We finally have the winner of our iPhone 16 Pro international giveaway! Congratulations to Oliver T., and a huge thank you to everyone who participated.
Judges Reject Apple Bid to Appeal VirnetX Patent Case
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has rejected Apple’s bid to have it reconsider a patent infringement case with VirnetX.
Edison Mail Uses Your Emails For Market Research
Popular Apple Mail alternative Edison Mail scans your emails for market research so companies can make “better investment decisions” among other uses.
On its website Edison says that it does “process” users’ emails, but some users did not know that when using the Edison app the company scrapes their inbox for profit. Motherboard has also obtained documentation that provides more specifics about how two other popular apps—Cleanfox and Slice—sell products based on users’ emails to corporate clients.
I did write about Edison Mail coming to the Mac last year, and noted that the company calls it “interesting research.”
TV+ Trials, Taika vs Apple Keyboards – TMO Daily Observations 2020-02-10
Charlotte Henry and John Martellaro join host Kelly Guimont to discuss the fate of Apple TV+ trials, and Taika Waititi’s keyboard review.
iPadOS, iOS 13.4 Public Beta 1 is Now Out
iPadOS and iOS 13.4 public beta one is now available today. Changes include the return of iCloud folder sharing, and more.
Wikipedia War Rages Over Coronavirus Disinformation
Whenever a topic dominates the headlines it blows up on Wikipedia with users and editors battling to have proper information on the site. The coronavirus outbreak has been no different, Wired reported.
Over a few weeks, the English-language version of Wikipedia witnessed the creation of at least six articles about the outbreak. Since the beginning of January, over 18 million people have read those entries. Countless others have found their way to articles indirectly related to the coronavirus, including those for Sars, Wuhan, “bat as food” – and even Corona beer, which has seen an uptick in editing. This frenetic surge in interest is a challenge for Wikipedia’s community of volunteer editors, who have to deal with a firehose of information about the health crisis constantly flooding the website, and inevitably fight off rumours and misinformation.
New Mophie Fast-Charge Battery Packs Available at Apple
mophie recently announced three new fast-charge battery packs available at Apple.com and certain Apple retail stores. They are: powerstation, powerstation plus, and powerstation plus XL. They all feature 18W fast charge, Lighting input, and the ability to charge multiple Apple devices at the same time.
Suggested retail prices are as follows: powerstation US$59.95; powerstation plus US$79.95; powerstation plus XL US$99.95.
10-Ft Cloth MFi-Certified Lightning Cable 3-Pack: $32.99
We have a deal on a 3-pack of 10-foot cloth MFi-Certified Lightning cables. The cloth housing makes them both flexible and tangle-resistant, and the 3-pack is $32.99 through our deal. I’m linking to black ones, but there’s an option in the deal for blue and green, too, as well as 1-pack and 2-pack options.
Abode Smart Security Kit adds HomeKit Support
Abode is adding HomeKit support to its Smart Security kit, a DIY home security system featuring a gateway, motion sensor, and more.
Upgrading iPad Multitasking by Making it More Like on a Mac
Multitasking on the iPad has improved, but is still something of a sore point for power users, and barely used by most others. Ben Lovejoy at 9to5Mac made some recommendations that would mean multitasking on an iPad closer resembled how works on a Mac.
Gestures are faster, and while entirely unintuitive, they are easy to remember once you’re used to them, so I wouldn’t take them away. They can effectively be the power user option: the iPad equivalent of keyboard shortcuts. Second, while recognizing that an iPad is not a Mac, I can’t see any reason to reinvent the wheel when it comes to how you close or expand a window. Why not have the same Close, Minimize, and Full-Screen buttons we have on Mac apps? Sure, they would be tiny touch targets for a finger, but they could initially be a single touch target that expands into a larger version when tapped, and we then tap the specific button we want.
FBI Investigates Over 1,000 Cases of Chinese IP Theft
At the China Initiative Conference, government officials from the FBI and DoJ spent four hours talking about theft of U.S. intellectual property by China.
“The threat from China is real, it’s persistent, it’s well-orchestrated, it’s well-resourced, and it’s not going away anytime soon,” John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, opened the conference.
“This one to me really stands out as the greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Foxconn Reopens Factory, But With Just 10 Percent of Workforce
Following the Coronavirus outbreak, around 16,000 Foxconn workers have now returned to the iPhone maker’s Zengzhou factory.
Oscar Winning Director Slams Apple’s Butterfly Keyboard
Oscar winning director Taika Waititi took aim at Apple’s butterfly keyboard, and called on the Writers Guild of America to “do something.”
Start with The Preposterous, Bow to The Absurd – Mac Geek Gab 801
You love the Quick Tips? You’ll love these when you learn about the things you can do with window edges, copying screenshots, picture-in-picture mode, and extra options for the Safari Share Sheet. Say THAT ten times fast! Then, move on to learning the least expensive way to stream Apple TV+ to your TV, manage iOS’s varying volume levels, override iOS autocorrect and much, much more. Just press play and join John, Dave, and your fellow MGG listeners in learning at least five new things together!
