Recently, there has been a groundswell of ambient noise applications. These are intended to provide a background level of noise to help you focus, relax, or even sleep. The simplest may offer white noise, and a few other colours of noise. More feature rich examples may add in other, natural sounds like rain, a crackling […]
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Security Bits — 11 June 2023
Deep Dive — Security & Privacy Highlights from WWDC As with most things WWDC, this is a glimpse of the future rather than new tools we get to use today, but I think it’s still worth taking a little time to look at some of the security and privacy enhancements Apple announced. Apple’s current Communications […]
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CCATP #769 — Bart Busschots on visionOS
This week our guest is Bart Busschots but this is not a Programming By Stealth episode, it’s a Chit Chat Across the Pond Lite. At least within my personal definition of Lite! Bart joined the show this week to talk about visionOS, the new operating system that will power the Vision Pro headset Apple announced […]
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How to Control Multiple HomeKit Automations from One Switch
Steve and I use HomeKit to control our smart devices. While we can do a lot of what we want, it’s often clumsy, and we get tangled in the terminology. The solution to this problem is obvious. Add more automation. Let’s set up the problem Steve and I were trying to solve, and as I […]
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Retrobatch Real-World Use for Sticker Packs — by Graeme Sheppard
When Allison reviewed Retrobatch from Flying Meat, it seemed like just what I needed for my sticker workflow for our iOS app, PT Sticker Shop, so I downloaded it and set up a couple of workflows on my iMac, testing the waters. I had a couple of niggles, but generally loved it. When my 2-week […]
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The Emergency Mac mini Upgrades of 2023
Last week Steve and I went to visit his parents who live about four hours away. His parents are fantastic about always staying up to date on their apps and doing all security patches on their own because, you know, “stay patched so you stay secure.” But when it comes to major macOS upgrades, we […]
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Oh, the Irony…
Last week you heard me sing the many virtues of Auphonic, the web-based tool I use to do so many wonderful things for my podcast. But things went horribly wrong last week. While I’m recording the live show, Steve always pulls images and links from my blog posts to paste into the live chat room […]
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Shottr — A Gem of a Screenshot Utility at a Surprising Price
Small details have been corrected in this article since it was originally posted. My friend Tim Verpoorten was addicted to buying speakers. My friend Victor Cajiao’s vice was buying disk drives. My addiction is to screenshot apps. It’s only been a year since I declared CleanShot X the best screenshot & annotation tool I’ve ever […]
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Impact of Adverse Conditions on EV vs. ICE Vehicle Efficiency
Allison and I have had a question for a long time about electric vehicles. The mileage you get driving an electric vehicle (EV) is highly affected by things like whether you’re driving into the wind, you’re driving up a hill, or you’re towing something. But mileage for gas-powered (internal combustion engine or ICE) vehicles doesn’t […]
Continue readingSecurity Bits — 28 May 2023
Feedback & Followups Listener and community feedback, developments in recently covered stories, and developments in long-running stories we’re tracking over time. We now know that Pegasus was used in the war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan (an un-recognized independent republic with close ties to Armenia) from 2020 to 2022, with the Armenian foreign minister’s […]
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