There are security features that Apple tells us about on stage at keynotes, and then there are hidden improvements it doesn’t mention.
macOS has gradually made the UNIX security model irrelevant. For example, even the superuser is only allowed to access the private documents of a regular user with the user’s permission—permission that is given on a per-application basis, through that protector of users and bane of developers known as the Transparency, Consent & Control (TCC) framework.
Considering A New Backup Strategy? Find out where to start here in this video tip from Mac Geek Gab 885
Apple released a new Today at Apple video on Friday with tips on shooting portrait photos on an iPhone with professional photographer Mark Clennon. Mark is a New York-based photographer who has worked with TIME Magazine, Netflix, Esquire, Marvel, Forbes, Sony/RCA, and a long list of other companies and publications. The video has some great tips and is worth checking out.
It’s easy to make a Siri Shortcut on your iPhone to enable noise cancelling on your AirPods Pro, and you can make your own Siri trigger phrase. Watch our video to learn how.
Politico published a report on Friday that examines how lobbying from Apple defeated two app store bills in Georgia and other states.
Apple’s aggressive lobbying efforts in Georgia, the extent of which were previously unreported, highlight a pattern that has played out with little national attention across the country this year: State lawmakers introduce bills that would force Apple and its fellow tech giant Google to give up some control over their mobile phone app stores.
Then Apple, in particular, exerts intense pressure on lawmakers with promises of economic investment or threats to pull its money, and the legislation stalls.
Blackmagic Design announced on Friday that its DaVinci Resolve video editor is now up to three times faster on M1 Macs. It also gives customers up to 30% longer battery life.
DaVinci Resolve 17.3 also supports a new option on Mac computers with M1 for H.265 hardware encoding. Customers can choose to prioritize speed vs quality when rendering, further improving render times up to 65%. Plus, DaVinci Resolve will now decode AVC Intra files using the media engine built into the Apple M1 chip, making decoding and playback faster when working with these file formats.
One of the coolest thigs about Plex is that it works on so many different platforms and devices. You can run the Plex app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Raspberry Pi, or almost anything else. The app is very helpful in managing your media library and watching your favorite content. With the latest version of the Plex Apple TV app, you’ve got new options for how your library looks and feels. You can customize the app and home background, what artwork should be displayed, and how much of a title’s metadata shows up.
[O]ur challenge is that since Plex is used by so many different types of users (a great problem to have!), each one of you has different habits and desires and styles as well as a vast variety of TVs with different resolutions and brightness and contrast ratios.
A Deep Dive Into HOOBS & HomeBridge! Learn More About HOOBS in this video tip from Mac Geek Gab 884.
As if reality couldn’t be more dystopian, researchers for the International Monetary Fund proposed that credit scores should include data from peoples’ browsing, search, and purchase history.
Citing soft-data points like “the type of browser and hardware used to access the internet, the history of online searches and purchases” that could be incorporated into evaluating a borrower, the researchers believe that when a lender has a more intimate relationship with the potential client’s history, they might be more willing to cut them some slack.
What an insane, stupid idea. Too poor to afford a Mac? Sorry! Your credit score won’t be rising above 600.
Networking Tools! Check Out What Works Best For John and Dave. Find the full product list in Mac Geek Gab 884.
On Thursday, crypto exchange Coinbase announced phone support in the event of an account takeover.
Today, we’re beginning to roll out phone support for ATOs, to provide customers with a live agent to kick off an investigation. If you believe you’re a victim of an ATO, please call +1 888 908–7930 or visit our support page to protect your account and get help.
The latest beta of iOS 15 is available now for both developers and the public. The team over at Geeky Gadgets have put the newest build through its paces on a number of devices, both new and older. They’ve also compared boot-up times and app speeds to iOS 14.7.1 on the same devices. The results of speed testing iOS 15 Beta 6 and iOS 14.7.1 seem a bit surprising.
In the speed test with the iPhone XR the device running the new iOS 15 beta 6 was the first handset to boot up. There were no major speed improvements in the apps.
In the final speed test with the iPhone 11 the device running the iOS 14.7.1 softwarewas the first to boot up, there are no noticeable speed improvements in the apps.
