A report reveals that Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) had purchased the Pegasus spyware to monitor suspects.
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
Graph Blockchain Aims to Create 3D NFTs for Augmented Reality
New World Inc, a subsidiary of Graph Blockchain, announced its intention to create NFTs using 3D scanning. These allow them to be viewed in an immersive environment using AR/VR.
For example, Contributors can create holograms of their favorite athlete, fabricate an unconventional piece of furniture, design a high-end piece of clothing, or create abstract pieces of art, all derived from objects in the tangible world.
Brazilian singer, songwriter, and dancer Naldo Benny is the most recent celebrity to team up with New World to create an NFT through 3D scanning. Naldo tracked his signature dance moves and mannerisms that were translated into a digital avatar by New World’s creative team and sold as an NFT.
This seems cool to me, and more of what I envision NFTs to be: Virtual representations of physical objects.
Logitech's New 'Logi Dock' Combines a Speaker and Dock for Cords
On Wednesday Logitech announced Logi Dock, a product that features one-touch controls for video meetings, a speakerphone, and ports.
This Person Has Archived the Entirety of iTunes U
A Redditor announced that they. have archived the entire iTunes U catalog, and asks for help to upload some of the larger torrent files.
Developers Receive tvOS 15 Beta 9 for Their Devices
Apple released tvOS 15 beta 9 for developers. The company doesn’t provide release notes for this OS, but we do know what features will arrive this fall.
Bitcoin Becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador Today
El Salvador officially made Bitcoin a legal tender currency on Tuesday, September 7, the first country to do so. This move comes into effect three months after its parliament passed the vote.
The big advantage Bitcoin will have for these economies is that they will not have any debt to pay to anyone. It also means that these countries will offer excellent opportunities for the adoption of cryptocurrencies and for crypto startups. This will eventually boost taxation and can become a growth point for this country.
Hulu Raises Prices for On-Demand Plans by a Dollar
Disney is raising the prices of on-demand Hulu plans by US$1.00 to push subscribers to its Disney Bundle and Live TV packages.
Here are Steps to Take to Protect Your Privacy on Apple Devices
Macinstruct published a brief guide on protecting your privacy on Apple devices as a response to Apple’s CSAM detection plans.
We’re now encouraging readers to protect their privacy by disabling certain Apple features. In situations where privacy is a hard requirement, it may be necessary to consider using non-Apple hardware and software. This article provides an overview of our recommendations and your options.
It’s a decent guide except for the recommendation to disable iMessage in favor of SMS. iMessage is end-to-end encrypted, SMS is not. My advice for iMessage privacy is to prevent Messages from storing content in iCloud. When that happens, Apple has the capability to decrypt texts. On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Profile Name > iCloud, and turn off the toggle for Messages. Then go to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages. Change it to auto-delete old messages after 30 days. Or, use a private messenger such as Signal.
Apple 2021 Fall Event Scheduled for September 14, Invites Reveal
Apple has sent out official invites for its 2021 Fall product event. It’s set for September 14 at 10:00AM PT, 1:00 ET.
The H.266 Video Codec is Coming. Here’s What it Promises
The next codec for video compression is H.266, or Versatile Video Codec (VVC). It promises up to 50% better compression than H.265, or High-Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC).
The JVET decided to build H.266 (VVC) for applications beyond video streaming. The standard has support for beaming 4K to 8K videos seamlessly, along with support for 360-degree videos. This could be useful in VR and AR applications.
Bross mentioned that H.266 is designed in such a way that that you can access different regions of a frame directly in the bitstream. So a video streaming service could choose to streams regions that are not very important in the scence in a lower resolution to save bandwidth.
A Larger Apple Watch Screen Means More Informational Faces
Rumors claim that the Apple Watch Series 7 released Fall 2021 will have bigger screens. As Mark Gurman reports, this means watch faces can add more information.
The bigger model will have a resolution of 396 by 484, versus 368 by 448 on the model it’s replacing. That increase means the device will have about 16% more pixels, allowing it to show more so-called complications — an industry term for the bits of information that appear on watches. The smaller model will see a similar jump, but both watches will have thinner borders around the screens.
Roblox Moves to Add Voice Chat With Spatial Audio
Roblox is preparing to add voice chat with spatial audio to make its virtual worlds mimic the physical world better.
