This week TMO’s Daily Observations turns to the musical side of the Apple community. Today jazz musician and podcaster Victor Cajiao joins Jeff Gamet to talk about his new album with Joe Christina, Surrender, his experience producing and mastering the album, working with musical legends, and more.
TMO Background Mode: Interview with Electronic Frontier Foundation Executive Director Cindy Cohn
Cindy Cohn is the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Founded in 1990, the EFF is a nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. The EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism and technology development. It has won some important court cases that preserve our rights online, including the use of encryption. (Which wasn’t always a given.) Cindy and I talked at length about her career, notable cases she fought and the work of the EFF, especially in the Apple vs. FBI conflict last spring. Cindy starts with notion that “privacy is fundamental to human dignity and… we can’t have a free society unless people have a private space.” Even if that means law enforcement has to work a little harder. Cindy explains it all.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-22: Interview with Airplane Mode's Dave Wiskus
This week TMO’s Daily Observations turns to the musical side of the Apple community. Today Airplane Mode’s Dave Wiskus joins Jeff Gamet to talk about the band, his musical journey, and finding success as an indie band.
MGG 619: Security Breach!
Listener Jason had a security breach on his home network. Learn what he did that allowed this to happen, and what you can do to prevent it. Lots of other tips in this episode, too, like removing phantom app storage, enabling iCloud for iBooks after the fact, starting up in Safe Mode with a wireless keyboard, and much more.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-19: FCC's Anti-robocall Plans, Moving from Evernote to OneNote
The FCC wants to stop spam robocalls, and now it has a strike force to help make that happen. Dave Hamilton and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet to examine the FCC’s plan and share their thoughts on trying to stop unsolicited marketing calls. They also take a first look at Microsoft’s new Evernote to OneNote importer for the Mac.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-18: Apple's Ethical Tax Dilemma, Target's Apple Sales Decline
Apple has a lot of money outside the United States, and not everyone is pleased with that. Bryan Chaffin joins Jeff Gamet to talk about Apple’s tax minimization strategy, and whether or not that has ethical implications. They also have some thoughts on Target’s claim that declining Apple product sales negatively impacted its revenue.
ACM 373: Apple's Engineering Demands, Fake iPhones, Intel's ARM Move
Apple is relentless with its design ideas regardless of what the hardware engineers say. Bryan and Jeff explain why that’s a good thing for consumers, plus they show you how to spot fake iPhone 7 photos, and look at Intel’s decision to start making ARM processors.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-17: Behind the Scenes with Background Mode's John Martellaro
John Martellaro has been hosting some great interviews on TMO’s Background Mode podcast, so today Jeff Gamet turns the tables and interviews John. They go behind the scenes to learn learn how John makes his interviews happen, and to look at some of the high points from the show so far.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-16: Apple's China R&D Center, Microsoft's iPad Pro Dig
Apple plans to open a research and development center in China before the end of the year. Bryan Chaffin and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet to explore why Apple is opening the center and how that fits into the company’s plans in the country. They also look at Microsoft’s clever iPad Pro slam.
TMO Background Mode: Interview with Managing Editor of the Backblaze Blog Peter Cohen
Peter Cohen is the managing editor of the Backblaze blog. Previously, he’s written for Macworld, The Loop and iMore. Peter talked about how, as a kid, he had a TI-99/4A with bit-mapped graphics. He drew images on graph paper, converted the patterns to Hexadecimal codes and wrote to the display with Basic. The result was color graphics of spaceships shooting at each other. When he first saw the 1984 Macintosh with MacPaint, “it was like the top of my head blew off.” In the second segment, Peter and I chat about how Tim Cook is doing, Apple and its desktop Macs, whether the iPad Pros can replace the Mac and robotics. Peter is very much tuned in and speaks with wisdom on all these subjects. You’ll want to tune in too.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-15: Apple Pay's Failing Competitors, Augmented Reality
Contactless mobile payment platforms are pretty much a mess right now. John Martellaro and Dave Hamilton join Jeff Gamet to look at the state of Apple Pay and its competitors, and who may be the real winner in the contactless payment game. They also look at Apple’s push into augmented reality.
MGG 618: Quick Tips, iCloud Music and Resistant Clients
Quick Tips are back with a vengeance! Keyboard shortcuts, calculator corrections, audio sync, offline dictation, email archiving and more. Then it’s time to answer your questions, including migrating Notes between accounts, sizing up the Terminal and dealing with resistant clients. Download and enjoy!
