Opinion: 6 years after its introduction, iPad remains a long play for Apple

Opinion: 6 years after its introduction, iPad remains a long play for Apple: ""

(Via.)

Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap-up for January 30, 2016

Moving Your iTunes Library to a New Mac and burning iTunes play list to a CD

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/technology/personaltech/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-mac.html?emc=edit_ct_20160128&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479

 

 

 

How to Reset Apple's Thunderbolt Display

 

http://www.macrumors.com/how-to/reset-thunderbolt-display-smc-nvram/

 

 

 

Use this clever trick to see your iPhone's true signal strength

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-iphones-true-cell-signal-strength

 

 

 

4 email apps that are better than the one that comes with your iPhone

 

http://www.techinsider.io/the-4-best-email-apps-2016-1

 

 

 

Apple asks FCC to recognize Made For iPhone hearing aids to encourage accessibility innovation

 

http://9to5mac.com/2016/01/30/apple-fcc-mfi-hearing-aid/

 

 

 

Let’s get this out of the way first: Despite what you may have heard, the iPhone is not dying. Neither, by extension, is Apple.

 

But if Apple is now hitting a plateau, it’s important to remember that it’s one of the loftiest plateaus in the history of business. The $18.4 billion profit that Apple reported on Tuesday is the most ever earned by any company in a single quarter.

So this column will try to do something tricky: explore what’s ailing Apple without going off the deep end. Here’s my ice-cold take: Apple is doing quite O.K.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/technology/no-need-to-fret-apple-is-doing-fine.html?_r=0

 

 

 

Here’s why the news about Apple is so bad

The author has confidence in this bad-news forecast, but NOT because he has any special insight into Apple’s business. It instead derives from the all-too-predictable ways in which Wall Street analysts revise their forecasts: A downward revision is far more likely to be followed by another downward revision than it is by an upward one.

research has shown that analysts are both slow to react to new information (especially bad news) and loath to deviate far from the consensus of their fellow analysts. Both factors conspire to make it look as though analysts are piling on when bad news begins to mount.

Needless to say, this avalanche of downward revisions causes a stock to decline even further. And that, in turn, often leads analysts to downwardly revise their forecasts yet again. The picture that emerges is of a downward spiral of bad news, downward revisions and price declines.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-the-news-about-apple-is-so-bad-2016-01-26

 

you're going to see a lot of tech pundits spewing doom and gloom over the next few days now that Apple's most important, profitable product is no longer growing the way it used to. 

But the iPhone is far from in trouble ...... because of iOS.

 

Developers make more money by making and selling apps for iOS than for Android.

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-iphone-always-wins-2016-1

 

 

 

Tim Cook: Apple Seeing 'Extreme Conditions Unlike Anything We've Experienced Before' in the Global Economy

What’s keeping Tim Cook up at night?  The economic challenges all over the world.

 

“Notwithstanding record results, we began to see some signs of economic softness in Greater China earlier this month, most notably in Hong Kong,” he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-27/tim-cook-we-re-seeing-extreme-conditions-unlike-anything-we-ve-experienced-before-in-the-global-economy

 

 

Tim Cook, who last week told Wall Street that the company’s sales growth is being constrained by “an environment now that is dramatically different from a macroeconomic point of view” than a year earlier. Apple’s forecast for revenue this quarter was about $4 billion below what analysts had been expecting. “It is clear that the economic piece is large” as a factor in Apple’s outlook, Cook said. 

Unfortunately, Apple’s customers, people who buy iPhones, are probably the last ones to realize global economic weakness is spreading. Cook’s remarks simply confirmed what everyone has known or suspected for months—namely, there’s a breakdown occurring in commodity-dependent economies and a broad repricing of currencies.

 

The path to prosperity doesn’t lie in resigning the company to being a dividend payer. Tech companies that do so end up becoming irrelevant. Nor is it the business of a company to engage in dubious M&A for the sake of appearing to do something in order to satisfy people who are impatient and scared. 

The true job of Apple, or any technology company, is to use components such as chips and software to solve complex problems, and by so doing make the world a better place. That is their mission, and that is all that matters. Profit, and stock price appreciation, dividends, and buybacks, flow from that and only that. 

http://www.barrons.com/articles/apples-tim-cook-is-smarter-than-you-think-1454129603

 

 

Apple: The Beginning Of The End

 

The author places Apple in the category of iconic growth stocks covering the past 50 to 60 years. 

 

The author names several other companies that had meteoric runs of a decade or more.

 

He then wrote:

The takeaway is nothing lasts forever. Academics rightly point out that the average lifespan for a growthie is 5 years.

 

Then he wrote about how many “iconic" companies eventually flamed out.  Nearly all of them.

