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Tom Briant

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Sunday, February 26, 2017

Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap-up for Sunday 2-26-2017

Apple Says Third-Party iPhone Screen Repairs No Longer Fully Void Your Warranty
 
According an internal memo distributed to Apple store employees on Friday, and subsequently obtained by MacRumors, iPhones that have undergone third-party screen repairs or replacement are now eligiblefor partial coverage under Apple's warranty.
 
 
 
 
 
Apple Music just released an album made on an iPhone
 
Grammy-nominated artist, Steve Lacy released a new album project through Apple Music. The entire project was recorded on an iPhone, edited using Apple’s consumer-friendly GarageBand.
 
 
 
 
Steve Lacy Made His New Track Entirely on iPhone and Garage Band
 
The new project showcases just how far music-making apps have come, proving that you don’t need expensive studio time in order to make complete dancefloor-ready tracks.
 
 
 
 
How to Navigate iOS with Confidence and Ease
 
This post will focus on the iOS user interface.
 
 
 
 
Get rid of iOS 10's annoying Handwriting feature in Messages

While there's a ton of fun features in Messages on iOS 10, there's one feature that seems to draw the ire of nearly all users: the Handwriting canvas.
Thankfully, there's a couple of methods to hide this annoying feature that randomly appears.
 
 
 
 
iOS for consumers, macOS for professionals
 
It seems like Apple is about to completely redefine its infamous product matrix.
 
The basic gist is that I feel Apple is slowly but surely working towards positioning iOS computers as its consumer line, and macOS computers as its pro line.
 
If this hunch of iOS = consumer, macOS = pro does indeed pan out, I don't expect it to happen overnight; in fact, it will most likely take several years, in a way where you barely notice it's even happening.
 
If you listen to Apple podcasts - and you really should, because ATP and Gruber's The Talkshow are a delight to listen to, even if it's sometimes infuriatingly inaccurate about Windows, Android, and Linux.
 
 
Reader Comment:
The easiest explanation is that Apple simply has no vision anymore. They are introducing and abandoning products and features in all directions, without any coherent story. They have lost their momentum, their leadership and their stamp of quality. By ignoring the pros and the creators they will lose the consumers. By focusing on the bottomline they are losing the mindshare. They have become the old, pre-Jobs Apple again. Most meaningful innovation is happening elsewhere.
 
 
 
Here’s a Use for the Apple Watch: Medical Research
 
A team led by neurology professor Gregory Krauss created an Apple Watch app that was used by participants in a study on epilepsy triggers. This week, preliminary results of a new study are being published that conclude stress and missed sleep are triggers of seizures.

The app, called EpiWatch, is designed to track seizures. It uses the sensors in the Apple Watch to record heart rate and movement.
 
 
 
 
Nearly 1500 seizures were recorded during the testing process. 

Stress was linked to 37% of the seizure activity, with sleep deprivation accounting for 18%, menstruation for 12%, and over-exertion for 11%. Other notable triggers included diet, missed medications and fever or infection.

Defying conventional wisdom on epilepsy, seizure triggers did not depend on the type of seizure the participants reported.

"The data collected will help researchers better understand epilepsy, while helping people with epilepsy keep a more complete history of their seizures," said study author Gregory Krauss, MD.
 
 
 
 
Apple's $5 billion campus will officially open in April — and you'll be able to visit
 
Apple said the Apple Park would feature:
• a visitor's center with an Apple Store and a café that are open to the public
• a 100,000-square-foot fitness center
• secure research-and-development facilities
• 2 miles of walking and running tracks
• and an orchard, a meadow, and a pond.
 
 
 
 
Apple fixed an annoying iPhone battery bug and didn't tell people for weeks
 
So if your iPhone is shutting down randomly, you should upgrade to the latest version of iOS as soon as possible. (You should probably update anyway if you're not experiencing the issue.) 
 
 
 
 
iPhone Robbers Try to iPhish Victims
 
Three robbers stole a woman’s iPhone.
Her husband texted the robbers offering to buy it back.
 
Husband received text messages that the iPhone had been found.
The message contained a link to a FAKE apple web page.
 
Try to make a habit of regularly syncing your device to your computer, so that in the event your phone is lost or stolen your data is backed up and you don’t have to worry about remotely wiping important data that may not already be saved locally.
 
 
 
 
 

Why People Are Excited About The Return Of The Reliable Nokia 3310

The smartphones that sit uncomfortably inside our pocket are now more powerful than the large desktop computers from 10 years ago. However, many people will tell you that these fantastic advances in technology are not always a sign of progress.

For example, anyone that remembers the days when the tank like Nokia 3310 ruled the world will scoff at our unusual modern ways. Back in simpler times, you didn't have to worry about dropping your phone or constantly searching for a power socket to charge your phone, and it even fit in your pocket.
 
 
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We now live in a digital age where sophisticated smartphones from all manufacturers all look remarkably similar and are only separated by gimmicks. However, as users, we don't necessarily want waterproof phones, with curved screens or the ability to take live photos. The average user simply desires reliability, resilience and a half decent battery.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-people-excited-return-reliable-nokia-3310-neil-hughes

 

DARPA: We’re on cusp of merging human and machine

We are at the point where computers and machines are no longer going to be simply tools. Computers are becoming, literally, part of us.

For several years now scientists have been working to combine machines with living, organic material, creating a hybrid system.

It might not be a sci-fi vision of cyborgs, but a near future where soldiers might have implanted chips that help them communicate in the battlefield or receive information from GPS systems or drones.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3168840/artificial-intelligence/darpa-we-re-on-cusp-of-merging-human-and-machine.html



True privacy online is not viable
You can hide from casual observers, but a motivated person will see through your attempts at anonymization

vacy-concerned consumers desperately want a magic bullet, some simple thing they can use that will protect their identities and their web activity. And although there are a plethora of offerings today that make such a claim — VPNs, privacy-focused browsers such as Tor, privacy search engines such as DuckDuckGo, quite a few services that claim to anonymize anyone’s activity — the practical realities of human behavior make such privacy claims bogus.

Let me stress that almost all of these services do indeed help a person remain anonymous from the casual, untrained observer (the typical roommate, spouse, co-worker, boss, etc.). But any consumer who thinks that these tools will thwart a law enforcement agent, motivated cyberthief or identity thief, or anyone who is willing to spend the time to track you down is in for unhappiness.

Bottom line: you can hide from advertisers and others well enough with privacy devices, but if someone really wants to track you, well, you can click, but you can’t hide.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3171669/data-privacy/true-privacy-online-is-not-viable.html

 

American NASA scientist says his work phone was seized at airport

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/13/us/citizen-nasa-engineer-detained-at-border-trnd/index.html

 

A major software bug means that passwords from the world's biggest sites, including Fitbit, OKCupid, and Uber have been leaking for months.

Cloudflare said on Friday there was no sign yet the leak had been exploited by hackers — but security experts have said there is no way the company could know this.

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-bug-causes-personal-data-leak-but-no-sign-of-hackers-exploiting-cloudflare-2017-2



Elon Musk’s former tech guru says what hackers are doing now is ‘freaking me out’

“The new thing that worries me in the activity you see hackers doing is ransomware,” he told Business Insider.

“I’ve seen examples where they didn’t only just go after their data, but in the case of Sony Pictures, where they even tried to erase all the backups, and all the backups of the backups, and really tried to screw them over.

http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-former-tech-guru-what-hackers-are-doing-now-is-freaking-me-out-2017-2

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