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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Sunday, August 7, 2016
Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap-up for Sunday 8-7-2016
Apple iOS 9.3.4 Is Now Available: What Is Included In The Update?
A highly recommended upgrade because it contains an “important” security patch.
The description in the Apple support page says: “A memory corruption issue was addressed through improved memory handling.” MacRumors pointed out that iOS 9.3.4 also fixes the Pangu iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak exploit. And Apple credited Team TISI +% Pangu for discovering the memory corruption vulnerability.
iPad Pro 9.7 revisited: making it work for work
We take another look at the iPad Pro, the same 9.7-inch model, to answer an equally burning question: how can it replace a PC, especially for some serious work.
The iPad Pro, especially the larger kind, is clearly marketed for those who do creative work. Artists swear by (some at) their experience with the Apple Pencil. The large screen makes it convenient to view, organize, and retouch photos. And the extra beefy hardware, especially the 4 GB of RAM, rare for any iPad, gives it enough muscle for video editing right then and there.
Why would one even bother trying to use an iPad Pro for work. Or is it even possible? To both questions, I give a resounding yes, but with a few caveats. It is entirely usable for professional work, be it writing, making art, or editing multimedia. You will, however, have to change your workflow and and your mindset. It does have attached benefits which could make the paradigm shift worthwhile.
Video shows latest progress of constructions of Apple’s new headquarters
Woman drops iPhone from airplane, finds it undamaged in Vancouver, B.C., park
Incredible!!
The woman wrote:
"Found my phone in the middle of the forest in Stanley Park at 10:04pm after dropping it 2500ft from a plane. Haha! Yay!!!!!”
The 20 best smartphones in the world
The iPhone 6S, the iPhone 6S plus and the iPhone SE hold first, second and third place, respectively.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus hold 14th and 15th place, respectively.
Judge wipes out patent troll’s $625M verdict against Apple
A patent-holding company that won a huge court victory against Apple had its victory wiped out, and its stock plunged by more than 40 percent.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/judge-wipes-out-patent-trolls-625m-verdict-against-apple/
Here it is, the ultimate evidence that Samsung has “invented” the Apple Watch.
Yes, I am kidding about Samsung inventing the Apple Watch, but Samsung is dead serious about copying Apple. A Samsung patent document has copies of Apple Watch drawings in it.
Samsung has a long history of copying the iPhone, with US courts having already ruled for Apple in the past
The Apple Watch is the most anxiety-inducing device this author ever owned
His anxiety made his heart race. His Apple Watch showed him that his heart was beating too fast, which made him more anxious and caused his heart to beat still faster. And he started having dizzy spells.
We went to see some cardiologists and, in the end, they pronounced him healthy.
One doctor suggested he take a vacation: He advised no contact with work and no contact with the internet.
After he returned from his work free and internet free vacation, he was feeling fine.
Until he put his Apple Watch back on. He wrote:
"The Apple Watch is the most anxiety-inducing piece of technology I’ve ever owned. It’s a reminder that a worry is like a notification, which left unchecked, can consume you."
The 18 apps you should use every day to be more productive
11 apps that have actually changed people's lives
Police 3D-printed a dead man's finger to unlock his iPhone
Now might be the time to disable any biometric sensors on your smartphone, unless you want the police to 3D print a replica of your fingers and unlock it with ease.
Sure, there are efforts to develop fingerprint sensors that won’t be tricked by fake fingers, but they aren’t going to be available for a while and this case shows that police already want to thwart the scanners used today.
The best solution to all of these problems is to avoid setting up biometric securityin the first place.
AW comment: Hackers could make fake fingerprints too.
Apple announces long-awaited bug bounty program
Apple’s invitation-only bug bounty program will be open only to researchers who have previously made valuable vulnerability disclosures to the company. Apple consulted with other companies on their bug bounty programs and decided that opening the bounty system to the public would bring a deluge of reports that might overshadow high-risk vulnerabilities.