 

Nobody wants to face clear indicators of market saturation of the worldwide iPhone market.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinsosnoff/2016/01/29/apple-the-beginning-of-the-end/#6f5bacf21c82

 

 

 

But this author is still very optimistic about Apple.  He wrote:

 

I own Apple stock because it's a Revolutionary Company. And that's why we go back and think about why the Apple Platform/Ecosystem is so key to the long-term.

 

Apple's earnings report covered just the last 90 days and their guidance is for the next 90 days ... 90 days. We're here to build our portfolios over the next 10,000 days.

Enterprise, Cloud, App Store, iTunes, Software Services revenues are a large part of why I've long said that Apple and Google are a couple of the best ways to invest in the App Revolution.

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-feds-going-to-cut-rates-not-raise-them-2016-01-28

 

 

 

5 Best (and Easy) Open Source Website Builders

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/slideshows/5-best-and-easy-open-source-website-builders.html

 

Video:
Hidden Facebook tricks you need to know

http://www.businessinsider.com/hidden-facebook-tricks-you-need-2016-1

Facebook has officially made its live-streaming feature available. It improves upon Periscope by being directly integrated into Facebook, as opposed to Periscope being a separate app.

 

The guy in the video says its another way to keep you still annoyed with Facebook.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-live-streaming-feature-periscope-twitter-2016-1



Facebook's best-kept secret is a second website that's amazing for talking to your friends

 

Facebook launched Messenger.com back in April. But almost no one seems to know it exists.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-secret-second-website-messenger-com-app-desktop-2016-1

A Computer Has Beaten a Human Champion at Go. What Next?

On May 12, 2014, Wired magazine ran an article headlined “The Mystery of Go, the Ancient Game That Computers Still Can’t Win.”

At that time, computer experts said it would take 10 years to make a computer better than the human world champion.

Go is a board game that’s orders of magnitude more complex than chess.

On January 27, 2016, Google announced that AlphaGo, a program built by its DeepMind artificial intelligence lab, had defeated the European Go champion, without a handicap, in a five-game match last October. The score: 5-0.

The next test will come in March, when AlphaGo challenges the world champion, Lee Sedol, in a five-game match in Seoul.

Go is a constrained environment (as is Chess), albeit a vast one, in which both contestants have access to perfect information, albeit too much information to fully process, and share the same perfectly defined goal. Real life is not a game, and no algorithm yet devised could begin to approach the mental flexibility required to navigate it in the way that humans do.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/01/28/a_computer_google_s_alphago_has_beaten_a_human_go_champion_what_s_next.html

Even the best antivirus likely can't save your files from a ransomware infection

One of the most prevalent forms of malware out there right now is called ransomware, a virus that encrypts a user's files, leaving them scrambled unless the victim pays for the decryption key.

It’s a criminal business model that has proven extremely profitable. 

http://www.businessinsider.com/fighting-ransomware-with-antivirus-2016-1

NSA's Hacker-in-Chief: We Don't Need Zero-Days To Get Inside Your Network

 

many security experts have suggested that the role of "zero-day vulnerabilities" in government-sponsored hacking has perhaps been overstated.

Including, now, the head of the NSA's most elite and secretive hacking unit.

In an unprecedented talk on Thursday at the USENIX Enigma security conference in San Francisco, Rob Joyce, chief of NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO), downplayed the importance of zero-days and the degree to which nation-state hackers like those in his unit depend on them.

 

“I will tell you that persistence and focus will get you in, will achieve that exploitation without the zero-days,” he said.  “There's so many more vectors that are easier, less risky and quite often more productive than going down that route.”

 

Joyce suggests that the more powerful weapon in the NSA's hacking arsenal isn't some stockpile of secret bugs, but superior resources and patience.

 

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/nsas-hacker-in-chief-we-dont-need-zero-days-to-get-inside-your-network-rob-boyce

 

 

 

NSA’s top hacking boss explains how to protect your network from his attack squads

“If you really want to protect your network you have to know your network, including all the devices and technology in it,” Rob Joyce said. “In many cases we know networks better than the people who designed and run them.”

 

“Well-run networks really do make our job hard,” Joyce said.

Once you use a cloud company you are essentially handing your data over to them and relying on their security, so he warned due diligence is even more important than usual.

AW comment:  That includes even Apple’s iCloud.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/28/nsas_top_hacking_boss_explains_how_to_protect_your_network_from_his_minions/

Mom Thanks Apple Store Employee Who Helped Her Son With Special Needs

Mom Thanks Apple Store Employee Who Helped Her Son With Special Needs: ""

(Via.)

Problems getting Yahoo! Mail through Apple Mail. Here are three free alternatives

I recently got an e-mail from a fellow MacValleyite complaining that Apple Mail would not receive Yahoo! Mail any more. They use Snow Leopard 10.6.8. 

