We have a deal on the NTONPOWER 3-Outlet & 3-USB Port Surge Protector. As the name shows, it features three USB charging ports and three standard AC outlets. And, it has a tray designed to hold your iPhone (or other smartphone), putting its footprint to better use. It’s just $19.99 through our deal. We’ve linked to the white model, but there’s a black option on the deal listing, too.
Microsoft Launches Azure Security Lab and Doubles Bug Bounty
Announced at Black Hat 2019 today, Microsoft launched the Azure Security Lab, as well as doubling its top Azure bug bounty to US$40,000.
The Azure Security Lab takes the idea to the next level. It’s essentially a set of dedicated cloud hosts isolated from Azure customers so security researchers can test attacks against cloud scenarios. The isolation means researchers can not only research vulnerabilities in Azure, they can attempt to exploit them.
The Azure Security Lab isn’t open to the public — you have to apply. Microsoft is promising quarterly campaigns for targeted scenarios with added incentives, including exclusive swag. Security researchers will also be able to engage directly with Azure security experts.
Apple Previews Apple Card Sign Up Process
Apple’s wallet.apple.com website gives people a video on how to apply for Apple Card, which consists of opening the Wallet app and tapping the plus (+) button on the upper right.
Before you start, there are a few things to check: You are a US citizen or lawful resident at least 18 years of age or older. Make sure you’re on the latest version of iOS. Learn here how to update. Applying for Apple Card requires an iPhone that can use Apple Pay. Check here to see if your device is compatible.
I can’t wait for the launch, and will be signing up.
Cloudflare Ends 8Chan Service in Wake of Recent U.S. Shootings
The U.S. got a fresh wave of mass shootings over the weekend. A couple killers had posted their manifestos on 8Chan, and Cloudflare is ending its service for the website.
8chan is among the more than 19 million Internet properties that use Cloudflare’s service. We just sent notice that we are terminating 8chan as a customer effective at midnight tonight Pacific Time. The rationale is simple: they have proven themselves to be lawless and that lawlessness has caused multiple tragic deaths. Even if 8chan may not have violated the letter of the law in refusing to moderate their hate-filled community, they have created an environment that revels in violating its spirit.
Soundcast VG1 Premium Bluetooth Waterproof Speaker: $69.99
We have a deal on the Soundcast VG1 Premium Bluetooth Waterproof Speaker. As noted in the name, it’s a waterproof Bluetooth speaker, but it also has dual aluminum drivers and a weighted bass radiator. It supports Bluetooth 4.2 and has multiple connection options, and it’s $69.99 through our deal.
News+: Should Apple Leak the iPhone 11 Design?
In the latest issue of Macworld, Michael Simon says that Apple should leak the iPhone 11 design like Google did for the Pixel 4.
We already know it’s coming in September. And we kind of know what it will look like too. There have already been bountiful leaks that have revealed a giant square camera bump—which incidentally looks a whole lot like the Pixel 4—and it’s expected that all three models will be pretty much identical from the front. So what’s the harm in confirming what we already know?
If we accept two conditions: 1) Many Android phones tend to mimic iPhones; and 2) iPhone 11 mockups are close to or exactly the real design; Then I think the Pixel 4 was also the iPhone 11 leak.
This is part of Andrew’s News+ series, where he shares a magazine every Friday to help people discover good content in Apple News+.
Apple Music Alternative Playlist Renamed 'ALT CTRL'
Apple is slowly rebranding Apple Music, and its latest efforts include renaming the Apple Music alternative playlist to ALT CTRL.
The playlist, which features 50 songs, will change every week. Each song is hand selected by a group of curators. The songs featured have less to do with genre, and more to do with overall feel and themes.
“ALT CTRL, formerly known as The A-List: Alternative, is where you’ll find the best of those new left-of-center tunes.” reads the Editors’ notes on the new ALT CTRL page, “Alternative is more an attitude than a sound—music that colors just a bit outside the lines.”
Meet America's Phone Farmers That Commit Ad Fraud
People are setting up multiple phones to create a “phone farm” to fake engagement with ads to earn money from certain apps. Vice spoke to several farmers and built their own setup.
With a marketing strategy called “incentivized traffic,” app developers take advertisements or other content that companies want to get in front of an attentive audience, and pay that audience to watch or interact with them.
Rather than actually watch ads, these phone farmers use as many as a hundred phones and sometimes automate the process to make it seem like someone is watching the ads in order to generate income.
