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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Monday, June 5, 2017
Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap up for June 4 2017
Video:
Steve Wozniak tells us what he wants to be remembered for
He said “ ‘Happiness = smiles - frowns,’ would be the best thing on my tombstone.”
Video:
Here's why Steve Wozniak used to wait in line overnight for new Apple products
Our 9 favorite Apple ad campaigns, ranked
AW comment: Apple’s 1984 ad should have been #1, not #9.
Surface Pro vs iPad Pro
We compare two of the best hybrid devices to see which can replace both your laptop and tablet. It's Surface Pro v iPad Pro.
We compare two of the best hybrid devices to see which can replace both your laptop and tablet. It's Surface Pro v iPad Pro.
The greatest difference is what software you can use with them.
If you treat both devices as a tablet then the iPad Pro is the hands-down winner, no question. Not only does it have access to the huge selection of games, media, and productivity apps that has been the hallmark of iOS for years, but everything is bigger.
But switch the devices into laptop mode though and the Surface Pro comes into its own.
The Surface Pro isn’t trying to replace your laptop, it is one. Running a full blown version of Windows 10 means you can do practically anything you want on it.
They’re both great devices, but how useful they’ll be will come down to how you wish to employ them.
Here are 3 things you should do if you want to start buying bitcoin
1. Start small — don’t buy more than one bitcoin. Better, buy only a fraction of a bitcoin.
2. Write everything down — especially the password to your bitcoin wallet. If you forget your wallet password, it will be useless and all the bitcoins in it will be lost forever.
3. Don’t store your bitcoin(s) at the exchange. Some exchanges were hacked and robbed. The safest place to store your bitcoin(s) is a “bitcoin wallet”.
iPad Pro 12.9 vs Surface Pro 5: Which is the best laptop-replacement tablet?
The two devices start at a similar price point in the UK, but the Surface tops out at a much more expensive top end if you select the highest processor, memory and storage allocations.
The specifications indicate that the Microsoft Surface — should — be better than the iPad Pro. It will go on sale on 15 June, 2017.
A later review will tell us if the performance of the Microsoft Surface is as good as its specs indicate.
Another page on the BGR web site that has a daily list of bargain apps.
The Micro Phone Lens lets your iPhone see and photograph the world up close
Finding Missing Notifications [on your iPhone]
An iPhone user asked "I thought I had turned on iPhone notifications for a couple of my favorite news apps, but I don’t seem to be getting any alerts — especially when I know there are headlines all over the place these days and my phone isn’t locked. How can I fix this?”
The iPhone can alert you to breaking news and other events, as long as the settings are correct.
Read this article for instructions on how to fix the settings.
Slide Show:
The 15 best iPhone hidden features you never knew existed
Smartphones, both iPhone and Android, have been around for the past 10 years. The first Android was released in 2008 and the first iPhone in 2007. Since, they’ve replaced countless things we once used on daily basis. Now, instead of carrying a backpack, we just carry our phones in our pockets.
In honor of the iPhone’s ten-year anniversary in June, Vocativ has compiled a list of some of the basic items and activities that smartphones (or sometimes just cell phones) have supplanted.
In honor of the iPhone’s ten-year anniversary in June, Vocativ has compiled a list of some of the basic items and activities that smartphones (or sometimes just cell phones) have supplanted.
How to install two of the best call blocking apps for iOS 10
1: Hiya
Hiya was one of the first call blocking apps available on the App Store at the launch of iOS 10, and despite a few hiccups at the beginning, it has become the go-to free call blocking app for iOS 10.
2: Nomorobo - Robocall Blocking
Nomorobo - Robocall Blocking gets regular updates to its blacklists and the app itself; in fact, the developers claim that the paid subscription model adds more than 1,000 numbers to its blacklists every day.
29 Super Simple iPhone Hacks You Need to Know
Audio Podcast:
iCloud Syncing is the Bane of my Existence
This issue is discussed 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the audio.
Tips for working out with Apple Watch
Apple Watch is an excellent fitness tracker and has proved to be an effective workout coach.
Apple Piles On the Features, and Users Say, ‘Enough!’
As Apple prepares to show off new features for the iPhone and other devices at its developer conference on Monday, the company is grappling with an uncomfortable issue: Many of its existing features are already too complicated for many users to figure out.
“A lot of people will think it’s their fault, but it’s really the designer’s fault,” Chalen Duncan said. “People want apps to be easy to use.”