I then checked my own Apple Mail running under 10.11.2. I found that Apple Mail had stopped receiving Yahoo! Mail early in January. I could find nothing to fix the problem. So I knew I needed an alternative to access Yahoo! Mail.

I need Yahoo! Mail because I have ATT U-Verse and Wireless service. ATT has contracted with Yahoo to use their e-mail as ATT’s e-mail. That’s how I get my notification each month that my U-Verse bill is ready to be paid. 

I can’t ditch Yahoo! Mail without switching Internet Providers. That’s a hassle for the future.

So, what alternatives did I find to Apple Mail for receiving Yahoo! Mail. I found three of them.

 

The first was to use Yahoo!’s Web client. I just used Safari to log into Yahoo.com and Yahoo! Mail came right up. 

The second was to download and install Mozilla’s Thunderbird e-mail client.  Thunderbird has the advantage of working with both IMAP and POP3 e-mail providers. It has many add-ins. The only criticism I’ve read about concerns its esthetic appearance. It still looks the same as it did 10 years ago. 

If you want an e-mail client with an up to date appearance, may I suggest Nylas N1?  It is advertised as an “extensible, open source mail client”. If you want to try the latest e-mail client, this is it. 

Right now, it’s free. It’s easy to set up your e-mail accounts. It only supports IMAP from what I could tell. Right now the developers want to encourage as many other developers as possible to make plug-ins for this app. It is NOT compatible with the Thunderbird plug-ins, though. 

 

That’s my off the cuff suggestions for getting Yahoo! Mail if Apple Mail has stopped working on this account for you. 

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

 

 

 

 

 

Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap-up for January 24, 2016

Apple users should update their iOS right now

Apple patched a security flaw in its latest update

Apple's iOS 9.2.1 update applies to iPhone 4s and later models, the fifth generation iPod Touch and later, and the iPad 2 and later.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-apple-users-should-update-their-ios-right-now-2016-01-20



The 10 best iPhone apps you should use in 2016

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-best-iphone-apps-you-should-use-2016-1



25 hidden iPhone features that are really, truly hidden

Even the savviest iPhone users will learn a few things from this article.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/01/22/25-hidden-iphone-features-that-are-really-truly-hidden.html



Apple's Advantage Over Android Embarrasses Google

Two issues here:

First, iOS allows you to control - much better than Android OS - which apps are allowed to transmit your personal data to corporations.

Second, from a security point of view, from patching bugs and exploits, to giving users new features and useful extras, Android falls far behind Apple in its ability to keep users safe.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2016/01/15/apple-versus-android-os-update-security/#5542247d5e88



Slide Show:
16 Apple Security Advances to Take Note of in 2016

A very good slide show.

http://techcrunch.com/gallery/16-apple-security-advances-to-take-note-of-in-2016/



Apple iOS 9.2.1 Has A Nasty Surprise

iOS 9.2.1 doesn’t actually address the software’s most high profile problem: frozen battery charge levels.

the battery bug (which freezes the reported battery level regardless of further drain or charge) is still there.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/01/20/apple-ios-9-2-1-problem/#513fdf625318



Google paid Apple $1 billion in 2014 just to stay as the default search engine on the iPhone

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-google-advertising-revenue-split-2016-1



A top Apple analyst agrees iPhone sales will fall, but says that's a huge buying opportunity

sales of the iPhone will experience their first ever year-on-year decline when the company reports its quarterly earnings report next week. 

But Gene Munster says the poor demand for the current iPhone 6S and the negative Wall Street reaction is setting up Apple's stock for a big pop by September, when the new iPhone 7 is expected to roll out.

http://www.businessinsider.com/piper-jaffray-forecasts-apple-stock-rebound-ahead-of-new-iphone-2016-1



The Women Behind NIX Hydra are Taking on Aggressive Male Video Gaming

Four years ago, Lina Chen and Naomi Ladizinsky's plan to shake up the gaming world on behalf of girls seemed exceedingly improbable, even to them.

Early this year, their Los Angeles company, Nix Hydra, a rare gaming firm founded by women to create games for girls and women, will launch Egg!, a more complex successor to their wildly popular 2013 mobile pet game, Egg Baby.

The long-haired, soft-spoken co-founders of Nix Hydra are now in an enviable position, with just over $5.6 million from investors…

Chen and Ladizinsky now employ 34 people, 60 percent of them women

http://www.laweekly.com/news/the-women-behind-nix-hydra-are-taking-on-aggressive-male-video-gaming-6462830



The US military has enlisted academics to fight a new enemy: Twitter bots.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held a special contest last year to identify so-called "influence bots"  — "realistic, automated identities that illicitly shape discussion on sites like Twitter and Facebook.”

With 8.5% of all Twitter users being bots, per Twitter's own metrics, it's important to weed out those bots who go beyond just trying to sell you weight-loss plans and work-at-home methods, and cross the line into politics.

