After reports that T-Mobile was blocking iCloud Private Relay for most subscribers, the carrier found a bug in iOS causing all the ruckus.
'PUBG: Battlegrounds' Now Free to Play on all Platforms
KRAFTON, Inc announced on Wednesday that its game PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS is now free to play on PC and consoles. With the game’s transition to F2P, it introduces BATTLEGROUNDS Plus, an optional premium account upgrade that allows players to access a variety of new and exclusive in-game features. While all new players will start with a Basic Account that offers access to most game features, they can upgrade to BATTLEGROUNDS Plus for a one-time fee of US$12.99 USD and gain access to the following: Bonus 1,300 G-COIN; Survival Mastery XP + 100% boost; Career – Medal tab; Ranked Mode; Custom Match functionality; In-Game items, including the Captain’s Camo set, which includes hat, camo mask and camo gloves.
Apple Discontinues Beats Pill+
Apple has discontinued the Beats Pill+, meaning the company is no longer offering any kind of speaker to customers under that branding.
New 'SysJoker' Backdoor is a Multi-Platform Threat for macOS, Windows, Linux
There is a new piece of malware floating around. This SysJoker backdoor was discovered in December 2021 by the Intezer team.
What's a 'Wordle?' Here's the Story of This Popular Game
If you’ve been wondering what a “wordle” is as I have, fear no more. The New York Times tells its story.
It’s been a meteoric rise for the once-a-day game, which invites players to guess a five-letter word in a similar manner as the guess-the-color game Mastermind. After guessing a five-letter word, the game tells you whether any of your letters are in the secret word and whether they are in the correct place. You have six tries to get it right.
Star-Studded Cast to Tell Story of Beanie Babies Craze in Apple Film
Apple Original Films has won the rights to ‘The Beanie Bubble’, in which a star-studded cast tells the story of the Beanie Babies craze.
Changes and 15 Years of iPhone - ACM 567
Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Gamet reflect on recent changes, and they try to put 15 years of iPhone into context. Hard to believe!
TransCredit Data Leak Over 800,000 Records of Credit Reports
Jeremiah Fowler together with the Website Planet research team found an unsecured Transcredit data leak of 822,789 records.
Apple in Discussions to Broadcast MLB Games
Apple is reportedly in “substantial talks” to broadcast MLB games next season – its potential first foray into live sport.
Apple Series, Services, and Sports – TMO Daily Observations 2022-01-11
Charlotte Henry and Andrew Orr join host Kelly Guimont to discuss Apple’s announcements about services and TV+ possibly broadcasting sports.
Update to 'Apple Frames' Shortcut Supports Apple Watch Series 7, 2021 MacBook Pro
Over at MacStories, Federico Viticci updated his Apple Frames shortcut. This is a brilliant tool I use nearly every day to frame my screenshots into an Apple device frame, or outline. He recently updated it to support the Apple Watch Series 7 and 2021 MacBook Pro. You can find Mr. Viticci’s article at the link below. “Starting with Apple Frames 2.1, the Shortcuts app will detect whether you have an older version of the Frames.json installed in iCloud Drive, and it’ll automatically replace it with the latest one from the MacStories CDN. That’s it. If an old version of the Frames.json file is found, Shortcuts will send you a notification and re-download the file from cdn.macstories.net.“
'The Morning Show' Returning For Season Three With New Showrunner
‘The Morning Show’ will return to Apple TV+ for season three with a new showrunner, Charlotte Stoudt, leading the series.
First Crypto Single Sign-On Option Launches for Ethereum, Polygon
Unstoppable Domains has launched the first-ever crypto Single Sign-On (SSO) option for Ethereum and Polygon.
Generate AI Music With 'Boomy' And Sell it on Spotify
Boomy is a service that lets you generate AI music in less than 30 seconds, then submit the tracks to Spotify and other platforms.
While Boomy owns the copyright to each recording, and receives the funds in the first instance, the company says it passes on 80% of the streaming royalties to the person who created the song. Mr Mitchell adds that more than 10,000 of its users have published over 100,000 songs in total on various streaming services.
Associated Press NFT Marketplace Announced for its Photojournalism
On Monday the Associated Press announced an NFT marketplace it will launch on January 31 in collaboration with Xooa.
Apple Glass Patent Suggests Vision Correction
A just-granted Apple Glass patent could be excellent news for those of us who already wear prescription eyeglasses.
Update Immediately: Bug in 'Cryptomator' Leaks Encrypted File Paths to Apple
A bug in Cryptomator was recently found and reported on for the iOS app. The team wrote about the vulnerability on Tuesday.
Apple's Potential Audiobooks Offering — Media+
Kelly Guimont and Jeff Butts join Charlotte Henry to discuss another award win for Jason Sudeikis and the potential of an Apple audiobooks service.
National Clean Your Desk Day Means Your Mac Desktop, Too
Maybe you’ve already taken care of your physical space for National Clean Your Desk Day, but what about your Mac desktop?
Mac Security Tools Company 'Objective-See' Goes Non-Profit
Instead of antivirus or antimalware software, I use several tools from Objective-See. They’re free and open source. Company founder Patrick Wardle is making the business a non-profit.
I see a lot of people who take VC money and almost always your business model has to change or you have to put profits first and can’t do the community focus and public service activities you want. Going the nonprofit route is a really good approach and illustrates that you can support your company on donations without having to change that business model.
Fifteen Years of iPhone – TMO Daily Observations 2022-01-10
Charlotte Henry and Jeff Butts join host Kelly Guimont to discuss a decade and a half of iPhone and how the landscape has changed.
Avira Antivirus Crypto Miner is Also a Thing, Following Norton
Following Norton, Avira Antivirus crypto miner is also a thing now, as the company is owned by NortonLifeLock.
Not only does Norton press gang your system into mining Etherium [sic], they take a 15% cut off the top for doing so, though at least they let you keep the rest; whether you know it or not. The problem is that antivirus programs are supposed to prevent you from unwittingly mining cryptcoin for others, not actively recruit you for it. This might not seem bad at first glance, as they give you a dashboard which shows just how much money you could theoretically get if you cashed in the Etherium [sic] them made you mind.
'LinkedIn Live' Audio Events to Launch Later in January 2022
LinkedIn Live is an upcoming feature for the company to allow for interactive events on its platform. It launches later this month.
T-Mobile Blocks iCloud Private Relay for Customers in United States
It appears that carriers in the U.S. and aboard aren’t happy with iCloud Private Relay. The setting, released with iOS 15, likely interferes with surveillance of customers. A report from 9To5Mac says that T-Mobile has begun blocking the feature.
The change does not appear to be network-wide just yet, but rather it appears T-Mobile is in the process of rolling it out. This means that some users might still be able to use iCloud Private Relay when connected to their cellular network – at least for now.
Very shady behavior. I haven’t been using Private Relay because it overrides my DNS. The good news is that carriers can’t prevent you from changing your DNS settings.