NC_2024_12_01
This episode covers macOS alternatives like ICE, features podcasts Kilowatt and Start with Small Steps, discusses the Unmute Presents Holiday Gift Guide, and shares insights on donation platforms and a cautionary tale about online scams.
Automatic Shownotes
Chapters
NC_2024_12_01
Instead of Bartender, Learn about Ice on ScreenCastsONLINE
Kilowatt 49th Annual ThanksGiving Extravaganza
Start with Small Steps 208 - Simple Ways to Feel at Home in Any Place
2024 Unmute Holiday Gift Guide: Tech Treasures and Thoughtful Gadgets
Stripe - It was Fun While it Lasted
Titanium Milanese Loop for Apple Watch Ultra (and 49mm) – by Bart Busschots
Support the Show
Pat Dengler on Scam Experience (no blog post)
Long Summary
In this episode of the No Silicast podcast, I delve into the ever-evolving world of technology with a focus on macOS alternatives, podcast collaborations, gift guides, and a rather enlightening discussion on the complexity of online scams. I open by reflecting on the recent upheaval surrounding the sale of Bartender, which has prompted many of its users to explore alternative menu bar management solutions. I introduce ICE, an open-source donationware application for macOS, which I found to be an impressive and polished alternative suitable for users of Sonoma and above. My excitement culminates with an announcement of my latest video tutorial for ScreenCastsOnline, highlighting ICE's functionality features.
Next, I shift gears to ruminate on my admiration for Bodie Grimm's Kilowatt podcast, particularly its whimsical 49th Annual Thanksgiving Extravaganza episode. I recount the hilarious moments shared with Bodie’s daughter, Sierra, as we tackled a Jeopardy-inspired game crafted by Bodie using ChatGPT, taking the audience through the playful chaos that ensued. This experience exemplifies the fun and engaging community that electric vehicle enthusiasts have cultivated and encourages listeners to check out the Kilowatt podcast for a good laugh.
Continuing the theme of impactful storytelling, I highlight Jill from the Northwoods and her new podcast, Start with Small Steps, where she seamlessly combines self-help book narratives with personal experiences to uplift others. I share my intent to host her on an upcoming episode, adding to the excitement around her dual-format podcast and inviting listeners to explore her inspiring work.
As we approach the holiday season, I direct listeners to the Unmute Presents Holiday Gift Guide, a must-listen for anyone searching for accessible tech gifts. Joined by familiar voices, including Chris Cook and Liz Botner, this episode serves as a valuable resource for navigating the landscape of tech gifts that cater to individuals with low vision.
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to my personal journey navigating the intricacies of donation platforms. After a successful launch of an Apple Pay donation button, I encountered an abrupt closure of my Stripe account. I detail the complexity of the situation—from recognizing the challenges of being classified under restricted businesses to brainstorming alternative solutions. Eventually, I found relief with Buy Me a Coffee, detailing how this service connects effortlessly to my bank account, offering an easier way for listeners to show support without the need for complicated setups.
The episode also features a deep dive into my investment in an Apple Watch Milanese Loop band, purchased during a recent keynote. I reflect on my hesitations based on past experiences with Apple’s design, and how the new iteration, crafted from durable titanium, transformed my Apple Watch into an elegant piece of jewelry—suitable for any occasion, from casual outings to formal events.
To wrap things up, I invite my listeners to learn from the harrowing tale shared by my friend Pat, detailing an elaborate scam targeting her neighbor, Dorothy. We dissect the layers of deception that led Dorothy to believe she was engaging with legitimate entities, emphasizing the importance of vigilance and inquiry when faced with unexpected solicitations. This cautionary tale serves as a reminder to trust one’s instincts and validate sources before taking action.
Overall, this episode of No Silicast encapsulates a wealth of knowledge, community storytelling, practical tech advice, and a call for awareness in our increasingly digital lives.