However, Apple won’t turn away new researchers if they provide useful disclosures, and plans to slowly expand the program.
However, Apple won’t turn away new researchers if they provide useful disclosures, and plans to slowly expand the program.
The program launches in September with five categories of risk and reward:
• Vulnerabilities in secure boot firmware components: Up to $200,000
• Vulnerabilities that allow extraction of confidential material from Secure Enclave: Up to $100,000
• Executions of arbitrary or malicious code with kernel privileges: Up to $50,000
• Access to iCloud account data on Apple servers: Up to $50,000
• Access from a sandboxed process to user data outside the sandbox: Up to $25,000
The new program will begin as invite-only, including only a few dozen researchers. Still, Apple says the program will become more open as it grows, and if a non-member approaches Apple with a significant bug, they’ll be invited into the program to work it through. The invite system is unusual for a bounty program, but Apple explained it as necessary to weed out spurious submissions and make sure trusted researchers had adequate support from the company.
The Bug Bounty List
A comprehensive, up to date list of bug bounty and disclosure programs from across the web curated by the Bugcrowd researcher community.
A comprehensive, up to date list of bug bounty and disclosure programs from across the web curated by the Bugcrowd researcher community.
Shocker! Facebook Changes Its Algorithm to Avoid ‘Clickbait’
Facebook says it plans to marginalize what it considers to be “clickbait” news stories from publishers in its news feed, in another step to keep its 1.71 billion members regularly coming back to its social network.
In a change to its news feed algorithm on Thursday, Facebook said certain types of headlines would be classified as clickbait, those that “withhold or distort information.” Those stories will then appear less frequently in users’ feeds, the company said.
In a change to its news feed algorithm on Thursday, Facebook said certain types of headlines would be classified as clickbait, those that “withhold or distort information.” Those stories will then appear less frequently in users’ feeds, the company said.
Here's How to Overcome Newly Discovered iPhone Ransomware
4 Foolish Cybersecurity Mistakes Robert Herjavec Is Shocked People Still Make
Identity Theft Recovery from the FTC
Social Security Web Site Now Requires Cellphone to Access Your SSA Account On-Line
For your protection, we now require multifactor authentication for all users of the "my Social Security" web site. To register and sign in, you must now enter a security code that we will send to your cell phone. Your cell phone provider’s text message and data rates may apply.
Because of technical and resource constraints, we are not currently able to offer alternative methods of satisfying this security requirement. However, we may consider adding more options in the future. We appreciate your patience as we work continuously to secure your online information.
http://blog.ssa.gov/tag/cell-phone/
Sunday, July 31, 2016
5 free Web tools to organize your thoughts | PCWorld
5 free Web tools to organize your thoughts | PCWorld: ""
(Via.)
This article covers 5 Web-based outlining tools. You can use them with your Mac or Windows or even Linux.
I’m going to cover using Fargo with your Mac in a subsequent article.
Tom Briant
Editor, MacValley Blog
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
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Excellent review of CleanMyMac 3.x by J P Zhang
Hi Everyone:
JP Zhang, the editor of SoftwareHow, asked me to spread the word about this review of CleanMyMac. I’m happy to do so.
Please click on this link to read his article.
Tom Briant
Editor, MacValley Blog
Monday, July 11, 2016
Monday, July 4, 2016
Your top questions to Mac 911—and some answers | Macworld
Your top questions to Mac 911—and some answers | Macworld: ""
(Via.)
Again, Happy 4th! Got a question? Macworld may have covered it already!
Tom Briant
Editor, MacValley Blog
Can’t save a Microsoft Office document? Look for the forward slash | Macworld
Can’t save a Microsoft Office document? Look for the forward slash | Macworld: ""
(Via.)
Happy 4th! Don’t use forward slashes in Microsoft Office documents!
Tom Briant
editor, MacValley Blog
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