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-12: Microsoft's Leaked Encryption Key, Explaining Internet Speed Tests
Microsoft’s private encryption key for validating Windows software was accidentally leaked, so that’s a problem. Dave Hamilton and Bryan Chaffin join Jeff Gamet to explore the issues Microsoft is facing, and how the problem validates concerns over giving governments back door access into our personal data. They also explain why internet speed test results can vary so widely.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-11: Reality Checking Apple's Product Focus
Apple seems to be making everything except new Macs, and that has some people wondering if the company has lost its focus. Bryan Chaffin and The Maccast’s Adam Christianson join Jeff Gamet to share their thoughts on Apple’s new product and product upgrade strategies and weigh in on whether or not the company is still focused.
ACM 372: Samsung Pay’s Security Failure, the Story Behind Apple’s Public Betas
Bryan and Jeff dig into Samsung shenanigans, including reports of a way to hack magnetic stripe reader transactions, and the mysterious case of Apple Watch drawings in a Samsung patent. They also discuss the interesting story of how the flawed Apple Maps rollout led to public beta programs for OS X and iOS.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-10: Apple in the Health Market, Listener Comments
Apple has the opportunity to be a big player in the health and fitness market. Kelly Guimont and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet to look at Apple’s place in the health industry, and respond to listener comments. They also follow up on yesterday’s report of an odd Apple vehicle-related patent.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-09: Apple's Big Future and New Car Patent
We may not know what Apple has in store for the future, but Tim Cook is saying it’ll be big. Bryan Chaffin and Dave Hamilton join Jeff Gamet to talk about Apple’s push to be more than the company selling us iPhones and Macs, plus they look at a just published Apple patent for an articulated vehicle.
TMO Background Mode: Interview with Former Apple Sr. Manager & Entrepreneur Dan Burcaw
Dan Burcaw is a former Apple Senior Manager and founder of several notable businesses. In 1999, Dan was the co-founder and CTO of Terra Soft Solutions, developers of the legendary Yellow Dog Linux. That Linux, running on PowerPC was well received by the U.S. Government, businesses and the U.S. Navy. Later, after graduating from college, he worked for Apple as a Senior Manager in retail. In 2008, he founded Double Encore in Denver, a company that specialized in producing iOS apps for clients such as The PGA Tour and Turner Broadcasting. Most recently, Dan was a Senior Director, Product Management at Oracle where he led efforts to build a mobile app marketing capability. Dan is currently working on his next big, secret project. Come listen as Dan describes his fascinating career arc.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-08: Apple's Strategy and Values Balancing Act, Google's 16GB iPhone Dig
Apple’s recent Faceshift purchase shows sometimes its values conflict with its strategies. John Martellaro and Bryan Chaffin join Jeff Gamet to look at how that purchase is impacting Xcessity, and whether or not Apple has an obligation to continue licensing Faceshift’s technology to the company. They also look at Google’s excellent dig at the 16GB iPhone.
MGG 617: Managing Photos, Archiving Email & More
iOS vs. Smart Playlists, filing Mail like a power user, managing iCloud Photo Library, phantom app data vs. your iPhone’s free space and much much more. All of the are covered in today’s MGG. Your questions, your tips, shared and answered by the geeks you love. Download and enjoy!
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-05: Apple's Good Data Exploitation, iOS and OS X Hack Bounties
Apple is exploiting some of our data it has collected, but in a good way. Bryan Chaffin and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet to talk about the personal touch the Apple Store app for the iPhone and iPad now offers users, plus they share their thoughts on Apple officially announcing it’s offering bounties on iOS and OS X hacks.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-04: Stolen iPhone Phishing Scam, Watch the Olympics Online
As if having your iPhone stolen isn’t enough, now the bad guys are trying to get you to give up your iCloud login, too. John Martellaro joins Jeff Gamet look at this latest phishing scam, and to share tips on how to avoid falling victim to these schemes. They also share some tips on how to watch the Rio summer Olympics without a cable TV subscription.
ACM 371: iPad Pro (Surface) Ad, Siri's Shortcomings, Apple's Big Developer Payout
Bryan and Jeff discuss Apple’s commercial that embraces many of the things Microsoft has used to tout Surface Pro. They also talk about Apple’s remarkable success with the App Store, as well as some of Siri’s shortcomings.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-03: iOS 10's Squirt Gun Emoji, Instagram Stories
Apple is replacing the pistol emoji in iOS 10 with a squirt gun. Kelly Guimont and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet share their take on the squirt gun and Apple’s apparent anti-gun stance, plus they look at Instagram’s Snapchat copycat feature, Instagram Stories.