Essential Apple Podcast 212: So long iMac Pro

Recorded 7th March 2021

This week Simon is joined by Nick, Jim and Steve (of Geeks Corner) to ponder the demise of the iMac Pro, names that break computer stuff, a surprising silver nano wire discovery, the Microsoft Exchange Server hack and several other stories that caught their attention during the week.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Glenn Fleishman’s book Take Control of Securing Your Mac can be found at takecontrolbooks.com along with many other titles by him, Joe Kissell, Jeff Carlson and others.
  • Steve at Geeks Corner has a podcast which is usually a 5-15 min show of his thoughts on tech. Also keep an eye on his site or follow him on Twitter @GeekCorner_uk to watch for regular giveaways.

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.


On this week’s show:

STEVE DURBIN

  • Runs the Geeks Corner website
  • Produces the Geeks Corner podcast
  • @GeekCorner_uk on Twitter

JAMES ORMISTON

NICK RILEY

  • @spligosh on Twitter very occasionally.
  • Sometimes appears on Bart Busschots’ Let’s Talk Apple
  • Sutton Park Circuit church worship on YouTube

APPLE

  • Apple discontinues iMac Pro, Apple Store says buy ‘while supplies last’ – 9to5Mac
    • [Update] Apple to discontinue iMac Pro once stock runs out — iMore
  • Report: Side effect of Apple’s increasing garden walls is better hiding places for elite hackers – 9to5Mac
  • iOS update reveals how Apple will protect against new iPhone feature being used for stalking – The Independent
  • NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is powered by an iMac G3 processor – 9to5Mac
  • Apple Finally Reveals that one of their Foldable Display Patents is now Focused on being a Foldable Laptop – Patently Apple
  • Scott Forstall asked Pandora to develop its app with jailbroken iPhones before the App Store– 9to5Mac
  • Author takes to Twitter after breaking iCloud with ‘True’ last name — iMore
    • These unlucky people have names that break computers – BBC

TECHNOLOGY

  • QUT researchers make accidental discovery of atomic-scale wires – ZDNet
  • NFTs Are Hot. So Is Their Effect on the Earth’s Climate – Wired

SECURITY & PRIVACY

  • Chinese Hacking Spree Hit an ‘Astronomical’ Number of Victims – Wired
    • Thousands of Microsoft Customers May Have Been Victims of Hack Tied to China – NY Times

WORTH A CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS

NEMO’S HARDWARE STORE (48:13)

  • Thinksound In20 in ear wired 3.5mm jack plug earphones – $150 (Direct only at the moment)

Essential Apple Recommended Services:

  • Pixel Privacy – a fabulous resource full of excellent articles and advice on how to protect yourself online.
  • Doug.ee Blog for Andy J’s security tips.
  • Ghostery – protect yourself from trackers, scripts and ads while browsing.
  • Simple Login – Email anonymisation and disposable emails for login/registering with
  • 33mail.com – Never give out your real email address online again.
  • AnonAddy – Disposable email addresses
  • Sudo – get up to 9 “avatars” with email addresses, phone numbers and more to mask your online identity. Free for the first year and priced from $0.99 US / £2.50 UK per month thereafter… You get to keep 2 free avatars though.
  • ProtonMail – end to end encrypted, open source, based in Switzerland. Prices start from FREE… what more can you ask?
  • ProtonVPN – a VPN to go with it perhaps? Prices also starting from nothing!
  • Comparitech DNS Leak Test – simple to use and understand VPN leak test.
  • Fake Name Generator – so much more than names! Create whole identities (for free) with all the information you could ever need.
  • Wire – free for personal use, open source and end to end encryted messenger and VoIP.
  • Pinecast – a fabulous podcast hosting service with costs that start from nothing.

Essential Apple is not affiliated with or paid to promote any of these services… We recommend services that we use ourselves and feel are either unique or outstanding in their field, or in some cases are just the best value for money in our opinion.


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