Team Telcom is calling on the FCC to cancel part of an undersea cable that links Los Angeles to Hong Kong over Chinese spying fears.
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
Watch ‘The Banker’ Free on Apple TV+ Until June 30
To celebrate Juneteenth Apple is making “The Banker” free to watch on Apple TV+ without needing a subscription until the end of June.
Keep an Eye Out: Mozilla VPN to Launch in Near Future
Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, announced Thursday that its Mozilla VPN product is launching in the next few weeks.
We are working hard to make the official product, the Mozilla VPN, available in selected regions this year. We will continue to offer the Mozilla VPN at the current pricing model for a limited time, which allows you to protect up to five devices on Windows, Android, and iOS at $4.99/month.
You can sign up to join the waiting list here.
Phil Schiller Speaks Out on ‘Hey’ Email Controversy
A controversy over the past few days has been about an email app called Hey that was initially approved by the App Store review team, then rejected later. Phil Schiller spoke about the issue in an interview.
One way that Hey could have gone, Schiller says, is to offer a free or paid version of the app with basic email reading features on the App Store then separately offered an upgraded email service that worked with the Hey app on iOS on its own website. Schiller gives one more example: an RSS app that reads any feed, but also reads an upgraded feed that could be charged for on a separate site. In both cases, the apps would have functionality when downloaded on the store.
My opinion is that Apple could stand to reduce its cut from 30% down to 15-18%. But we definitely don’t need other proposals, like downloading apps from outside the App Store like you can on the Mac.
Watch the Apple Watch Eject Water in Slow Motion
The Slo Mo Guys uploaded a video on YouTube today where you can watch the Apple Watch eject water in slow motion. It’s filmed at 1,000 frames per second as well as 2,000 frames per second using a Phantom Flex 4K camera. The Apple Watch is submerged in a bath tub and then shows an alert to use the device’s built-in water ejection feature. We see the Watch eject the water from the speaker, turning off and on again about 10 times to remove every drop of water that gets settled back in.
FROST SUMMITS Gives You a Self-Heating Battery And Solar Charging
A product I recently found on Indiegogo is called FROST SUMMITS. It’s a portable solar charger and power bank to keep you connected in extreme outdoor environments. There are three products: SUMMITS 7 solar charger that can charge a GoPro in 90 minutes; FROST 5000 power bank that can charge even at -58°F; and the BOX CONNECT app to pair each device with your smartphone. The campaign on Indiegogo has been fully funded, with estimated shipping dates of November 2020. There are different campaign levels for the products but the cheapest one is US$45 for the FROST 5000.
‘Bundlore’ Adware Targets Macs With Updated Safari Extensions
A report from Sophos today reveals a wave of adware belonging to the Bundlore family that targets macOS. Bundlore is one of the most common bundlware installers for macOS, accounting for almost 7% of attacks detected by Sophos.
This installer carried a total of seven “potentially unwanted applications” (PUAs)—including three that targeted the Safari web browser for the injection of ads, hijacking of download links, and redirecting of search queries for the purpose of stealing users’ clicks to generate income. The injected content in at least one case was used for malvertising—popping up a malicious ad that prompted the download of a fake Adobe Flash update.
Get Totallee Cases on Sale for as Little as $5
Accessory maker totallee is having sales for iPhone cases and screen protectors, as well as cases for Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy.
Adobe Announces Big Updates to Creative Cloud Apps
Adobe recently announced major updates to its suite of Creative Cloud apps, which include Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and others.
Apple Rejects Facebook Gaming App Five Times So Far
Facebook announced its gaming service in April, but a report today says that Apple has rejected Facebook Gaming five times.
Mujjo Offers Father’s Day Discount Site-Wide
Accessory maker Mujjo is offering a Father’s Day discount for all of its products. Use the code #DAD at checkout to get 15% any product through June 21. The company has a variety of accessories in premium leather, like iPhone wallet cases, iPhone leather sleeves, MacBook leather sleeves, and iPad leather sleeves. Mujjo also sells insulated touchscreen gloves so you can use your iPhone without having to take them off.
Zoom Backtracks, Will Give Free Users Encryption Protection
After a lot of negative attention from press and privacy advocates, Zoom has backtracked on its stance. It will provide free users with end-to-end encryption, a feature previously limited to paying customers.
The company said that free users will have to verify themselves with a phone number in a one-time process. It claimed that this will stop bad actors from creating multiple abusive accounts.
Zoom is also releasing an updated design of its end-to-end encryption solution on GitHub that intends to achieve a balance between “the legitimate right of all users to privacy and the safety of users.”
