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This article explains how to use Apple’s Keychain Access app to delete outdated passwords.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