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Secret Service Purchased ‘Location X’ Product to Track Phones

Andrew Orr ·

A Secret Service document reveals the purchase of “Location X” a product that uses location data harvested from apps. The product is from a company called Babel Street. If that name sounds familiar it’s because two employees left the company to form “Anomaly Six” another location tracking company.

“The purpose of this modification is to add 1 licenses [sic] to CLIN 0003 and incorporate the Master Subscription Agreement and Locate X Addendum as attached,” the contract document reads. Motherboard obtained the document through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

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Verizon Mix and Match Unlimited Plans Now Include Disney+, Hulu and Espn+

Charlotte Henry ·

Verizon updated its Mix & Match Unlimited wireless plans on Monday. A company announcement said that  Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ will be available alongside Apple Music.

Beginning August 20, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ will be included in select Mix & Match Unlimited wireless plans, along with features like Apple Music and the ultra-fast speeds of 5G Ultra Wideband, giving customers more value at the same price. “Our new Mix & Match plans make the choice clearer than ever: customers get the best network and the best value with Verizon,” said Frank Boulben, SVP Marketing and Products of Verizon Consumer Group. “We led the industry by giving customers Disney+ on us. Now we’re adding The Disney Bundle, which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, for more entertainment choices that appeal to a variety of interests. We can’t wait to see what customers choose to suit their needs.”

 

How-To

Encrypting Email With iOS 14 Mail - A How-To

Jeff Butts ·

One of the most frustrating tasks for iPhone and iPad users is figuring out how to get it to play nicely with encrypted email with iOS Mail. Jeff Butts decided to brave the frustration, scoured the Internet for tips, and developed a method that should solve your woes.

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‘LastResort’, the Story Behind the Mac’s Mysterious Font

Andrew Orr ·

Ernie Smith wrote a profile of the Mac font called LastResort. It only appears when the OS can’t find an appropriate character of the system font.

But LastResort is a more interesting font than it seems. It’s essentially the typography form of hieroglyphics, showing unusual characters intended for people building fonts to have some sort of error system that helps them figure out what might be missing from their typeface.

A great write up of a font I had never heard of before.

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Tesla iPhone App Getting 2FA

Charlotte Henry ·

Tesla is set to introduce two-factor authentication to its iPhone App in shortly. CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the long-awaited iOS feature “is going through final validation right now,” AppleInsider.

In a response to a tweet on Friday asking about an ongoing project to add two-factor authentication to the app, Elon Musk apologized for the feature being “embarrassingly late,” but that it was on the way. According to Musk, two-factor authentication via SMS or an authenticator app is “going through final validation right now,” though it is unclear if this refers to Tesla’s own procedures or those relating to the App Store. The Tesla mobile app provides drivers with a lot of information and control for their electric car. From the app, users can change media being played, remotely change the climate control, locate the vehicle in a car park, interact with the navigation, and monitor the progress of recharging, among other elements.

Podcast

Do Attachments Last Forever? — Mac Geek Gab 829

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

What happens to Mail attachments in your archive? Have you ever done a three finger drag? How do you manage your trash can? We mean *really* manage it? All these questions — and a lot more — are answered for you this week as Dave and John pour through the mailbag and help you learn at least five new things. Press play and enjoy listening as your two favorite geeks help make it all happen!

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Prerecording Yourself so it Looks Like You Care About That Zoom Meeting

Charlotte Henry ·

While there are some benefits to the WFH, let’s be honest, endless video meetings and Zoom calls are not one of them. CNet’s Jesse Orrall decided to see if he could prerecord himself  and fool his colleagues for a whole week.

Ecamm Live lets me prerecord various “Scenes” to play on demand. The audio and video from those scenes were routed through the virtual camera and microphone and into whatever video conferencing application we were using for a particular meeting (Zoom, Hangouts, etc.). Ideally, it would be a step up from the dummy and audio system used in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. For one whole week I used my prerecorded videos in video meetings instead of my live feed

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Only Epic Games Would Benefit From Changing the App Store Model

Charlotte Henry ·

Attacking Apple’s App Store policies and Google’s equivalent is relatively easy. Over on Pando, Aimee Pearcy takes the counterview – that while the model is not perfect,  changing it drastically would be to the benefit of hackers and fraudsters, not users.

While Apple and Google have wildly inconsistent policies for their stores — Netflix got a free pass from paying Apple Tax on its $853 million U.S. annual iOS revenue back in 2018 — their payment features are a major asset for developers. Credit card-stealing malware is already a huge problem. If anyone could link to their own third-party checkout page, Hacker groups like Magecart would shit themselves with excitement. Every checkout page would have to be manually checked. It would be a huge ask for users to unknown developers with side payments. And Epic certainly isn’t a shining example. Its game Fortnite has been described as a ‘money laundering paradise’, with money launderers using stolen credit cards to buy V-bucks.If third-party side payments were allowed and credit card fraud became a problem –and make no mistake, it would become a problem — Apple and Google would have zero transparency.