Enter our new international giveaway for a chance to win the brand new iPhone 16 Pro.
Apple and TMO Picks of 2020 – TMO Daily Observations 2020-12-02
Charlotte Henry and Andrew Orr join host Kelly Guimont to discuss Apple’s awards for Apps and Games of 2020 and offer some picks of their own.
Parking Service SpotHero Gets CarPlay Integration
Parking service SpotHero now has CarPlay integration, meaning that users can book and pay for parking while en route.
New Apple MagSafe Duo Charger Now Available
Apple’s MagSafe Duo charger is now available and a cost of $129, and there is also a monthly payment option.
Inside the iPhone Wi-Fi Exploit Apple Patched This Year
Google’s security firm Project Zero published a report on Tuesday detailing an iPhone Wi-Fi exploit that Apple patched earlier this year in iOS 13.5. It’s a long, 30,000 word blog post, but ArsTechnica has a good breakdown.
Beer developed several different exploits. The most advanced one installs an implant that has full access to the user’s personal data, including emails, photos, messages, and passwords and crypto keys stored in the keychain. The attack uses a laptop, a Raspberry Pi, and some off-the-shelf Wi-Fi adapters.
Scorecard Grade YouTube Advertisers That Target Kids
Fight for the Future launched a scorecard on Wednesday to examine brands that typically advertise to kids and if they advertise on YouTube.
Zoom... Disney+... Apple Reveals its Apps of The Year For 2020
Not surprisingly, Apple’s apps of the year list for 2020 heavily focuses on wellbeing, streaming…. and Zoom.
Salesforce Buying Slack for $27.7 Billion
Slack has become a major part of our work lives for many of us in 2020. Now cloud computing giant Salesforce is set to buy a workplace chat app for $27.7 billion, The Verge reported.
Slack has transformed from a fast-rising startup formed as a gaming company in 2009 into a major competitor of Microsoft with more than 12 million daily active users as of October of last year (and likely many more now, though the company has not disclosed concrete numbers) and a market value of close to $25 billion. The company, led by Flickr co-creator Butterfield, started primarily as an email alternative that pitched itself to startups, media companies, and other tech-savvy businesses to better manage interoffice communication. But Butterfield and his team grew Slack into a full productivity suite with video meeting features, file hosting, IT administration, and all manner of other features typically offered by large enterprise corporations.
The iPhone 12 Gets Sent to The Bottom of a Lake. Is it Water Resistant Enough Survive?
The iPhone 12 is meant to handle most spills and drips. However, CNet wanted to know how water resistant the device really is. So it sent one to the bottom of Lake Tahoe.
The iPhone 12’s IP68 rating means it can survive up to 19.6 feet (6 meters) of water for 30 minutes. This applies to all four iPhone 12 models: the iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. But we discovered that like its predecessor, Apple’s newest iPhone can handle a great deal more than that. Both of the iPhone 11 models far exceeded the official rating, surviving a 39-foot dive in salt water in Monterey Bay, California. This year we took a brand-new iPhone 12 for a swim in the frigid fresh water of Lake Tahoe, on the other side of the Golden State, to test it out. Teaming up with Mission Robotics, we mounted our iPhone 12 to the company’s underwater drone, Theseus. The drone can go as deep as 984 feet (300 meters) underwater, with the pilot able to see the view from Theseus’ camera, as well as depth and water temperature metrics from a computer on shore.
FITT360 Hands-Free Neckband Camera: $469.99
We have a deal today on FITT360, a wearable 360 degree camera you wear around your neck and operate hands-free. It uses 3 FHD cameras to capture everything around you, then connects directly to the free FITT360 companion app to automatically stitch the footage together into a 360 degree format. FITT360 comes with 64GB of built-in internal memory, along with an external memory card slot to add up to 128GB of external storage. The battery provides up to 70 minutes of continuous recording per charge.
Apple Releases Pro Display XDR Calibration Tool
Apple has released a tool for owners of its Pro Display XDR screen that lets users calibrate their display for specific color workflows.