Sales of the Apple Watch have been hampered by the steep learning curve it requires of users, who must master pushing, turning and tapping various parts of the watch and a related iPhone app.
With Apple adding fewer major features in recent years, customers have been slower to upgrade their devices.
App developers are also pausing in what had been a race to embrace Apple’s latest innovations. Eliran Sapir, chief executive of Apptopia, an analytics firm, said that new apps were being introduced at half the rate they were a year ago.
App developers are also pausing in what had been a race to embrace Apple’s latest innovations. Eliran Sapir, chief executive of Apptopia, an analytics firm, said that new apps were being introduced at half the rate they were a year ago.
Video:
4 keys to launching a successful business, according to this entrepreneur who sold Siri to Steve Jobs
Also, read the article about Adam Cheyer, the guy who created Siri.
Who can see my iCloud photos? How to stop your pictures from being hacked
Make sure your iPhone isn’t uploading your photos to iCloud by switching off the “My Photo Stream” feature.
Use two-step authentication.
Don’t activate services that you don’t use. Or deactivate them if they are already active.
Android vs. iOS: Are iPhones Really Safer?
In a new Apple ad, a thief breaks into “your phone” but struggles to get into an iPhone. Here’s how it plays out in the real world.
In a new Apple ad, a thief breaks into “your phone” but struggles to get into an iPhone. Here’s how it plays out in the real world.
The iOS versus Android security debate has been playing out for years, but Applethinks it has enough of an edge now to make it part of the iPhone’s marketing campaign -- a reason for consumers to switch, presumably from an Android device to an iPhone.
Last year, Wired magazine reported that one security firm was offering up to $1.5 million for the most serious iOS exploits and up to $200,000 for an Android one, a sign that iOS vulnerabilities are rarer.
Android vs. iOS security: Compare the two mobile OSes
Google pushes out Android security patches every month. Only Nexus and Pixel users get the update immediately, and other manufacturers might delay or skip the update all together.
Apple's most well-known security feature is its App Store, where any app passing through must not only meet Apple's security requirements, but also pass the tests.
Did Google screw up by not giving Apple the concessions it wanted to keep Google Maps as the default Maps application on iOS?
In retrospect, it is clear that they did.
In retrospect, it is clear that they did.
Google’s actions in negotiating with Apple post-2012 are very telling. Google continues to pay Apple over $1 billion a year to maintain their status as the default search engine and not only do they no longer cripple iOS versions of their apps, they often have more features and run better than on Android. In spite of Android’s growing market share, iOS users are still vastly more valuable than Android users when it comes to ad revenue, with a single iOS user being anywhere from 4–8 times more valuable than an Android user, depending location.
Apple App Store Earned Developers $70 Billion Since Launch
Apple says that in the last nine years it has passed more than $70 billion to developers.
App developers are reaching the million-dollar status almost twice as often on Apple’s App Store than on Google Play.
The figures show that 66 publishers hit the $1 million revenue figure in 2016, against 39 doing the same on Google Play. That’s 1.7 times as many, not bad when you think that Apple’s market share is way less than Android.
App Store mints more $1 million publishers than Google Play
Sixty-six iOS publishers met or passed $1 million in app revenue in 2016 — that’s 1.7 times the 39 publishers on Google Play that achieved the same feat, and double the number of App Store publishers that made $1 million or more in 2015. Though not representative of all publishers’ experiences, the results highlight the higher earning potential of App Store publishers; this could attract more publishers to the iOS platform.
How Congress dismantled federal Internet privacy rules
Congressional Republicans knew their plan was potentially explosive. They wanted to kill landmark privacy regulations that would soon ban Internet providers, such as Comcast and AT&T, from storing and selling customers’ browsing histories without their express consent.
So after weeks of closed-door debates on Capitol Hill over who would take up the issue first — the House or the Senate — Republican members settled on a secret strategy. While the nation was distracted by the House’s pending vote to repeal Obamacare, Senate Republicans would schedule a vote to wipe out the new privacy protections.
On March 23, the measure passed on a straight party-line vote, 50 to 48. Five days later, a majority of House Republicans voted in favor of it, sending it to the White House, where President Trump signed the bill in early April without ceremony or public comment.
Fifteen Republicans voted against the bill, but the measure still passed 215 to 205.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-congress-dismantled-federal-internet-privacy-rules/2017/05/29/7ad06e14-2f5b-11e7-8674-437ddb6e813e_story.html
But the focus on Facebook let another social network off the hook. I speak of my daily addiction, Twitter.