Next, I shift gears to ruminate on my admiration for Bodie Grimm's Kilowatt podcast, particularly its whimsical 49th Annual Thanksgiving Extravaganza episode. I recount the hilarious moments shared with Bodie’s daughter, Sierra, as we tackled a Jeopardy-inspired game crafted by Bodie using ChatGPT, taking the audience through the playful chaos that ensued. This experience exemplifies the fun and engaging community that electric vehicle enthusiasts have cultivated and encourages listeners to check out the Kilowatt podcast for a good laugh.
Continuing the theme of impactful storytelling, I highlight Jill from the Northwoods and her new podcast, Start with Small Steps, where she seamlessly combines self-help book narratives with personal experiences to uplift others. I share my intent to host her on an upcoming episode, adding to the excitement around her dual-format podcast and inviting listeners to explore her inspiring work.
As we approach the holiday season, I direct listeners to the Unmute Presents Holiday Gift Guide, a must-listen for anyone searching for accessible tech gifts. Joined by familiar voices, including Chris Cook and Liz Botner, this episode serves as a valuable resource for navigating the landscape of tech gifts that cater to individuals with low vision.
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to my personal journey navigating the intricacies of donation platforms. After a successful launch of an Apple Pay donation button, I encountered an abrupt closure of my Stripe account. I detail the complexity of the situation—from recognizing the challenges of being classified under restricted businesses to brainstorming alternative solutions. Eventually, I found relief with Buy Me a Coffee, detailing how this service connects effortlessly to my bank account, offering an easier way for listeners to show support without the need for complicated setups.
The episode also features a deep dive into my investment in an Apple Watch Milanese Loop band, purchased during a recent keynote. I reflect on my hesitations based on past experiences with Apple’s design, and how the new iteration, crafted from durable titanium, transformed my Apple Watch into an elegant piece of jewelry—suitable for any occasion, from casual outings to formal events.
To wrap things up, I invite my listeners to learn from the harrowing tale shared by my friend Pat, detailing an elaborate scam targeting her neighbor, Dorothy. We dissect the layers of deception that led Dorothy to believe she was engaging with legitimate entities, emphasizing the importance of vigilance and inquiry when faced with unexpected solicitations. This cautionary tale serves as a reminder to trust one’s instincts and validate sources before taking action.
Overall, this episode of No Silicast encapsulates a wealth of knowledge, community storytelling, practical tech advice, and a call for awareness in our increasingly digital lives.
Brief Summary
In this episode of No Silicast, I discuss macOS alternatives, specifically highlighting ICE as a robust menu bar management solution. I celebrate Bodie Grimm's Kilowatt podcast and Jill from the Northwoods' uplifting show, Start with Small Steps. As the holidays approach, I share the Unmute Presents Holiday Gift Guide for accessible tech gifts. I recount my challenges with donation platforms, leading to a switch to Buy Me a Coffee, and reflect on my experience with an Apple Watch Milanese Loop band. The episode concludes with a cautionary tale about an elaborate online scam, stressing the importance of vigilance in our digital interactions.
Tags
No Silicast
macOS alternatives
ICE
menu bar management
Bodie Grimm
Kilowatt podcast
Start with Small Steps
Unmute Presents
Holiday Gift Guide
accessible tech gifts
donation platforms
Buy Me a Coffee
Apple Watch
Milanese Loop band
online scam
digital vigilance
Transcript
[0:00]
NC_2024_12_01
[0:00]Hi, this is Allison Sheridan of the No Silicast podcast, hosted at Podfeet.com, a technology geek podcast with an ever-so-slight Apple bias. Today is Sunday, December 1st, 2024, and this is show number 1021. Wait, wasn't it just last week when I said my voice was finally back to normal? I'm telling you, I just can't win.
