Visible has launched a program called Bring a Friend that aims to reduce customers’ phone bills while bringing new people to the service.
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
Court Rules ‘Memoji’ Trademark Owner Created App to Sue Apple
On Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the developer of the Memoji app created it solely to sue Apple over trademark infringement.
iOS 15: How to Add Two-Factor Authentication Codes to Passwords
A welcome feature in iOS 15 is the ability to add two-factor authentication codes to your passwords. Here’s how to set it up.
Rumored ‘Apple Pay Later’ Would Introduce Installments for Purchases
A report on Tuesday claims that Apple is working on a feature called Apple Pay Later that would let people pay for purchases in installments.
New Twitter Feature Lets You Control Who Can Respond to You
Twitter is rolling out a new feature that lets users control who can respond to specific tweets.
Building on a 2020 feature that lets users choose who can reply when composing a message, this update could prove especially useful for folks whose posts receive unexpected attention or unwanted responses. Simply tap on the three-dot menu in the upper right corner of a tweet to modify the “Change who can reply” option.
‘ProtonVPN’ Introduces a New Smart Protocol Selection
ProtonVPN got an update on Tuesday with a new feature called Smart Protocol Selection. It will automatically detect and use the VPN protocol that works best on a given network, such as OpenVPN and IKEv2. This update also prepares the app for something called VPN Accelerator which will be in a future update. There are new Info buttons to provide additional information about features and supported streaming services, and the VPN connection stability has been improved.
Apple’s Latest Product is a $99 MagSafe Battery Pack
On Tuesday Apple started selling a MagSafe battery pack for the iPhone 12 product line. It’s available to purchase for US$99.
Verizon and Mastercard Work on 5G Contactless Payments
Mastercard and Verizon are partnering on 5G contactless payments for consumers as well as businesses. The goal is to release a product by 2023.
Google Unifies Two Desktop Apps Into a Single ‘Drive’ App
Google is merging its Google Drive sync clients on the desktop: Backup and Sync with Drive File Stream. The new app will be Drive for Desktop on macOS and Windows. The company shares a timeline with other details in its blog post.
Drive for desktop is a unified sync client that provides a consistent experience for anyone who uses Drive, whether for business, education or personal purposes. It enables you to quickly sync and access content directly from Mac or PC, which can save you time by helping you access files and folders in a familiar location.
California State University Gives Apple Products to Freshmen
As part of its CSUCCESS program, California State University will provide freshmen and transfer students an iPad Air, Apple Pencil, and a Smart Keyboard Folio.
Adidas is Developing Solar-Powered Headphones
Adidas is currently developing a pair of solar-powered headphones in partnership with Exeger. Digital Trends interviewed Gustaf Rosell, chief product and innovation Officer at Zound Industries.
One of the key differences is they are powered by any light. Direct sunlight will be the strongest source, but even indoor lighting or, even better, having it close to windows will generate energy. The cells are flexible in their application and not sensitive to being shadowed in the same way as traditional solar cells.
Ledger Wallet for Crypto Adds Catalog for Decentralized Apps
Ledger announced on Monday the introduction of a new tab in its Ledger Live app. It’s a catalog for decentralized services for users.
iPadOS 15: How to Create and Manage Safari Tab Groups
Apple is bringing major changes to Safari in its 2021 OS update, and one of them is called Tab Groups. Here’s how you can create them.
Amazon Wants to Use Radar to Watch You Sleeping
On Friday the FCC approved [PDF] Amazon’s idea to create a device that uses radar to monitor a person as they sleep.
The use of Radar Sensors in sleep tracking could improve awareness and management of sleep hygiene, which in turn could produce significant health benefits for many Americans. Radar Sensors will allow consumers to recognize potential sleep issues.
That’s a from No Thank You from me.
iCloud Mail Suffers System Outage for Many Apple Users
Some Apple users are finding that iCloud Mail is experiencing an ongoing system outage on Monday, starting around 9:00AM ET.
Breastfeeding Mothers Should Install ‘Booby Track’ for Apple Watch
Booby Track is a new app designed for breastfeeding mothers to keep track of which breast you fed your baby from last. From the developer: “One Friday afternoon my partner asked if I could write an app for her watch so that she could keep track of the last boob she fed our baby with. So I did.” On the app’s website you can even watch a “making of” video. Raising kids is expensive so you can buy this app for US$1.99.
Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage Opens for Chia Crypto Farming
Backblaze will now support storage for pooled Chia cryptocurrency plots in addition to the full plot storage it recently offered.
Basketball Game 'Ultimate Rivals: The Court' Now on Apple Arcade
Get ready for the ultimate arcade action basketball game featuring sports athletes from the NHL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NFL Players Association, and US women’s soccer national team players. Players will create powerhouse squads consisting of their favorite pros to compete with their friends and family in 3-on-3 games with tons of above-the-rim acrobatics. With more than 130 superstars from across the sports world, players have access to a dream roster of top athletes, but they’ll have to choose wisely to combine the pros’ playing styles and maximize their impact on the court. Set in a digital world in the near future, Ultimate Rivals: The Court is the first basketball experience to gives fans the ability to play as their favorite athletes wherever and however they choose, with pros such as NBA’s Luka Doncic, De’Aaron Fox, Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and legendary athletes like Larry Bird, Julius Erving and Shaquille O’Neal; WNBA’s Candace Parker, Diana Taurasi, Elena Delle Donne and Skylar Diggins-Smith; USWNT’s Alex Morgan; NFL’s Juju Smith-Schuster; NHL’s Alex Ovechkin and legend Wayne Gretzky.
Over 170 Android Cryptocurrency Apps are Scams
A recent report shows that Android has a cryptocurrency scam problem. These apps claim to help you mine Bitcoin “in the cloud.”
The apps work by offering a virtual dashboard that lets you monitor the cryptocurrency mining rate. The same dashboard shows you how much virtual coin has been generated. However, Lookout examined the computer code in the apps along with the network traffic, and found the coin balance displayed was actually fictitious.
Backblaze Updates With Faster Upload Speeds
On Wednesday Backblaze announced its big 8.0 upgrade that includes faster upload speeds as the main feature.
iOS 15: Apple Photos Has a New ‘Visual Search’ Feature
The Photos app is getting a new feature in iOS 15 called Visual Look Up, and it leverages the powerful on-device machine learning.
Facebook Funds Second Study That Says Apple Is Bad
A new study is out, yet again funded by Facebook, that concludes Apple and Google have harmful practices.
Kaspersky’s Password Manager Created Weak Passwords
Kaspersky Password Manager was caught creating weak passwords that were easy to brute force attack.
We will first see an example of a good password generation method, to explain after why the method used by Kaspersky was flawed, and how we exploited it. As we will see, passwords generated by this tool can be bruteforced in seconds.
After a bit less than two years, this vulnerability has been patched on all versions of KPM. Vulnerability has been assigned CVE-2020-27020.
President Biden to Enhance Right to Repair Laws
A report on Tuesday claims that President Biden will work with the FTC to create new rules in favor of the Right To Repair movement.