ENEGARM Wireless Car Charger: $34.95

We have a deal on the ENEGARM Wireless Car Charger. This car mount charger offers 720 degrees of movements (as in multiple axis), with charging for Qi-enabled devices including iPhone 8/X and later. It’s $34.99 through our deal.

Spotify to Suspend or Terminate Accounts that Use Ad Blockers

Spotify updated its user guidelines to take a tougher approach against listeners who use ad blockers. TechCrunch reported that the new guidelines said that those using ad blockers will be immediately suspended from the service or have their account terminated. In an email to users, the company said that “all types of ad blockers, bots and fraudulent streaming activities are not permitted.”  The new guidelines will come into force on March 1st, 2019.

Ad blockers have long been a headache for Spotify. The company disclosed in March 2018 while preparing for its initial public offering that it discovered two million users, or about 1.3 percent of its total user base at the time, had been using ad blockers on the free version of Spotify, enough to force it to restate usage metrics.

Germany Forces Facebook to Get User Consent Before Messaging Merger

Yesterday Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, the country’s antitrust regulator, says that Facebook needs user consent before it merges data from Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

In future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the practically unrestricted collection and assigning of non-Facebook data to their Facebook user accounts.

Kudos to Germany, but it’s disappointing that another country should step in to do the job of the United States. We should be regulating Facebook.

This Data Breach is Equal to 469,000 War and Peace Books

Last month we heard of the Collection #1 data breach, which contained 773 million email addresses and 21 million passwords. Now, Collections #2-#5 are here.

Despite its unthinkable size, which was first reported by the German news site Heise.de, most of the stolen data appears to come from previous thefts, like the breaches of Yahoo, LinkedIn, and Dropbox. WIRED examined a sample of the data and confirmed that the credentials are indeed valid, but mostly represent passwords from years-old leaks.

As with any data breach you can find out if your details have been leaked by visiting HaveIBeenPwned.com. My eBook copy of War and Peace is 1.8MB. The total size of the new breaches is 845GB, which equals 469,000 of those books.

Sprint Suing AT&T over False 5G Claims

Sprint is suing rival network AT&T over the 5G Evolution branding on its phones. Engadget (which is owned by Verizon), reported that a Sprint survey found that a large number of users thought the 5GE branding meant the network was equivalent to 5G. Users also believed that their AT&T phone was already 5G capable. The lawsuit called for the 5GE tags to be removed from AT&T devices and advertising.

In its claim, Sprint said it commissioned a survey that found 54 percent of consumers believed the “5GE” networks were the same as or better than 5G, and that 43 percent think if they buy an AT&T phone today it will be 5G capable, even though neither of those things are true. Sprint’s argument is that what AT&T is doing is damaging the reputation of 5G, while it works to build out what it calls a ” legitimate early entry into the 5G network space.”

iOS Screen Recording App Revelations Led to User Privacy Win

There was something of a public outcry following the revelation that some iOS apps recorded a user’s screen. They did this to learn what users do whilst in the app.  Apple responded, and told developers that they had to make sure users know that they are being recorded. My colleague Andrew Orr argued that such functionality is not a scandal or an abuse of iOS. He gave legitimate reasons why designers and developers need such functionality. Over on The Next Web, Ivan Mehta wrote that the revelation, and Apple’s subsequent actions, have been a privacy win for consumers.

Most people, including me, would be wary of giving permission to an app to record the on-screen activities unless they specifically tell us what they’re capturing. This’ll make apps be more upfront about their tracking activities. Also, Apple will be checking for screen recording code more often before the developers submit their apps to the App Store, to weed out the privacy-invading code.

Be Safe on the Internet With This Security Checklist

The Security Checklist is an open source list of resources designed to improve your online privacy and security. Check things off to keep track as you go.

This website provides a beginner’s checklist for staying safe on the internet. This website is the result of a conversation started during a recent episode of the Design Details Podcast and a subsequent tweet by Michael Knepprath.

This is a great website that Kelly Guimont pointed my way. Even if you’re a techie and have a handle on your online privacy, you should check this out too.