[0:22]
Instead of Bartender, Learn about Ice on ScreenCastsONLINE
[0:23]The poorly communicated sale of bartender has caused many people to seek alternatives to manage their menu bar apps. While Bartender is still being developed and works as well as it ever did, you might want to consider the open-source donationware alternative called ICE for macOS Sonoma and above. I've told you about it on the podcast before, but it's why I chose ICE for my latest ScreenCastsOnline video tutorial. I have to tell you, ICE is a delightful app with polish you don't normally associate with open-source tools. Remember, before you click the link in the show notes that ScreenCastsOnline is a subscription service, but with your free seven-day trial, you can watch this episode, or this tutorial, I should say, along with all of the available back catalog.
[1:07]
Kilowatt 49th Annual ThanksGiving Extravaganza
[1:08]Now, you know Steve and I are huge fans of Bodie Grimm and his Kilowatt podcast, which is all about electric vehicles. In addition to being great at absorbing and then explaining the technology on his show, he is spectacularly goofy. If you don't believe me, you need to listen to the Kilowatt 49th Annual Thanksgiving Extravaganza. This episode featured me, Steve, and Bodie's daughter, Sierra, playing a Jeopardy-inspired game designed by Bodie and ChatGPT. Before we started, Bodhi informed us that he would appreciate infighting and hijinks. I gained true respect for Sierra in how she embraced those directions. The rules are vague, we override any semblance of order that Bodhi tries to introduce, and who wins the game is a nail-biter to the very end. You can find the Killawatt podcast in your podcatcher of choice, or follow the link in the show notes to get right to the 49th annual Thanksgiving extravaganza. I believe you'll be entertained and amused.
[2:07]
Start with Small Steps 208 - Simple Ways to Feel at Home in Any Place
[2:07]I'm not just a fan of things that Bodie Grimm does. I'm a huge fan of everything Jill from the Northwoods creates. She's recently started to create her wonderful Start with Small Steps podcast as both a video and audio podcast. She'll be on an upcoming episode of the NosillaCast where she explains the tools she's using to streamline this process and create both at the same time. It's really, really interesting. In the meantime, I want you to check out her new video format at the link in the show notes. If you haven't heard Starts With Small Steps before, I'd call it a motivational channel where she reads books on self-help and then explains how she's used what she's learned to give you maybe some ideas of how you can use the things that she talks about to help improve your life. It's a very happy, joyful, and wonderful show in general, but look for Start With Small Steps 208, Simple Ways to Feel at Home in Any Place, and of course, there's a link in the show notes.
[3:05]
2024 Unmute Holiday Gift Guide: Tech Treasures and Thoughtful Gadgets
[3:05]If you're looking for some holiday gifts that are even guaranteed to be accessible to those with low vision, check out the Unmute Presents Holiday Gift Guide. Michael Babcock and Marty Sobo are joined by our good friend of the show, Chris Cook, and Liz Botner to talk about accessible tech gifts and play contributions by internet superstars such as myself. You can find Unmute Presents in your podcatcher of choice, and then look for the episode called 2024 Unmute Holiday Gift Guide, Tech Treasures and Thoughtful Gadgets. Or, of course, as I said, you can follow the link in the show notes.
[3:42]
Stripe - It was Fun While it Lasted
[3:43]Remember last week when I told you a long and happy story about adding a new way to donate to support the shows of the Podfeet podcast? Paul Nealon had mentioned that having to create an account to either use Patreon or PayPal was just enough friction to keep him from donating for a long time. He said that if I'd had an Apple Pay button, he would have done it long before. The happy story was how he created a Stripe account, which let me do exactly that. It was wildly successful, with a lot of donations flowing in just during the first 24 hours after I announced my fancy new podfeet.com slash donate page. I basked in the joy of the generosity of others throughout Monday. And then on Tuesday, I got an email from Stripe entitled, Closure of your Stripe account for Podfeet Podcasts. Yep. The message said, We're writing to let you know that we have determined that your business, Podfeet Podcasts, is in violation of the Stripe Services Agreement. Specifically, we are unable to accept payments for donations to unregistered charities, as mentioned in our restricted businesses list. As a result, we will have to close your Stripe account on December 26, 2024.
