The MacValley blog
Welcome to the MacValley blog, your first stop for all the latest MacValley news and views.
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The MacValley blog Editor: Tom Briant
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Friday, July 29, 2016
Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Special Web Wrap-up for Friday July 29 2016
How my Apple Watch's heart rate monitoring saved my life
It wasn’t a heart attack. Instead, it was a bunch of blood clots, some of which got stuck in my lungs. They reduced how much oxygen got into my blood, forcing my heart to work harder to deliver oxygen to the rest of my body.
Because I saw the cold, objective, incontrovertible data my Apple Watch showed me, I made a life saving decision.
This woman says Apple Watch helped her lose half her body weight
Eve Stansfield, from Brisbane, started using her watch a little over a year ago. Since then, she’s dropped 10 dress sizes.
Easy Editing for Mac Photos
Apple’s Photos for OS X has a button for one-click improvements to your pictures, but it also includes a toolbox for more detailed adjustments.
I'm addicted to my iPhone.
I tried to give up using my phone for a week and it really didn't work out.
I tried to give up using my phone for a week and it really didn't work out.
Staying Under the OS X Radar
Apple’s software can track your Mac’s location for better search results, but you can turn off the setting if you would rather not be followed.
Why Apple's switch to Intel Macs was so important, and so successful
Ten years ago, in the summer of 2006, Apple had just successfully transformed the Mac, completing a transition from using
PowerPC chips to Intel chips and essentially transplanting the the "brains" of its entire line of personal computers.
PowerPC chips to Intel chips and essentially transplanting the the "brains" of its entire line of personal computers.
The shift was necessitated by the simple fact that IBM’s consumer processors — especially for laptops — simply weren’t competitive with Intel.
A very good discussion of this aspect of Mac history.
Apple’s Swift Playgrounds can help you learn to code, but it’s no HyperCard
What’s HyperCard? Back in the '90s, it was how you got stuff done on a Mac when there wasn’t already an application to use. There still isn’t a word to describe it except "HyperCard." Arguably, HyperCard was mostly a database with a form designer.
All kinds of Mac owners—administrators, scientific researchers, teachers, game developers, writers, artists—found they could quickly learn to speak it.
The point is not that HyperCard itself was so successful, but that HyperCard was was so enabling.
The general consensus [among Apple developers] was that, as a child-oriented environment for learning programming within a student/teacher setup (which is how Apple is marketing it), Playgrounds is an impressively committed innovation with real potential.
Many commercial developers now start with Python, for example, which already has a friendly and comprehensive iPad IDE called Pythonista.
Apple has an urgent message for iPhone and iPad owners: Make sure you download the newest iOS update for your device.
The latest updates -- iOS 9.3.3 on iPhones and iPads, as well as OS X 10.11.6 for computers, tvOS 9.2.2 for Apple TV and watchOS 2.2.2 -- patches a hole that could let a hacker steal information from your device.
many users are finding iOS 9.3.3 to be notably faster than previous iOS 9 releases with happy upgraders across forums and social media reporting that their iPads, iPhones and iPod touches are noticeably faster, smoother and more responsive after the upgrade.
Update your Apple devices now to fix a terrifying security bug
Tyler Bohan found that the security hole is present in all versions of iOS and OS X except for the very latest ones, which were published on July 18.
The scale of the vulnerability is staggering. According to Apple, about 14% of iOS devices run iOS 8 or earlier.
Apple lays the groundwork to kill online advertising
As this author sees it, Apple has four moves left until they can call check on Google’s king, search.
This author is not going back to Apple after using Windows 10 for a year
His primary reason appears to be Cortana — Microsoft’s competitor to Siri.
What I Learned From 10 Years of Doing PR for Apple
Five simple rules. Good article.
Apple’s profit fell 27 percent in Q3 2016, but earnings beat expectations
Apple stock went up because, while profit was down, it wasn’t as bad as analysts expected.
Apple’s Mac sales fall, economies shudder
PC sales are slumping at a significantly faster rate than during the 2008 recession.
Interesting reader comments.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3094235/apple-mac/apples-mac-sales-fall-economies-shudder.html
PC sales are slumping at a significantly faster rate than during the 2008 recession.
Interesting reader comments.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3094235/apple-mac/apples-mac-sales-fall-economies-shudder.html
Opinion: The news for Apple is going to get even better
Stock market analysts’ earnings revisions tend to come in waves.
After nearly a year in which they were falling over themselves to revise their earnings estimates downward, stock market analysts are beginning to revise their estimates upward. It’s, therefore, a fairly safe bet that even more upward revisions are in store in coming weeks.
To be sure, nothing is guaranteed in this business. It’s always possible that the number of recent upward revisions for Apple will be a momentary blip in a longer-term downtrend. But history suggests that such an outcome would be more the exception than the rule.
What’s the Right Age for a Child to Get a Smartphone?