Safari Development: A New Way to Fight Intrusive Browser Ads

ZDNet writes: “Engineers working on the WebKit engine, the core of the Safari browser, are looking at putting a limit on the amount of JavaScript a website can load, as a novel and unique approach to fighting websites that load too many or too intrusive ads.” It’s nice to see the more active role WebKit engineers are taking to limit the bad behavior of some websites. However, “…this isn’t a feature users can test right now. Weeks, or even months, of development are still needed.”

Apple Tells Developers to Change or Remove Screen Recording

A hot news item today was the revelation that some apps record your screen to learn what you do within the app. This can be used for testing and troubleshooting. Apple has responded, saying:

In an email, an Apple spokesperson said: Protecting user privacy is paramount in the Apple ecosystem. Our App Store Review Guidelines require that apps request explicit user consent and provide a clear visual indication when recording, logging, or otherwise making a record of user activity.

As I said in my editorial, the fact that developers know what you do within the app isn’t a big deal. The issues, as Apple noted, are: 1. Users don’t know this happens, and this isn’t disclosed in privacy policies; and 2. Sometimes sensitive data isn’t properly redacted.

Rocket Spanish Language Learning Level 1: $59.95

We have a deal on Rocket Spanish Language Learning Level 1. This language course includes a combination of interactive audio lessons, voice-recognition, reinforcement activities, and more learning resources, and is designed to let you work in 20-minute blocks. You can get this course for $59.95 through our deal. We’re linking directly to the Spanish language course, but there are also options Japanese, German, English, French, Chinese, and Italian on the deal listing.

Apple Pay Support Comes to Over 20 Banks Worldwide

Aside from French banks adding support, Apple updated its list to reflect the addition of over 20 more banks.

The U.S. bank list is now so long that Apple has introduced alphabetical sub-sections to make it easier to find your bank on the list. Other new entries added to the most recently updated list include Qpay in Australia; HSBC in France; Surgutneftegasbank in Russia; Banco Mediolanum in Spain; Concord bank and UkrSibbank in Ukraine; and N26 in the UK.

The Boy Who Built His Own Prosthetic Arm. Out of Lego.

LONDON – David Aguilar was born without a forearm. So the Spaniard decided to build his own one. This would be extraordinary enough, but he did out of Lego. He started aged 9 and, aged 19, is now on his 4th iteration of the prosthetic limb. Reuters spoke to Mr. Aguilar and told his amazing story.

Once his favorite toys, the plastic bricks became the building material for Aguilar’s first, still very rudimentary, artificial arm at the age of nine, and each new version had more movement capability than the one before.“As a child I was very nervous to be in front of other guys, because I was different, but that didn’t stop me believing in my dreams,” Aguilar, who is from Andorra, a tiny principality between Spain and France, told Reuters.

Mumsnet Refers Itself to UK Privacy Regulator After Bug

LONDON – Popular parenting website Mumsnet reported itself to the UK’s Information Commissioner. A bug that meant users’ accounts could potentially be switched was found. This meant people could have access to other’s account details and private messages. The company confirmed to the Guardian that it had reported itself, following the incident.

A botched upgrade to the software the forum runs on meant that for three days, if two users tried to log in at the same time, there was the possibility that their accounts would be switched. Each user was able to post as the other, see their account details, and read private messages. The company doesn’t know how many user accounts were affected, but says that over the three days the bug was live, from Tuesday afternoon to Thursday morning, about 4,000 users logged in. Of that, only 14 users have reported an issue.

Fauxtography, or Manipulating an Image to Tell a Story

Nice piece on photography and fauxtography by The Verge. It talks about certain automated actions in photography but I think it speaks to photo manipulation in general. Long before smartphones and Photoshop were invented, some photographers still manipulated their images in the dark room. These were under the category of fine art photography, and it helped a photographer use the picture to tell the story in their head.

For the longest time, we’ve had a seemingly clear dividing line between shots straight out of the camera (colloquially referred to as SOOC) and examples of fauxtography where the shooter has indulged in applying some after effects like filters, vignettes, recoloration, or masking and inserting objects in the frame. Phones are now stampeding over that line.

Looking at Angela Ahrendts's Time at Apple

The news of Angela Ahrendts’s impending departure from Apple came as a surprise to many outside the company. I can only assume the same was true for people on the inside There can be little doubt that the company’s outgoing Senior Vice President Retail has made a real impact during her five-year tenure. AppleInsider provided an incisive look at how Ms. Ahrdents’s came to be at Apple, and the legacy she will leave.

