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Andrew Orr

Since 2015 Andrew has been writing about Apple, privacy, security, and at one point even Android. You can find him most places online under the username @andrewornot.

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Articles by Andrew Orr

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FCC Tests Eero Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Routers WIth BTLE, Zigbee

Andrew Orr ·

The FCC has been testing Eero’s Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers. Not much is known about these devices, including a launch date, but it appears that these products will have Bluetooth Low Energy and Zigbee to enable smart home automation connectivity.

Although the underside diagram for Gateway and Extender is shaped somewhat like the second-generation Beacon design, we don’t see any plugs shown—so it seems unlikely that they will be wall-wart designs like the Beacon’s or like Eero competitor Plume. We expect the new generation of devices will likely be desktop-style designs, with external power supplies.

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Gaming Company Razer Leaked 100,000 Users’ Data

Andrew Orr ·

In August, security researcher Volodymyr Diachenko found a server owned by Razer that exposed the data of over 100,000 users. It took the company over three weeks to get around to fixing the issue.

The cluster contained records of customer orders and included information such as item purchased, customer email, customer (physical) address, phone number, and so forth—basically, everything you’d expect to see from a credit card transaction, although not the credit card numbers themselves. The Elasticseach cluster was not only exposed to the public, it was indexed by public search engines.

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China Would Rather TikTok Be Shut Down Than Sold

Andrew Orr ·

A report on Friday says that China would rather TikTok be shut down instead of being sold to a U.S. company.

However, Chinese officials believe a forced sale would make both ByteDance and China appear weak in the face of pressure from Washington, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.

ByteDance said in a statement to Reuters that the Chinese government had never suggested to it that it should shut down TikTok in the United States or in any other markets.

Here’s what I think this means. China is all about the AI, and based on reports its algorithms seem to be more advanced than even invasive Facebook. China doesn’t want the U.S. to know just how more advanced it’s algorithms are. Read: China export ban of such technology.

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Import and Export ProtonMail With This New Tool

Andrew Orr ·

Proton released a new tool that lets you import and export ProtonMail. It’s available to paying customers to help you migrate from other email services.

Like all Proton apps, the Import-Export app’s code is open source, which allows anyone to verify its code for themselves. This level of transparency is necessary so that users can be confident their privacy is protected. It also makes it easier for cybersecurity experts to perform checks and audits of our apps, increasing their overall security.

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Fight For The Future Launches ‘Save Online Free Speech’ Campaign

Andrew Orr ·

Digital rights group Fight for the Future has launched a new campaign to save online free speech. The goal is to stop an executive order that would “gut Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, put the FCC and FTC in charge of policing online speech, and open the floodgates for widespread Internet censorship.”

The page allows visitors to easily submit a comment to the FCC opposing the executive order and similarly misguided proposals to gut Section 230, by filling out a form and selecting from a dropdown menu of humorous adjectives describing the order, such as “ass-backwards,” “despicable,” and “legally unsound.”

Update: Andrew Orr discussed this article on Security Friday.

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Adobe Spark Adds Animations for Web Tools, New Asset Management

Andrew Orr ·

Adobe Spark introduced a couple of new updates. First, Animations is coming to Spark web tools, previously only available in the iOS and Android apps. It also gains new asset management features to its integration with Creative Cloud Libraries.

The trick to capturing attention on social media (and keeping it) is to add sensory, evocative triggers to your content, in the first two seconds that your viewer scrolls past your post. Second best to being able to scratch and sniff pixels, motion is one of those triggers that has the power to capture attention and make your audience feel something. When you evoke emotion in your audience, you’re that much closer to getting them to pay attention, swipe up, buy, or take some other desired action.

‘Data Jar’ is the Perfect App for Shortcut Dictionaries
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‘Data Jar’ is the Perfect App for Shortcut Dictionaries

Andrew Orr ·

Data Jar is a great app I discovered a while back and weirdly haven’t written about yet. This app helped me unlock my automations that require dictionaries. Data Jar lets you store key-value pairs and let them persist outside of Shortcuts. While I was trying to build a dictionary into my Shortcuts, I found that they couldn’t be updated using native actions; the data had to be stored elsewhere. The app lets you store text, numbers, Booleans, lists, dictionaries, and files. It’s free with an optional tip jar to support the developer Simon B. Støvring.

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Reboot Your iPhone Weekly as a Security Measure

Andrew Orr ·

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has a tip for iPhone owners: Reboot it at least once a week as a security measure.

Not only does this clean the systems RAM and get it ready to do more work, it also helps protect against remote exploits by making it harder for hackers to keep control of your iPhone — hacks don’t survive reboots.

A good, practical, and easy tip for Apple users.

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Apple Releases First Look of ‘Wolfwalkers’ on Apple TV+

Andrew Orr ·

Apple has shared a first look trailer for “Wolfwalkers” an animated film co-directed by Tomm Moore and Toss Stewart. “In a time of superstition and magic, a young apprentice hunter, Robyn Goodfellowe, journeys to Ireland with her father to wipe out the last wolf pack. While exploring the forbidden lands outside the city walls, Robyn befriends a free-spirited girl, Mebh, a member of a mysterious tribe rumored to have the ability to transform into wolves by night. As they search for Mebh’s missing mother, Robyn uncovers a secret that draws her further into the enchanted world of the Wolfwalkers and risks turning into the very thing her father is tasked to destroy.”