Shipments of AirPods are expected to double this year to 60 million units, driven in part by the AirPods Pro.
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.
Articles by Andrew Orr
Database of 1.2 Billion Records Found With Scraped Data
A database filled with 1.2 billion records of data was found on the dark web back in October. I hesitate to call this a data breach because:
While the collection is impressive for its sheer volume, the data doesn’t include sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, or Social Security numbers. It does, though, contain profiles of hundreds of millions of people that include home and cell phone numbers, associated social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Github, work histories seemingly scraped from LinkedIn, almost 50 million unique phone numbers, and 622 million unique email addresses.
In other words this is all data that people have willingly put on their social media profiles. While it can be used for nefarious purposes (especially phone numbers) this is less of a breach and more of a database of scrapes. Nevertheless I’m using our “data breach” tag.
iOS Developers Get Detailed Subscription Notifications
iOS developers get detailed subscription notifications that would let them send customers notifications with billing issues.
Apple Removes Customer Reviews From Online Store
Several days ago Apple quietly removed customer reviews from its online store, and we don’t know if they will reappear.
Would Apple Leave Russia Over Device Ban?
Going into effect on July 2020, Russia just passed a law that would ban the sale of devices that don’t come pre-installed with Russian software. This obviously butts up against the integrity of iOS. Would Apple have the “courage” to leave the country if the Kremlin tried to force them to install their surveillance software? Because of course it’s for surveillance. Why else would a government meddle with device makers in this way?
The law will not mean devices from other countries cannot be sold with their normal software – but Russian “alternatives” will also have to be installed.
The legislation was passed by Russia’s lower house of parliament on Thursday. A complete list of the gadgets affected and the Russian-made software that needs to be pre-installed will be determined by the government.
Twitter Finally Adds Alternative Two-Factor Authentication Methods
Twitter announced that users can finally use other two-factor authentication methods besides SMS, which is an insecure authentication method.
Startpage News Tab Gives You ‘Unprofiled’ News
Startpage News Tab is a new feature of the search engine that promises to give people news that hasn’t been personalized.
Personally curated feeds, sometimes referred to as a “filter bubble,” are based on an individual’s online behavior constructed by previous search queries, browsing history, social media clicks, IP address, device, and so on…Our goal with Startpage News Tab is to help people break out of that bubble.
SF Symbols 1.1 Update Brings Even More Symbols
Apple has released an SF Symbols 1.1 update today, giving developers over 1,500 symbols to use in their apps.
Adobe Announces Feature Roadmap for Photoshop for iPad
Just in time after my negative review, Adobe has announced a feature roadmap for Photoshop for iPad. Here are features coming in 2019: Access all Adobe Fonts on iOS; Select Subject using machine learning; Cloud documents that will only save incremental changes to speed up the process. Here are features coming in the first half of 2020: Refine Edge; Curves and Adjustment Layer options; Brush sensitivity and Rotate Canvas; Lightroom integration.
Your experience, your feedback and your point of view has always been a critical part of our process, and we take that very seriously as we chart a path forward with the iPad.
Adobe font integration is great, but I’m not able to install fonts from outside their ecosystem.
Some Apple Stores to Offer Extended AppleCare+ Plans
Some Apple Stores in the are testing a new program that lets customers buy extended AppleCare+ plans that go beyond the current deadline.
AFI Fest Cancels Apple Film ‘The Banker’ Over Unknown Controversy
Apple’s film The Banker was set to premiere at AFI Fest tonight, but it has been canceled over concerns surrounding the film.
This Trick Might Save Your AirPods’ Battery Life
Redditor u/smakusdod proposes a trick that could help with your AirPods’ battery life. It involves resetting the AirPods case and draining the batteries of both the AirPods and the case to re-calibrate the battery life measurement system.
I completely reset the AirPods case (holding down the white button on the back for 10+ seconds), and re-paired them with my iPhone. I then completely drained both AirPods down to zero, and the case itself down to zero through normal usage. Then, I put the dead AirPods into the dead case, and charged them both up to 100%.
At some point over the weekend I’ll try this to see what happens. My AirPods haven’t significantly lost battery life, but I have noticed one Pod has a slightly lower maximum charge than the other one.