The takeaway will not please smartphone makers: The longer you wait to give your children a smartphone, the better. Some experts said 12 was the ideal age, while others said 14. All agreed later was safer.
What This Court Ruling Means for Bitcoin’s Future
Legally, Bitcoin Is Property, Not Money
Because of this, prosecutors lost a money laundering case where payment was made in Bitcoins.
The Court’s decision is being hailed by bitcoin advocates as a monumental victory.
If bitcoin is property, as the IRS agrees it is, and not money, then arguments by regulators like the CFTC, which says bitcoins are a commodity and need to be regulated by them, or the SEC, which says bitcoins fit the definition of securities, so they should be regulated by them, fall by the wayside.
For now the Court’s ruling appears to set the precedent that bitcoins are property.
But that legal definition will be challenged, most likely in an appellate court ruling if the Espinoza case is pursued by prosecutors.
If bitcoin is property, as the IRS agrees it is, and not money, then arguments by regulators like the CFTC, which says bitcoins are a commodity and need to be regulated by them, or the SEC, which says bitcoins fit the definition of securities, so they should be regulated by them, fall by the wayside.
For now the Court’s ruling appears to set the precedent that bitcoins are property.
But that legal definition will be challenged, most likely in an appellate court ruling if the Espinoza case is pursued by prosecutors.
Smile for the Phone, Creep
That nonlethal weapon, the smartphone, can deliver justice. But only if you can unlock it.
A woman who was groped in public was unable to take a picture of the creep because she didn’t know how to use her cell-phone quickly enough.
She went through a long process to get to the point where her cell phone could take a picture. By then, the creeps were gone.
Why We Need to Pick Up Alvin Toffler’s Torch
More than 40 years ago, Alvin Toffler, a writer who had fashioned himself into one of the first futurists, warned that the accelerating pace of technological change would soon make us all sick. He called the sickness “future shock,” which he described in his totemic book of the same name, published in 1970.
in rereading Mr. Toffler’s book, as I did last week, it seems clear that his diagnosis has largely panned out, with local and global crises arising daily from our collective inability to deal with ever-faster change.
As Mr. Toffler put it in “Future Shock,” “Change is avalanching upon our heads and most people are grotesquely unprepared to cope with it.”
Alvin Toffler (October 4, 1928 – June 27, 2016) was an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing modern technologies.
Author of the book “Future Shock”.
“Information overload” is another term he coined.
Keeping Hackers From Grabbing Your Twitter Account
Most investors don’t give a second thought about protecting their personal financial data. But they should for one simple reason – it can be used against you.
Especially when you’re travelling like I am.
If you carry…
…a smart phone… you’re a target.
…a laptop… you’re a target.
…a tablet… you’re a target.
Especially when you’re travelling like I am.
If you carry…
…a smart phone… you’re a target.
…a laptop… you’re a target.
…a tablet… you’re a target.
Grabbing your purse, your wallet, or even your smart phone is secondary to getting the data on it when it comes to criminal activity.
This articles has five simple things you can do to protect yourself, your family, and your money when you’re on the road.
This is how hackers create maximum damage
The Democratic National Committee got hacked, and you could be next
Before gaining access ... an accomplished hacker will do quite a bit of research on his victim.
This article discusses several tricks that hackers use to gain access to your personal information.
MIT’s anonymous online communications protocol Riffle could beat Tor at its own game
https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/11/mits-anonymous-online-communications-protocol-riffle-could-beat-tor-at-its-own-game/
https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/11/mits-anonymous-online-communications-protocol-riffle-could-beat-tor-at-its-own-game/
Stealthy cyberespionage malware targets energy companies
Security researchers have discovered a new malware threat that goes to great lengths to remain undetected while targeting energy companies.
The goal of droppers is to prepare the field for the installation of other malware components that can perform specialized tasks. Their priority is to remain undetected, gain privileged access and disable existing protections. These are all tasks that Furtim’s Parent does well.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3094236/security/stealthy-cyberespionage-malware-targets-energy-companies.html
Foreign Hackers Target Thousands of Gmail Users Every Month
Google revealed that it sends 4,000 warnings monthly about state-sponsored cyberattacks.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/07/foreign-hackers-target-thousands-of-gmail-users-every-month/490883/
Security researchers have discovered a new malware threat that goes to great lengths to remain undetected while targeting energy companies.
The goal of droppers is to prepare the field for the installation of other malware components that can perform specialized tasks. Their priority is to remain undetected, gain privileged access and disable existing protections. These are all tasks that Furtim’s Parent does well.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3094236/security/stealthy-cyberespionage-malware-targets-energy-companies.html
Foreign Hackers Target Thousands of Gmail Users Every Month
Google revealed that it sends 4,000 warnings monthly about state-sponsored cyberattacks.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/07/foreign-hackers-target-thousands-of-gmail-users-every-month/490883/
It’s now a federal crime to share your Netflix password
A federal court ruled that unauthorized password sharing was illegal.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article89050727.html
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