[4:50]I couldn't believe it. I used the provided link immediately to explain that I wasn't trying to say I was a charity and that I fully expected to pay taxes on this income. A few hours later, I got a response that said, Unfortunately, following an additional review of your account, we're still unable to support your business as it falls under one of our restricted business categories. I read all of the terms and conditions I could find, and nowhere could I find any restrictions I'd violated. I asked ChatGPT for help, and it gave me a link that talked about donations. And in there, it repeated what they've been trying to explain to me. Donations are the same thing as charity. I thought it was worth one more try. So I wrote a new email in which I asked them how I could use their services. I told them I didn't run ads and how I've been using PayPal for one-time donations. And maybe there was some different distinction I could be under that would let me give Stripe money instead of PayPal. Again, they responded very quickly. Thank you for providing additional information about your business. Unfortunately, following an additional review of your account, we're still unable to support your business as it falls under one of our restricted business categories. And that's processing where there are no bona fide goods or services sold or donations accepted. We're sorry, we can't be of more help, but these restrictions are firm. Now, I think what they mean is that a voluntary donation to a podcast isn't considered a bona fide goods or services sold.
[6:16]I'm not holding anything back from you. if you don't pay, so I'm not really selling you anything. I suspect that maybe if I'd set this up as a premium podcast and I was giving you restricted content, it might have worked, but I don't want to do that. I went to sleep very sad on Tuesday night.
[6:34]But in the middle of the night, I had an epiphany. Stripe isn't the only game in town. What about one of those, you know, tip jar type services? I went back to sleep and a bit later I woke up again with a whole new epiphany. I have seen and donated to people via something called Buy Me a Coffee. This service is widely used for shareware software, which is a bona fide good, but they never really connect the two. It's more like after the bell person brings you your luggage and they make it obvious that, well, if you dropped a few dollars in their palm, they wouldn't sneer at you. When I was fully awake, I went to buymeacoffee.com and I created an account. It asked to connect to my bank so it could pay me, and it opened to a Stripe login. My first thought that I'd hit another brick wall, but I kept going. It fed me into a different section of Stripe.com called Stripe Express, and it was branded with Buy Me a Coffee. From what I can tell, I have two different accounts in Stripe now, both under the same login credentials one from my soon-to-be-canceled PodFeed podcast account and one to my Stripe Express account through BuyMeACoffee.
[7:38]Before going much further, I did a preemptive strike and I wrote back in my original thread to my incredibly responsive friends at Stripe. I said, I'm setting up an account at BuyMeACoffee but it says they use Stripe for payment processing. Can I assume that Stripe won't block me from using BuyMeACoffee? In a much wordier answer than the other folks who'd succinctly just said nope, Simran, amongst a lot of other information, said, I see that you have another Stripe Express connected to BuyMeACoffee. This account is active and set to receive payments and payouts. You can use this account to collect payments from your customers. Additionally, I would also like to inform you that currently your Express account doesn't require any further verification.
[8:19]Now, they didn't technically answer my question, but I figured it was worth a shot to keep going. In Buy Me A Coffee, they asked for a banner image, so I supplied one that has chit-chat across the pond, programming by stealth, no silica, and taming the terminal logos on it. Technically, when I first did it, it said chit-chat across the pond light, but I've gone back in there and fixed that branding.
[8:40]Anyway, it basically just gives you an idea of a pile of podcasts. They also asked for an avatar, but my pod feet didn't fit nicely in the circle provided, so I used a photo my grandson Forbes took of me. Believe it or not, That's all I had to do on Buy Me A Coffee to get the page up and connected to Stripe. Just like before, if you're using Safari, you will see an Apple Pay logo and an option to pay with any credit card. If you use Link, you can autofill your credit card as well. As I explained last week, very sadly, non-Safari browsers don't show the Apple Pay option. I didn't have to do any work at all to have these options available for you. They're just there. I think that's what they mean by the Express part of Stripe Express. It's just sort of auto set up.