Plex helps you watch free TV & Movies all while helping you manage your media library. Learn more about Plex in this excerpt from Mac Geek Gab 884.
John F. Braun takes a deep dive into 12 great charging choices in this excerpt from Mac Geek Gab 884.
On Apple Context Machine, Bryan Chaffin and I briefly discussed credit and debit cards that are linked to cryptocurrency. It turns out, there are actually 54 such cards already, just in the Visa catalog.
These projects have gained traction — crypto-linked Visa debit cards facilitated over $1 billion worth of transactions across Visa’s 70 million merchants worldwide in the first half of 2021 alone. $1 billion is only a small fraction of the trillion-dollar payments industry, however retail interest in cryptocurrencies is picking up, suggesting the market has room to grow, especially with younger generations.
Kanye West fans have been clamoring for the artist to finally release his upcoming album, Donda. Unfortunately, the release date keeps changing. Maybe the album will drop next week, during or after the just-announced third listening party on Apple Music. The event is slated for Thursday, August 26 at 10pm EDT, from Soldier Field in Chicago.
While West has recorded and teased or even announced release dates for multiple unreleased albums over the years, “Donda” has had the most public gestation of them all — and of any album by a major artist in history. Some have speculated that he is setting up a release-date battle with Drake — who has said he’s finally finished his long-awaited “Certified Lover Boy” album — similar to his release-date face-off with 50 Cent in 2007.
A report on Wednesday shows that the damage from cyber attacks has reached over US$$25 billion since 2015.
The most costly attacks are credential attacks (the theft of an organization or individual’s passwords), which have accounted for $6.4 billion in company losses. Often, these credentials are stolen and then sold on the dark web, which happened in the recent T-Mobile breach. Backdoors, like what was used in the SolarWinds hack, have cost companies $5.6 billion.
Motherboard has published the story of Andrey Shumeyko, a double agent for Apple. He shared his story because he believes Apple took advantage of him.
Shumeyko said he established a relationship with Apple’s anti-leak team—officially called Global Security—after he alerted them of a potential phishing campaign against some Apple Store employees in 2017. Then, in mid-2020, he tried to help Apple investigate one of its worst leaks in recent memory, and became a “mole,” as he put it.
A really fascinating story.
Nintendo Switch game Pokémon UNITE is coming to the App Store on September 22, the company revealed on Wednesday.
Preregistration has already kicked off on the App Store and Google Play Store. If you haven’t preregistered already, there’s an added incentive to do so. If preregistration totals reach 2,500,000, participants will receive a Pikachu Unite license. And if preregistration numbers hit 5,000,000, participants will get a special Holowear—Festival Style: Pikachu.
Find out what Dave Hamilton thinks about Fubo.tv with this excerpt from Mac Geek Gab 884.
United Wholesale Mortgage is the second-largest mortgage lender in the U.S., and it will begin to accept cryptocurrency payments by the end of this year.
“I think we’re starting with Bitcoin, but we’re looking at Ethereum and others. We’re going to walk before we run, but at the same time, we are definitely a leader in technology and innovation and we are always trying to be the best and the leader in everything we do.
Use Docker To Help Run Your Computer Efficiently. Learn More About Docker In Mac Geek Gab 884
Boston Dynamics has released a video of its Atlas robot, as well as a behind-the-scenes glimpse of it jumping through an obstacle course.
Unlike the previous two videos, which showed one-off tricks, the new video shows Atlas doing an entire obstacle course in one go, which the company says helps with reliability and repeatability. Trying to get through a whole obstacle course leads to a lot of failures and helps the hardware and software teams track down what “strategic upgrades” need to be made to help the robot get through the course.
OnlyFans is a platform that lets people subscribe to their favorite creators, similar to other services like Patreon. It launched a streaming app and it won’t feature the NSFW content the platform has become known for.
OFTV provides a super convenient way for fans to watch content from favorite creators. There’s no adult content on OFTV. Because it’s not being monetized and there’s no direct impact on creators’ earnings, we are able to be in the app store.
App Store: OFTV