Twitter has become a place where many journalists unconsciously build and gut-check a worldview — where they develop a sense of what’s important and merits coverage, and what doesn’t.
This makes Twitter a prime target for manipulators: If you can get something big on Twitter, you’re almost guaranteed coverage everywhere.
This chart spells out in black and white just how many jobs will be lost to robots
When robots come for our jobs, the first people to fall will be those working in retail and fast food restaurants as well as the ubiquitous secretaries who are an indispensable part of the corporate world.
It may not happen overnight but slowly, machines are gaining on man’s turf and in a decade or two, about 50% of jobs in existence today will have gone the way of dinosaurs, or in this case, automation, according to Henrik Lindberg, chief technology officer at Swedish fintech company Zimpler.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-chart-spells-out-in-black-and-white-just-how-many-jobs-will-be-lost-to-robots-2017-05-31
Why we shouldn’t fear that artificial intelligence will steal our jobs
As amazing as robots are, humans still do many tasks better.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-we-shouldnt-fear-that-artificial-intelligence-will-steal-our-jobs-2017-05-31
Marc Andreessen says the idea that robots will steal our jobs is a ‘total fallacy’
Marc Andreessen ... took specific aim at concerns over self-driving cars, arguing that rather than putting people out of work, they will create many subsidiary industries and, therefore, jobs.
That robots will replace people en masse is simply a “fallacy,” he said.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/marc-andreessen-says-the-idea-that-robots-will-steal-our-jobs-is-a-total-fallacy-2017-05-31
Congressional Republicans knew their plan was potentially explosive. They wanted to kill landmark privacy regulations that would soon ban Internet providers, such as Comcast and AT&T, from storing and selling customers’ browsing histories without their express consent.
So after weeks of closed-door debates on Capitol Hill over who would take up the issue first — the House or the Senate — Republican members settled on a secret strategy. While the nation was distracted by the House’s pending vote to repeal Obamacare, Senate Republicans would schedule a vote to wipe out the new privacy protections.
On March 23, the measure passed on a straight party-line vote, 50 to 48. Five days later, a majority of House Republicans voted in favor of it, sending it to the White House, where President Trump signed the bill in early April without ceremony or public comment.
Fifteen Republicans voted against the bill, but the measure still passed 215 to 205.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-congress-dismantled-federal-internet-privacy-rules/2017/05/29/7ad06e14-2f5b-11e7-8674-437ddb6e813e_story.html
How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation
After last year’s election, Facebook came in for a drubbing for its role in propagating misinformation — or “fake news,” as we called it back then, before the term became a catchall designation for any news you don’t like.
But the focus on Facebook let another social network off the hook. I speak of my daily addiction, Twitter.
Twitter has become a place where many journalists unconsciously build and gut-check a worldview — where they develop a sense of what’s important and merits coverage, and what doesn’t.
This makes Twitter a prime target for manipulators: If you can get something big on Twitter, you’re almost guaranteed coverage everywhere.
For determined media manipulators, getting something big on Twitter isn’t all that difficult. Unlike Facebook, which requires people to use their real names, Twitter offers users essentially full anonymity, and it makes many of its functions accessible to outside programmers, allowing people to automate their actions on the service.
As a result, numerous cheap and easy-to-use online tools let people quickly create thousands of Twitter bots — accounts that look real, but that are controlled by a puppet master.
As a result, numerous cheap and easy-to-use online tools let people quickly create thousands of Twitter bots — accounts that look real, but that are controlled by a puppet master.
If Facebook’s primary danger is its dissemination of fake stories, then Twitter’s is a ginning up of fake people.
Bots give us an easy way to doubt everything we see online. In the same way that the rise of “fake news” gives the president cover to label everything “fake news,” the rise of bots might soon allow us to dismiss any online enthusiasm as driven by automation. Anyone you don’t like could be a bot; any highly retweeted post could be puffed up by bots.
This chart spells out in black and white just how many jobs will be lost to robots
When robots come for our jobs, the first people to fall will be those working in retail and fast food restaurants as well as the ubiquitous secretaries who are an indispensable part of the corporate world.
It may not happen overnight but slowly, machines are gaining on man’s turf and in a decade or two, about 50% of jobs in existence today will have gone the way of dinosaurs, or in this case, automation, according to Henrik Lindberg, chief technology officer at Swedish fintech company Zimpler.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-chart-spells-out-in-black-and-white-just-how-many-jobs-will-be-lost-to-robots-2017-05-31
Why we shouldn’t fear that artificial intelligence will steal our jobs
As amazing as robots are, humans still do many tasks better.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-we-shouldnt-fear-that-artificial-intelligence-will-steal-our-jobs-2017-05-31
Marc Andreessen says the idea that robots will steal our jobs is a ‘total fallacy’
Marc Andreessen ... took specific aim at concerns over self-driving cars, arguing that rather than putting people out of work, they will create many subsidiary industries and, therefore, jobs.
