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.
Switchmate 2.0 Smart Switch for Toggle Style Light Switches: $19.99
We have a deal on Switchmate 2.0, a smart switch that snaps over your existing light switches and controls them by doing the flipping for you. That means you don’t have to rewire the switch or replace your existing lightbulbs. Using the companion app, the Switchmate 2.0 can respond to voice commands, turn lights on automatically when you arrive home, and it has multiple timers for total smart lighting control. This device is $19.99 through our deal.
Apple Hires Stella Low From Cisco for Corporate Communications
Apple has hired Cisco’s Stella Low to be its new Vice President of worldwide corporate communications.
Court Finds NSA Collects Innocent Americans’ Data Anyway
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) found that the NSA doesn’t follow the law and collections the data of innocent Americans. This is according to a recently declassified document [PDF] from November 2020.
From where we sit, it seems clear that the FISC continues to suffer from a massive case of national security constitutional-itis. That is the affliction (not really, we made it up) where ordinarily careful judges sworn to defend the Constitution effectively ignore the flagrant Fourth Amendment violations that occur when the NSA, FBI, (and to a lesser extent, the CIA, and NCTC) misuse the justification of national security to spy on Americans en mass.
128 Million Apple Users Unknowingly Downloaded Malware in 2015
Emails published in the Epic v Apple trial on Friday revealed that 128 million users downloaded malware from the App Store in 2015.
Security Friday and Facebook's Relationships – TMO Daily Observations 2021-05-07
Andrew Orr joins host Kelly Guimont for Security Friday’s news, including Facebook’s latest move involving your data.
Apple Music 'First Listen' Events Provide Surprisingly Intimate Insight Into New Albums
Apple Music offers ‘First Listen’ events with Zane Lowe discussing a soon-to-be-released album with the artists, and they work really well.
Over 29,000 Databases Expose 19 Petabytes of Data
Many companies aren’t properly securing their databases, like the one I wrote about this morning. But we have some numbers. CyberNews quotes “29,000 unprotected databases worldwide exposing 19 petabytes (19,000 terabytes, 19,000,000 gigabytes, etc) of data.
To conduct this investigation, we used a specialized search engine to scan for open databases of three of the most popular database types: Hadoop, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch. While performing the search, we made sure that the open databases we found required no authentication whatsoever and were open for anyone to access, as opposed to those that had default credentials enabled.
Apple Card Family Features, Restrictions Revealed in Support Document
Apple has released a support document outlining the features of the recently launched Apple Card Family. AppleInsider published a breakdown of what it says.
Detailed in a support document, Apple Card Family is available to one cardholder and one member of their Family Sharing group who is 18 or older. Touted as a rethinking of traditional credit cards, the new service enables both members of an account to share a credit line while simultaneously building credit. A total of six people, including owners or co-owners, can be assigned to a particular Apple Card account. Participants must be 13 or older. Co-owners share full responsibility for account balance and payments, and have their credit reported equally in their own name, Apple says.
How to Set up Face ID to Unlock Your iPhone With Apple Watch When Wearing a Mask
iOS 14. 5 and watchOS 7.4 introduced the ability for Face ID to unlock your iPhone even when a user is wearing a mask.
Many Top VPN Apps Have Inaccurate Privacy Labels
An analysis of 49 VPN apps in the App Store shows that many of them have inaccurate privacy labels, and others didn’t have a label at all.
Report Shows Only 4% of iOS 14.5 Users Opt Into Ad Tracking
A new report from Flurry Analytics shows that approximately 4% of iPhone users running iOS 14.5 have opted into app tracking.
Finnish Mental Health Startup Vastaamo Leaked Patient Data
Vastaamo ran the largest network of private mental-health providers in Finland. William Ralston tells the story on WIRED, and how hackers used the data to threaten patients.
A security flaw in the company’s IT systems had exposed its entire patient database to the open internet—not just email addresses and social security numbers, but the actual written notes that therapists had taken. A group of hackers, or one masquerading as many, had gotten hold of the data.
What an incompetent company. No anonymization of patient records, no encryption of data. In other words, unfortunately common. Two developers hired at Vastaamo were even arrested in a previous security breach.
