The trailer for season two of Trying was released on Wednesday. Previously, we had only see recaps from the perspective of protagonists Nikki and Jason. It will premiere on Apple TV+ on May 21.
Apple v Epic So Far – TMO Daily Observations 2021-05-12
Charlotte Henry joins host Kelly Guimont for the latest in the Apple v Epic trial, including bananas, tuxedoes, and app stores.
Epic vs Apple - The Story of the Trial so Far
Apple’s court battle with Epic Games is into its second week, and the result could define the future of the App Store and iOS more widely.
Apple Supports Alliance to Unify Smart Home Devices
Apple, Amazon, and Google are supporting an industry alliance to make it easier for smart home devices from different brands work together.
CIDA Warns of New Ransomware ‘FiveHands’
FiveHands has been around since January but was recently used in a successful attack against an unknown organization.
Attackers were targeting unpatched SonicWall Secure Mobile Access SMA 100 remote access products, for which patches were released in February. The publicly available tools the group users including the SoftPerfect Network Scanner for Discovery and Microsoft’s own remote administration program, PsExec.exe and its related ServeManager.exe.
Bryan and Jeff Peek into the Future of Smarthomes and AI - ACM 546
Bryan Chaffin is joined by Jeff Gamet to speculate about the future of smarthomes and artificial intelligence, looking towards a future when these technologies work smoothly and have a real impact on how we live.
SPADE Smart Ear Wax Remover: $86.99
Boom! We have a deal for you today on an earwax remover. I bet you weren’t expecting that, but it works with an app on your iPhone, making it smart. This device has a soft scoop for inside your ear, and a camera that streams to your iPhone so you can see exactly what you’re doing. It has a magnetic cap, too. This device is $99.99, but coupon code CLEAN13 brings it down to $86.99 on checkout.
Official Trailer for '1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything' on Apple TV+
Apple TV+ released the trailer for 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything on Tuesday. The docuseries, which outlines the way music contributed to political and cultural upheaval in that year, will premiere on May 21. The eight episodes include never-before-seen footage from the likes of The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, The Who, Joni Mitchell, and Lou Reed.
Backblaze Partners With Veeam for Disaster Recovery
Cloud backup service Backblaze has partnered with Veeam to combat ransomware with a disaster recovery plan.
Brydge Releases Air MAX+ for iPad Air and iPad Pro
Brydge is releasing a new keyboard for iPad Air 4th-gen and iPad Pro 11-inch. It’s available to preorder for US$149.99.
Password Managers: How Do They Work? – TMO Daily Observations 2021-05-11
Andrew Orr and Bryan Chaffin join host Kelly Guimont dig deep into password managers, how they work, and why you need one.
Amazon Data Breach Exposes 200,000 Fake Reviewers
Security researchers at SafetyDetectives found an insecure ElasticSearch database that potentially uncovers over 200,000 fake Amazon reviewers.
These Amazon vendors send to reviewers a list of items/products for which they would like a 5-star review. The people providing the ‘fake reviews’ will then buy the products, leaving a 5-star review on Amazon a few days after receiving their merchandise.
Upon completion, the provider of the fake review will send a message to the vendor containing a link to their Amazon profile, along with their PayPal details.
These are the Most Data-Hungry Health and Fitness Apps
A recent study examined privacy policies of the top health and fitness apps to determine which ones track the most data.
Apple Stopped $1.5 Billion Transactions in 2020
In the midst of its legal battle with Epic Games concerning the App Store, Apple says it stopped over US$1.5 billion fraudulent transactions in 2020.
Wondery Joining Apple Podcast Subscriptions
Amazon-owned podcast studio Wondery is partnering with Apple, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Apple Podcast subscriptions is set to launch in the future too, according to the report.
Wondery, which produces podcasts like Dr. Death, Business Wars and The Shrink Next Door, will bring its Wondery+ subscription service to Apple Podcast Subscriptions, which is set to launch later this month. Wondery+ offers ad-free podcasts, with early access and exclusive episodes for subscribers. The deal is good news for Apple users, some of whom were left wondering whether Wondery would continue to invest in the Apple ecosystem after being acquired by fellow tech giant Amazon earlier this year.
