Essential Apple Podcast 214: What a bunch of bananas!

Recorded 21st March 2021

There never was a “March Event”, Brazil fined Apple over lack of chargers – but it’s pocket change, Apple lets Russia install apps, Intel goes on the offensive (and self pwns), and Jim installs an update! Join Simon, Nick and Jim as they discuss this and more and find out just what the bananas are all about!

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:

NICK RILEY

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

JAMES ORMISTON

MacJim in the Slack
In charge of the Essential Apple Flickr
Also on Flickr as thesrpspaintshop
Has videos on Vimeo

APPLE

Apple allows Russia to pre-install apps on iPhones as part of device setup – 9to5Mac
- Apple Bent the Rules for Russia—and Other Countries Will Take Note) – [Wired](https://www.wired.com/story/apple-russia-iphone-apps-law/
Brazil fines Apple over lack of charger in iPhone 12 box – 9to5Mac
Intel slams Apple over MacBook Air battery lie, owns itself in the process – iMore
Apple Discontinues 512GB and 1TB SSD Configurations of 4K 21.5-inch iMac – Mac Rumors
iMac Pro removed from Apple’s website, officially discontinued – 9to5Mac
Could the MacBook Pro come with a 16 core Apple M1X or M2 processor? – Pocketlint
More Beta’s drop
iOS 14 Isn’t Safe From Forensic Extraction Technology – The Mac Observer
Woman using Apple Pay charged $2,200 for bunch of bananas – iMore

TECHNOLOGY

‘I’m a Mac’ star Justin Long pivots to Intel in new ads mocking M1 Macs — 9to5Mac
Vivaldi fires up performance – Vivaldi Browser
Facebook Is Developing a Version of Instagram for Children Under 13 – Mac Rumors
Your 8TB HDD might seem big now, but 120TB drives are on the way – PC Gamer

SECURITY & PRIVACY

Dropbox and LastPass announce changes to their free password managers — 9to5Mac
Hackers are exploiting a server vulnerability with a severity of 9.8 out of 10 — Ars Technica
Exchange flaws could be much worse than thought: Six hacking groups suspected of using the zero days pre-patch – The Register

WORTH A CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS

How to Auto-Remove Annoying Tracking Codes in URLs You Share from Your iPhone – iOS Gadget Hacks

JUST A SNIPPET

For things that are not worth more than a flypast

Mark’s van life videos AVLT – YouTube

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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