After iOS 13 Disaster Apple Plans to Change its Testing for iOS 14
Software chief Craig Federighi plans to change the company’s development process for iOS 14 due to the disaster that is iOS 13.
VSCO Redesigned its Feed to ‘Slow Your Scroll’
Photo app VSCO has redesigned its feed so that images are bigger. You’ll see single images at a time, instead of the old style where each image was smaller and alternated.
We believe this redesign will help you explore your VSCO feed in a new way, allowing the subtleties of each image to be front and center as you scroll. At VSCO, creative expression often starts with inspiration and sometimes that requires taking the time to appreciate the details as much as the complete work itself.
I think it’s an improvement and I’m glad to see it.
New ‘Everyone Can Code’ Program Supports Younger Students
Apple has redesigned its ‘Everyone Can Code’ curriculum to add more support for elementary and middle school students.
Mozilla Unveils 2019 Privacy Not Included Gift Guide
Mozilla announced its third annual 2019 *Privacy Not Included gift guide to highlight gadgets and toys that are secure, and ones that aren’t secure.
This year we found that many of the big tech companies like Apple and Google are doing pretty well at securing their products, and you’ll see that most products in the guide meet our Minimum Security Standards. But don’t let that fool you. Even though devices are secure, we found they are collecting more and more personal information on users, who often don’t have a whole lot of control over that data.
Review: Photoshop for iPad Isn’t Great and Hopefully Improves
Andrew has spent the past couple of weeks testing and using Adobe’s Photoshop for iPad. He was happy that it uses Sign In with Apple.
Humans Place in Suspended Animation for First Time
Humans have been placed in suspended animation for the first time, in a technique called emergency preservation and resuscitation (EPR).
EPR involves rapidly cooling a person to around 10 to 15°C by replacing all of their blood with ice-cold saline. The patient’s brain activity almost completely stops. They are then disconnected from the cooling system and their body – which would otherwise be classified as dead – is moved to the operating theatre.
A surgical team then has 2 hours to fix the person’s injuries before they are warmed up and their heart restarted. Tisherman says he hopes to be able to announce the full results of the trial by the end of 2020.
Years ago I remember reading in Popular Science of experiments like this involving dogs. It’s amazing that it’s moving to the human stage.
Construction Begins of Austin, Texas Apple Campus
Construction has officially started on the Austin, Texas Apple campus which is expected to open in 2022 to manufacture Mac Pros.
Apple Music for Business Could Come to a Store Near You
Apple not only wants to provide music for consumers but also businesses in the form of muzak. It has 25 clients so far.
‘Settlers of Catan’ Could be Niantic’s Next AR Game
Niantic has had two popular AR games on its hands in the form of Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. What possibly be next? Maybe Settlers of Catan.
Late last month, the company behind Catan said during a board games conference in Germany that it was working on a “upcoming massively multiplayer location based game” (albeit with no mention of Niantic). Called Catan: World Explorers, they noted that it “transforms the entire Earth into one giant game of CATAN”.
WT:Social is a New Social Network From WikiTribune
WT:Social is a new social network from Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. He promises it will never sell user data and rely on donors.
Apple Partners With 100cameras for iPhoneography
Apple is partnering with the nonprofit organization 100cameras to teach Chicago students photography with iPhones.
Need the Tor Browser on iOS? Try Onion Browser
Need a Tor browser on iOS? Onion Browser is the only iOS app recommended on the Tor Project’s website. Starting out at the U.S. Naval Research Lab, Tor is a special network that helps people browse the internet with as much privacy as possible. You should note there are a couple of security advisories on its website: WebRTC/Media leaks: Due to iOS limitations, WebRTC and media files leak outside of Tor and are routed over the normal internet. This will reveal your real IP address to sites using these features. (If you are using a VPN, the VPN IP address is revealed instead.) To defend against this, you may set Strict security mode in Host Settings, which will disable Javascript. More information here. OCSP leak: Visiting EV “Green Bar” HTTPS sites may leak information that can be used to reveal the domain name of the website you are visiting. This is handled within iOS and cannot be changed by Onion Browser. There is no known workaround. A detailed report can be found here. App Store: Free