Good to see Zoom do this.
An Introduction to Photo Editing App ‘VSCO’
Andrew has been using VSCO since 2017. As a social media app, VSCO doesn’t have ads, follower counts, or comments from strangers.
Apple Redesigns App Store Connect Website
Along with redesigning the Apple Developer app on macOS, Apple has also redesigned the App Store connect website.
Send Fax From Your iPhone With EcoFax
EcoFax is an app that lets you send fax from your iPhone. At the end of the month, the company plants trees to compensate for all the paper used to deliver those faxes. They partnered with Trees for the Future Foundation and aim to increase the number of trees they plant as more people use the app. I checked the privacy policy, and it can access and collect data like: your identity, location data, camera, contacts, storage, photos and/or media, notifications, and mobile data. Camera, contacts, storage, and photos make sense, because that’s how the app functions. If that doesn’t bother you and you need to send faxes, maybe consider EcoFax. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)
New Feature ‘Sleep Mode’ Could Arrive on iOS 14
Apple leaker Fudge (@choco_bit) claims that a new feature coming to iOS 14 will be called Sleep Mode.
When Sleep Mode is enabled, the lockscreen will dim, calls and alerts that arrive while locked will be silenced, and notifications will be sent to history. Emergency alerts will break through. Sleep will analyze your sleep patterns based on your iPhone usage at night.
Bedtime in the Clock app can set an alarm and track your time in bed. Do Not Disturb can silence calls and alerts. So if this rumor is true then it sounds Apple is rebranding and combining these disparate features into one Sleep Mode toggle.
Apple Hit With Lawsuit for App Store Loot Boxes
Apple was sued on Friday with a class action lawsuit for allowing apps and games to add loot boxes and profiting off of them.
‘Eve’ 4.3 Update Gives You Faster Access to HomeKit Features
Eve 4.3 adds fast access, improved customization options, and improvements for new products like Eve Cam and Eve Window Guard. You can now long press in almost any area of the app to quickly control an accessory, set a scene, and view its details. Get an overview of a room to instantly toggle all lights and refine room settings. You can also touch, hold, and slide your finger to quickly select a command. Eve 4.3 adds a new way to view and manage automations directly in the accessory’s details view. Long press to toggle Rules and set Scenes, or create new rules and scenes. App Store: Free
Apple Acquires Rights to Israel-Iran Spy Series ‘Tehran’
Apple has acquired rights to stream “Tehran” outside of Israel. It’s distributed by Cineflix Rights and stars Israeli actress Niv Sultan.
Eero Wi-Fi Products Now Available in Apple Retail Stores
Eero recently announced that its eero Wi-Fi products are available in Apple retail stores, after having launched on Apple.com in May.
App Store Ecosystem Supported $519 Billion Globally in 2019
Apple announced today that in 2019 the App Store supported US$519 billion in billing and sales globally.
Google Chrome 85 Hides Full URL Addresses
Google wants to follow in Apple’s footsteps by hiding the full URL in Google Chrome 85. Instead, with an optional (for now) toggle, users can choose to have the address bar display only the top level domain.
There’s no public explanation yet for why Google is pressing ahead with these changes, but the company has said in the past that it believes showing the full address can make it harder to tell if the current site is legitimate.
However, it’s also worth considering that making the web address less important, as this feature does, benefits Google as a company. Google’s goal with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and similar technologies is to keep users on Google-hosted content as much as possible, and Chrome for Android already modifies the address bar on AMP pages to hide that the pages are hosted by Google.
In other words, Google doesn’t want people to be able to tell the difference between Google and the internet.
Notability 9.4 Update Improves the Audio System, Plus 8 new Languages
The newest update to Notability—9.4—adds improvements to audio recordings. These recordings can now be renamed, reordered, trimmed, merged, and split. The sound equalizer has been improved in which frequencies can be adjusted for optimal listening. The recording UI has been updated, too. Next, eight new languages have been added for handwriting recognition: Danish, Filipino, Indonesian, Malay, Polish, Swedish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. Finally, a mix of smaller updates include support for iPadOS mouse pointers, themed popovers with Dark Mode, and fixes an issue where the tool switching in the top toolbar could sometimes become unresponsive. App Store: US$8.99
2020 Apple Back to School Promotion Offers Free AirPods With Mac or iPad
The 2020 Apple ‘Back to School’ promotion has been announced. Students can get a free pair of AirPods with the purchase of a Mac or iPad.