S1E229 - Essential Apple Podcast 229: It's a dead Mac! :(

Recorded 26th July 2021

Yes so we didn’t record last week… sort of because it was hot and sticky (at least by UK standards), and we didn’t feel like any stories really caught our interest… and well, we just weren’t really feeling it I guess. Since then however quite a lot has happened (including Simon’s shiny new M1 just being dead on Thursday morning…). But you can’t keep a good podcast down for long – so here we are again – back in the saddle and ready to regale you with the stories of the last week or so… (Sorry if the sound is a bit different to usual, had to use a rather basic setup).

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!

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
Nick’s church stream videos – You Tube

JAMES ORMISTON

MacJim in the Slack
Also on Flickr as Ormie (O)
Has videos on Vimeo

APPLE

Feedback from Allister: FileVault doesn’t store the password anywhere. There is a key stored somewhere which is encrypted with that password. When it asks for the password it tries to decrypt the key, then uses the key to decrypt the drive content. If that works you entered the correct password. If not, you didn’t. That’s why it takes a little while to fail if you get it wrong.
Simon’s dead M1 MBA…
iCloud has another case of the Mondays – 9to5Mac
Akamai DNS outage knocks many major websites and services offline – 9to5Mac
Apple employees pen second letter asking for work-from-home options – AppleInsider
- Gurman: iPhone 13 event likely to be virtual as Apple delays return to work – 9to5Mac
An iPhone 5s Won A Photography Award In 2021 – ÜberGizmo
Tim Cook says Apple will donate to support flood relief efforts in Western Europe – 9to5Mac
iOS 15 hidden features on iPhone: Here’s what Apple didn’t tell you – CNet
- Phone Remains Findable Even After Power Off in iOS 15 Beta 3 – iPhone in Canada
iOS and Android Activations Now Split Evenly in the U.S., Research Shows – MacRumors
Latest Safari Technology Preview contains updated tab bar design – AppleInsider
YouTuber sends AirTag to Tim Cook, and Apple returns it with a letter – 9to5Mac
If You Guys Are Really Us, What Number Are We Thinking Of? (No 69º F) – Daring Fireball
Apple’s threat to quit Britain over £5bn patent row – This is Money
- Apple Threatens to Leave UK Market Due to $7 Billion Patent Dispute – MacRumors

TECHNOLOGY

LG’s rollable TV costs 50 times as much as a normal OLED – Ars Technica
Arm’s cheap and flexible plastic microchip could create an ‘internet of everything– The Verge
- A natively flexible 32-bit Arm microprocessor – Nature
NASA successfully switches the Hubble to backup hardware – Ars Technica
- Retired NASA Engineers Return to Fix Hubble Telescope – Smithsonian Magazine

SECURITY & PRIVACY

An explosive spyware report shows limits of iOS, Android security – Ars Technica
- iOS security researcher Will Strafach agrees Apple can do more in combating NSO – 9to5Mac
ProtonVPN’s new macOS and iOS update helps bypass censorship – Reclaim The Net
- Introducing Email Protection: The easy way to block email trackers and hide your address – Duck Duck Go
Security researchers uncover more Print Spooler vulnerabilities – IT Pro
Shocking New Windows 10 Security Alert As Unpatched Bug Exposes Admin Passwords – Forbes
Virulent Windows ‘XLoader’ malware is now on macOS – AppleInsider

WORTH A CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS

‎How to add lines and grids to your Notes on iOS and iPadOS – AppleInsider

Essential Apple Recommended Services:

All Things Secured – Online security made simple by Josh Summers.
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 and on the App Stores – 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.

Social Media and Slack

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