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Bryan Chaffin
Bryan Chaffin is the cofounder of The Mac Observer and currently serves as Afternoon Editor. He has contributed to MacAddict and MacFormat magazines, and co-authored the last two updates of iPad and iPad Pro for Dummies with Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus and Ed Baig. You can find out more about Bryan at his personal site, GeekTells, or find his Twitter link below.
Articles by Bryan Chaffin
6 Things I Learned about Apple from Gruber's Interview with Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi
John Gruber has posted the full video of The Talk Show Live from last week’s World Wide Developer Conference, where his guests were Apple senior vice presidents Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi. It’s a great interview, and I highly encourage you to watch it in its entirety, but there were six things in particular I learned.
Chatlight Video Chatting Light: $19
Check out the Chatlight—I did a Cool Stuff Found during January’s CES show, and now Stack Commerce has put together a deal for this device. It’s designed to light you for selfies and video chats. It clips onto the edge of your mobile device and two banks of LEDs light your face. The bank of LEDs rotates, too, allowing you to control your lighting. You can get Chatlight through our deal for $19.
Security Basics: If a Service Offers Two-Factor Authentication, Use It
Apple Two-Factor Authentication Two factor authentication at its most basic means that logging requires two forms of verification (it's also sometimes referred to as two-factor verification). It's the digital equivalent of needing, say, your birth certificate and a driver's license to get a passport. Basic Two-Factor Authentication Early two-factor authentication usually meant having to click…
It's Safe to Download iOS 9.3.2 for iPad Pro (9.7-inch) Now
Apple posted a KnowledgeBase article with several sets of instructions and the following images for those encountering errors: Turn off your device for 10 seconds. | Disconnect your device for 10 seconds. The instructions for installing the update OTA: Update wirelessly or over the air Try to update your iPad. If you see one of…
The Pros and Cons of a Proprietary Apple Car Charger
That topic has been well-discussed, but it got me wondering if there should be a standard for car chargers, either voluntary or mandated. This is pertinent because Apple has a penchant for developing proprietary technologies—think Lightning or the 30-Pin Dock—but I have mixed feelings about Apple taking that approach for car charging. If you listened…
Rob Enderle Calls Apple 'Desperate'
For Mr. Enderle, Chief Demagogue in the Church of Apple's Doom, called Apple “desperate.” Isolated like that it seems preposterous, but this was a case where context amps it up to something where words fail. TMO Artist's Rendition of Rob Enderle's Characterization of Apple Mr. Enderle's comments were given to The San Francisco Chronicle for…
Purism Laptops to Protect You from Surveillance Capitalism
I spoke with CEO Todd Weaver at Pepcom, and it was one of the most significant conversations I've had with a tech exec in a long time. I was already on board with Mr. Weaver's general message when he laid that phrase on me, “surveillance capitalism.” That's when he really had me hooked. Surveillance Capitalism…
What If You Won't Be Able to Buy an Apple Car?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not entirely sold on this notion myself. In fact, I'll play devil's advocate in a bit, but I find the idea compelling and interesting. Skating to the puck On Thursday evening, news broke that Apple had invested US$1 billion into Chinese ride sharing giant Didi. I posted a piece earlier…
Gen. Hayden to FBI: Stop Obsessing on Content and Focus on Metadata
The comments came during an interview at TechCrunch's Disrupt this week, where General Hayden spoke about a wide ranging series of topics relating to national security, politics as related to national security, and encryption—Jeff Gamet and I discussed his interview during this week's Apple Context Machine. Here's the interview in full: Former NSA and CIA…
Carl Icahn Isn't Wrong about Apple in China
I chose that wording with care, because I'm not saying he's right, I'm saying he isn't wrong. There's a difference, and in that difference Mr. Icahn demonstrated how he has amassed a fortune worth billions. To that end, look at how much money Carl Icahn made in his three year investment in $AAPL—more than US$2…
