Check Out These New iPhone Battery Wallpapers
Cool Stuff Found

Check Out These New iPhone Battery Wallpapers

Andrew Orr ·

Ben Vessey has released some new iPhone battery wallpapers as part of the Dynamo series. These wallpapers use shortcuts automation to automatically change depending on the state of your battery: Full, Low, and Charging. There are two new packs available: an album pack for music fans based on popular music icons; and a Mac-themed pack inspired by the Apple Macintosh. Each pack includes three sets of wallpapers optimized for the iPhone 6s and later. You install them using iCloud and Shortcuts running on iOS 14, with instructions included in the download.

Podcast

I Want My, I Want My, I Want My ... USB-C! — Mac Geek Gab 879

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

It’s a hot one, folks, and we’re not talking about the weather! This episode is chock full of great Cool Stuff Found, answers to your questions, and more. Topics include free tools to keep your Mac running smoothly, a way to get free data on your phone, invoicing solutions for consultants, a quick way to activate your flashlight, free VPNs to use, and much, much more! Press play and enjoy learning five new things with John and Dave, your two favorite geeks!

News

Happy U.S. Independence Day, 2021 Edition

Bryan Chaffin ·

In honor of Independence Day—a U.S. holiday—The Mac Observer is taking off Monday, July 4th. We will return Tuesday, July 7th, with our usual Apple, Mac, iPad iPhone, and Apple Watch news. TMO’s Daily Observations podcast is taking off the holiday, too. See you on Tuesday!

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New Ransomware ‘Tsunami’ Destroying Supply Chains

Andrew Orr ·

The REvil hacking team is back with new malware. Brand new, still developing, but their ransomware called “Tsunami” is wreaking havoc.

The software in question, Kaseya VSA, is popular among so-called managed service providers, which provide IT infrastructure for companies that would rather outsource that sort of thing than run it themselves. Which means that if you successfully hack an MSP, you suddenly have access to its customers. It’s the difference between cracking safety deposit boxes one at a time and stealing the bank manager’s skeleton key.

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Russian Spies Abuse VPNs to Target Organizations

Andrew Orr ·

On Thursday, U.S. and British authorities said that Russia’s military spy agency is using VPNs and Tor to attack governments and private sector targets.

The advisory did not identify any of the targets by name, saying only that they were mainly in the United States and Europe and included government offices, political parties, energy companies, law firms and media organizations.

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Russian officials routinely reject allegations that they employ hackers to spy on rival nations.

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This Man Wants to Decipher the Languages of Animals

Andrew Orr ·

Aza Raskin was the person who invented the “infinite scroll” feature we see often on social media. Now he wants to use machine learning to decipher animal language.

A library of all the different animal communication data sets that were machine learning ready. Everyone was working in their own silos, and we saw an opportunity to create a kind of perspective-changing machine: to look at the difference between humpback communication and elephant communication and sperm whale communication and bat communication.

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Apple PRODUCT(RED)Proceeds Going to COVID-19 Relief Throughout 2021

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple is to continue donating 100 percent of proceeds from its PRODUCT(RED) to COVID-19 relief until December 30, 2021. The decision was outlined in an announcement on its website, spotted by 9to5 Mac.

Last year, Apple extended this COVID-19 relief effort until June 30, 2021. As vaccines are slowly rolling out across the globe and new variants of the disease have been discovered, this fund is more important than ever. Apple updated its PRODUCT (RED) page in the US and around the world to note that all donations from sales of its PRODUCT(RED) lineup that normally go to helping fight HIV/AIDS will be temporarily redirected to pandemic relief (which will actually help keep HIV/AIDS programs alive). In April of 2020, Apple and (RED) starting giving a portion of eligible proceeds to the Global Fund for COVID-19 relief but now it’s being bumped to 100% for about six months.