India COVID-19 Outbreak Slows Foxconn iPhone Output
Reuters reported on the consequences the devastating COVID-19 outbreak in India has had on manufacturing in the country. Foxconn’s iPhone output is significantly down, with plants operating at hugely reduced capacity.
Tamil Nadu is one of the worst hit states in the second coronavirus wave engulfing India. Officials imposed a full lockdown in the state from Monday, closing public transport and shuttering shops, to try slow surging infections. More than 100 Foxconn employees in the state have tested positive for COVID-19 and the company has enforced a no-entry ban at its factory in the capital of Chennai until late May, one of the sources said.” Employees are only allowed to leave but not to enter the facility since yesterday,” the person said. “Only a small part of output is being kept.”
'Lisey's Story' Premiering on Apple TV+ June 4
Lisey’s Story, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel starring Julianne Moore, will premiere on Apple TV+ on June 4th.
Oprah, Prince Harry, and Offering Apple Podcast Subscriptions — Media+
Tech-savvy diva Nica Montford from the snobOS podcast joins host Charlotte Henry to discuss Prince Harry and Oprah’s forthcoming Apple TV+ series on mental health. They also look at the pros and cons for independent creators offering subscriptions through Apple Podcasts.
Clubhouse is Finally on Android, a Year After it Arrived on iOS
Clubhouse, the popular (at one point) live audio app, is finally available to Android users in beta. Prior to the announcement in a blog post on Sunday, it had been exclusive to iOS.
Today, we are thrilled to share that Clubhouse for Android will start rolling out in beta immediately. We will begin gradually, with the U.S. today, followed by other English-speaking countries and then the rest of the world. Our plan over the next few weeks is to collect feedback from the community, fix any issues we see and work to add a few final features like payments and club creation before rolling it out more broadly… As a part of the effort to keep the growth measured, we will be continuing the waitlist and invite system, ensuring that each new community member can bring along a few close friends. As we head into the summer and continue to scale out the backend, we plan to begin opening up even further, welcoming millions more people in from the iOS waitlist, expanding language support, and adding more accessibility features, so that people worldwide can experience Clubhouse in a way that feels native to them.
Primate Labs Introduces New ‘Geekbench ML’ Measurement App
Geekbench ML uses computer vision and natural language processing machine learning tests to measure performance. These tests are based on tasks found in real-world machine learning applications. They use industry-standard models, ensuring Geekbench ML results are relevant and applicable to mobile ML application performance. Geekbench ML also integrates with the Geekbench Browser allowing users to upload and share their benchmark results with other users worldwide.
Billy Crudup Returning to Apple TV+ With 'Hello Tomorrow'
Billy Crudup is heading back to Apple TV+ – the streaming service purchased ‘Hello Tomorrow’, a new half-hour dramedy in which he stars.
Apple Dismisses UK App Store Allegations as 'Meritless'
A case regarding App Store charges in the UK is seeking damages of up to £1.5 billion from Apple, which calls the claim “meritless.”
Tor Exit Nodes Were Attacked in February 2021
A new report from Hacker News says that an unknown attacker managed to control over 27% of Tor exit nodes in February 2021.
“The entity attacking Tor users is actively exploiting tor users since over a year and expanded the scale of their attacks to a new record level,” an independent security researcher who goes by the name nusenu said in a write-up published on Sunday. “The average exit fraction this entity controlled was above 14% throughout the past 12 months.”
GitHub Adds Support for Security Keys Over SSH
GitHub announced on Monday that it enabled support for two-factor authentication security keys when members use them over SSH.
When used for SSH operations, security keys move the sensitive part of your SSH key from your computer to a secure external security key. SSH keys that are bound to security keys protect you from accidental private key exposure and malware. You perform a gesture, such as a tap on the security key, to indicate when you intend to use the security key to authenticate. This action provides the notion of “user presence.”