What to Know About RTF vs. RTFD Files on a Mac
The Eclectic Light Company writes:
Macs and iOS devices have the benefit of not one variety of Rich Text documents, but two: RTF and RTFD. This article explores some of their features and limitations, and considers the problems of working with them alongside one another.
This is a very readable and helpful article that explains the nature of RTFD files and their history going back to the origins with NeXT Corp.
Quickly Charge 2 Devices at Once with This 40,000 mAh Power Bank: $29
We have a deal on the ChargeMe Portable High Capacity Dual Input Power Bank, a portable battery with 40,000 mAh capacity. It offers dual inputs (USB C and microUSB) for faster charging, and four standard USB ports for charging your devices. It’s $29 through our deal. There’s also an option in the deal listing for a 30,000mAh model that has a fast charging port for the same price.
StubHub Apple Pay Rolls Out to iOS Browsers
Starting today, StubHub Apple Pay will be available on the web for iOS devices so that fans can buy tickets easily and safely.
Fans will begin to see Apple Pay as an available payment option for MLB mobile web transactions on the iPhone this week. For more on how to use Apple Pay and connect it with your StubHub account, visit StubHub’s customer help center.
Good to see Apple Pay being offered in more places.
Last Month Google Play Had 205 Malicious Apps With Over 32M Installs
In July alone, Google Play had 205 malicious apps with over 32 million installations, most of them containing hidden ads.
The bulk of the suspicious software – 188 to be exact – contained hidden ads, accounting for 19.2 million installs. The rest of the offenders fell under the categories of subscription scam, ad fraud, stalkerware, fake apps, fake antivirus tools, adware droppers, and software with built-in backdoors, according to data compiled by ESET malware researcher Lukas Stefanko.
Neato Robot Vacuums Can Use Siri Shortcuts
Neato robotic vacuums can use Siri Shortcuts and HomeKit, like starting, pausing, and stopping cleaning later this year.
Zone cleaning lets you deploy the vacuum to specific, targeted areas of your house so they get cleaned more readily, and it sounds like you’ll be able to set up Siri shortcuts for specific zones. That should let user use voice commands to send the vacuum to different parts of the house, a pretty handy feature. And if you’re not so much into the voice commands, Siri Shortcuts will enable the Neato app to learn and suggest times to send out your vacuum with lock screen suggestions.
Future Apple Headphones Could Tell Which Ear They’re In
New patents reveal that future Apple headphones could tell which ear they’re in using machine learning.
Apple notes that “During operation, capacitive sensor electrodes may be used by the control circuitry in capturing capacitive sensor ear images that are processed by a machine learning classifier. The machine learning classifier may be used to determine whether the headphones are being worn in a reversed or unreversed orientation.
Hilarious Deconstruction of Microsoft's 'Mac Book' Surface Commercial
The Next Web has a hilarious deconstruction of Microsoft’s Meet Mackenzie “Mac” Book commercial. If you haven’t already seen this ridiculous commercial, watch it. You’ll probably be mad at me for telling you to do that, but your reward will be Callum Booth’s excellent snarkfest at TNW. Here’s a snippet, where he questions the premise of the commercial star’s name, Mac Book.
What are your credentials here, bud?
Just because my last name is ‘Booth’ doesn’t mean I have any understanding how phone booths or toll booths actually operate. You wouldn’t come to me if you were planning on upgrading a selection of traffic kiosks on the strength of my surname. I can categorically say that’d be the worst mistake you’d ever make. My entire selection rationale would revolve around which booth I think looks the most bitching, which, unfortunately, is no way to actually run a business.
I’m sorry, Mac Book, but I do not value your opinion on this matter.
Play the Original Diablo in a Web Browser on Your iPad
The developers at Rivsoft made it possible to play the original Diablo game using a web browser. Someone on Reddit also got it working on their iPad.
Like the newer Diablo games, the original is an isometric top-down dungeon crawler with multiple character classes, tons of loot, and hoards demons to fight. The version of Diablo on Rivsoft’s site is the Shareware build — in modern times, we’d call this a demo. You can play the first two dungeons of the game with one of the game’s three character classes.
For the past several weeks I’ve been playing Diable III on my Nintendo Switch. I should give the original a play, too.
