Enter our new international giveaway for a chance to win the brand new iPhone 16 Pro.
Zillow Adds Support for FaceTime SharePlay to Browse Houses
Zillow announced that its app will support SharePlay, a FaceTime feature that lets iOS 15 users share what’s on their screen with others.
DuckDuckGo to Release Private Browser for Mac in 2022
On Tuesday, DuckDuckGo shared its review of achievements and improvements in 2021. Looking ahead, the company plans to release a private browser for the desktop.
Instead of forking Chromium or anything else, we’re building our desktop app around the OS-provided rendering engines (like on mobile), allowing us to strip away a lot of the unnecessary cruft and clutter that’s accumulated over the years in major browsers. With our clean and simple interface combined with the beloved Fire Button from our mobile app, DuckDuckGo for desktop will be ready to become your new everyday browsing app.
'Have I Been Pwned' Completes FBI Ingestion Pipeline for Passwords
Troy Hunt, creator of Have I Been Pwned, has completed a pipeline that enables the ingestion of passwords from law enforcement agencies, like the FBI.
The premise is simple: during the course of their investigations, they come across a lot of compromised passwords and if they were able to continuously feed those into HIBP, all the other services out there using Pwned Passwords would be able to better protect their customers from account takeover attacks. Fast forward to now and that ingestion pipeline is finally live.
State Legislators Help Libraries in Fight Over Ebook Licensing Terms
A report from Axios says libraries want better licensing terms for eBooks from Amazon and other publishers. States are stepping in to help the libraries.
A Maryland law set to take effect in January and a similar bill in New York would require publishers that sell ebooks to consumers to also license them to libraries on reasonable terms. The Maryland law and New York bill say it is not reasonable to limit the number of ebook licenses libraries can buy at the same date they are available to the general public.
Slopes Ski Tracking App on iOS Gets Major Update
Ski tracking app Slopes got a major iOS update, including a new recording experience on the iPhone and premium digital trail maps.
App Store Publishers Earning US$1 Million For First Time Down Nearly 9% in 2021
The number of App Store publishers earning net US$1 million or more for the first time dropped by nearly 9% in 2021 compared to 2020.
Loopring Releases Layer 2 Counterfactual Wallet for iOS
On Tuesday Loopring announced the release of its Layer 2 Counterfactual Wallet for cryptocurrency.
With the release of our Counterfactual Wallet, users can now deploy the Wallet on L2-only, bypassing a costly creation fee on L1. This-try-it-before-you-buy-it option allows users to experience the power of Ethereum L2 right away. If users would like to withdraw funds to L1, they can deploy their Ethereum L1 smart contract wallet, paying for the creation cost at that time.
EarthWorks ETHOS Microphone Review
Dave Hamilton is testing a new microphone in Mac Geek Gab 903, the Earthworks ETHOS!
Check out the review and how it sounds in this mini-segment!
Holiday Viewing Picks – TMO Daily Observations 2021-12-21
Charlotte Henry and host Kelly Guimont chat about their picks for holiday themed viewing as well as suggestions for additional downtime TV.
iOS 15: How to Create a Memoji Using Your iPhone 13
iOS 14 adds new customization options to let you personalize your Memoji even further. Here’s how to create one.
'Merry Christmas' - First SMS Ever Sent Sells for US$121,000
The first SMS ever sent sold for €107,000 euros (US$121,000) as an NFT at an auction in Paris on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The message says “Merry Christmas” and was sent on December 3, 1992, by an engineer at UK carrier Vodafone.
Vodafone engineer Neil Papworth sent the SMS from his computer to a manager in the United Kingdom, who received it on his 2-kg (4 lb) “Orbitel” telephone – similar to a desk phone but cordless and with a handle. “They were in the middle of end-of-year events so he sent him the message ‘Merry Christmas’,” said Maximilien Aguttes, head of development for the Aguttes Auction House…The selling of intangible goods is not legal in France and so the auction house has packaged the text message in a digital frame, displaying the code and communication protocol, Aguttes said.
