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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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Will Apple’s ‘Wolfwalkers’ Win a Best Animated Feature Oscar?

Andrew Orr ·

Brandon Zachary makes an argument that the “Wolfwalkers” animated movie on Apple TV+ should win an Oscar for Best Animated Feature instead of yet another Disney movie.

It’s a highly engaging film, and one that never loses steam throughout the runtime. Wolfwalkers is passionate in a way the more heady Soul isn’t, taking audiences on a massive journey that touches on the plight of young women in this era, as well as men who are trapped by duty; however, it shows how people can grow to be better humans.

Cool Stuff Found

This iOS Shortcut Gives You Permanent Low Power Mode

Andrew Orr ·

iOS has a feature called Low Power Mode you can turn on to conserve your battery life. It automatically turns off once your battery capacity reaches 80% but you can keep it on with a shortcut. Or rather, an automation. It’s simple to do because it only uses one action. This is especially helpful for older iPhones whose battery life has shortened.

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Using iOS Shortcuts to Quantify Your Self

Andrew Orr ·

Jackson Dame shared how he uses iOS shortcuts and an Apple Watch for lifelogging. I experimented with lifelogging back in 2014-2015, but I gave up after a while. Shortcuts would’ve made it a whole lot easier. Mr. Dame shares a list of all of the data he collects and what tools he uses to collect it, like Data Jar (love this app), Timelines, iA Writer, Charity, Microsoft Excel, and more.

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Latest T-Mobile Data Breach Exposes Customer Data

Andrew Orr ·

The latest T-Mobile data breach (this is the third time and the second breach in 2020) has affected an estimated 200,000 people.

The data accessed did NOT include any names associated with the account, financial data, credit card information, social security numbers, passwords, PINs or physical or email addresses. The information that was accessed may have included phone numbers, number of lines subscribed to and in a small number of cases some call-related information collected as part of normal operation and service.

Cool Stuff Found

Executive Producer of ‘Earth at Night in Color’ Talks on Podcast

Andrew Orr ·

Alex Williamson, executive producer of “Earth At Night In Color” on Apple TV+ spoke with Ben Consoli on the Go Creative Show podcast. Topics include filming the series, using special low-light cameras, discovering new animal behaviors, the benefits of using infrared light, the impact of using lights in nature, finding a narrator for the show, and how the pandemic affected production. It’s an hour-long show and you can listen by clicking the link below.

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‘GetSchooled’ Charity Data Breach Exposes Data of 900,000 Kids

Andrew Orr ·

GetSchooled, a charity run by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has leaked the details of over 900,000 children in a data breach.

The breached information contains extensive personal details of children, teenagers and young adults including: full addresses, schools, full student PII including student phone numbers and emails, graduation details, ages, genders and more…

Full everything. What could be “and more”, medical records? GetSchooled got schooled.

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US Government Appeals Injunction Against TikTok Ban

Andrew Orr ·

The U.S. government is appealing an injunction from S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols that blocked its ban of TikTok.

The Trump administration had raised concerns over the video-sharing app due to its Chinese ownership by way of parent company ByteDance, and the potential risk of TikTok’s U.S. user data being accessed by the Chinese government.

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Judge Nichols in the separate case led by TikTok ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in trying to ban the app from the U.S., referring to the agency’s action as “arbitrary and capricious.”

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That Video of an Apple Car Parking is Fake

Andrew Orr ·

There was a video making the rounds on social media recently showing an Apple Car with bizarre, round wheels. As The Drive points out, such wheels are physically impossible. The car is a 3D model of a Mercedes concept vehicle.

If you take a hard look at one about the imaginary Apple Car, you’ll see the shadows don’t match up and it’s low resolution, which camouflages the CGI seams you might spot otherwise. But still, you can bet that right now, someone is searching “Apple car” and trying to figure out a way to get on the waiting list. They’ll stand outside of the Apple store all night if they have to.

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Fashion App ‘21 Buttons’ Exposes Data of European Influencers

Andrew Orr ·

An e-commerce app called 21 Buttons has exposed the private data of hundreds of people across Europe.

Among the millions of photos and videos, we also viewed hundreds of invoices detailing payments to users in the 21 Buttons Rewards program, covering the last few months. Some of these invoices appear to be test data, but many of them were definitely legitimate invoices detailing real records of payments made.

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Cellebrite Has Not Broken Signal’s Encryption

Andrew Orr ·

On Tuesday, security company Cellebrite claimed to have broken the encryption that Signal uses to keep user communication safe. The blog post has since been removed, but the BBC has an archived version here. But Signal says that claim isn’t true.

It is important to understand that any story about Cellebrite Physical Analyzer starts with someone other than you physically holding your device, with the screen unlocked, in their hands. Cellebrite does not even try to intercept messages, voice/video, or live communication, much less “break the encryption” of that communication. They don’t do live surveillance of any kind.

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Should Apple Open its NFC Chip to Third Parties?

Andrew Orr ·

Karen Webster writes about Apple’s position in the payments industry and how Apple’s restriction of its NFC chip has hurt consumers.

Granted, it’s always hard to prove a negative, but not having access to the NFC chip has likely prevented innovators from investing time and money in developing the innovations that could have made the in-store POS experience better for iPhone users. And since iPhone users skew more to the affluent, it also denied those innovators the opportunity to monetize their spend.

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SolarWinds Hack Affected Tech Companies Like Intel, Cisco, VMware

Andrew Orr ·

The SolarWinds cyber attack didn’t just affect government agencies; big tech companies were affected too. Intel, Nvidia, Cisco, Belkin, and VMware were also infected. The Wall Street Journal reports. If the link below is paywalled, try this article from The Verge.

Intel downloaded and ran the malicious software, the Journal’s analysis found. The company is investigating the incident and has found no evidence the hackers used the backdoor to access the company’s network, a spokesman said.

Cool Stuff Found

Explore Your Personality With New ‘Dimensional’ App

Andrew Orr ·

So here’s a new app that was recently launched on the App Store. It’s called “Dimensional” and claims to help you understand your personality. One of the creators introduced it on Reddit and is answering questions about the app: “It seemed what existed out there was pseudo-science tests like MBTI that are fun but not that useful in practical terms or really scientific stuff that is hard for lay people to understand. So this is our attempt at making quality personality science useful to people.” I consider myself a skeptical person but I think this sounds interesting at the very least. Specifically, I see no mention of astrology or similar ways to introduce yourself to people as a “PB&J born under the Caprisun sign”. I plan to download it and see what it’s all about.