[9:24]Now, let's talk about how smart I am. Remember last week when I said I wanted to use podfee.com slash donate as the URL instead of podfee.com slash Stripe just in case I ever wanted to change my payment processor? Well, that disservice ensured became useful much sooner than I expected. I went back to DigitalOcean, my service provider, logged into my console, opened my Nginx configuration file, changed the redirect of podfee.com slash donate from Stripe over to buymeacoffee.com slash podfeet. I reloaded the Nginx web server and now my donate link goes right to buymeacoffee, the donation page there, instead of Stripe. I just feel so brilliant for doing it that way. Now here's a little more info on buymeacoffee. From your perspective, while you do get to choose how much to donate, it's in the number of $5 coffees you want to buy me. Now you might want to think $5 is a lot for coffee, and it is, but that is just about what my grande, non-fat, no-whip, no-foam, 180-degree mocha costs over at Starbucks.
[10:24]You won't be able to donate $38 or $27, but I don't think anyone's ever done anything but a multiple of $5 anyway. Well, actually, I think somebody gave $12 last week, so I'm kind of off on that, but you're going to have to be in $5 increments. Now, it defaults to one cup and has options for three or five cups, but you can type in any number of cups you want to donate. Then it suggests you say something nice and add your name or social handle. I think that's sweet. On the flip side, having Buy Me A Coffee and Stripe involved means the financial cut is taken by two companies instead of just one. I still have to pay the 2.9% plus 30 cents to Stripe, and Buy Me A Coffee takes another 5%. That's pretty steep. In US dollars, it means $20 turns into $18.12. You know what though? That's still great because everyone who didn't want to open in an account at all has an easy way now to use Apple Pay or any credit card they want. Now of the three services, the best deal for me is still Patreon because I got in on it before 2019, so I'm considered a founder.
[11:30]Founders only pay 1.6% plus 30 cents. Now the next best deal for me is PayPal at 2.99% and then Buy Me A Coffee, which is at 7.9% plus 30 cents. I don't mean to discourage you from using the new shiny Buy Me A Coffee option if you don't want to create an account. I'm just saying if you already have a PayPal or Patreon account, it's okay buy me if you want to keep using it, especially those Patreon accounts. Now there's one more great thing about buy me a coffee. They have a very obvious toggle in the interface to let people see the donation amounts in their own currency. I had Steven Getz in Canada check and he confirmed that he can see it in Canadian dollars rather than US. Now I need Tom Maddock to verify that the interface is accessible without actually donating this time. He checked out the Stripe one to make sure it was accessible for me, but he doesn't need to donate to prove that it's accessible.
[12:23]The bottom line is, I had a sad couple of days after such a great victory, but now I'm happy again since I found a really good solution. Fingers crossed that Stripe stands by what they told me and leaves my Buy Me a Coffee account alone. And of course, I'm patting myself on the back for my brilliance and naming the URL generically to potfee.com slash donate. And one more thing about the change from Stripe to Buy Me a Coffee. After Ian Prinzen made a donation via Stripe, I wrote to him to discuss one thing that gave me pause about the service. I could see his home address. In fact, the physical address for every kind donor is in the database in Stripe. I don't want access to that kind of information. I was asking him if he thought that was an intrusion on your privacy right around the time I got the notification from Stripe that they were canceling my account.
[13:12]I'm happy to note that Klaus Wolff donated to the podcast using my new buy me a coffee method, and I just checked. The supporter page I can see gives me no personal information about him other than the email address he provided. He was kind enough to add a little note where it says, where it says, say something nice, and he added his social media handle. So I see that, and the little note does show on the main page at podfee.com slash donate under recent supporters, so you can see it too. The other thing is, he donated in euro, and his euro turned into dollars to me, and I actually got more than a $5 coffee because of the exchange rate. In any case, I'm glad to be using Buy Me A Coffee, so I'm not responsible for knowing anything about you that you didn't choose to share with me.