[Image credt: Agutess]
'Cryptomator' 2.0 is Here and it Integrates Into iOS Files App
The team behind Cryptomator has rewritten the app in Swift, and with version 2.0 the app is completely integrated into the Files app. This means that your vaults are directly accessible from there. For example, you can now save and edit a Word document directly in an encrypted vault via the Files app. In addition, features like thumbnails, grid view, swiping through images, and drag & drop are possible with the new app. To summarize, Cryptomator gives you end-to-end encryption for your files. You can store them in Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, and more. You can also store them offline in the Files app or on a hard drive.
End of Year Round-Up With Mark Gurman — Media+
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg News joins host Charlotte Henry for the final Media+ of 2021. They look back on Apple’s digital media successes and failures in the last 12 months and discuss what might come next.
How to Control Your HomePod: The Basics
There is a lot you can do with Apple’s HomePod and HomePod mini. Here are the basics you need to know to control your HomePod.
Check Out These Colorful X-Ray Wallpapers for Your iPhone
The Basic Apple Guy (via 9To5Mac) created a series of colorful iPhone wallpapers based on the X-ray images from iFixit. These iPhone 13 Pro | Pro Max schematics are a fun way to let you know the details hiding underneath your display. “Ten different designs have been created: Black, Xray, Sunset, Slate, Neon Blue, M1, Card, Blueprint, Rainbow Bloom, & Rainbow . And as a special treat, I’ve also added three additional designs: 3021, R08135, & DF, which celebrate figures in the community I admire. I plan on creating other colour patterns to release over the next few months, with these 11 being the first of many to come.”
Apple Seeds iOS 15.3 Developer And Public Betas, Still no Universal Control
Apple has seeded the first round of developer and public betas for iOS and iPadOS 15.3, but Universal Control does not seem to be part of it.
Five Things to Watch on Apple TV+ Over The Christmas Holidays
There are lots of great Christmas shows and films to watch on Apple TV+, and some things to catch up on this holiday season.
Explaining 'log4j' and Why it's a Serious Cybersecurity Threat
In early December a cybersecurity threat was discovered with the popular “log4j” utility. The Post has a good piece on the exploit, explained in non-jargon.
The fact that log4j is such a ubiquitous piece of software is what makes this such a big deal. Imagine if a common type of lock used by millions of people to keep their doors shut was suddenly discovered to be ineffective. Switching a single lock for a new one is easy, but finding all the millions of buildings that have that defective lock would take time and an immense amount of work.
Check Out Schlage’s Upcoming Home Key Smart Lock
Leaked product details from a home improvement retailer give us our first look at what may be the first Home Key smart lock.
Consortium Finalizes Digital Key Release 3.0 for Devices Like iPhone
The Car Connectivity Consortium has published its Digital Key Release 3.0 specification to enable keyless access to supported vehicles.
Wi-Fi Gateway From Airangel Affects Hundreds of Hotels
Security researcher Etizaz Mohsin says that the Airangel HSMX Gateway, used by many hotels to offer Wi-Fi to guests, contains hardcoded passwords that are easy to guess.
With those passwords, which we are not publishing, an attacker could remotely gain access to the gateway’s settings and databases, which store records about the guest’s using the Wi-Fi. With that access, an attacker could access and exfiltrate guest records, or reconfigure the gateway’s networking settings to unwittingly redirect guests to malicious webpages, he said.
Tips and Tricks to Optimize Your Gear – TMO Daily Observations 2021-12-20
Andrew Orr and Jeff Butts join host Kelly Guimont to discuss tips and tricks for iOS backups, Bluetooth devices, and upgrading iOS.
iOS: Set a Category for Bluetooth Devices to Get the Best Experience
Apple released iOS 14.4 on Tuesday and one of the features involves Bluetooth device types that people can manually set.