That robots will replace people en masse is simply a “fallacy,” he said.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/marc-andreessen-says-the-idea-that-robots-will-steal-our-jobs-is-a-total-fallacy-2017-05-31
Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone vs. Apple’s iPhone 7
Android co-founder Andy Rubin's The Essential Phone joins a crowded field of smartphones competing for the same Android enthusiast base of customers. Let's see how the Essential Phone compares to Apple's behemoth across the aisle, the iPhone 7.
Their specifications are very similar.
Their prices are also very similar.
But the Essential Phone is not yet for sale, so the author is not able to compare actual performance yet.
Andy Rubin's Essential phone is trying to revive an idea smartphone makers keep failing to pull off
Modular phones are a great pitch, but a tough sell
Modular phones keep coming back because they’re a great elevator pitch. If you could keep the skeleton of a phone, but upgrade and customize its various components to your liking, it’d mean you wouldn’t have to pay for a new device every other year.
In other words, it'd make upgrading a smartphone more like upgrading a desktop PC. Instead of shelling out $700 for a whole new device, you could just buy the bits that actually need upgrading — a new battery here, a better camera there, and so on.
The highest-profile bust was Google’s Project Ara. That phone started out with the idea of making its core components hot-swappable, but later transitioned to focusing on external, attachable accessories. The team behind Ara said it made that switch because it found that most buyers “couldn’t care less” about upgrading the internals of a phone. Four months later, the project was scrapped entirely.
Modular phones keep coming back because they’re a great elevator pitch. If you could keep the skeleton of a phone, but upgrade and customize its various components to your liking, it’d mean you wouldn’t have to pay for a new device every other year.
In other words, it'd make upgrading a smartphone more like upgrading a desktop PC. Instead of shelling out $700 for a whole new device, you could just buy the bits that actually need upgrading — a new battery here, a better camera there, and so on.
The highest-profile bust was Google’s Project Ara. That phone started out with the idea of making its core components hot-swappable, but later transitioned to focusing on external, attachable accessories. The team behind Ara said it made that switch because it found that most buyers “couldn’t care less” about upgrading the internals of a phone. Four months later, the project was scrapped entirely.
Americans have to stop doing this idiotic thing with their personal information
94 million store their credit or debit card information online.
Two-thirds of Americans who shop online have stored their credit or debit card information online, typically on an online shopping site so they don’t have to pull out their card later on when they shop on that site. And 1 in 10 say they store their card information online on a website any chance they can.
That’s not smart, says CreditCards.com senior industry analyst Matt Schulz: It can make it easier for fraudsters who hack into websites to steal your credit card numbers.
https://moneyish.com/ish/americans-have-to-stop-doing-this-idiotic-thing-with-their-personal-information/
https://moneyish.com/ish/americans-have-to-stop-doing-this-idiotic-thing-with-their-personal-information/
We are all one smart-phone video away from being fired
Bad publicity can happen if you are not on your best behavior whenever you’re in public.
Being under surveillance changes our behavior — and not for the better
It is not just celebrities who have to worry about personal recordings anymore — it’s everybody.”
As surveillance become increasingly intrusive and sophisticated, so do the effects of potentially being watched.
‘Math isn’t so hard’ for women post backfires for financial planning organization
The CFP Board’s Center for Financial Planning, a unit dedicated specifically to attracting new advisers of all backgrounds, recently posted on Instagram a quote by an unnamed female CFP saying the math required in the job wasn’t so hard, and that using a financial calculator was just like using an iPhone. The post sparked outrage from some advisers, specifically women advisers who said it degraded the profession and perpetuated the stereotype that all women fear math.
“It dumbed down what we do,” said Mary Beth Storjohann, a financial adviser and founder of Workable Wealth in San Diego, Calif.
The intention of the post was to break down “math anxiety,” or the desire to avoid number-crunching, so many women have, said Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis.
“I understand the CFP Pro campaign, trying to make the industry trendy and more relatable,” Storjohann said. But “where they’re going with this [post] is a disservice to those who worked so hard to get in.”
