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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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Secret Service Purchased ‘Location X’ Product to Track Phones

Andrew Orr ·

A Secret Service document reveals the purchase of “Location X” a product that uses location data harvested from apps. The product is from a company called Babel Street. If that name sounds familiar it’s because two employees left the company to form “Anomaly Six” another location tracking company.

“The purpose of this modification is to add 1 licenses [sic] to CLIN 0003 and incorporate the Master Subscription Agreement and Locate X Addendum as attached,” the contract document reads. Motherboard obtained the document through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

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‘LastResort’, the Story Behind the Mac’s Mysterious Font

Andrew Orr ·

Ernie Smith wrote a profile of the Mac font called LastResort. It only appears when the OS can’t find an appropriate character of the system font.

But LastResort is a more interesting font than it seems. It’s essentially the typography form of hieroglyphics, showing unusual characters intended for people building fonts to have some sort of error system that helps them figure out what might be missing from their typeface.

A great write up of a font I had never heard of before.

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What Would Happen if Apple Was Forced to Allow Sideloaded Apps?

Andrew Orr ·

Some people want Apple to let users download sideloaded apps. These are apps that can be installed outside of the App Store, like the current situation on macOS. One counter argument is security:

“It’s not that iOS is full of holes,” he said, but that “the App Store is a natural second layer that [Apple] can filter through and decide if something would be harmful.” He agreed it wasn’t foolproof, but that it can help screen out “undesirable” apps.

My worry with sideloaded apps isn’t about the device security itself. It’s that Apple probably couldn’t control what goes on inside these apps, like SDKs that harvest our data, or developers only letting people use non-private logins like Facebook and Google. I want to use technologies like Sign In with Apple and Apple Pay, because I trust Apple with my data. To be fair, App Store apps already use trackers. As a side note, I’m linking to Apple News because of Engadget/Verizon’s new consent form when you visit the website.

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What if Your Phone Could Crawl Towards its Charger Like a Demon?

Andrew Orr ·

Robotics researchers from the Biorobotics Laboratory at Seoul National University created something that belongs in a horror movie. The CaseCrawler is a phone case that lets your phone crawl towards its charger as if it were demon-possessed.

The CaseCrawler prototype doesn’t appear to have any intelligence of its own or the ability to steer; it simply scampers forward in one direction.Thanks to its clever leg design, though, it’s not impeded by smaller obstacles in its path, which it can simply crawl over. Eventually, the smartphone it’s carrying could provide all the smarts and sensors it needs to intelligently find its way around and navigate an area like a desk without scampering off the edge.

“Scampering.” I’m picturing the famous scene from The Exorcist where the girl walks backwards down the stairs.

APP SALE: Sci-Fi Game ‘Implosion’ is Free, Down From $10
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APP SALE: Sci-Fi Game ‘Implosion’ is Free, Down From $10

Andrew Orr ·

A sci-fi game called Implosion just went on sale for free, down from its usual price of US$9.99. Twenty years after the fall of Earth, the remnants of the Human race are once again faced with extinction. The time has come to justify our existence. A mysterious life form known as the XADA squares off against humanity’s last weapon – the War-Mech series III battle suit. Features: Stunning console-quality graphics, first-class voice acting and Hollywood-grade audio production. Full orchestral scores masterfully mixed by Grammy Award winner and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy engineer, John Kurlander.

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‘Threema’ Now Supports End-to-End Encrypted Video Calls

Andrew Orr ·

Messaging app Threema announced on Tuesday that it now supports end-to-end encrypted video calls.

In order to ensure full end-to-end encryption of all metadata (including real-time metadata, such as camera orientation), our team had to make corrections to the widely used base technology “WebRTC.” This security improvement will be incorporated into the WebRTC project, meaning that countless other communication services benefit from our patch in the future.

The second part to that is great, about sharing it back to the project. You can find Threema on the App Store here.

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pCloud Update Lets Users Decide Where Files are Stored

Andrew Orr ·

pCloud is an encrypted cloud storage service, and a recent update gave users the ability to decide in which server their files are stored.

All pCloud users will be able to choose the server location where their files are stored. This will give users greater control over the security of their files. Once the choice of where to store the data is made during registration – in the US or Europe – it is practically impossible to transfer them without the user’s knowledge or permission. Currently, the option to select the server location is available only to newly registered users.