DARPA says you can expect a lot more evil propaganda bots on Twitter in the years to come.

http://www.businessinsider.com/darpa-twitter-bot-challenge-2016-1



Video:
Are Routers the New Frontier for Hackers?

http://www.marketwatch.com/video/are-routers-the-new-frontier-for-hackers/DC51F296-824F-426E-BE82-B145B2674EFD.html



Video:
Neil deGrasse Tyson has a message for moon landing conspiracy theorists

Some people will never believe that men went to the moon, regardless of what evidence is presented.  About this, Neil said:
“…how remarkable it is that there are some humans among us who are so struck by our advances in science and technology that they’re in denial that it’s real. What a compliment that is to our moving technological frontier."

http://www.techinsider.io/neil-degrasse-tyson-moon-landing-conspiracy-theories-2016-1

Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap-up for January 18, 2016

 

Apple iPad Pro review: Apple's big, bold iPad has your laptop in its sights

 

The Apple iPad Pro is a stunning machine. It looks fantastic and, once you get over just how big it is, the size becomes a benefit, with its immersive screen and a giant playground of real estate for apps to exploit.

 

The iPad Pro marks another major inflection point: it ends the whole "iPads are only for consumption” debate ...... for most people the iPad Pro is more than enough creation tool.

 

http://www.alphr.com/apple/1001968/apple-ipad-pro-review-apples-big-bold-ipad-has-your-laptop-in-its-sights

 

 

 

How to back up and restore your Apple Watch

 

This how-to walks you through how to back up your watch software to your iPhone, and then restore the backup to a new watch.

 

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-how-to-back-up-and-restore-your-apple-watch/

 

 

 

15 years of iTunes: A look at Apple’s media app and its influence on an industry

 

http://www.macworld.com/article/3019878/software/15-years-of-itunes-a-look-at-apples-media-app-and-its-influence-on-an-industry.html

 

 

 

Why So Much Apple Commentary Is So Clueless

 

I blame it on the story arc that every editor understands instinctively and every cub reporter quickly learns: What’s up must come down. When the world’s most valuable company—and Wall Street’s most widely held stock—is at the top of its game, it must have nowhere to go but south.

 

http://fortune.com/2016/01/10/apple-clueless-press-commentary/

 

 

 

Apple has admitted iOS 9.2 is causing a battery problem for both the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus.

 

For now, Apple has a temporary fix.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/01/18/apple-ios-9-2-iphone-battery-problem/#2715e4857a0b1c5d55882622

 

New study shines light on one of the iPhone's biggest advantages over Android

Android fragmentation is an issue that continues to rear its ugly head. Time and time again we see problems arise that call Google's Android strategy into question, and fragmentation has to be at the top of the list for consumers.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/01/15/new-study-shines-light-on-one-iphones-biggest-advantages-over-android.html

 

Apple Keeps Leaving Macs Open To Malware -- But Whitehat Hackers Have Your Back

Apple employed a Gatekeeper for its Macs to do one job: keep unsigned, unverified software out. It might be time to fire Gatekeeper, or hire a new one, as its failures have again been shown up by Patrick Wardle, ex-NSA staffer and head of research at bug hunting firm Synack.

Wardle is presenting his findings at the Shmoocon conference today in Washington D.C. He is releasing a tool, Ostiarius, on his Objective-C website that will help fill the gap Apple left open by checking all file executions and blocks unisigned code originating from the Web.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/01/15/apple-mac-gatekeeper-fails-again/#2715e4857a0b8eefdc5317fe



Gatekeeper flaw remains exploitable four months after its discovery

A security researcher says flaws in Apple's Gatekeeper application validation system remain available to exploit, despite Apple patching some vectors he disclosed on September 30  in security updates released in November and December.

Until Apple addresses this, Wardle suggests Mac users only download applications from the Mac store where possible, and otherwise be careful what they download from the internet. If you have to download an app from outside the Mac store, he said, make sure it's served over an encrypted connection (meaning the file is served over the HTTPS, a standard that's becoming increasingly important). At the very least, it will prevent an attacker from inserting malicious code inside a legitimate app on its way to your computer.

http://www.macworld.com/article/3022917/macs/gatekeeper-flaw-remains-exploitable-four-months-after-its-discovery.html

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/researcher-bypasses-apples-updated-malware-protection-in-5-minutes

 

 

New York looks to outlaw sale of encrypted smartphones
A proposed bill in New York doesn't demand backdoors in smartphones but will seek to ban the sale of smartphones whose encryption can't be bypassed by the manufacturer.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-iphone-ban-new-york-looks-to-outlaw-sale-of-encrypted-smartphones/

 

 

How to find out everything Facebook knows about you

 

you can't opt out of ads on Facebook without opting out of Facebook itself.