Digging into Apple's T2 Chip
AppleInsider has a good piece on Apple’s T2 chip. It’s incomplete in that it doesn’t cover the T2’s built-in image signal processor and SSD controller, but it’s still good info to have, and we recommend it.
If you spent any time looking into which Mac desktop or notebook to buy before you paid out for a shiny new machine, you’ll have seen Apple’s website extolling the fact that many of them have T2 security chips. That’s nice. Only, it’s more than nice, it’s more than a way to invisibly secure your Mac, it is a process that has a dramatic and visible effect on just about everything you do.
Detailed Look at Apple Maps in iOS 13
Check out this detailed look at Apple Maps in iOS 13 at MacStories. New features, a new look, and an aggressive move to make Apple Maps rival or beat Google Maps, make this a significant upgrade, and MacStories lay it all out.
Timed with the spread of its first-party mapping data, Apple is giving the Maps app a big upgrade in iOS 13 that represents the company’s biggest push yet to overtake Google Maps as the world’s most trusted, go-to mapping service. Apple Maps in iOS 13 represents – if you’re in the US at least – Apple’s purest vision to date for a modern mapping service. Here’s everything that it brings.
Babbel Language Learning 1-Year Subscription: $69
We have a deal on a 1-year subscription for Babbel Language Learning. You can choose from 14 languages to learn, practice with 10-15 minute bite-sized lessons, and it uses speech recognition technology to keep your pronunciation on point. 1 year through our deal is $69. There’s also a 2-year option for $99.
That Recent Data Breach Might Not Be Limited to Capital One
The Capital One data breach might not have bene limited to the bank. Other companies could’ve been affected too, according to Slack messages from the hacker Paige Thompson.
Reports from Forbes and security reporter Brian Krebs indicating that Capital One may not have been the only company affected, pointing to “one of the world’s biggest telecom providers, an Ohio government body, and a major U.S. university,” according to Slack messages sent by the alleged hacker.
Krebs posted a screenshot of a list of files purportedly stolen by the alleged hacker. The stolen data contained filenames including car maker “Ford” and Italian financial services company “Unicredit.”
Vietnam Might Be the Next iPhone Manufacturing Center
Due to the trade war between the United States and China, companies are looking to put their eggs into more baskets. Vietnam could be one of them.
Apple has homed in on Vietnam and India as it intensifies its search for ways to diversify its supply chain. Nintendo has accelerated a shift in the production of its Switch console to Vietnam from China, according to Panjiva, a supply chain research firm. The Taiwanese electronics behemoth Foxconn, a major assembler of iPhones, said in January that it had acquired land-use rights in Vietnam and had pumped $200 million into an Indian subsidiary. Other Taiwanese and Chinese partners to Apple have indicated that they are considering ramping up operations in Vietnam as well.
Jamf Gets Native Mac Security With Digita Security
Enterprise Mac company Jamf has acquired Digita Security, bringing native Mac security to its platform.
Digita, a two-year old startup, was founded by a team of security experts led by Patrick Wardle, whose background includes a decade as a Mac security researcher, seeking out vulnerabilities on the Mac, and time at the NSA where he honed his security research skills.
Patrick makes a lot of great Mac tools with Objective See that I recommend.
LinkedIn Violates Library Privacy With LinkedIn Learning
Many states have laws in place to protect the privacy of libraries. But LinkedIn is violating this with LinkedIn Learning, formerly known as Lynda.com.
Currently, when Lynda.com is accessed through a library, a user logs in with her or his library card and a PIN. No other personal information is required.
Under the new LinkedIn Learning policy, library users would be required to create a personal, publicly searchable, profile and agree to LinkedIn’s user agreement and privacy policy before being able to use LinkedIn Learning.
Checking off the user agreement grants LinkedIn the power to share the information contained in a personal profile with whoever LinkedIn wants.
Libraries are a bastion against corporations, where you can get free resources and just hang out without having to buy anything. I hope this gets resolved in the library’s favor.
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Apple Stores Offer Augmented Reality '[AR]T' Walks
Apple retail stores will begin offering [AR]T, Today at Apple augmented reality experiences featuring contemporary artists.
These experiential walks take participants through San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo as they encounter works by world-renowned artists, most of whom are working in AR for the first time. Works by Cave, Djurberg and Berg, Cao, Giorno, Höller and Rist connect participants to public spaces such as London’s Trafalgar Square, San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens or New York’s Grand Army Plaza in Central Park.