Dave Hamilton and Bryan Chaffin join host Kelly Guimont to talk about malware on macOS (real) and Apple’s sole responsibility for the stock market’s wellbeing (not real).
Turn Your iPhone Into a 360 Degree 4K Camera: $199
Check out the Insta360, a device that turns your iPhone into a 360-degree video camera. With a single shot, you can capture everything around you. It’s designed for live streaming, making VR content, all from your iPhone. It works with iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR,iPhone8/8 Plus, iPhone 7/7 Plus, iPhone 6s/6s Plus, and iPhone 6/6 Plus. The Insta360 is $199 through our deal, 16% off retail.
The Mac Observer's 2018 Holiday Gift Guide (Update)
The Mac Observer presents our 2018 holiday gift guide. It’s filled with products and services we think are cool, and you might too.
Change App Icons on iOS With This Shortcut
Mr. Viticci reverse-engineered the “Add to Home Screen” function that Shortcuts has, and created the Home Screen Icon Creator.
Welcome to the Second Golden Age
We’re entering the 2020s and it’s fitting that we’re in the Second Golden Age. Or at least that’s what Robert Reich argues.
It is time to use antitrust again. We should break up the hi-tech behemoths, or at least require they make their proprietary technology and data publicly available and share their platforms with smaller competitors.
There would be little cost to the economy, since these giant firms rely on innovation rather than economies of scale – and, as noted, they’re likely to be impeding innovation overall…Republicans rhapsodize about the “free market” but have no qualms about allowing big corporations to rig it at the expense of average people.
If we’re in the Second Golden Age now, I wonder if we’ll enter a Second Depression in the 2030s? As the saying goes, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Get Apple Black Friday Goodies With Four Day Event
The Apple Shopping Event will be held from November 23 to November 26.
RAW Power Gets Big 2.0 Update
Today, Gentlemen Coders released RAW Power 2.0 for iOS and macOS. RAW Power unlocks the power of Apple’s RAW engine with simple, easy-to-use controls. More than just an image editor, it is a full photo application that lets you organize and manage your iOS Photo Library. If you use iCloud Photo Library, all changes are also synced to iCloud, where every image you take and every change you make is instantly available to every app on your iPhone or iPad. You can use it for more than RAWs — it’s great with JPEGs too, with White Balance, Curves, Sharpen, and other tools missing from the built-in Photos app. The app also includes an innovative new Depth Effect for photos shot on iPhones with a dual camera system. The Mac app is on sale for a limited time. App Store: RAW Power – US$2.99 | Mac App Store: RAW Power – US$26.99
Instagram Deletes Fake Followers, Likes, Comments
The company shared that some accounts have been using third-party software to artificially grow their audience.
UNO Card Game Comes to iOS For First Time
Play the world’s number one card game in a whole new way in UNO. The classic card game comes to your mobile device with all-new rules, tournaments, modes of play and much more. Whether you’re at home, on the go, an UNO veteran or completely new, UNO is the ultimate competitive family-friendly game! Ready. Set. UNO. Play classic UNO™ or select from a variety of new rules to play in real-time matches, compete in tournaments and events to win rewards and top the leaderboards, partner up, play in 2v2 mode and collaborate to win, and connect anytime, anywhere with friends from around the world. In Room Mode, invite friends and set up your own house rules. Play new cards like “Discard All” to remove one color completely from your hand or rules like “Stack” and watch your friends pile cards into their hands. This is the ultimate family-friendly mobile party experience that makes it easy for anyone to join. App Store: UNO – Free with in-app purchases
Darkroom 4 is Coming to iPad, Beta Available
Photo editor Darkroom has been on the iPhone for a while now. The next release—Darkroom 4—will be coming to the iPad for the first time.