Here are 3 things you should do if you want to start buying bitcoin
1. Start small — don’t buy more than one bitcoin. Better, buy only a fraction of a bitcoin.
2. Write everything down — especially the password to your bitcoin wallet. If you forget your wallet password, it will be useless and all the bitcoins in it will be lost forever.
3. Don’t store your bitcoin(s) at the exchange. Some exchanges were hacked and robbed. The safest place to store your bitcoin(s) is a “bitcoin wallet”.
How to Buy Bitcoins - Your Guide to Digital Profits
Bitcoin is so resilient, and so technologically advanced, it's going to revolutionize the world's currency system.
While there will be inevitable pullbacks, Bitcoin is built to continue appreciating over time…
As time goes on, the supply of new bitcoins will get smaller and smaller, becoming a trickle until the very last Bitcoin is mined in 2140.
And that's it. No more new bitcoins. The Bitcoin supply will never grow beyond 21 million.
And that's it. No more new bitcoins. The Bitcoin supply will never grow beyond 21 million.
Now contrast this to fiat currency, such as the U.S. dollar.
The central banks that print fiat money have no limits. They just print more to pay the bills run up by free-spending governments.
The central banks that print fiat money have no limits. They just print more to pay the bills run up by free-spending governments.
Another key aspect of Bitcoin is that it benefits from something known as the "network effect."
Simply put, the more people adopt a technology, the more useful it becomes. In other words, having e-mail back in the 1990s wasn't very useful when only a handful of people had it. But once a critical mass of people had it, e-mail became a virtual necessity to communicate.
Because part of Bitcoin's utility rests on the number of people using it, growth in its adoption rate feeds on itself, drawing more and more people in. And that will supercharge the already rising demand within the Bitcoin market.
It means that despite tremendous gains so far, the Bitcoin revolution is in its infancy. You still have time to add this unique investment to your portfolio.
https://moneymorning.com/active-premiums/how-to-buy-bitcoins-your-guide-to-digital-profits/
Simply put, the more people adopt a technology, the more useful it becomes. In other words, having e-mail back in the 1990s wasn't very useful when only a handful of people had it. But once a critical mass of people had it, e-mail became a virtual necessity to communicate.
Because part of Bitcoin's utility rests on the number of people using it, growth in its adoption rate feeds on itself, drawing more and more people in. And that will supercharge the already rising demand within the Bitcoin market.
It means that despite tremendous gains so far, the Bitcoin revolution is in its infancy. You still have time to add this unique investment to your portfolio.
https://moneymorning.com/active-premiums/how-to-buy-bitcoins-your-guide-to-digital-profits/
How Much Is A Tulip Worth?
In this article, the author compares current stock prices to the tulip mania of centuries ago. He wrote:
“At some point people will realize this [stock prices] is just tulip mania, as it is with Bitcon. Yes, there are a deflating number of Bitcoins but there are an infinite number of real and potential digital currencies!”
A False Facial Recognition Match Cost This Man Everything
Denver resident Steve Talley files $10 million lawsuit after face-matching technology ruined his life
Computer software mistook his face for the face of a bank robber. The software and approach that was used, it has been shown, only garners a subjective estimate as to whether two images show the same person. It’s meant to serve as an investigative tool not evidence.
Take an individual who has a normal life and now it’s destroyed. All because they relied upon facial recognition so much. Maybe someday it will be extremely accurate but at this point in time, it needs more oversight. It needs to be more accurate before they haphazardly use it to screen people.
How Uber Drivers Are Helping Detect Cellphone Surveillance
With 'SeaGlass,' researchers are creating city-wide sensor networks that detect secretive police surveillance tools.
Police use “stingrays”, which they use to to intercept cell phone calls. The stingrays mimic cell phone towers, causing nearby cell phones to automatically connect with them, with people none-the-wiser.
Researchers at the University of Washington have devised a network of sensors — called SeaGlass — to detect unusual "cell phone tower" activity.
They caution that unusual cell tower activity doesn’t necessarily indicate the use of a stingray. But while confirming the use of stingrays with total certainty remains an elusive goal, researchers’ ability to detect the infamous devices is slowly improving.
Researchers say “We think that SeaGlass is a promising technology that — with wider deployment — can be used to help empower citizens and communities to monitor this type of surveillance.”
Slide Show:
Disturbing photos of the toxic graveyards where your old gadgets go to die
It is believed that less than one-sixth of the e-waste was properly recycled.
Researchers expect the volume of e-waste to increase 21% to 50 million metric tons in 2018.
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