Every Pro Display XDR undergoes state-of-the-art factory calibration with laboratory grade instrumentation. Pro Display XDR Calibrator enables in-field recalibration of Pro Display XDR for specific color workflows that may require custom calibration. Recalibration with this utility requires one of the following spectroradiometers: Photo Research SpectraScan PR-740, PR-745 or PR-788; Colorimetry Research CR-300
This Terminal Command Can Bypass Mac Privacy Protections
A UNIX command line tool called “ls” can be used to bypass Mac privacy protections like TCC (Transparency, Consent, and Control) and the sandbox. This provides unauthorized access to file metadata in directories that are supposed to be protected
I continue to believe that macOS “security” is mainly theater that only impedes the law-abiding Mac software industry while posing little problem for Mac malware. It doesn’t take a genius hacker to bypass macOS privacy protections: calling “ls” is a script kiddie level attack.
It affects macOS Big Sur, Catalina, and Mojave.
Facebook News Launching in UK in January 2021
Facebook News is set to launch in the UK, arriving in the country from January 2021, with big publishers signed up.
Season Two of Apple TV+, Oprah and Obama, With John Martellaro - Media+
Charlotte Henry and her guests bring focus — and a little something extra — to discussions about digital media in today’s world. In the latest episode, she and John Martellaro discuss upcoming Apple TV+ shows and Oprah Winfrey’s interview with President Barack Obama.
Microsoft Teams Calling Adds CarPlay Support
Microsoft has added CarPlay support to its Teams Calling feature, giving users one more way to quickly connect with people.
Apple Picks up Bilingual Comedy Series ‘Acapulco’
Apple announced a series order for “Acapulco” on Tuesday, a Spanish and English language comedy series from Austin Winsberg and Eduardo Cisneros.
Amazon's New Mini Cloud – TMO Daily Observations 2020-12-01
Bryan Chaffin and Dave Hamilton join host Kelly Guimont to discuss Amazon’s announcement of cloud computing available on Mac minis.
Amazon Web Services Launch Mac EC2 Instances
Amazon Web Services announced on Monday the launch of Mac EC2 instances so developers can run macOS environments in the cloud.
This Shortcut Lets You Download Podcasts
The Podcasts app lets you save podcast episodes to listen later or to archive them, but they remain within the app. What if you want to download podcasts and save them elsewhere, like the Files app? This shortcut lets you do that. I’ve only used it once so far but it worked like a charm. It’s a nice way to archive episodes that you find particularly interesting.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw to Star in Apple TV+ Thriller 'Surface'
Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who stood out in ‘The Morning Show’, is heading back to Apple TV+ in ‘Surface’, produced by Reese Witherspoon’s firm.
Apple Expands PRODUCT(RED) Contributions to Tackle HIV/AIDS And COVID-19
Apple has announced that it is expanding its partnership with (RED) to help provide treatment and services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Apple Donates PPE to Help Zambia Fight COVID-19 and HIV
Apple has been supplying PPE to the Ministry of Health in Zambia to help medics working there deal with COVID-19 and HIV.
Why Are All The Companies Copying Snapchat?
As Arielle Pardes points out, you’d think some of the tech companies were merging with the amount of features they’re copying from one another. This market is so free you guys.
Does your head hurt? Mine does, as do my thumbs, which now have three times as many platforms to scroll for short-form and ephemeral videos. I am overwhelmed with content and underwhelmed by features—at least until the next big thing comes along, and everyone lunges to copy that.
I have definitely noticed this when it comes to Facebook, if only because I don’t like Facebook. They’ve copied all they could from Snapchat. In my opinion, Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook to be as ubiquitous as WeChat is in China. All interactions, all commerce must flow through Facebook because Mark Zuckerberg can’t conceive of a different business model. Or, he can conceive but he doesn’t care. Why should he? We reward him by using his services.
The Official Cyber Monday Mac Bundle with Parallels Pro, Luminar 4, More: $41.99
We have a deal on a great bundle of apps called the Official Cyber Monday Mac Bundle. It features 12 apps, including Parallels Pro, Luminar 4, PDFpenPro 12, BusyCal 3, and more, all for $69.99—but Cyber Monday coupon code CMSAVE40 takes 40% off, bringing it down to $41.99, which is a great deal.
HYPER Offering 30 Percent Off This Cyber Monday
HYPER makes a variety of chargers and other accessories useful to Apple users. For Cyber Monday 2020, they are offering customers 30 percent sitewide. Furthermore, their doorbusters have up to 80 percent off, and users who spend $100 or more get a free USB-C to Lighting Cable.