At the Dreamforce conference, Time Cook discussed Steve Jobs, Apple’s environmental efforts, and privacy with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
WT:Social is a New Social Network From WikiTribune
WT:Social is a new social network from Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. He promises it will never sell user data and rely on donors.
BONDIC Pocket 3D Liquid Plastic Welding Kit: $14.99
We have a deal on a different kind of product today, the Bondic Pocket 3D liquid plastic welding kit. This liquid plastic that only hardens when you apply an included UV light to it, allowing you to cure it only when you want. The company says it’s a four step process: clean, fill, cure and shape to fix almost anything. Check out the promo video below to see it in action. It’s $14.99 through our deal.
Dr Mac and the New Logitech Mouse – TMO Daily Observations 2019-11-19
Bryan Chaffin and Doctor Mac join host Kelly Guimont to discuss their deep abiding love for Logitech mice, including the new MX Master 3.
Apple Partners With 100cameras for iPhoneography
Apple is partnering with the nonprofit organization 100cameras to teach Chicago students photography with iPhones.
Need the Tor Browser on iOS? Try Onion Browser
Need a Tor browser on iOS? Onion Browser is the only iOS app recommended on the Tor Project’s website. Starting out at the U.S. Naval Research Lab, Tor is a special network that helps people browse the internet with as much privacy as possible. You should note there are a couple of security advisories on its website: WebRTC/Media leaks: Due to iOS limitations, WebRTC and media files leak outside of Tor and are routed over the normal internet. This will reveal your real IP address to sites using these features. (If you are using a VPN, the VPN IP address is revealed instead.) To defend against this, you may set Strict security mode in Host Settings, which will disable Javascript. More information here. OCSP leak: Visiting EV “Green Bar” HTTPS sites may leak information that can be used to reveal the domain name of the website you are visiting. This is handled within iOS and cannot be changed by Onion Browser. There is no known workaround. A detailed report can be found here. App Store: Free
Apple's Very Parental App Store Decisions
When Apple banned 24 vaping apps from the App Store recent, lots of people were happy. The Macalope wasn’t. He explained why in his Macworld column.
For now those who have installed the apps can continue to use them, but in the long term developers have no way to deliver updates that could provide bug fixes or firmware updates. It’s worth pointing out that the canisters that did contain cyanide were counterfeit. The Macalope just checked his local liquor store and we haven’t banned alcohol sales because prison wine blinded some people. He also checked the App Store and we haven’t banned mixology apps, either. But one of the apps Apple banned actually checked canisters to see if they were counterfeit. (Tip o’ the antlers to Ben Thompson’s piece on this subject.) It’s very temping to make lifestyle judgements. We have waged a long war with the tobacco industry (which stands to benefit from banning vaping, by the way), so seeing young people vaping nicotine is concerning. But lots of choices adults make can be concerning.
The EU's Battle With Big Tech is Only Just Beginning
The EU’s executive, the EU Commission, has increasingly turned its attention on Big Tech in recent times. It fined Apple $14.5 billion in 2016, and is looking at alleged competition issues around the Walle App. At the center of it all is competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The New York Times has a really good profile of her, picked up by Cult of Mac. It shows’ that the EU’s battle with Big Tech is only just beginning.
A New York Times article writes that Vestager “envisions a more aggressive agenda” for moderating the tech industry. It notes that: “Ms. Vestager, a 51-year-old former Danish lawmaker, is doubling down. She has signed on for a rare second five-year term as the head of the European Commission’s antitrust division, and assumed expanded responsibility over digital policy across the 28-nation bloc…” There are few specifics in the article, aside from the overall sense that Vestager is looking to double-down on her moderating of tech companies. The European Commission is already looking into a number of tech giants. This includes the question of whether Apple is abusing its marketplace position with the App Store.
Did Apple Maps Forget Michigan’s Upper Peninsula?
The upgraded Apple Maps has been slowly rolling out across the United States this year. The team recently added some western and midwestern states to the redesign, including the lower peninsula of Michigan. But I live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and don’t see the upgrade. No surprise there, because people often think the U.P. is part of Canada or Wisconsin. There’s even an entire subreddit dedicated to it. Since it looks like Wisconsin hasn’t gotten the upgrade either, I’m assuming Apple is in the latter camp.
In terms of area, this latest expansion is Apple’s largest yet……and it’s the second largest in terms of population. It also has arrived faster than almost all of the others.
Thousands of Disney+ Accounts Hacked and Being Sold Online
Streaming glitches aren’t the only tech problems to have beset Disney+, it seems. ZDNet found that almost immediately thousands of users’ credentials were being sold online.
Two users who spoke with ZDNet on the condition we do not share their names admitted that they reused passwords. However, other users said online that they did not, and had used passwords unique for their Disney+ accounts. This suggests that in some cases hackers gained access to accounts by using email and password combos leaked at other sites, while in other cases the Disney+ credentials might have been obtained from users infected with keylogging or info-stealing malware. The speed at which hackers have mobilized to monetize Disney+ accounts is astounding. Accounts were put up for sale on hacking forums within hours after the service’s launch. As of this article’s writing, hacking forums have been flooded with Disney+ accounts, with ads offering access to thousands of account credentials.