Not Wanting Surveillance Competition, Facebook Tells Clearview AI to Back Off
Last month, we got word that a company called Clearview AI helped law enforcement with its facial recognition technology. Now, Facebook and Google, which also use facial recognition, told Clearview AI to stop scraping images from each one’s website.
Ton-That argued that his firm’s work is protected by the First Amendment and also that Clearview doesn’t do anything Google doesn’t.
“The way we have built our system is to only take publicly available information and index it that way,” he said.
Ton-That added, “Google can pull in information from all different websites… So if it’s public and it’s out there and could be inside Google search engine, it can be inside ours as well.”
There’s ANOTHER Streaming Service on The Way
I’m sure you would all agree, that what we need is another streaming service. Thankfully, ViacomCBS are set to answer our call. A new service bringing together content from the newly merged firm is in the works, CNBC reported, creating yet another challenger for Apple TV+.
While ViacomCBS executives haven’t made any firm decisions, they are considering creating a service with advertisements that will combine CBS All Access with Viacom assets including Pluto TV, Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures, said the people, who asked not to be named because the product discussions are private. An ad-free version will also be available, and a premium version of the streaming service will include Showtime, the people said. ViacomCBS executives haven’t decided on a name for the service, nor a price, though the base service will probably be less than $10 a month, two of the people said.
Avast Probably Isn't The Only Antivirus Company Selling User Data
In today’s episode of The Mac Observer‘s Daily Observations podcast, Kelly and I did our Security Friday. We talked about two security articles this week, and answered a reader’s question about antivirus programs. I mentioned that people shouldn’t use Avast since it was revealed they collected and sold user data. Now, in the irony of ironies, I got an email today from someone offering me Trend Micro user data.
We have an updated contact list of Trend Micro Users, which can support your marketing campaigns. The database will have access to complete contact information of Trend Micro Users including Emails, Phone number, Mailing address and other relevant data fields. Please let me know your interest in acquiring the list and I will get back to you with counts and pricing. Also, let me know if you are interested in acquiring similar technology users contact list.
That’s a no from me, fam.
Foxconn Staff Told to Stay Away from Shenzhen Factory
The impact of the coronavirus outbreak is continuing to be felt by Apple. Key iPhone assembler Foxconn has now told its works to stay away from its Shenzhen factory, Bloomberg News reported.
The moratorium represents an extreme effort by Apple Inc.’s most important partner to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus that’s paralyzed much of China’s manufacturing. Foxconn’s main iPhone-making base is farther north in Zhengzhou but coastal Shenzhen serves as its Chinese headquarters and the majority of the tens of thousands employed there are out-of-towners. The company also assembles a small portion of iPhones there. “To safeguard everyone’s health and safety and comply with government virus prevention measures, we urge you not to return to Shenzhen,” Foxconn wrote in a text message sent to employees. “We’ll update you on the situation in the city. The company will protect everyone’s work-related rights and interests in the duration. As for the happy reunion date in Shenzhen, please wait for further notice.”
Security Friday! – TMO Daily Observations 2020-02-07
Andrew Orr joins host Kelly Guimont to discuss the latest security headlines and some tips for avoiding malware and viruses on your Mac.
Trump Administration Using Smartphone Data For Border Enforcement
The Trump administration purchased a commercial database mapping the movements of millions of cellphones for border enforcement purposes.
Transform Your Home and Car Audio System with Firefly, the World's Smallest Bluetooth Music Receiver: $29.99
We have a deal on the TUNAL Firefly Bluetooth Receiver, a device that lets you stream crisp, high-quality music from your smartphone or tablet with patented technology that supports multiple codecs, including AAC. IT has a USB port for power and a 3.5mm AUX for plugging into your car’s audio input. It’s $29.99 through our deal.
Apple Watch Now Outsells All Swiss Watch Brands Combined
The Apple Watch outsold the entire Swiss watch industry in 2019, thanks to a 13 percent increase in the number of units shipped worldwide.
Apple Receives €25 Million Fine From French Authorities
The French authorities issued Apple with a €25 ($27.4) million fine, following an investigation into the slowing down of older iPhones.
Apple Watch February 2020 Activity Challenge Starts Tomorrow
Apple Watch users: Celebrate Heart Month with the February 2020 Activity Challenge to get special iMessage stickers and an activity badge.
A Solution to Improve iPad Multitasking
Complaints about iPad multitasking have been making the rounds lately, and I largely agree with them. It’s not obvious how to put two apps into Split View mode for example. When I got my iPad Pro I had to look up how to do it. Ryan Christoffel of MacStories came up with a solution, reminiscent of macOS Catalina. As in, long press an app icon and see a menu with options for “Pair Left of App”, “Pair Right of App” etc. I have to say, I do hate this feature in Catalina, where you click on a Safari full screen button to drag it into Split View, but now there’s this same menu. It adds an unnecessary wait to a feature that was previously instant. However, I think it makes sense on the iPad because a long press already required a wait.
With a long-press on any app icon, on both iPhone and iPad, a context menu appears. This same gesture works whether the app icon is in your dock, on your Home screen, or in Search. Context menus currently display options like Edit Home Screen, Show All Windows, and any app-specific quick actions. Let’s add a couple new options that relate to multitasking.