Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai has some cockamamie ideas divorced from reality. The man who believes the United States is a better place if ISPs can sell what they know about us also thinks Net Neutrality would be better protected if it was voluntary. Bryan Chaffin explains.
Tip: Lock Clips Recording With This Simple Trick
Andrew Orr found a handy tip from Reddit to use with Apple’s new Clips app. It lets you quickly lock your video recording so you no longer have to “Hold to Record.” Andrew Orr shows you how to do it.
Jay Z Ditches Apple Music and Spotify for Exclusive Streaming on Tidal
It looks like Tidal co-owner Jay Z doesn’t think Apple Music and Spotify are cool any more because he pulled his albums from the streaming music services. It looks like just his original content is gone while collaborations with other artists are still available.
iOS: What to Do When Your iPhone Gets Too Warm
There’s nothing more frightening than the thought of your iPhone blowing up or dying from getting too warm. Before you schedule that trip to the Genius Bar, though, follow through these tips from Jeff Butts. He’s got some great troubleshooting steps for when your iPhone gets too warm.
Social Media Privacy Settlement, Apple's Clips App - TMO Daily Observations 2017-04-07
The big social media networks settled a lawsuit over taking our phone’s contacts without our knowledge, but it isn’t costing them much. Bryan Chaffin joins Jeff Gamet to look at the settlement and companies stepping into our privacy, plus they talk about Apple’s new Clips app.
macOS Sierra: How to Disable the Dashboard
You probably don’t use the Dashboard in macOS, except by accident. Ever wondered how you could disable it altogether? Jeff Butts did, and has found a way to do just that.
TSMC Drops Out Toshiba Memory Bidding, Foxconn Still in the Race
The number of companies bidding for Toshiba’s NAND flash memory business is getting smaller now that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, has dropped out of the race. Foxconn is still still in the race with the highest bid at about US$30 billion.
This Working Mac Classic is Really LEGO Bricks and a Raspberry Pi
LEGO and the Raspberry Pi are both awesome, and combined to make a working classic Mac? Totally brilliant. That’s what Jannis Hermanns did with a Raspberry Pi Zero, an e-paper display, and NES Mac software. His little LEGO Mac even has Wi-Fi, which hadn’t been invented when Apple introduced the computer in 1984. Sadly, there is a Dremel tool involved to make it all come together, but the end result looks great—and at about $100 for all the parts costs a lot less that the original Macintosh.
Swift Programming from Scratch - Interactive Learning Platform: $10
We have a deal for you today on a training course to help you learn Swift. It’s called We ❤️ Swift, an ebook and interactive platform designed to teach you Swift from scratch. It includes more than a hundred exercises and custom made playgrounds. You can get it for $10 through our deal.
macOS: Reduce PDF File Size in Preview
This Quick Tip is about a little-known feature of Preview that’ll let you shrink the file size of large PDFs, so you could use this when you’re bumping up against uploading limitations, for example. Come read about how to do it (and why you should pay attention to how your file looks afterward!).
Twitter, Instagram, and Others Agree to Pay $5.3 Million for Privacy Obnoxiousness
Several social media companies have agreed to a US$5.3 million settlement for being obnoxious about user privacy. The suit stems from 2012, when Twitter, Instagram, Yelp, Foursquare, Kik, Path, Gowalla, and Foodspotting all took advantage of the way iOS worked at the time. More specifically, these companies sucked up our Contacts without telling us. iOS later required user permission to access our Contacts. The settlement was reported by Law360, who said the $5.3 million would be used to pay out damages to people who downloaded the above-mentioned apps between 2009 and 2012. What that means is the attorneys in the case get a phat paycheck, the companies get a slap on the wrist, and the millions of users who downloaded those apps will get pennies. Yay!
Tim Cook Offers Auburn Students 'A Personal View of Inclusion and Diversity'
Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke to the students of Auburn University—his alma mater—on Thursday on the value and importance of diversity. According to university newspaper The Plainsman, Mr. Cook’s speech was titled, “A Personal View of Inclusion and Diversity.”
Buy A Western Digital External SSD For Your New MacBook
Western Digital is finally selling an external SSD. This solid state drive is part of its My Passport series of portable drives. As you can see from the photo, it’s a tiny and highly portable external SSD capable of achieving data transfers of 515 Mb/s. If you’re looking to buy an external SSD for your MacBook, this looks like a great purchase. Western Digital put USB-C ports into this drive, so you won’t need an annoying dongle to use it with your Mac Book Pro with Touch Bar or MacBook. If you don’t have a USB-C laptop, have no fear. Every drive comes with a USB-A adapter in the box to use with other laptops. It’s available in three sizes: 256GB at US$99, 512GB at US$199, 1TB at US$399.
Sony Announces Prices & Availability of its OLED 4KTVs
Back in January, during CES, TMO wrote up a news story about Sony’s new XBR-A1E BRAVIA OLED 4K HDR TV. At the time, the product was not yet shipping, and we didn’t know what the prices would be. As a recap, Sony has embraced the OLED technology for its new line of 4K/UHD TVs, a market previously held only by LG. Now we know the details from the official press release for the two smaller models. For 55-inch: US$4999.99. For 65-inch: $6499.99. Sony says these TVs will be “available in stores beginning in April 2017.” OLED displays consistently win the picture quality battle against any kind of LCD, and so it’s important and timely for Sony to enter this market. No doubt, prices will be lower for the 2017 holidays.
macOS: Putting a Recovery Partition on Your Mac (Without Reinstalling macOS)
When Jeff Butts was mucking about with his trusty Mac Mini, he managed to mangle his recovery partition. Normally, this would mean a complete reinstall of the operating system, but Jeff found another way. Read on to learn how to get your recovery partition back without resorting to a complete reinstall.
Apple's Clips Social Media Video App Available for iPhone, iPad
Apple’s Clips video editing app for social networks hit the App Store on Thursday. The app lets iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users capture and edit short videos to share on Facebook, Twitter, and more.
Pebble Watches Aren't Dead Yet, Whole-home VPN - TMO Daily Observations 2017-04-06
Good news, Pebble owners, your smartwatch isn’t a paperweight just yet. Dave Hamilton and John F. Braun join Jeff Gamet to share their thoughts on Fitbit making it possible to side load apps onto Pebble smartwatches, plus they explain whole-home VPN protection.
Pebble Update Lets Watches Work After Servers Shut Down
Pebble smartwatch owners got a welcome iPhone app update this week that removes the dependency on the company’s cloud servers for firmware updates and app installation. The update addresses a concern users and developers have had ever since Fitbit bought Pebble last year.
Samsung Lands 2 Year Deal for Curved OLED iPhone Displays
Smartphone makers planning on using OLED screens are about to be in a bind because Apple just signed a two year contract with Samsung for the panels. Samsung will reportedly supply Apple with at least 70 million bendable OLED panels this year, and Samsung will take up the rest for itself.
Apple Watch Series 3 Set for Fall Launch
The third generation Apple Watch, or Apple Watch Series 3, will ship in late 2017, according to insider sources. Apple is also adding Compal Electronics as a second watch manufacturer.