Polaroid Launches New Portable LED Light System
The new Polaroid RGB LED light offers photographers and videographers a professional, portable LED light system with powerful output. With a wide array of settings to create different moods, atmospheres, color backgrounds and special lighting effects, the easy-to-use light allows photographers to control and fine-tune the light source focus to capture the perfect shot every time. The free companion app allows users to fully control all aspects of the light, including color, brightness and saturation, for a fast and efficient workflow. Equipped with 320 professional-grade LED lamps, the Polaroid RGB LED camera and camcorder light provides 99 levels of cool white, warm white and RGB light to create the right ambience for your photo or video shoot. For further customization, you can adjust hue and saturation, brightness level and the exact color temperature you want to achieve in the 3200K-5600K range. Amazon: Polaroid RGB LEG Light – US$99
No Roger, NoSQL, No Rent – Mac Geek Gab Podcast 736
Before you gobble up all your turkey, gobble up some new tips and info and tricks and, yes, even some fun toys! ‘Tis (almost) the season, and you don’t want to miss out. Press play and enjoy!
Latest MacBook is $251 Off at Amazon
This is the latest 12-inch MacBook model on sale at Amazon for US$1298. And new, not refurbished. Here are the specs. “Apple MNYL2LL/A 12″ MacBook, Retina, 1.3 GHz Intel Core i5 Dual Core Processor, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, MacOS, Gold.” Only 9 left in stock, but more are said to be coming. MSRP is $1549.
TMO Background Mode Interview with Climate Scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe
Dr. Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and professor of political science at Texas Tech University, where she is the director of the Climate Science Center. She is also the CEO of the consulting firm ATMOS Research and Consulting. She received her undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Toronto and a masters and Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We started from basics in this chat and defined how science works via observation. Then we delved into the process of climate change research, successful computer models, the significant findings of climate science and whether some changes are exponential rather than linear. Finally, Dr. Hayhoe filled us in on some great resources for further reading.
Amazon's Eventual Failure, Silicon Valley's Soul – TMO Daily Observations 2018-11-19
Kelly Guimont, Andrew Orr, and John Martellaro chat about Amazon eventually failing and if Silicon Valley has a soul to lose.
5G Rollout - Here's Where We Are
The rollout of 5G connectivity is on its way, but when will consumers benefit? And just how fast will it really be?
Apple Maps Conducting Pedestrain Level Surveys
Apple Maps is collecting pedestrian level data in California. On Friday, a man wearing a Lidar rig, GPS and multiple cameras as well as an Apple Maps backpack, was spotted in San Francisco, according to MacRumors. On its website, Apple said [via AppleInsider] that Pedestrian teams will be in a number of California counties. While cars conducting mapping are not such a rare site spotted in Los Angeles earlier in the week, but as MacRumors noted: “This is the first time we’ve seen someone collecting mapping data on foot.”
The New iPad Pro Bends
YouTuber JerryRigEverything has taken a rather brutal approach to Apple’s new iPad Pro. In a new video, he tested the 11-inch version’s durability and found that it “doesn’t have any of that structural integrity stuff.” He concluded: “A tablet the size of a piece paper folds like a piece of paper.” It is quite painful to watch the beautiful device just give way, but worth knowing where the weak the points are. (Spoiler alert: they’re right in the middle, by the microphone and Apple Pencil charging dock.)
iPhone SE is £16 a Month in UK BT Black Friday Sale
LONDON – BT has revealed its Black Friday 2018 offers, including the iPhone SE with 6GB of data for £16 ($20) a month for the first six months. The cost then rises to £27 ($34.60) a month. The deal involves a 24-month contract and includes BT Sport’s mobile service. Elsewhere in the BT Black Friday sale, customers can buy an iPhone SE with 12GB of data a month for £18.50 ($23.70) for the first six months. It becomes £32 ($41) a month for the remainder of the 24-month contract and also includes access to BT Sport for mobile. Both deals also come with unlimited calling minutes and unlimited texts and no upfront cost.
Apple News puts Humans First
The Sydney Morning Herald has taken an in-depth look at how Apple News is developing. Australia is one of only three countries in which the service is available, the others being the US and UK. The piece outlines the radically different approach Apple has taken to news compared to other tech giants. Its focus is on using human journalists, not algorithms, to curate news, not algorithms, in a bid to improve accuracy. That approach was summed up in a quote from Apple News Editor-in-Chief Lauren Kern:
“Misinformation can come out so quickly and spread so rapidly and that’s something that we take pride in not allowing to happen” says Lauren Kern, the platform’s editor in chief, who is a former executive editor of New York magazine. “Our mantra is that it’s better to be accurate than first.”
