Migration Is (Not Only) For The Birds – Mac Geek Gab 757

Siri, Stringify, Space Lens, and Emergency Bypass don’t all begin with the letter ‘S’, but they have one thing in common: your two favorite geeks discuss them in this week’s episode of Mac Geek Gab. In addition, listen as John F. Braun and Dave Hamilton answer your questions, including some about migrating to a new Mac the right way. The best way. Press play and enjoy learning at least five new things!

Backlash Against Cashless Stores

There is no federal law that requires stores to accept cash, which was something that surprised me. So some stores are going cashless, but some argue this discriminates against poor people who don’t have a bank account and/or a fancy smartphone.

Advocates for cashless bans worry technology is moving too fast for the 6.5% of American households — 8.4 million — that do not have a bank account, according to figures from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Cashless is hard enough, but imagine if you walked into a store only to find out that it only accepts Google Pay. That might bring the reality a bit closer to home.

 

What to Expect From the Tim Cook Biography

A biography of Tim Cook will be released Tuesday. Author Leander Kahney spoke to AppleInsider and told them about the Apple CEO’s core values, his transition to being the main man, and the key differences between him and Steve Jobs. We’ll have a review of the book on TMO in the coming days.

Cook is more collaborative. Remember when they fired Forstall? They put out that press release, and it was kind of like, “We’re make some changes here at Apple, we’re making everything more collaborative. Jony Ive’s got more responsibilities.” They mentioned all this stuff and said, “Oh, by the way we fired Scott Forstall.” Looking back on that, I think it was kind of like Tim Cook’s sort of “Think Different” moment.

Star Wars: Episode IX Teaser Released

Now that I’ve updated my Facebook cover image, computer desktop, and phone lock screen, I can tell you: There’s a teaser trailer out for the final movie in the new Star Wars trilogy, released today at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago. Aside from the teaser, we also got the title: The Rise Of Skywalker. It’s a teaser as opposed to a “full” trailer, so there isn’t a lot to it plotwise. We get some shots of characters, some shots of locations, and not a lick of context. I’ve only watched it about 20 times though, maybe in another viewing or two I’ll pick up something I wasn’t seeing before.

ChargeHub V6 Shareable Car Charger 2-Pack: $51.99

We have a deal on a nifty car charger, especially for families. It consists of two parts, the first of which is a two-port charger that plugs into your car’s auxiliary port (i.e. “cigarette lighter,” for those of a certain age among us). It also has a power port of its own designed for a 5-foot cable that attaches to a 4-port hub for the back seat. That’s 6 ports if you need them, and just two if you don’t. And that hub has a clip that lets you attach it to a back seat. It’s $51.99 through our deal.

A VR Version of Milgram’s Shocking Experiment

Stanley Milgram’s most famous experiment involved taking random people and telling them to electrocute someone who they thought got wrong answers on a quiz. Now there’s a virtual reality version, and the results prove insightful.

During the experiment, participants quizzed a virtual character. A correct answer meant they could move on, while an incorrect answer meant the human participant had to administer a virtual electrical jolt. The scientists noticed that participants sometimes tried to feed the virtual avatar the correct answer by pronouncing it louder — in hopes that they wouldn’t be told to shock them.