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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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IBM Sells Technology to a Dictatorship...Again

Andrew Orr ·

IBM is no stranger to selling stuff to dictators. First it was the Nazis, now it’s the United Arab Emirates.

But even as [facial recognition] technology comes under more scrutiny in the United States, tech giants such as IBM, and China’s Hikvision and Huawei, are marketing biometric surveillance systems in the UAE, where citizens have fewer options to push back. The UAE has used cellphone hacking software to spy on hundreds of dissidents, journalists, and suspected criminals, and has invested heavily in surveillance technology, according to human rights groups and international media reports.

 

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The Splinternet is Growing Bigger

Andrew Orr ·

The splinternet, also known as cyberbalkanization, refers to how governments split the World Wide Web into national internets.

It’s not just authoritarian countries trying to bend the global web to national values. The same social media companies that gave rise to unrest in the Middle East have come under fire in the West for allowing their services to be used to promote hatred and terrorism. In response, England and Australia have recently passed laws demanding tech firms provide easier access to web users’ communications.

Sometimes I think that in the future there will be no internet. There won’t be a web browser, there will just be apps that are easier to censor and control.

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NBC News Now Offers Free News For Cordcutters

Andrew Orr ·

NBC News Now is a new streaming service from NBC that offers free news to cordcutters. It’s available on iOS and tvOS.

NBC News Now will air live programming between 3PM and 11PM Eastern through both the web as well as the NBC News apps on mobile devices as well as Apple TV, Fire TV and Roku. It’ll offer an ad-supported mix of live programming (both on-the-hour segments and breaking news) as well as pre-recorded features and interviews.

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Apple Creates ‘App Store: Principles and Practices’ Page

Andrew Orr ·

Apple has a created a new web page titled, ‘App Store: Principles and Practices’ possibly as a reaction to the accusations that the App Store is a monopoly.

We believe that what’s in our store says a lot about who we are. We strongly support all points of view being represented on the App Store. But we also take steps to make sure apps are respectful to users with differing opinions, and reject apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line — especially when it puts children at risk. For example, we strictly prohibit any app that features pornographic material, discriminatory references, torture and abuse, or anything else in exceptionally poor taste.

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Philip Lee Creates the Classicbot Mac Plush

Andrew Orr ·

Designer Philip Lee has created the Classicbot Mac plush, giving you a squishy Mac you can hug.

Priced at $72, the Classicbot Giant Plush is rather expensive, but like Lee’s smaller figurines, it’s been designed with quite a lot of detail. There’s a disk insert at the front along with a Classicbot logo in place of an Apple logo, and at the back, embroidered details represent the fan, ports, plus, and more.

A perfect product for Apple collectors.

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Colorado Students Secretly Photographed for Military Research

Andrew Orr ·

From 2012 to 2013, students at the University of Colorado’s Colorado Springs campus were secretly photographed as part of a research project. The U.S. Navy wanted to improve its facial recognition algorithms.

To conduct the study, [professor] Boult set up a long-range surveillance camera in an office window about 150 meters away from the West Lawn of the Colorado Springs campus, a public area where passers-by would not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The camera surreptitiously photographed people walking in the area of the West Lawn on certain days during the spring semesters of 2012 and 2013.

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First T-Mobile 5G Test Reaches 493 Mbps in New York

Andrew Orr ·

During the first T-Mobile 5G test in New York City, the service scored 493 Mbps using a Verizon phone.

T-Mobile’s feat becomes greater when you understand that the carrier is using much less spectrum than Verizon is. Allnet Insights says T-Mobile is using 80MHz of spectrum in New York, which would make its theoretical maximum speed 500Mbps, but I’ve also heard that T-Mobile is using 100MHz, which would make the theoretical maximum 625Mbps.

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Inside Apple’s Secure Enclave Stress Testing Efforts

Andrew Orr ·

The Independent recently published an interview with Craig Federighi, talking about privacy and Apple chips.

Those chips are here to see whether they can withstand whatever assault anyone might try on them when they make their way out into the world. If they succeed here, then they should succeed anywhere; that’s important, because if they fail out in the world then so would Apple. These chips are the great line of defence in a battle that Apple never stops fighting as it tries to keep users’ data private.

I don’t think the article was written well, but to me the most interesting part was Secure Enclave stress testing, which involves temperature. I assume Apple is trying to prevent hacks like this.

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News+: Personalize Siri and Search

Andrew Orr ·

In the June issue of MacFormat magazine we find out how to personalize Siri and Search by changing certain settings. It’s on page 52 (it’s a PDF).

Siri takes repetition, the time of day and your location into account for its suggestions. As well as the Lock screen, suggestions can appear in iOS’s search results and in iOS’s Look Up feature. You may want to stop info from some apps leaking out onto the Lock screen in particular, so we’ll show you how.

This is part of Andrew’s News+ series, where he shares a magazine every Friday to help people discover good content in Apple News+.