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How Restaurants Can Use iOS 14 App Clips During COVID-19

Andrew Orr ·

Calvin Carter writes how restaurants can use iOS 14 App Clips to revamp the dining experience and keep customers safe.

If a restaurant uses kiosks for ordering, which the pandemic made essentially unusable, they can easily replicate that kiosk experience in an App Clip, allowing the customer to make and pay for their order without touching anything other than their phone.

For restaurants not wanting to invest in tabletop tablets or deal with the risk of infection, QR codes can instead be printed onto a bill to enable fast payments via Apple Pay integration in App Clips.

I look forward to see how businesses enhance their digital presence with tools such as App Clips.

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Why The New Mac mini and M1 Chip is a Big Deal For Hollywood

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple put creativity front and center when unveiling its new products on Tuesday. The Hollywood Reporter found that many in the film and creative industries are excited about the possibilities of the Mac mini with it’s new M1 chip.

Veteran editor Harry B. Miller III says the new Mac minis in particular “could be huge” for the editing community. “Most of the editing industry is either on old cheese-grater or trashcan Macs. It seems to me the Mac mini with this new chip could easily and fairly cheaply replace all those old units,” he says. “Fox Studios, for example, had been refurbishing cheese-graters to keep them up to date with CPU’s and memory for more complex workflows. It would now be cheaper to replace them with the new Mini.” Miller says he plans to buy one. “I’ve used a Mini for the past 18 months for Avid [Media Composer] and [Adobe] Premiere Pro work on all my projects,” he notes. “Because of the pandemic, I know there have been a lot of equipment investments into iMacs for remote work. I could see the Mini’s replacing them as well.”

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The Shazam++ Shortcut Improves Your Music Recognition

Andrew Orr ·

Shazam++ is a shortcut that helps you take action after you use Shazam to identify a song. Use the shortcut to automatically get the link on your favorite music streaming website, and use features like lyric service, album and artist information, see your recent Shazams, and more.

NOW w/ IOS 14 Support, Beautiful Menus and Shazam History!

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Recall Reveals Amazon Ring Doorbells Could Set Your House on Fire

Andrew Orr ·

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission revealed that Amazon’s Ring surveillance doorbells could set your house on fire. The company has issued a voluntary recall for second-generation devices. A spokesperson for Ring said that customers don’t need to return their device. Instead, the company sent out an email with proper installation instructions.

Consumers should immediately stop installing the recalled video doorbells and contact Ring for revised installation instructions or download them here.  Consumers can check if their video doorbell is part of this recall through Ring’s website or app.

Ring has received 85 incident reports of incorrect doorbell screws installed with 23 of those doorbells igniting, resulting in minor property damage.  The firm has received eight reports of minor burns.

Prepare for ‘His Dark Materials’ Season 2 With AR App
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Prepare for ‘His Dark Materials’ Season 2 With AR App

Andrew Orr ·

To prepare for “His Dark Materials” season 2, HBO released an augmented reality app called His Dark Materials: My Daemon. Created in partnership with Oscar, Emmy and BAFTA-winning creative studio Framestore, His Dark Materials: My Daemon is a first-of-its-kind entertainment app that brings narrative elements from the show into daily life, as a user’s daemon is by their side at all times, encouraging them to participate in activities that contribute to overall mind, body and spirit health. Users are encouraged to take part in fitness activities like walking or running, as well as other kinds of self-care, such as taking some time to themselves, watching a movie, or reaching out to a friend. The app detects everyday activity through Apple Health and Spotify, syncing with favorite fitness, sleep, and meditation apps. Daily habits, hobbies and new challenges become fuel to progress further through the journey that’s at the heart of the app.

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Compal Electronics Suffers DoppelPaymer Ransomware Attack

Andrew Orr ·

Computer manufacturer Compal Electronics has been hit by a DoppelPaymer ransomware attack, and the ransom is US$16.7 million.

DoppelPaymer is a ransomware operation known for attacking enterprise targets by gaining access to admin credentials and using them to spread throughout a Windows network. Once they gain access to a Windows domain controller, they deploy the ransomware payloads to all devices on the network.

According to the DoppelPaymer Tor payment site linked to in the ransom note, the ransomware gang is demanding 1,100 Bitcoins, or $16,725,500.00 at today’s prices, to receive a decryptor.

Podcast

TMO Contributor Kelly Guimont (#14) - BGM Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Kelly Guimont is a long-time podcaster, Contributor for The Mac Observer, the host of the Mac Observer’s Daily Observations podcast, and a tech support guru. In her 14th appearance, Kelly and I chat about our favorite streaming TV shows and movies of late.

As is our custom, we alternate. I open with a very positive review of the 2020 series The Right Stuff (Disney+). Kelly was up next with Penny Dreadful (Showtime). John then raves about the movie and then series Mystery Road. (Amazon). Kelly chimes in next with extreme praise for The Mandalorian S2/E1 (Disney+) and, later, an update on Lovecraft Country (HBO Max). John delves into the fabulous The Hundred-Foot Journey (Amazon) and scifi/romance Tuck Everlasting (Disney+). And there’s more! Join us as we explore together what’s great about these shows.