 

to see a fully tally of what Facebook thinks you like, you need to find a tool called Ad Preferences.
This tool is not easy to find.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-facebook-knows-about-you-01-2015

 

This stunning map shows the flow of traffic across the globe using the anonymous network Tor

The map shows:
*The use of Tor has been steadily increasing since about 2008.
*Nearly all traffic is between Europe and the U.S.
*Tor traffic to Japan started to become significant around March of 2013,
peaked around April of 2015 and then declined a lot.
*Occasionally there is a brief (i.e., a few days) spike in Tor traffic to a specific place,
such as Hong Kong, Australia or Brazil.

http://www.businessinsider.com/map-shows-traffic-on-anonymous-network-tor-2016-1

The mobile revolution is over. Get ready for the next big thing: Robots

 

I've lived through three of these revolutions.

*The PC revolution

*The internet revolution

*The mobile revolution

 

when a revolution ends, that doesn't mean the revolutionary technology goes away.
Everybody still has a PC. Everybody still uses the internet. 

It simply means that the technology is so common and widespread that it's no longer revolutionary. It's taken for granted. 
So: The mobile revolution is over.  the smartphone is normal now. Even boring. It's not revolutionary.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/robots-are-the-next-wave-of-computing-2016-1

 

 

 

Video:

Neil deGrasse Tyson and futurist Ray Kurzweil on what will happen to our brains and everything else

 

Ray Kurzweil says that - in the future - our brains will be connected directly to the internet and “the cloud”.

 

Wireless connections to “the cloud” will expand our human brains.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-interview-ray-kurzweil-innovators-2016-1

 

 

 

Mike Hearn, a major Bitcoin developer, says the Bitcoin currency is a failed project.

He wrote:
"Despite knowing that Bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly. I will no longer be taking part in Bitcoin development and have sold all my coins."

Why has Bitcoin failed? It has failed because the community has failed. What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked "systemically important institutions" and "too big to fail" has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people.

If you haven't heard much about this, you aren't alone. One of the most disturbing things that took place over the course of 2015 is that the flow of information to investors and users has dried up.

In the span of only about eight months, Bitcoin has gone from being a transparent and open community to one that is dominated by rampant censorship and attacks on bitcoiners by other bitcoiners. This transformation is by far the most appalling thing I have ever seen, and the result is that I no longer feel comfortable being associated with the Bitcoin community.

https://medium.com/@octskyward/the-resolution-of-the-bitcoin-experiment-dabb30201f7#.aovrj77c9

http://mashable.com/2016/01/15/bitcoin-failure/#bAPqgCTU2Pqi

What Everybody Misunderstands About Privacy Pioneer David Chaum's Controversial Crypto Plan

Cryptography and privacy enthusiasts reacted to Chaum's statements with shock, disbelief, and-in some cases-outrage.

Chaum's suggestions are not to be taken lightly. He's an inventor of key concepts undergirding identity-cloaking software such as the Tor web browser, a bulwark of the crypto community.

Many technologists have a "knee jerk" reaction to the phrase "back door" access to encrypted data.

"I agreed to allow the term 'backdoor' to be used in the article to refer to access in general, not as deliberate weakening of a system," Chaum told Fortune. "This probably was my big mistake."

companies possess doorways of their own ...... to spy on users.  Even companies that purport to uphold strong, end-to-end encryption can do this.

However concerned you are about this possibility likely depends upon your level of paranoia.

Count Chaum among the unsettled.

Chaum got to work formulating an alternative. In his scheme, such a company would instead have to enlist third party contractors (think data centers) operating independent infrastructure across multiple jurisdictions, all of whom would have to work in unison to have any chance at undermining the integrity of the system. This dispersion of control serves to limit, ideally, the potential for abuse. Imagine the two-man rule for nuclear missile launches, but with added complexity and greater division of power. It takes unanimous agreement and simultaneous key-turns to meddle with or unmask a user.

One of the true powers of Chaum's system is its obstruction of traffic analysis.

http://fortune.com/2016/01/14/encryption-wars-crypto-david-chaum/



Two-factor authentication is an important way to help keep your online accounts safe — but it's not perfect.

 

if the attacker is able to smuggle rogue software onto a user's smartphone, the hacker can defeat two-factor.

 

The malware affects Android smartphones, and it is called Android.Bankosy. It specifically targets two-factor authentication codes delivered by automated phone call.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/malware-discovered-that-defeats-two-factor-authentication-symantec-2016-1

 

Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap-up for January 13, 2016

Apple iOS 9.3 Released, It Has 3 Great New Features

Smart Education Upgrades
Night Shift
3D Touch Matures

The snag in all this good news? Apple has currently only made iOS 9.3 available to developers.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/01/11/apple-ios-9-3-great-new-features/#2715e4857a0b777e3fd76242



Juniper Research said that the Apple Watch accounted for 52% of smartwatch shipments globally in 2015. And that’s particularly impressive considering that the watch didn’t even launch until April of 2015.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/01/12/apple-watch-smartwatch-market/#2715e4857a0b777e3fd76242



Let's be clear: the MacBook isn't suddenly going to suit everybody, but almost one year down the line there are now five good reasons why you should reconsider using one.

