Need to use Mini DisplayPort monitor with your USB-C Mac? Need to make screen recordings? Need a Dropbox replacement? Your two favorite geeks have you covered with these questions and others. Cool Stuff Found segment includes a way to control your reboot sounds, your clipboard, and your unwanted robocalls. Plus, another AirPods alternative. Download and enjoy!
Control and Culture Clash in Iran over Mobile MMO 'Clash of Clans'
Iran is in the process of banning Clash of Clans, a move that epitomizes that country’s attempts to control culture clash and behavior. According to TechCrunch, the game has been pulled from a popular third party app store in Iran called Cafe Bazaar and will soon be pulled from its other legitimate source. Here’s what’s interesting to me: Clash of Clans has only officially been available for a month in Iran, and it’s being played by two-thirds of the mobile gaming community. Iran’s religious leaders have deemed it to too addictive and promotes both violence and tribal conflict. At the same time, the game was being played on the black market before its release, where it will still be available. It will be interesting to see if there’s any kind of backlash from the country’s mobile gamers. I’m far from an expert on Iran, but it’s hard to see how the country could possibly stop the world at its borders forever. Don’t get me wrong. Clash of Clans—like Game of War and every other successful MMO—are addictive. But I’ve yet to see a successful attempt to legislate addictive behavior. Below is the SuperBowl 2015 commercial for the game that is pretty darned amusing.
Apple's Unused Patent Lawsuit, Twitter Features We Want - TMO Daily Observations 2016-12-30
Apple has a patent for blocking iPhone features while driving, but isn’t using it. Dave Hamilton and Bryan Chaffin join Jeff Gamet look at how that landed Apple in a lawsuit related to a tragic car wreck, plus they share their most wanted Twitter feature.
Clip and Snap Smartphone Camera Lenses 5-Pack: $23.99
We have a deal for you today on a set of Clip & Snap Smartphone Camera Lenses. There are five lenses, a wide angle lens, macro closeup lens, fish eye lens, 2x telephoto lens, and a polarizing lens. They’re also available in Red, Blue, and Black, with a price of $23.99.
Did You Know You Can Order Personalized Sharpies?
Quick show of hands: who here is a Sharpie fanatic? OK, that’s what I thought. We’re all Sharpie fanatics! Did you know you can order personalized Sharpies? It’s Kelly Guimont’s fault. She told me about this. And now I’m telling you. And now we’re all going to be spending all our disposable income not already being sent to Apple on personalized Sharpies…anyway. There’s a list of things you can’t do, and personalized colors are limited to black, red, green, blue, magenta, turquoise, purple and lime green. You can preview your personalizations, and each pen will also have the Sharpie logo. There are a variety of fonts you can choose from, and you also have the option of adding clipart, as shown below, in addition to your personalized message. Warning: the personalization engine uses Flash.
Want to Know if You'd Survive a Nuclear Bomb? There's a Site for That
«I wonder if I live in a place that’ll survive a nuclear bomb» is something we used to ask in the 1960s and 70s, and it seems to have come back into vogue. Back then, we had to do things like go to the library and do research. But now, we can sit in the comfort of our potentially safe homes and check the Would I Survive a Nuke website. Spoiler: I probably won’t in Boulder, but you might be more lucky. The site is getting hit pretty hard, so you may have to try a few times. Seems a lot of people are really interested in knowing their potential fate.
5.8-inch iPhones, Apple's Original Crew - TMO Daily Observations 2016-12-29
We’re seeing more reports about a new iPhone screen size for 2017, so Bryan Chaffin and Mac Geek Gab’s John F. Braun join Jeff Gamet weigh in on what may be coming next year. They also look back on Apple’s first ten employees, and note the update of death for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone-of-fire.
Disk Drill PRO 3 for Mac: $34.99
We have a deal for you today on Disk Drill PRO 3, a data recovery utility for the Mac. According to the company, you can «scan and recover data from virtually any storage device with just the click of a button.» Our deal is for a lifetime license for $34.99. You can find more information about the software on the deal listing.
Bryan Gets Paranoid About the IoT - ACM 391
Bryan is totally paranoid about the Internet of Things, and he isn’t at all happy about the idea of having an Amazon Echo or Google Home listening in on everything in his house. Jeff laughs at him. Once the guffaws die down, they talk about how and why Apple is getting crushed by these good enough devices.
AirPod Alerts for Your Local Apple Store
When AirPods went on sale for preorder on December 13, Apple quickly became backordered. Customers found that delivery estimate for their order were up to 4-6 weeks out. Apple Stores have been receiving shipments of AirPods every day or so. Other stores like BestBuy and Target are also getting regular shipments. If you haven’t ordered AirPods yet, and don’t want to have to check with each store, you can use this handy website to get AirPod Alerts. You enter your email address and the physical address of your local Apple Store. Then, you’ll be notified whenever your store gets a new shipment of AirPods.