[14:02]
Titanium Milanese Loop for Apple Watch Ultra (and 49mm) – by Bart Busschots
[14:02]Hi folks, Bart here with a little solo review, where it's possible I may need to apologize for spending a little bit too much of your money, Yeah. Anyway, let's get stuck in. I'm going to set the scene a little bit here and say that it's probably fair to say I'm not shy about buying Apple Watch bands. Alright, last count, I believe the answer was 30. And I don't own any watch bands anymore that I don't use. I give them away when I realize I'm not using them. And I've also reviewed quite a few of them on the Nostilicast over the years. Now, the fact that Apple haven't changed the size of the lug, for me anyway, since my Apple Watch Series Zero, because I've always bought the bigger size watch of the two, which they've changed the name of that size many times, but anyway, it's had the same size of lug. And the Apple Watch Ultra that I'm wearing at the moment also shares the same size of lug as the original Series Zero big version.
[15:00]So every watch i've ever every strap i've ever bought still works with my current watch which is kind of cool which is also why i have 30 of them to some extent but also i just like buying them because really when it comes to my fashion sense my tastes are spectacularly simple when it comes to the more traditional stuff like clothes and shoes and i'm not spending any significant amount of money whatsoever on clothes or shoes but i do push the boat out a bit in terms of me watch bands. I basically consider having the perfect band for every situation and every colour combination to be something I take pride in and for the holidays I love to have something silly and childish because it is guaranteed to be noticed by kids and to bring a smile to their face. The adults are completely oblivious to the fact that I have a Minnie Mouse Christmas watch strap on despite being a grown man but the kids absolutely totally and utterly notice it. you know, at Halloween when I have my.
[15:59]You know, appropriate Halloween ones on people, you know, only the kids notice too. Anyway, like I say, I like buying watch bands. I've told you about them many times. So you might think I spend an absolute fortune on watch bands. But of those 30 straps, the vast, vast majority of them actually aren't that expensive. Because I tend to steer clear of the Apple-owned brand ones, with the exception of the sports loops and stuff, which come in at about €50. Euro and actually of my very favorite bands very very few of them cost more than 50 euro and a lot of them are between 20 and 25 euro every now and then i'll push the boat out with a nice official band from apple i think i spent 129 dollars on one of the leather ones once and i have a feeling i spent a little bit more than the usual 50 on some of my apple watch ultra bands because they tend to be a little bit expensive but on the whole I actually don't spend a lot on watch bands.
[17:00]So I rather surprised myself after watching Apple's most recent keynote that I have completely and a that I bought the thing and b that I have completely totally and utterly fallen in love with Apple's rethink of the classical Milanese loop designed for the Apple Watch Ultra because I'll be honest the 219 euro price tag generally speaking would have scared me off in the past but because this was the first year in as long as I can remember that neither myself nor the better half needed either a new iPhone or a new Apple Watch I was able to sort of mentally justify to myself well normally at this time of year you're buying at least one smartphone or smartwatch which means you're spending at least 500 euro so only spending 219 euro why you're saving a fortune this is very intelligent of you bargey being really frugal no i'm spending 219 euro on an apple watch strap but hey you know what everyone does what everyone tells oneself to help one feel better as one balances the books so be it anyway i bought it i bought it in natural as opposed to in black because my Apple Watch Ultra is last year's model. I think it's the Ultra 2 though. By the way, it's in natural titanium, not in the new black they just announced this year. So I bought the natural titanium colored version of the Milanese Loop.
[18:29]Now, this is not the first time Apple have sold a Milanese loop. In fact, if memory serves, Milanese loop was one of the original handful of options with the very first Apple Watch Series Zero.