While Apple does also earn money from services and other business activities, the alterations that she’s made in the stores are central to the rise of the company into being the world’s most profitable firm.  These Apple Stores have been lauded as retail successes since their very beginnings, and externally they had appeared to be doing well even before Ahrendts joined. Yet in practice, the years before her arrival were marked with problems.

iOS 12.2 Will Remove 'Do Not Track' Option

In the next update of iOS and macOS Apple will remove the Do Not Track option from Safari. This is okay.

Removed support for the expired Do Not Track standard to prevent potential use as a fingerprinting variable.

Before I see a headline from Forbes titled “iOS 12.2 Has a Nasty Surprise” let me say that removing Do Not Track is good. It never did anything anyway because obeying it was completely voluntary. Which of course means that every website ignored it. And now it can be used to fingerprint your browser. Good riddance.

Why Don't Airlines Board Us Most Efficiently? Money

There are some very slow and inefficient ways to board passengers onto an airliner. Most airlines use some variation of them. But there are also some mathematically proven efficient, optimum ways. Why don’t the airlines use those? Money. This video analysis uses great graphics and demonstrates the problem.

Huawei Needs 3-5 Years to Address UK Security Concerns

LONDON – It will take 3 to 5 years for Huawei to deal with security issues raised by the UK’s National Cyber Security Council (NCSC). Reuters saw a letter to British lawmakers from the Chinese firm in which it responded to the NCSC report that found it had exposed the UK’s telecom networks to security risks. The NCSC commented that it was in “regular dialogue with Huawei about the standards expected of their products.”

In a letter to lawmakers last week, Ryan Ding, president of the company’s carrier business group, said it would take up to five years to see results. “Enhancing our software engineering capabilities is like replacing components on a high-speed train in motion,” he said in a letter to the chairman of the British parliament’s science and technology committee.“It is a complicated and involved process, and will take at least three to five years to see tangible results. We hope the UK government can understand this.”

 

Hey You, Stop Buying Microsoft Office 2019

In a weird new commercial Microsoft pit Office 365 against Office 2019 in an obvious ploy to sell more subscriptions.

Unsurprisingly, in the new ads, which give the actors twins various challenges to perform in the likes of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Office 365 beats Office 2019 every time. Yawn. The ads aren’t very good and you will cringe a few times…

Hint: You can directly buy Office 365 in the new Mac apps.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 Could be Modified After Qualcomm Patent Win

Apple has looked into the possibility of modifying the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 after losing a patent trial to Qualcomm in Germany. AppleInsider picked up on German media reports that indicated that the components deemed to have violated Qualcomm’s “envelope tracking” patent could be removed and replace.

German-language publication WinFuture, in a report spotted by Foss Patents, that Apple is examining the possibility of creating a slightly modified version of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8. Aside from software changes, the models will apparently have an infringing component pulled from the design and replaced with another. The offending components which was the cause of the injunction were produced by Apple supplier Qorvo, and are said to have violated an “envelope tracking” patent held by Qualcomm. This refers to a method of conserving battery power while the modem is active.

AnandTech's Comprehensive iPhone XR Review

Andrei Frumusanu wrote a long, detailed iPhone XR review, talking about the display, battery life, and more.

The iPhone XR is an interesting product for Apple: It is clear that it aims to be a lower-cost alternative to the higher-end XS flagships. Yet at the same time it’s not directly an alternative to either the XS or the XS Max, and rather represents a model that squarely fits in-between its two higher-priced siblings.

Although the iPhone XR has been out for a while, this is still a great review to read.

Security Researcher Won't Share macOS Keychain Bug

Security researcher Linuz Henze found a macOS Keychain bug but won’t share it with Apple out of protest.

Henze has publicly shared legitimate iOS vulnerabilities in the past, so he has a track record of credibility. However, Henze is frustrated that Apple’s bug bounty program only applies to iOS, not macOS, and has decided not to release more information about his latest Keychain invasion.

It is odd that there isn’t a macOS bug bounty but I think withholding security information isn’t the way to go.