Apple

USB4 Version 2.0 Announced

The USB Promoter Group announced USB4 Version2.0 on Thursday, a specification that will allow for up to 80Gbps to be transferred over the USB-C connector that is commonly in use on PCs and smartphones. The standard will be backwards compatible with USB4 Version 1.0, USB 3.2, USB 2.0, and Thunderbolt 3 — but not USB 1.0 or Thunderbolt 4. Until now, USB and Thunderbolt have basically co-existed in parallel worlds. Because of somewhat murky licensing issues, Intel-based laptops have used a Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 port and laptops powered by AMD’s Ryzen have used USB4. As we discussed in our USB4…

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Fake ‘Amazon’ Email

As I had mentioned in the Tech Support and Refund Scams post, many of these scams start with an email claiming to be from e legitimate company. This morning I had several emails from ‘Billing Team’ in my junk folder. Here is one of them below (click the image for full-size). Note: the formatting including highlights is how the email appeared and were not added by me). Besides ending up in my junk folder there were several things I noticed within a few seconds to indicate this was fake and a scam: The return address was ‘Billing Team’ from a gmail.com…

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What Happen to ‘9’?

Is ‘9’ suddenly an unlucky number in the tech world? Microsoft released Windows 10 after Windows 8/8.1. Apple recently released the iPhone 8 and announced the forthcoming iPhone X. In the past couple days, has come word of Samsung announcing the successor of the Galaxy S8, the Galaxy X Folding Phone. Apple and Samsung both are skipping version ‘9’ of their flagship phones. So, what gives? Well, we have Microsoft to thank (or blame) for skipping 9. It was Microsoft that two years ago, started with releasing Windows 10. They even were the first one to represent ‘10’ with the…

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Google to Ban WoSign and StartCom Certificates

Following in the footsteps of Mozilla and Apple, Google is going to be removing all trust for WoSign and StartCom Certificates with Chrome 61 (current  version is 59) as well as Android browser. Mozilla has been very aggressive in enforcing their Mozilla’s CA Certificate Policy as was the case in April 2015 with the Firefox 37.0.1 release which Mozilla banned China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) issued Certificates. Once again another China based CA has ‘misbehaved’: About a year ago, Mozilla uncovered that a Chinese Certificate Authority (CA) called WoSign had a number of technical and management failures, which included…

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Adobe to pull plug on Flash

Adobe ADBE 529,87 -2,63 -0,49%  has announced they will no longer release updates for Flash at the end of 2020. Flash has been around since 1996, then a product of Macromedia until 2005 when Macromedia (and Flash) were acquired by Adobe. 20+ years later, Adobe has announced the end of Flash: Adobe, along with partners Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. MSFT 426,89 +1,69 +0,40% , Alphabet Inc.’s Google  GOOGL 172,49 -3,09 -1,76% , Facebook Inc. FB 196,64 +0,99 +0,51%  and Mozilla Corp., said support for Flash will ramp down across the internet in phases over the next three years. Apple’s AAPL…

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iPhone 8 May Not Be Fully Ready at Release

With the expected release of Apple’s AAPL 225,12 +0,89 +0,40% newest iPhone only a couple months away it may not have all the new featured ready at release. Priced at a hefty $1200 USD (and former Microsoft Microsoft Corporation 426,89 +1,69 +0,40% CEO, Steve Ballmer was criticizing the $500 USD price tag back in 2007 saying “there is no chance the iPhone is going to get any significant market share‘) the ’10th Anniversary’ edition is supposed to be packed with some big new features when it is released sometime in September. Problem is Apple seems to be having some software integration…

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New Ad Blocking coming to Chrome and Safari

The New Chrome and Safari Will Reshape the Web – WIRED www.wired.com Apple and Google are cracking down on obnoxious online ads. And they just might change the way the web works in the process. Last week Google confirmed that Chrome … Came across this article today while doing some research on claims that some websites will deny you access if your using the browser’s ‘reader mode’. There are already many sites that will block you if you are using an AdBlocker type of extension. There are even some that will not allow you to access the site if you…

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New features: Firefox for iOS

“Having brought is mobile firmware aspirations to an abrupt end by ditching the Firefox OS, Mozilla has had a little more time to focus on its speciality—great browsing experiences. The Firefox client has long been a front-runner at desktop level, and in recent times, has garnered a strong user base through Google’s Android as well. It wasn’t until last year that Firefox could finally grace the App Store with its presence, and rather disappointingly, the iOS version was considerably scant on the features front. Thankfully, the latest update plugs many of those gaps. …” Source: Phone ArenaDetails  Mozilla adds a slew…

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Time to remove QuickTime for Windows

Apple APL 0,05 +0,00 +4,55% has ended support for QuickTime for Windows earlier this year. QuickTime 7 was only supported for Windows 7 and older. These users may want to make sure QuickTime is not still installed, especially if they are/were an iTunes user as it was part of the bloat that was installed with iTunes. There are at least two ‘possible’ exploits with the QuickTime 7 for Windows. via grand stream dreams

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Choose Windows 7 at “your own risk and your own peril”

This very odd statement is from Microsoft MSFT 426,89 +1,69 +0,40% Marketing chief Chris Capossela. “We do worry when people are running an operating system that’s 10 years old that the next printer they buy isn’t going to work well, or they buy a new game, they buy Fallout 4, a very popular game, and it doesn’t work on a bunch of older machines,” Capossela stated. “And so, as we are pushing our ISV [Independent Software Vendor] and hardware partners to build great new stuff that takes advantage of Windows 10 that obviously makes the old stuff really bad and not to…

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