Spyware known as Pegasus from NSO Group was used to hack 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, activists, and business executives around the world.
The phones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 numbers that are concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and also known to have been clients of the Israeli firm, NSO Group, a worldwide leader in the growing and largely unregulated private spyware industry, the investigation found.
Apple TV+ content won four Daytime Emmy Awards, with ‘Stillwater’, ‘Here We Are: Notes For Living on Planet Earth’, and ‘Helpsters’ honoured.
Cool Stuff Found starts the day here, with things for printing webpages, controlling your trackpad/mouse, and organizing your life. Need a VPN at home? Your two favorite geeks have got you covered! Plus, the cable companies have priced it such that cutting the cord isn’t enough. Listen as Dave tells John — and all of you — what he’s learned. Press play and learn five new things!
The way to turn off your iPhone has changed with recent generations, including the 12, and uses the side button and a volume button.
Monodraw is an editor for Mac that lets you design ASCII art and create diagrams, mind maps, banners, and more. From the website: “Monodraw allows you to easily create text-based art (like diagrams, layouts, flow charts) and visually represent algorithms, data structures, binary formats and more. Because it’s all just text, it can be easily embedded almost anywhere. Of course, exporting as images is also supported (PNG and SVG).” You can download a free trial or buy a license for US$$9.99.
On Friday Apple released the second public betas for iOS 15 | iPadOS 15, tvOS 15, and watchOS 8. This arrives a couple of days after the latest developer betas.
Andrew Orr joins host Kelly Guimont to discuss updates to previous Security Friday news, and a couple of items coming to Firefox and iOS.
WhatsApp content moderators have to review some of the most disturbing content floating around the internet. Time spoke to some of them about the lack of support and their allegations of pay discrimination.
Content moderators working at Accenture for WhatsApp are entitled to 30 minutes of “wellness” breaks per eight-hour shift, employees say, as well as one-on-one access once a month to “wellness coaches” provided by the company. They also undergo training to prepare them for the kinds of content they are expected to look at on the job. But even Accenture acknowledges that the help these resources provide is limited. Moderators working on a Facebook contract for Accenture in Europe were required to sign a document in January 2020 acknowledging “that the wellness coach is not a medical doctor and cannot diagnose or treat mental health disorders.” TIME viewed a copy of the document, which was first reported by the Financial Times. It requires employees to acknowledge that “the weCare Program [wellness] services, standing alone, may not be able to prevent my work from affecting my mental health.” It also notes that the work “could even lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” (Facebook told the Financial Times it did not review or approve the document, and was not aware of it.)
Hackivist collective Anonymous is back, and its warring with China and possibly Elon Musk with a cryptocurrency token dubbed “Anon Inu.”
In a recently released video, Anonymous started by touching upon the ongoing crackdown on Bitcoin mining in China. The “sudden flip” by Chinese authorities regarding mining was not only shocking but also bloody for the Bitcoin market.
Apart from China, Anonymous did not mention specifics about waging a war against Elon Musk, but looks like the #Dogefather may meet his match soon in this so-called “meme-war” against “Anon Inu token.”
With its next round of operating systems Apple is creating a Digital Legacy program to enable easier access to our loved ones after we die.
The row over Apple employees returning to the office continues. The Verge reported that staff members feel it is becoming increasingly difficult to get approval to work from home, with some with medical conditions particularly concerned.
One employee said they were currently on an Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation that allowed them to work from home, but were told that accommodation would be denied when the company went back to the office. “I will be out of a job in September,” they wrote in Slack. Apple typically gives employees 30 days to find a new job within the company if their current team denies a medical accommodation. But one worker said in Slack that there weren’t any open remote positions. Some employees say they were told only people with documented medical conditions would be approved for permanent remote work. But the form that Apple employees use to request such an accommodation asks them to release their medical records to the company, which made some people uncomfortable.
Automattic announced on Friday that it has acquired the popular podcasting app Pocket Casts for an undisclosed sum.
Tim Cook joined the stars of Ted Lasso in Los Angeles to celebrate the imminent release of season two on Apple TV+.
Mozilla released Firefox 90 recently and it comes with an improved version of its tracking protection called SmartBlock 2.0.
The newest version of Mozilla’s built-in SmartBlock privacy feature makes it easier for users to keep their tracking protection settings cranked up, without breaking individual websites. The updated version seems to especially target Facebook login, which is increasingly used around the web as a third-party authentication and login tool.
Image credit: ArsTechnica
mophie’s latest product is a 3-in-1 MagSafe-compatible charging stand that can for your iPhone 12, Apple Watch, and AirPods.
Fans of Doodle God, rejoice! The newest game in the series, Doodle God Universe, is now available on Apple Arcade. In this addictive puzzle & world building game mix and match different combinations of elements to create an entire universe. As you create each new element, watch your 3D planet come alive in amazing animation. But beware, the power of creation may have unintended consequences, inventing the wheel might just trigger a zombie plague or a powerful volcano,
With impeccable casting and catchy songs, there is plenty to enjoy about the latest Apple TV+ offering, Schmigadoon!.
Bryan Chaffin, Jeff Gamet, and John Kheit get back to their retrospective look at Apple’s operating systems by singling out the most important features in Mac OS, OS X, and macOS through the lens of hindsight.
Apple was worth US$2.5 trillion dollars for a time on Thursday, as the AAPL stock price went as high as US$150, before closing slightly down.
Google is adding new protections for your search history like quick deletion, requiring verification to access the My Activity section, and more.
You can also try out a new way to quickly delete your last 15 minutes of saved Search history with the single tap of a button. This feature is available in the Google app for iOS, and is coming to the Android Google app later this year.
You could also just turn disable your search history altogether, too.
Notifications in iOS 15 are thinner in size and feature larger app icons and contact photos and can be grouped into a Scheduled Summary.
Andrew reviewed Adobe Photoshop Express and believes it gives users a nice balance between editing tools and photo filters.
Elton John’s Apple Music show ‘Rocket Hour’ showcases a wide variety of artists. It has now hit 300 episodes! The pop icon joined Zane Lowe to celebrate reaching that milestone.
The latest beta versions of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8 are out now. As 9to5 Mac spotted, they allow system updates to be installed with under 500 MB of storage available.
In the release notes for the latest build of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8, which can be found on the Apple Developer website, the company says that today’s updates fix an issue that could prevent users from installing system updates with low available storage on the device. Here’s what Apple says: “Software Update: Resolved in watchOS 8/iOS 15 beta 3: You can now update your device using Software Update if less than 500 MB of storage is available. (78474912)” There aren’t many details about what has been changed or how this will work since some updates actually come in large files, but the release notes claim that system updates can now be installed on the iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch even when “less than 500 MB of storage is available.”