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/5-reasons-why-you-should-reconsider-apple-s-12-inch-macbook-1312877



iPhone 7 Leak Confirms Apple's Massive Design Gamble

leak after leak is confirming my theory 19 months ago that Apple is about to abandon the headphone jack…   

Unsurprisingly the news has met a hostile reception. An online petition against the move has netted over 200,000 signatures in 24 hours and even polls on Apple-specialist websites have been divided. 
So what can Apple do to convince users it knows best? Actually a lot. 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/01/08/new-iphone-7-twist-apple-abandoning-headphone-jack/#61d302cd2742409872e22742



Apple advertisements from as long ago as 1976

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/fmdk45ehhjh/apple-1-ad/



Why Apple's Investors Are Questioning its Future

The skepticism can be summarized as follows: the world worries that Apple will never find another iPhone.

That’s why there are lots of articles predicting Apple’s “doom”.

Investors fear that future products will require ... big investments and uncertain sales. Or that Apple will use its cash horde to make high-priced, or overpriced investments in unrelated fields.

The bottom line: Tech’s superstar is entering a world of low expectations, when it’s regularly beaten high expectations. It should be able to vault over the new, low bar with ease...

http://fortune.com/2016/01/06/apple-wall-street/



Apple Maintains Mac Sales Momentum Amid Overall Worldwide PC Market Decline

Amid an overall decline in worldwide PC shipments, Apple is the sole manufacturer that saw positive shipment growth

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/12/4q15-pc-sales/



49 Open Source Office Tools

Example 26: GIMP (stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program)
Replaces Photoshop (and saves you $239.88 per year)
The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or Gimp for short, is a very popular, high-quality photo authoring and editing program with features that rival Photoshop. It supports numerous image file formats, including tiff, jpeg, gif, png, psd and others. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

Example 28:  OpenOffice
Example 29:  LibreOffice
The both Replace Microsoft Office (and saves you $99 per year and up)

Example 33: Gnumeric
Replaces Microsoft Excel (and saves you $99 per year and up)

http://www.datamation.com/applications/49-open-source-office-tools-1.html



Video:
How to see all the companies tracking you on Facebook — and block them

http://www.techinsider.io/facebook-apps-accessing-tracking-data-2016-1



How the Internet of Things Limits Consumer Choice

In theory, the Internet of Things-the connected network of tiny computers inside home appliances, household objects, even clothing-promises to make your life easier and your work more efficient.

Except when the companies that make these connected objects act in a way that runs counter to  the consumer's best interests...

the story of a company using copy-protection technology to lock out competitors-isn't a new one.

As the Internet of Things becomes more prevalent, so too will anti-competitive behavior-which undercuts the purpose of having smart objects in the first place.

The Internet of Things is on track to become a battleground of competing standards, as companies try to build monopolies by locking each other out.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/internet-of-things-philips-hue-lightbulbs/421884/



There's no reason not to cut the cord in 2016

Cheaper alternatives to cable TV.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/theres-no-reason-not-to-cut-the-cord-in-2016-2016-01-08



The Twitter accounts stock-market investors need to follow in 2016

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/worried-about-the-2016-stock-market-follow-these-twitter-accounts-2015-12-18



The New York Public Library Just Unleashed 180,000 Free Images. We Can't Stop Looking at Them.

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/01/new-york-public-library-historic-photos-archive-free



The Flaw in ISIS's Favorite Messaging App 
And what it says about the difficulty of encryption

For more and more lawmakers, encryption is that perfect, pitch-black night in which radicalized things go bump.
But according to security experts, that attitude attributes much too much power to computer scientists.

as a new paper on the secure-messaging application Telegram reminds readers, it's easier to market impenetrable encryption than it is to implement it.

Telegram uses a custom protocol, MTProto, to secure its messages, a decision that breaks a cardinal rule of cryptography: Don't try to design your own, not if you can use an established approach instead.

The impenetrable encryption that lawmakers fear? Privacy advocates should be so lucky.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/isiss-favorite-messaging-app-has-a-security-problem/422460/



Why Are Digital-Privacy Apps So Hard to Use?

Protecting your data usually means navigating a miserable user experience.

Truly private online communications have been available for some time, but most require a high level of technology know-how. Those uncomfortable setting up a PGP key to encrypt their emails, for example, have for decades been left without an option to communicate securely.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/why-are-digital-privacy-apps-so-hard-to-use/422310/



Modern hackers can do much more than steal. They can even turn a machine against its owner, taking a device hostage and demanding money to return it.