Tim Cook Worked Hard to Sell Us on Apple's Future while CFO Luca Maestri Apologized
I noticed something interesting during Apple's quarterly conference call with analysts on Tuesday: during opening remarks, Tim Cook was working hard to sell the message that Apple is doing well despite turning in a “challenging” quarter. I've never noticed Tim Cook trying to sell it during a call, but then I heard something else that…
The Evolution of MacOS/OS X and Windows in Side-by-Side Animations
They make for a great trip down memory lane. More interestingly to me, they show both the remarkable refinement and relative lack of change in the paradigm of desktop computing. First, let's look at the Apple operating system image: The Evolution of Apple's Operating System[s] from BetterBuys Next, here's the Microsoft image. Note that it…
On Being Skeptical of 'Textalyzer' Technology to Detect Smartphone Use Before Accidents
“Your papers and smartphone, please.” To say that I'm awash in a sea of mixed emotions is an understatement, but there's almost nothing I like about what we know so far. My biggest concern is that the makers of the Textalyzer technology itself—whatever the heck it is—are backing the bill, and the company is draping…
Smile Lowers Subscription Pricing for TextExpander 6
New pricing for TextExpander 6 is $4.16 per month if billed monthly, or $39.96, if billed annually (that's $3.33 per month). This compares to $4.95 per month/$47.52 per year at launch. That not only makes the half-off upgrade pricing just under $20 per year for those upgrading, Smile extended that offer to become a lifetime…
iPhone SE More Fragile than iPhone 6s in SquareTrade Testing
As shown in the video below, iPhone SE bent at 160 lbs. of pressure, 10 pounds less force than it took to bend iPhone 6s. It suffered catastrophic failure at 178 lbs. of pressure, a narrower 2 lbs. less than needed to destroy the larger model.
iOS 9.3.1 Fixes Problem with Tapping Links
iOS 9.3.1 Release Notes The real problem was apparently the way some third party apps were misusing an iOS API, as noted by 9to5Mac. One might assume that Apple changed the way the API can be called or changed the way misuses were handled in order to stop the problem. I installed the over-the-air version…
DOJ Vows to Continue Using Courts to Compel Tech Companies to Defeat Encryption
“It remains a priority for the government to ensure that law enforcement can obtain crucial digital information to protect national security and public safety, either with cooperation from relevant parties, or through the court system when cooperation fails,” Melanie Newman, a Justice Department spokesman, told the publication. “We will continue to pursue all available options…
FBI Director Comey Denies 'NAND Mirroring' Will Be Used to Unlock Terrorist's iPhone
Reporters used the opportunity to ask questions about the ongoing fight with Apple over Syed Farook's iPhone, including speculation that the method most likely to be used by an unnamed third party (that may actually be named Cellebrite) is NAND mirroring. This technique was openly proposed by the ACLU on March 7th and tossed around…
That Time the Internet Taught Microsoft's AI Chat Bot to Be Racist [Update]
Who's Tay, you ask? An “artificial intelligent chat bot developed by Microsoft's Technology and Research and Bing teams to experiment with and conduct research on conversational understanding.” And who taught her to say all these awful things? Why, the Internet, of course. Tay Twitter avatar, which I'm pretty sure costarred in a Cyberpunk movie in…
FBI Asks Court to Cancel to Tuesday's Hearing with Apple, Court Agrees
United States Magistrate Judge Sherri Pym agreed to vacate the hearing, and asked for a status update from the FBI by April 5th. The FBI's filing said that an unspecified third party had stepped forward with a method of unlocking the device. The filing's wording implies that the third party is “outside the government,” but…
What Happens If Key Apple Engineers Refuse to Write GovtOS?
Exactly that question has been raised in an in-depth report from The New York Times in which the reporters (John Markhoff, Katie Benner, and Brian X. Chen) say they interviewed Apple employees on the subject. The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice has been fairly blithe about their ability to force Apple to create…
