We finally have the winner of our iPhone 16 Pro international giveaway! Congratulations to Oliver T., and a huge thank you to everyone who participated.
Twitter Experiments With 'Communities' Feature for Shared Interests
Twitter is experimenting with a feature called Communities. It would let people tweet directly to others who share the same interests.
Subscription Control, Treats for Your Tech – TMO Daily Observations 2021-09-08
Jeff Butts and Charlotte Henry join host Kelly Guimont to discuss managing all of your subscriptions, and Charlotte’s new headphones.
Privacy Advocates Deliver 59,000 Petition Signatures to Apple Over CSAM Detection
Privacy advocates have delivered a petition to Apple over its plans to install a system on its devices to detect child sexual abuse material.
Germany Secretly Purchased NSO Group Spyware 'Pegasus'
A report reveals that Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) had purchased the Pegasus spyware to monitor suspects.
AirPods Pro: First Impressions After (Finally) Getting a Pair
Despite a previous aversion to the stems, Charlotte Henry got a pair of AirPods Pro this week and loves them.
Graph Blockchain Aims to Create 3D NFTs for Augmented Reality
New World Inc, a subsidiary of Graph Blockchain, announced its intention to create NFTs using 3D scanning. These allow them to be viewed in an immersive environment using AR/VR.
For example, Contributors can create holograms of their favorite athlete, fabricate an unconventional piece of furniture, design a high-end piece of clothing, or create abstract pieces of art, all derived from objects in the tangible world.
Brazilian singer, songwriter, and dancer Naldo Benny is the most recent celebrity to team up with New World to create an NFT through 3D scanning. Naldo tracked his signature dance moves and mannerisms that were translated into a digital avatar by New World’s creative team and sold as an NFT.
This seems cool to me, and more of what I envision NFTs to be: Virtual representations of physical objects.
Logitech's New 'Logi Dock' Combines a Speaker and Dock for Cords
On Wednesday Logitech announced Logi Dock, a product that features one-touch controls for video meetings, a speakerphone, and ports.
Make Siri Your Personal Assistant
Use this Siri Hack to turn Siri into your personal assistant! Want to learn more? Check Out Mac Geek Gab 887.
Apple Car Project Chief Heads to Ford
While we speculate Cupertino executives are in Tokyo talking to Toyota, another Apple Car project chief is moving to new highways.
BMW i4 Electric Vehicle Will Have Apple CarPlay Full Integrated
Apple CarPlay is going to sit right at the heart of the forthcoming BMW i4 electric vehicle. MacRumors look a look at the promotional material that shows a fully integrated instrument cluster.
BMW describes the Apple CarPlay experience in the i4 as “even more seamless.” The i4 features two curved displays and a heads-up display. All three displays can display information from Apple CarPlay simultaneously. The BMW i4 features iDrive 8, which supports wireless Apple CarPlay, turn-by-turn Apple Maps prompts in the heads-up display, and Apple Maps and directions in the instrument cluster.
Invitations and Rumors – TMO Daily Observations 2021-09-07
Jeff Butts and Bryan Chaffin join host Kelly Guimont to discuss the (now announced) iPhone event, and what else may be revealed next week.
Apple Releases Another AirTags FirmWare Update
For the third time in recent days, Apple released new AirTags firmware on Tuesday. AppleInisder reported that the software mainly contains bug fixes. It is automatically installed over the air.
It is unknown what the new firmware with version 1.0.291 (A1291e) brings, and Apple has released no documentation to support the revision. However, the update is expected to bring bug fixes and general improvements to the product. The past firmware was upgraded to the same version number but with a different build number — 1.0.291 (1A291c). The last firmware was released just five days after the previous one debuted.
This Person Has Archived the Entirety of iTunes U
A Redditor announced that they. have archived the entire iTunes U catalog, and asks for help to upload some of the larger torrent files.
Apple Exec Looks to Address Concerns Raised by AppleToo Movement
Apple’s head of retail and people, Deirdre O’Brien, sought to address a number of key issues amongst staff raised by the AppleToo movement.
Developers Receive tvOS 15 Beta 9 for Their Devices
Apple released tvOS 15 beta 9 for developers. The company doesn’t provide release notes for this OS, but we do know what features will arrive this fall.
Bitcoin Becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador Today
El Salvador officially made Bitcoin a legal tender currency on Tuesday, September 7, the first country to do so. This move comes into effect three months after its parliament passed the vote.
The big advantage Bitcoin will have for these economies is that they will not have any debt to pay to anyone. It also means that these countries will offer excellent opportunities for the adoption of cryptocurrencies and for crypto startups. This will eventually boost taxation and can become a growth point for this country.
Rogue Amoeba's Fission Pulled from the Mac App Store
Rogue Amoeba has pulled Fission from the Mac App Store after almost a decade of trying to convince Apple to improve the service for users.
Hulu Raises Prices for On-Demand Plans by a Dollar
Disney is raising the prices of on-demand Hulu plans by US$1.00 to push subscribers to its Disney Bundle and Live TV packages.
Here are Steps to Take to Protect Your Privacy on Apple Devices
Macinstruct published a brief guide on protecting your privacy on Apple devices as a response to Apple’s CSAM detection plans.
We’re now encouraging readers to protect their privacy by disabling certain Apple features. In situations where privacy is a hard requirement, it may be necessary to consider using non-Apple hardware and software. This article provides an overview of our recommendations and your options.
It’s a decent guide except for the recommendation to disable iMessage in favor of SMS. iMessage is end-to-end encrypted, SMS is not. My advice for iMessage privacy is to prevent Messages from storing content in iCloud. When that happens, Apple has the capability to decrypt texts. On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Profile Name > iCloud, and turn off the toggle for Messages. Then go to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages. Change it to auto-delete old messages after 30 days. Or, use a private messenger such as Signal.
Apple 2021 Fall Event Scheduled for September 14, Invites Reveal
Apple has sent out official invites for its 2021 Fall product event. It’s set for September 14 at 10:00AM PT, 1:00 ET.
Apple Watch Series 7 Coming Soon, but in Short Supply
We’re waiting for the iPhone 13 event, when Apple also unveils the Apple Watch Series 7. Deliveries of the new Watch might be later, though.
Using Folder Actions To Keep Your Mac Organized
Did you know Folder Actions still exist for macOS? Find out how to use them to organize your Mac folders in this Quick Tip from Mac Geek Gab 887.
The H.266 Video Codec is Coming. Here’s What it Promises
The next codec for video compression is H.266, or Versatile Video Codec (VVC). It promises up to 50% better compression than H.265, or High-Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC).
The JVET decided to build H.266 (VVC) for applications beyond video streaming. The standard has support for beaming 4K to 8K videos seamlessly, along with support for 360-degree videos. This could be useful in VR and AR applications.
Bross mentioned that H.266 is designed in such a way that that you can access different regions of a frame directly in the bitstream. So a video streaming service could choose to streams regions that are not very important in the scence in a lower resolution to save bandwidth.
Apple TV+ Fall Preview — Media+
Kelly Guimont joins host Charlotte Henry to preview all the shows coming to Apple TV+ this fall. They also discuss the state of the streaming service as it approaches its second birthday.