Known as ransomware, the viruses that carry out these attacks are multiplying.

These attacks can be incredibly lucrative: One researcher found that a hacker made more than $1 million in a single day off of hapless users desperate for their data back.

A recent spate of attacks on police computer systems showed the sophistication of modern ransomware: When small police departments in Massachusetts, Tennessee, and New Hampshire were hacked, they found their vital databases encrypted and inaccessible.  All three departments paid ransoms ranging from $500 to $750 to regain access to their data.

The average ransom ask is $300.

The recent explosion of ransomware will only continue as more everyday objects are connected to the Internet.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/the-extortionist-in-the-fridge/422742/



Hackers are stealing millions from home buyers and sellers with a crafty scam

http://www.techinsider.io/criminals-hacking-into-house-purchase-emails-to-steal-funds-2016-1

How Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s words were freed from old floppy disks | Macworld

How Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s words were freed from old floppy disks | Macworld: ""

(Via.)

 

Shirley, this one’s for you.

Live Long and Prosper

 

Seriously now, he was using the CP/M OS?! 5 1/4 floppies?

George Takei, any words of wisdom?

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

 

Acer, too, announces USB-C monitors

Acer announced they would bring USB-C monitors to market. 

 

 

 

 

Make sure you read 9toi5Mac’s post on these monitors. It’s nice to have a selection of USB-C monitor, but where is 
Apple’s own USB-C Monitor?

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

 

Lenovo Launches ThinkVision Displays With USB-C Docking At CES

Lenovo Launches ThinkVision Displays With USB-C Docking At CES: ""

(Via.)

 

 

 

Lenovo has announced several new monitors that support USB-C. Unfortunately, from the comments, it appears that you still need an external power supply to support this new monitor. 

 

What I’m more interested in is where to find adaptors for my two DVI/VGA monitors when I upgrade my Mac in 2018 or whenever. 

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

 

(h/t to 9to5Mac and Anandtech)

 

 

 

 

Griffin’s BreakSafe is the MagSafe USB-C adapter that Apple’s MacBook needs | 9to5Mac

Griffin’s BreakSafe is the MagSafe USB-C adapter that Apple’s MacBook needs | 9to5Mac: ""

(Via.)

 

This MagSafe style USB-C gadget would appear to solve the problems caused by tripping over the charing cable for your MacBook. 

Unfortunately, it’s not available today. You’ll have to wait until April 2016.

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

(h/t to 9to5 Mac)

 

 

Run Windows on Your Mac: VirtualBox vs VMware Fusion vs Parallels

Run Windows on Your Mac: VirtualBox vs VMware Fusion vs Parallels: ""

(Via.)

Now I have Windows 8 and 10 running under Parallels on my Mac Mini. It’s handy to have them available in my Mac. 

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

 

 

The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist's Companion for the 21st Century: Richard Polt: 9781581573114: Amazon.com: Books

The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist's Companion for the 21st Century: Richard Polt: 9781581573114: Amazon.com: Books: ""

(Via.)

 

First, it was vinyl records, then it was reel to reel tape, now it’s typewriters!

I’m sticking to my Mac Mini, though.

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

 

 

Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap-up for January 3, 2016

Slide Show:
15 secret features hidden in your iPhone

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-secret-features-hidden-in-your-iphone-2015-12?op=0#/#triple-tap-your-home-button-to-reduce-your-screen-brightness-lower-than-you-thought-possible-1



With Taps on the Wrist, Apple Watch Points to the Future

Should you buy an Apple Watch now?

I’m tempted to say “no” for most people. Most of what it does, your phone already does better. And the Apple Watch, even with recent sales, is pricier than competing smartwatches that do similar things. By that logic, you should wait until next year, when Apple’s relentless drive to innovate will have improved the watch’s hardware and software. Or wait until 2019, when the fifth generation of the device has unimagined new features.

But after eight months, I’m convinced that people will eventually view a smartwatch as an essential purchase. And waiting endlessly for the “next great thing” means missing out on all the small ways that the watch already can improve your life. So unless you want to be one of those people who hang on to their BlackBerrys forever, go ahead and get one. You won’t regret it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/technology/personaltech/is-it-time-for-an-apple-watch.html?emc=edit_ct_20151231&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479&_r=0



Digging Deeper for Missing Mac Mail Messages

What to do if the “Rebuild” command does not recover your “missing” E-mails.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/technology/personaltech/digging-deeper-for-missing-mac-mail-messages.html?emc=edit_ct_20151231&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479



Tip: How to Cut Old Passwords Out Of Apple’s Keychain

There’s no easier password manager on a Mac than Apple’s Keychain: It’s been built into OS X and its Safari browser for years; it’s enabled by default; and, since (also by default) it stores your passwords only on your Mac, there are no worries about having them In The Cloud.

