TMO Deals

Hilarious Deconstruction of Microsoft's 'Mac Book' Surface Commercial

Bryan Chaffin ·

The Next Web has a hilarious deconstruction of Microsoft’s Meet Mackenzie “Mac” Book commercial. If you haven’t already seen this ridiculous commercial, watch it. You’ll probably be mad at me for telling you to do that, but your reward will be Callum Booth’s excellent snarkfest at TNW. Here’s a snippet, where he questions the premise of the commercial star’s name, Mac Book.

What are your credentials here, bud?

Just because my last name is ‘Booth’ doesn’t mean I have any understanding how phone booths or toll booths actually operate. You wouldn’t come to me if you were planning on upgrading a selection of traffic kiosks on the strength of my surname. I can categorically say that’d be the worst mistake you’d ever make. My entire selection rationale would revolve around which booth I think looks the most bitching, which, unfortunately, is no way to actually run a business.

I’m sorry, Mac Book, but I do not value your opinion on this matter.

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Play the Original Diablo in a Web Browser on Your iPad

Andrew Orr ·

The developers at Rivsoft made it possible to play the original Diablo game using a web browser. Someone on Reddit also got it working on their iPad.

Like the newer Diablo games, the original is an isometric top-down dungeon crawler with multiple character classes, tons of loot, and hoards demons to fight. The version of Diablo on Rivsoft’s site is the Shareware build — in modern times, we’d call this a demo. You can play the first two dungeons of the game with one of the game’s three character classes.

For the past several weeks I’ve been playing Diable III on my Nintendo Switch. I should give the original a play, too.

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Digging into Apple's T2 Chip

Bryan Chaffin ·

AppleInsider has a good piece on Apple’s T2 chip. It’s incomplete in that it doesn’t cover the T2’s built-in image signal processor and SSD controller, but it’s still good info to have, and we recommend it.

If you spent any time looking into which Mac desktop or notebook to buy before you paid out for a shiny new machine, you’ll have seen Apple’s website extolling the fact that many of them have T2 security chips. That’s nice. Only, it’s more than nice, it’s more than a way to invisibly secure your Mac, it is a process that has a dramatic and visible effect on just about everything you do.

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Detailed Look at Apple Maps in iOS 13

Bryan Chaffin ·

Check out this detailed look at Apple Maps in iOS 13 at MacStories. New features, a new look, and an aggressive move to make Apple Maps rival or beat Google Maps, make this a significant upgrade, and MacStories lay it all out.

Timed with the spread of its first-party mapping data, Apple is giving the Maps app a big upgrade in iOS 13 that represents the company’s biggest push yet to overtake Google Maps as the world’s most trusted, go-to mapping service. Apple Maps in iOS 13 represents – if you’re in the US at least – Apple’s purest vision to date for a modern mapping service. Here’s everything that it brings.

TMO Deals

Babbel Language Learning 1-Year Subscription: $69

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on a 1-year subscription for Babbel Language Learning. You can choose from 14 languages to learn, practice with 10-15 minute bite-sized lessons, and it uses speech recognition technology to keep your pronunciation on point. 1 year through our deal is $69. There’s also a 2-year option for $99.

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That Recent Data Breach Might Not Be Limited to Capital One

Andrew Orr ·

The Capital One data breach might not have bene limited to the bank. Other companies could’ve been affected too, according to Slack messages from the hacker Paige Thompson.

Reports from Forbes and security reporter Brian Krebs indicating that Capital One may not have been the only company affected, pointing to “one of the world’s biggest telecom providers, an Ohio government body, and a major U.S. university,” according to Slack messages sent by the alleged hacker.

Krebs posted a screenshot of a list of files purportedly stolen by the alleged hacker. The stolen data contained filenames including car maker “Ford” and Italian financial services company “Unicredit.”

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Vietnam Might Be the Next iPhone Manufacturing Center

Andrew Orr ·

Due to the trade war between the United States and China, companies are looking to put their eggs into more baskets. Vietnam could be one of them.

Apple has homed in on Vietnam and India as it intensifies its search for ways to diversify its supply chain. Nintendo has accelerated a shift in the production of its Switch console to Vietnam from China, according to Panjiva, a supply chain research firm. The Taiwanese electronics behemoth Foxconn, a major assembler of iPhones, said in January that it had acquired land-use rights in Vietnam and had pumped $200 million into an Indian subsidiary. Other Taiwanese and Chinese partners to Apple have indicated that they are considering ramping up operations in Vietnam as well.

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Jamf Gets Native Mac Security With Digita Security

Andrew Orr ·

Enterprise Mac company Jamf has acquired Digita Security, bringing native Mac security to its platform.

Digita, a two-year old startup, was founded by a team of security experts led by Patrick Wardle, whose background includes a decade as a Mac security researcher, seeking out vulnerabilities on the Mac, and time at the NSA where he honed his security research skills.

Patrick makes a lot of great Mac tools with Objective See that I recommend.

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LinkedIn Violates Library Privacy With LinkedIn Learning

Andrew Orr ·

Many states have laws in place to protect the privacy of libraries. But LinkedIn is violating this with LinkedIn Learning, formerly known as Lynda.com.

Currently, when Lynda.com is accessed through a library, a user logs in with her or his library card and a PIN. No other personal information is required.

Under the new LinkedIn Learning policy, library users would be required to create a personal, publicly searchable, profile and agree to LinkedIn’s user agreement and privacy policy before being able to use LinkedIn Learning.

Checking off the user agreement grants LinkedIn the power to share the information contained in a personal profile with whoever LinkedIn wants.

Libraries are a bastion against corporations, where you can get free resources and just hang out without having to buy anything. I hope this gets resolved in the library’s favor.