by Jeff McKamey
New Apple Watch Series 4
The largest Apple Watch display yet. New electrical heart sensor. Proactive Health Monitor. Fall detection and Emergency SOS. Comprehensive Activity Tracker. The Freedom of Cellular.
FaceTime bug!
A significant bug has been discovered in FaceTime and is currently spreading virally over social media. The bug lets you call anyone with FaceTime, and immediately hear the audio coming from their phone — before the person on the other end has accepted or rejected the incoming call. Naturally, this poses a pretty big privacy problem as you can essentially listen in on any iOS user, although it still rings like normal, so you can’t be 100% covert about it. Nevertheless, there is no indication on the recipient’s side that you could hear any of their audio. There’s a second part to this which can expose video too … The vulnerability was discovered by a 14 year old in Arizona whose mom had a heck of a time trying to report it. Apple is now paying the teen for finding the flaw. Apple disabled group FaceTime as a temporary fix but said that a more permanent solution will roll out in a software update.
Is Apple up today?
Find out the status of Apple systems. There are lots of these web site for other services.
Is It Down Right Now
“Is It Down Right Now” monitors the status of your favorite web sites and checks whether they are down or not. Check a website status easily by using the test tool. Just enter the url and a fresh site status test will be performed on the domain name in real time using their online website checker tool.
privacy risks of smart speakers
If you have an Alexa, or Homepod, it is ‘listening’ all the time.
Secret recording of your iPhone screen
Many major companies, like Air Canada, Hollister and Expedia, are recording every tap and swipe you make on their iPhone apps. In most cases you won’t even realize it. And they don’t need to ask for permission.
My ring got hacked over Thanksgiving…
Luna Display
Turn your iPad into a second display. This is just a cool, seamless second monitor that looks like it works. The only hardware solution that turns any iPad into a true, wireless second display for your Mac.
Edison E-mail App
Smart mail that you can rely on. It lets you customize the swipes so you don’t accidentally do the wrong thing, and it has quite a few features that the built-in mail does not do. It’s for the Mac and IOS.
Google Maps Timeline: A little-known Google feature
With the help of Google Maps Timeline, you can quickly find the places you have visited and the routes you have traveled. It can turn the clock back and let you liven up the fascinating times you spent with your buddies! Willing to take a peek at the locations you have traveled? Follow this hands-on guide to view and edit your Google Maps timeline on your iPhone, iPad, and computer.
Check Air Quality Report via Maps in iOS 12.2 (Beta)
While the United States, in general, doesn’t have the worst overall pollution, the air quality can drastically change from one day to the next. If you’re particularly sensitive to pollutants in the air, there are apps that show how clean or polluted the air is in your area, as well as in cities you plan on traveling to, but Apple’s making those apps less relevant with a new feature in Apple Maps.
Moovit
It is a crowdsourced mass transit guide that helps with the departure times and it even works in Portland, Texas!
Apple bans Facebook’s Research app that paid users for data
Facebook was paying people to install a VPN that let them see every website people went to. Google was going to sell your data too…
Just an interesting local bit of news: Gulf Coast Growth Ventures Project
Gulf Coast Growth Ventures is building a world-class plastics manufacturing facility. It will create a new dedicated “Heavy Haul” project road. See the animation here.
Bird Scooters
I found a nifty scooter map app that shows all of them and how much they will pay if you pick one up and charge it back up.
However, Bird Scooters are leaving Corpus Christi
Bird scooter had a good ride but said goodbye to Corpus Christi shortly after the City Council approved regulations that priced the for-rent dockless scooter company out of the market. They sell the same Birds on Amazon. The Xiaomi m365 is the standard one for $600. Segway ES 2 is used as well. You can upgrade the Segway to an es4 with an extra battery, and it will go 18.6 MPH. This article has hackable scooters that can go up to 52 MPH! The legal limit for a scooter or bike I believe is 20 MPH.
Did You Know it’s cold in chicago?
Watch how quickly the water freezes on this glass in Chicago.
Office 365 finally comes to the Mac!
Office 365 is available for the first time on the Mac App Store, making it easier than ever for Mac users to download Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and the whole suite of Microsoft’s popular apps.
Google Play Store
Google has banned dozens of Android apps downloaded millions of times from the official Play Store after researchers discovered they were being used to display phishing and scam ads or perform other malicious acts. Another reason to stick with Apple’s iPhone!
Phone Carriers Selling Your Location
Reports revealed shadowy world of phone tracking.
Roku in Talks With Apple
Roku is in talks with Apple about supporting AirPlay 2, with the two companies currently working out details surrounding the partnership.
Google Inbox and Google+ Shutting Down
A few weeks after Google announced that they would be shutting down Google Inbox, Google has announced that Google+ will be shut down in the next few months.
My Favorite Ad Blocker Extension
uBlock Origin. The extension is available for several browsers: Safari (beta), Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Firefox, and Opera. Another good one: Purify
Handy Apps to open problem files
Open Any File App
Users are often forced to download numerous programs in order to download specific files. Open Any Files: RAR Support offers a centralized method so that one program can accomplish these very same tasks.
The Unarchiver App
The Unarchiver is the world’s favorite RAR opener for Mac. Unlike Mac’s native tool it’s sleeker and supports all known archive types.