This article explains how to use Apple’s Keychain Access app to delete outdated passwords.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/tip-how-to-cut-old-1331843372572726.html



The 20 best smartphones in the world

iPhone 6S is in first place.
iPhone 6S Plus is in second place.

http://www.techinsider.io/best-smartphones-2016-1



Slide Show:
The 11 most beautiful apps of the year

http://www.businessinsider.com/most-beautiful-apps-2015-10?op=0#/#periscope-is-revolutionizing-live-broadcasts-1



I tried using the internet anonymously for a week, but I caved after a few minutes

you have to give up some of the best parts of the internet if you want to be anonymous online. I barely lasted a few minutes.

Several important web sites just don’t work with Tor.

http://www.businessinsider.com/anonymous-web-browsing-is-impossible-2015-12



The ultimate guide on how to use Snapchat, explained by a 23-year-old

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-snapchat-2015-12



The technology trend predictions that people at TheVerge.com got wrong in 2015

They thought the Apple Watch was going to bring wearables into the mainstream. It didn’t.

They didn’t think Samsung could design a better watch than Apple.

They worried that ad blockers would be the end of the world. They weren’t.

Several other mistaken predictions.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/31/10650634/biggest-surprises-2015-apple-watch-spacex-cybersecurity-online-abuse



Into "Cloud Porn"? There’s a Hashtag for That

Photos of planes themselves — images of their nose, bellies, engines — are #planeporn.

there are generally no hard rules about how to take these various photos. Most of the names are self-explanatory.

Unlike hashtags for broad subjects such as travel (#travelgram, #travelingram, #instatravel), hotels (#hotellife, #hotelview, #hotelliving) and airports (#airportlife, #airportselfie, #airportflow), more precise hashtags let you browse photos whose theme or composition speaks to you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/travel/instagram-twitter-photos-hashtags.html?emc=edit_ct_20151231&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479



Slide Show:
The 10 most popular free online courses for professionals

http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-coursera-courses-of-2015-2015-12?op=0#/#10-introduction-to-financial-accounting--university-of-pennsylvania-1



The Most Popular Online Course Teaches You to Learn

The world’s most popular online course is a general introduction to the art of learning, taught jointly by an educator and a neuroscientist.

“Learning How To Learn,” which was created by Barbara Oakley, an electrical engineer, and Terry Sejnowski, a neuroscientist, has been ranked as the leading class by enrollment in a survey of the 50 largest online courses released earlier this month by the Online Course Report website.

The course is “aimed at a broad audience of learners who wanted to improve their learning performance based on what we know about how brains learn,” said Dr. Sejnowski

The Achilles heel of the "massively open online courses” (MOOC) phenomena has been that while enrollments have been huge, the number of students who actually complete courses for credit has remained low. That has led traditional educators to argue that the new technology would fail because students are generally less motivated to complete coursework online.

The completion rate — or “stickiness” — of the “Learning How to Learn” course has been above 20 percent, said Dr. Sejnowski, roughly twice the average for most MOOCs.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/29/the-most-popular-online-course-teaches-you-to-learn/?emc=edit_ct_20151231&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479

http://nautil.us/issue/29/scaling/why-virtual-classes-can-be-better-than-real-ones



Keeping Up With Firefox Updates

While this schedule — which makes for a Firefox update about every six weeks — can be helpful for plugging bugs and security holes, it can cause user fatigue from seeing frequent requests to restart the browser because it has just updated itself again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/02/technology/personaltech/keeping-up-with-firefox-updates.html?emc=edit_ct_20151231&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479



Quashing Clones on Facebook

If someone has duplicated your Facebook account, the company has a series of steps to take to report it, including legal ones.

Impostor accounts are not uncommon on Facebook, and the company does not allow them ...... you can report it from Facebook's fraudulent-profile page.

Identity theft in any form can have serious repercussions if the impostor was trying to get financial or other personal information for additional crimes. If you want to see what was posted by the impersonator during the ruse, Facebook advises first contacting a lawyer or local law enforcement official to discuss your options. The site has a list of operational guidelines for law enforcement authorities that details how the company handles these requests and the legal documents required to pursue the case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/29/technology/personaltech/quashing-clones-on-facebook.html?emc=edit_ct_20151231&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479

Apple doom: Now in its millionth year | Macworld

Apple doom: Now in its millionth year | Macworld: ""

(Via.)

 

The Macalope points out some areas where Apple hasn’t done its best. Does this mean Apple will implode in a cloud of dust like one of those Vegas casinos you see on TV from time to time? 

No. It just needs to fix some things. It’s not going out of business. 

 

Tom Briant (not the Macalope)

Editor, MacValley Blog