Say you’re hanging out in a virtual skatepark in Roblox with spatial audio enabled: skaters in the half pipe with you would sound loud and clear, just like they would in real life. But you wouldn’t be able to hear someone walking around on the sidewalk across the street, since they’re too far away. To have a private conversation with a nearby friend, you might peel off and walk toward a store down the block.
OWC Launches Jellyfish Manager 2.0 With Cloud Backup Integrations
OtherWorld Computing announced on Thursday the launch of Jellyfish Manager 2.0. It offers cloud backup integrations, a dashboard, and a new design.
EU Fines WhatsApp $266 Million Over Data Transparency
The Irish Data Protection Commission has ordered Facebook-owned WhatsApp to pay a US$266 million fine over the way it handles user data.
Judge Allows Lawsuit to Proceed That Claims Siri Violates Privacy
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White has given the green light to a lawsuit that claims Siri violates user privacy. He did dismiss part of the complaint.
Shard Labs Brings Liquid Staking to Polygon via Lido
On Thursday Shard Labs announced that it has chosen the Polygon blockchain to develop a liquid staking protocol for the MATIC token.
AccuWeather Creates Alert System Exclusively for T-Mobile Customers
AccuWeather announced a new alert system called AccuWeather Alerts. Exclusively for T-Mobile customers, it pushes severe weather alerts for iPhones and Androids.
With this newly developed system, T-Mobile customers can received Up to the Minute alerts that read “Severe Weather Potential,” “Severe Weather Threat,” and “Dangerous Weather Imminent!” on their iOS or Android mobile phones for free. Integrated into AccuWeather’s award-winning app, these alerts provide details on upcoming and developing severe weather events, including notifications for hurricanes, snow, tornadoes, flooding, hail, heatwaves, cold waves and other types of threatening weather.
New Twitter Safety Mode Filters Replies, Blocks Accounts
Twitter is rolling out a new feature called Safety Mode. When you enable it for your account, it temporarily blocks accounts for seven days for using potentially harmful language or sending repetitive and uninvited replies or mentions.
You can find information about the Tweets flagged through Safety Mode and view the details of temporarily blocked accounts at any time. Before each Safety Mode period ends, you’ll receive a notification recapping this information. We won’t always get this right and may make mistakes, so Safety Mode autoblocks can be seen and undone at any time in your Settings. We’ll also regularly monitor the accuracy of our Safety Mode systems to make improvements to our detection capabilities.
I think a lot of things can be said about Twitter, but at least they’re trying (unlike Facebook).
Report Shows 30% Increase in Mobile Shopping in Early 2021
A new report from Liftoff, App Anni, and Poq shows the pandemic has not slowed down mobile shopping. This sector increased 30%.
Backblaze Offers Alternative to Amazon EC2 With 'Vultr' Partnership
On Wednesday Backblaze announced a partnership with Vultr. It offers an alternative to Amazon S3 and EC2 for developers.
Here are the First States to Support iOS 15 Digital IDs
On Wednesday Apple revealed which U.S. states are the first to support storage of IDs within Apple Wallet in iOS 15 and watchOS 8.
Today at Apple Creative Studios Launches in Chicago, Washington, DC
Apple announced on Wednesday that its Today at Apple Creative Studios endeavor will expand to Chicago and Washington, D.C., in September.
Flipboard Gives People Tools to Prevent 'Doomscrolling'
Flipboard is rolling out a series of personalization tools to help people cut back on doomscrolling.
The company announced this morning the launch of a new controller on the cover of its own main newsfeed, aka the “For You” feed, which now allows users to select new topics to follow and deselect those they no longer want to hear about. The feature, which Flipboard dubs “an antidote to doomscrolling,” allows users to customize their For You feed to deliver a wider selection of stories related to their various interests, instead of focusing their home page on breaking news and politics.
Bose Launches 'QuietComfort 45' Noise Cancelling Headphones
On Tuesday Bose has announced the launch of its latest pair of noise cancelling headphones – QuietComfort 45.
The QuietComfort 45 maintain the hallmarks of their predecessor with amazing audio performance, all-day comfort and stability, super- simple controls, rock-solid connectivity, and an update to the iconic design that made QCs one of the most recognizable wearables ever. The QuietComfort 45 headphones will be available starting September 23rd for $329.95, and pre-orders start today at Bose.com and select resellers.