Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is a popular turn-based game and part of the Civilization game series. The company behind the game—Aspyr Media—recently reengineered the game to make it available for the iPad. And now it’s available for the iPhone as well. To celebrate the game is 60% off at US$23.99, when it’s normally US$59.99. Download now and play your first 60 turns for free. Purchase the full game to build an empire that stands the test of time. Civilization VI requires iOS 11 and an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, iPhone 8 or 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPad Air 2, iPad 2017, or any iPad Pro. The game offers new ways to interact with your world, expand your empire across the map, advance your culture, and compete against history’s greatest leaders to build a civilization that will stand the test of time. Play as one of 20 historical leaders including Roosevelt (America) and Victoria (England).
Not Everyone Got the FEMA Presidential Alert
No matter what carrier you’re on, a wide range of people seemed to have been affected.
China's Computer Spying Chips, Presidential Alert Follow Up - TMO Daily Observations 2018-10-04
Andrew Orr and Bryan Chaffin join Jeff Gamet to explore a report that China snuck spy chips onto servers Apple, Amazon, and U.S. government agencies used, plus they follow up on yesterday’s smartphone emergency alert test.
COWIN 6110 Portable Bluetooth Speaker: $42.99
We have a deal on the COWIN 6110 Portable Bluetooth Speaker. This device has a battery life of up to 10 hours listening and supports Bluetooth 4.1. Its shell is made from aluminum, too. It’s $49.99 through our deal.
iOS 12: How to Make Your First Shortcut and Add a Siri Command
Making your first Shortcut in iOS 12 on your iPhone or iPad doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated. Here’s how to get started, and how to add a Siri voice command, too.
BBC Radio 1 Hip-hop DJ Charlie Sloth Joining Apple Music
BBC hip-hop DJ Charlie Sloth is leaving his current gig to join Apple Music. Just like Zane Lowe, his show broadcast on BBC Radio 1, and now he’ll be on Beats 1.
China Reportedly Snuck Spy Chips Onto Apple, Amazon Servers
Bloomberg says spies in China managed to add a chip to servers Apple, Amazon, government agencies, and other companies were using. The chips were found on Supermicro server and were no bigger than a grain of rice. They let the People’s Liberation Army, and presumably other government agencies capture data and even remotely control compromised servers. From Bloomberg’s report:
The attack by Chinese spies reached almost 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple, by compromising America’s technology supply chain, according to extensive interviews with government and corporate sources.
Apple vehemently denies the report and calls out what it says are factual errors. The other companies deny the report, too. Apple stopped buying Supermicro servers in 2016 after discovering an unrelated security issue. Amazon bought Elemental Technologies, the company that wrote the software running on Supermicro servers, to run on its own custom designed hardware. Either China pulled off the most amazing hack ever: altering server hardware during manufacture for espionage, or Bloomberg and its sources got the story completely wrong.
A Terrific Review: Apple Watch Series 4
Jason Snell, at Six Colors, has written up a very nice review of the Apple Watch Series 4. Notable is the assessment of which previous generation owners should upgrade to Series 4. And he doesn’t forget to note: “Apple also won’t let you buy a Stainless Steel model unless you buy the cellular edition. That double penalty means you can’t get a stainless Series 4 for less than $699.” Check it out.
Pictar Pro, Netflix Narnia, Apple's October Surprise - ACM 482
The Pictar Pro marries old school camera goodness to modern iPhone convenience, and Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Gamet weigh the pros and cons. They also talk about Netflix’s plans to make new movies and TV series (both) out of The Chronicles of Narnia books. Lastly, they talk about what to expect if Apple does an October media event.
iMazing 2 Universal License for Mac and Windows: $19.99
We have a new deal on iMazing 2, a product we’ve written about. iMazing let’s you browse and manage your backups, extract and print your text messages, and drag and drop songs to your iPhone. Our deal is $19.99 for a universal license good on unlimited iOS devices and up to 2 Macs or PCs, $5 less than earlier deals.