'Mythic Quest' Season Two Arrives on Apple TV+
Mythic Quest season two is here! The first two episodes of the follow-up season are now available to Apple TV+ subscribers, with new episodes being released every Friday. The comedy series follows the trials and tribulations of a company behind a very popular game. I’ve recently been catching up on season one and thoroughly enjoying it, so I can’t wait to see what this next one has to offer.
This Person Turned an AirTag Into a Slim Card
YouTuber Andrew Ngai made a video where he deconstructed an AirTag and turned it into a slim, wallet-friendly card.
iOS 14.5 Adds Beats Headphones Into the ‘Find My’ App
Apple expanded its Find My app in iOS 14.5 to include support for third-party accessories, but also added first-party products like Beats.
Pre-Order ScoutPro Ultimate All-in-One Charger: $99
We have a pre-order deal on the ScoutPro, an all-in-one charger that ships in July. This device features a large 24,000mAh internal battery and it can charge up to five devices simultaneously. It has two USB-C charging ports and a USB-A charging port. It also has magnetic wirelesss charging for iPhone 12 devices and a spot to charge your Apple Watch. The pre-order deal is $99.
Thursdays with Bob: Travel Philosophies – TMO Daily Observations 2021-05-06
Dr. Mac drops by to chat about prepping for travel and things to keep in mind as we all venture out into the world again (with a love note to libraries).
Encrypted Storage App ‘Boxcryptor’ Integrates Better With Files App
Boxcryptor received a major update for iOS and iPadOS that eliminates its own file browser. Instead, you’ll browse through your encrypted files completely within Apple’s Files app. Robert Freudenreich explains the decision: “By taking a ‘Files app first’ approach, we enable the best user experience for working with encrypted files in Apple’s Files app.” The integration with the Files app has been in place since iOS 11. But by eliminating the additional Boxcryptor-owned file browser, the Files app now becomes the exclusive file manager. For users, this primarily means an even simpler workflow.
Starlink Internet Speeds May Not Be Created Equal
Starlink, a satellite internet initiative from Elon Musk, has fast internet speeds in some areas while being slow in others.
Epic Games Versus Apple: A Legal Overview
Since it began on Monday, we have heard various bits of information coming out of the Epic Games trial against Apple. MacStories‘s John Voohres was a lawyer for many years and gave an outline of what we can expect as the case develops.
There is no legal prohibition against formulating a business strategy with the assistance of professionals to deal with a competitor. However, Epic’s actions arguably demonstrate a level of bad faith that could undermine its antitrust case, something Judge Gonzalez Rogers has essentially suggested at previous hearings. A very old legal principle that is known as the doctrine of ‘unclean hands,’ which Apple has raised and is based on the equitable notion that manufactured disputes should be discouraged, could prevent Epic from winning some or all of its claims, regardless of their merits.
Djay Pro AI Gets Major Update for iPhone and iPad
djay Pro AI announced a major update including an upgraded Automix AI feature with an enhanced neural mix thanks to the Apple Neural Engine.
Apple Wins Auction For Tom Hanks Movie 'Finch'
Apple Original Films won the rights to the movie, Finch in a highly competitive auction, meaning Tom Hanks is heading back to Apple TV+.
Deezer Now Works on HomePod and HomePod Mini
Music streaming service Deezer now works on HomePod and HomePod mini, and Siri can be used to play any song from its catalog of 73 million.
IBM Creates World-First 2nm Computer Chip
IBM has created a 2-nanometer chip using a prototype manufacturing process. It’s likely we won’t see these chips in the market until late 2024, however.
Chip makers routinely talk about their 10nm, 7nm, and 5nm nodes, in their efforts to pack more and more transistors on a piece of silicon. However, the nanometer nomenclature is often just marketing speak […] based on the company’s slides, there actually isn’t a component on the chip at a 2nm size. Instead, the announcement is more about a generational improvement from IBM’s earlier 5nm process, which debuted in 2017.
“The chips must be insulated from human thought, as an errant memory of grandma from 1970 can cause quantum effects in the chip.“