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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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How Apple Lobbyists Defeated Two App Store Bills in Georgia

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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Video Editor 'DaVinci Resolve' Now 3 Times Faster on M1 Macs

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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IMF: Credit Scores Should be Based on Browsing History

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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Coinbase Announces Phone Support for Account Takeovers

Andrew Orr ·

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.

‘Apple Music Electron’ is a Free, Open Source Alternative
Cool Stuff Found

‘Apple Music Electron’ is a Free, Open Source Alternative

Andrew Orr ·

Apple Music Electron is a free, lightweight, open source alternative to iTunes and other Apple Music applications based on Electron 13.1.0. Features include: Custom themes, language detection, customizable CSS, song notifications, auto updater, and your typical media controls like play/pause. There are multiple ways you can install it, and it’s even available on Linux.

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Since 2015 Cyber Attacks Have Cost Companies Over $25 Billion

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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A Spy Within Apple: The Story of Andrey Shumeyko, or ‘YRH04E’

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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‘Pokémon UNITE’ Launches for iOS and Android on September 22

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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United Wholesale Mortgage to Accept Bitcoin Payments by End of 2021

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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Behind The Scenes: How Boston Dynamics Builds Robots

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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OnlyFans Launches Streaming App Without Nudity

Andrew Orr ·

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