pollen levels are high.

Good news for developers. ClimaCell tells me they had been upgrading their weather API when the news of Dark Sky’s acquisition hit.

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Adobe Bundles Photoshop and Fresco for $9.99 a Month

Andrew Orr ·

Adobe announced today that it will bundle Adobe Fresco and Photoshop for iPad under one US$9.99/month plan.

The offer is available to customers who buy Photoshop on iPad or upgrade to Adobe Fresco premium through the App Store, as well as to Creative Cloud customers who buy the Photoshop Single App or All Apps plan on Adobe.com. Early adopters who already have a Creative Cloud membership are eligible too.

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Leaks Claim AirTags Will Have Speakers, Activation Lock, Work With Non-U1 Devices

Andrew Orr ·

A report today claims that Apple’s rumored AirTags product will have speakers and will work with devices that don’t have the U1 chip. They will also require activation lock as a security measure.

Alongside the speaker, Fudge also says that the AirTags will come with an accelerometer, which detects motion. Fudge does not elaborate on this, so we don’t know entirely what it is for.

The most recent thing Fudge announced was that the AirTags may come in multiple different colours, which could be really cool. However, if AirTags are anything like AirPods, colours might not ever arrive.

I’m glad to know that they won’t require a U1 chip. It’s a “claim” by this leaker but if Apple required a chip for the tags to work, this would lock out a significant portion of its user base, so that part seems likely to me.

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Cloudflare Tool ‘Is BGP Safe Yet’ Tells You if Your ISP is Safe

Andrew Orr ·

Cloudflare recently released a tool called Is BGP Safe Yet. It lets people check whether their ISP has security protections against BGP hijacking.

Those improvements are most effective with wide adoption from ISPs, content delivery networks like Cloudflare, and other cloud providers. Cloudflare estimates that so far about half of the internet is more protected thanks to heavy hitters like AT&T, the Swedish telecom Telia, and the Japanese telecom NTT adopting BGP improvements. And while Cloudflare says it doesn’t seem like the Rostelecom incident was intentional or malicious, Russian telecoms do have a history of suspicious BGP meddling, and similar problems will keep cropping up until the whole industry is on board.

Neither my ISP nor my VPN provider are safe against hijacks.

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Leaks Reveal Google Pay Card as Rival to Apple Card

Andrew Orr ·

Leaked images of a Google Pay Card reveal that Google is busy creating a rival to Apple Card. There will also be an associated virtual card with it.

The Google card and associated checking account will allow users to buy things with a card, mobile phone or online. It connects to a Google app with new features that let users easily monitor purchases, check their balance or lock their account. The card will be co-branded with different bank partners, including CITI and Stanford Federal Credit Union.

I remember getting a card associated with my Google Pay account back in 2015 or so. They released it long before the Apple Card, but like many Google products it eventually got canceled.

Cool Stuff Found

First Look at Apple TV+ Series ‘Defending Jacob’

Andrew Orr ·

Apple uploaded a trailer for its upcoming Apple TV+ show Defending Jacob, giving us the first glimpse into this thriller.

In this gripping, character-driven thriller, a shocking crime rocks a small Massachusetts town and one family in particular, forcing an assistant district attorney to choose between his sworn duty to uphold justice and his unconditional love for his son.

Based on the 2012 New York Times best-selling novel of the same name, this limited drama series stars Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery, Jaeden Martell, Cherry Jones, Pablo Schreiber, Sakina Jaffrey, Betty Gabriel, and J.K. Simmons.

InvisibleShield and Gear4 Announce iPhone SE Screen Protectors
Cool Stuff Found

InvisibleShield and Gear4 Announce iPhone SE Screen Protectors

Andrew Orr ·

InvisibleShield and Gear4 have released cases and iPhone SE screen protectors. The InvisibleShield Glass Elite VisionGuard+, Glass Elite+ and Glass+ provide customers with tempered glass protection for extreme impact and scratch protection. Meanwhile, Gear4 is manufacturing antimicrobial iPhone SE cases with D3O reinforced backplate and others made with recycled materials.