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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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The Search for Infamous Phone Phreaker Susy Thunder

The Verge has a cool story about searching for Susy Thunder, a phone phreaker and social engineer.

Susan found her way into the hacker underground through the phone network. In the late 1970s, Los Angeles was a hotbed of telephone culture: you could dial-a-joke, dial-a-horoscope, even dial-a-prayer. Susan spent most of her days hanging around on 24-hour conference lines, socializing with obsessives with code names like Dan Dual Phase and Regina Watts Towers. Some called themselves phone phreakers and studied the Bell network inside out; like Susan’s groupie friends, they knew how to find all the back doors.

Facebook Rolls Out End-to-End Encrypted Chats for Everyone

End-to-end encrypted chats are now available for all users of Facebook Messenger, the company announced. This includes group chats and calls.

Last year, we announced that we began testing end-to-end encryption for group chats, including voice and video calls. We’re excited to announce that this feature is available to everyone. Now you can choose to connect with your friends and family in a private and secure way.

These secure chats remain opt-in only, instead of encrypted by default like actual private messaging apps.

An NFT on OpenSea Can Steal Your IP Address

An NFT found on the OpenSea marketplace can steal visitors’ IP addresses, according to a repot from Motherboard.

Of course, websites often collect and store visitors’ IP addresses in virtue of how the sites function. OpenSea itself likely collects the IP addresses of visitors, like plenty of other sites, apps, or services. But here, an outside third party—the NFT seller—is able to gather information themselves on the people viewing the NFT, potentially without them knowing.

'The Matrix Resurrections' Now Available to Rent or Buy on Apple TV

The newest movie in the franchise, The Matrix Resurrections is now available to buy or rent on Apple TV. Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Lambert Wilson reprise their roles from the previous films, and they are joined by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The film is set sixty years after Revolutions and follows Neo, who lives a seemingly ordinary life as a video game developer troubled with distinguishing dreams from reality. A group of rebels, with the help of a programmed version of Morpheus, free Neo from a new version of the Matrix and fight a new enemy that holds Trinity captive.

Contactless iPhone Payments May Be Just Around The Corner

Contactless iPhone payments could be enabled in a future iOS update, Mark Gurman wrote on Wednesday. It means that small business could accept credit card payments directly with an iPhone, without needing a terminal such as Square. Jeff Butts has more information here.

In order to accept payments on an iPhone today, merchants need to use payment terminals that plug in or communicate with the phone via Bluetooth. The upcoming feature will instead turn the iPhone into a payment terminal, letting users such as food trucks and hair stylists accept payments with the tap of a credit card or another iPhone onto the back of their device.

ID.me CEO Admits Company Uses '1:Many' Facial Recognition

ID.me CEO Blake Hall wrote in a LinkedIn post that his company uses 1:many facial recognition. Cyber Scoop explains how this contradicts a press release saying ID.me does not use this technology. 1:many means the technology can identify people within mass databases of photos. It’s the opposite of the 1:1 face match proposed in the IRS + ID.me verification.

“We could disable the 1:many face search, but then lose a valuable fraud fighting tool. Or we could change our public stance on using 1:many face search,” an engineer wrote in a message posted to a company Slack channel on Tuesday. “But it seems we can’t keep doing one thing and saying another as that’s bound to land us in hot water.”

A Designer's Perspective on AirPods Annoyances

UI designer Philip Ardeljan wrote a blog post on AirPods annoyances and how they don’t fit Apple’s mantra of “Just Work.”

Annoyance 1: If you have 2 devices, say iMac and iPhone connected to AirPods, when you are using your iMac and unlock your iPhone to check something, sometimes, the AirPods switch to the iPhone. But you didn’t want them to. I get that Apple is trying to be clever and anticipate your moves, which I genuinely appreciate, but when it gets in the way it’s annoying.

This one in particular annoys me too.

Apple Releases 'Unity Lights' Watch Face for Black History Month

Apple has released a Unity Lights watch face to celebrate Black History Month. In a press release this morning, the company shared all the ways in which it will celebrate this year. Throughout February, Apple Watch users can participate in the Unity Challenge and earn a limited-edition award by closing their Move ring seven days in a row. The Unity Lights watch face will be available today and requires Apple Watch Series 4 or later running watchOS 8.3, and iPhone 6s or later running iOS 15.2. The Black Unity Braided Solo Loop is available now at the link below and in the Apple Store app, and will be available in select Apple Store locations beginning Tuesday, February 1 for US$99. The Black Unity Braided Solo Loop is compatible with Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 4 or newer.

AirGuard Lets You Detect AirTags on Android Smartphones

Android owners, this one is for you. AirGuard lets you detect AirTags on Android so you won’t get secretly tracked like we’ve been hearing about in the news. You can download it from Google Play, F-Droid, or straight from the GitHub page linked below. From the page: “With AirGuard you get the anti-tracking protection you deserve! The app periodically scans your surroundings for potential tracking devices, like AirTags or other Find My devices. If a devices follows you, you will get a notification in less than an hour. With the app you can play a sound on AirTags and find it easily. Afterward, you can view at which locations the device has tracked you. If no one is trying to track you, the app will never bother you.

ProtonMail 1.15.11 Update Fixes Bugs With Push Notifications

The ProtonMail 1.15.11 update for iOS fixes a slew of bugs that users were experiencing. From the version notes: Fixed a bug where push notifications where not received properly. Fixed an occasional bug where swipe actions in the inbox were applied to the wrong message. Fixed an occasional bug where the reply, reply all and forward option did not work on some messages.  Fixed an occasional bug during signup where the prompt for captcha was not fully visible. Fixed a bug where contacts migrated through the Proton Easy Switch functionality were not properly displayed. Preparation for upcoming change to exclude embedded images from counting towards attachments. Technical improvements behind the scenes (including updates to the cryptographic library, improvements related to key management and password changes and more).

A Crypto Wallet Crack Recovered $2 Million in Tokens

The Verge had a fascinating story out yesterday about a crypto wallet crack that helped two friends get their tokens back. It’s a long-ish read but not overly technical.

Reich gave up and wrote off the money in his mind. He was willing to take the loss — until the price started to rise again. From a low of around $12,000, the value of their tokens started to skyrocket. By the end of 2020, it would be worth more than $400,000, rising briefly to over $3 million. It would be hard to get into the wallet without the PIN — but it wasn’t impossible. And with potentially millions on the line, Reich and his friend vowed to find a way inside.