[18:44]And they didn't really have much to choose from back then, but the Milanese loop was right there from the start. And to be blunt, and I was never interested in that strap at all, it was a lot more money than the sports band. I don't remember how much more, but I remember looking at it going, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. It also looked rather delicate and fragile. The very, very fine links looked very delicate. And it just didn't fit my fashion sense. You know, the infinitely adjustable nature of the magnetic closure definitely piqued my interest. I liked that idea of a magnetic closure that was infinitely adjustable. But when I started getting feedback from friends and family who did buy them, I soon discovered that no actually the infinite adjustable isn't great because the magnet isn't strong enough and the darn things won't stay put in fact one of those unhappy friends is a certain Alison Sheridan who you folks may have heard of, and her experience of the Milanese loop really wasn't great to the point that when I said I'd bought a new Milanese loop I got a very very very raised eyebrow on the Zoom call.
[19:49]And a quizzical look I was like, are you nuts? I think I don't think it was said out loud, but that's certainly what I heard. It's are you nuts? Anyway, this new design is a completely different beast. It is a Milanese loop in the sense that it's basically teeny, teeny, tiny chainmail, but it's made of titanium. And so it doesn't feel weak or fragile. It feels, It's engineered to perfection to the point that it's almost impossible to believe these are separate pieces of metal and not a single flowing metal cloth.
[20:23]It's also quite light because it's titanium. But like the Apple Watch Ultra itself, it feels robust. You are not in any fear of damaging this thing. Nothing about it makes you think, oh, I could hurt this. It feels so robust and it looks so exquisitely engineered. I mean it looked good in the keynote which is why I chanced buying it for 219 euro.
[20:49]And I thought it looked great in the keynote but actually in in the flesh I don't know if metal has a flesh but in the physical world it is even nicer than I looked on the screen when Apple gave it all the best possible lighting and did everything they could to make you know to jazz it up as they do in a keynote but you know something in the real world it's even nicer the, tolerances of each of those teeny tiny little links is astonishing. It really does feel like a ribbon of metal that flows as opposed to what it really is, which is an extremely elaborate three-dimensional chain. The keynote only showed the black variant, but it is available in the natural titanium. And I think the natural titanium looks absolutely gorgeous. And of course, it matches perfectly with the Apple Watch Ultra and Natural Titanium. And for the first time in a very long time, my phone actually matches because I didn't buy a new phone. So last year's Natural Titanium iPhone also matches perfectly with the Apple Watch Ultra and the band.
[21:54]So the really cool thing is that by adding this very nice Milanese loop to the Apple Watch Ultra, which is on its own, and particularly with the other straps that tend to come with it, it looks utilitarian, it looks outdoorsy, it looks adventure-y, which 99.9% of the time is exactly the look I kind of like. You know, I am quite an active person, I am quite a sporty person, so a watch that looks sporty and active doesn't feel wrong on my arm. In fact, I, you know, I kind of like that look. And a lot of the watches, the watch straps I buy really play into that. They're big, chunky, playful, and or practical looking straps. But as soon as I slid this Milanese Lupin, the watch transformed. It's the same watch, but it now transformed into an elegant timepiece that would look perfectly fine, paired with the finest tuxedo. To be honest, it looks like the kind of watch James Bond that wear to impress. It is just amazing how it transforms this utilitarian, outdoorsy device into an elegant timepiece. It really is very pleasing how it does that, and that was what I was hoping it would do, and it does. Getting practical then. So, I've already mentioned the magnetic closure really wasn't great. Wow.
[23:21]That's been redesigned. Actually, I've just realized I need to get even more practical and say that.
[23:28]Unfortunately, this, like everything else that Apple makes for the Apple Watch Ultra, it is only available in one size of lug. It is only available in the size of lug that is on the Apple Watch Ultra, which is the size of lug on the bigger of the two of every generation of Apple Watch. So if you have been buying non-Ultra watches of the smaller size, I am afraid there is no new Milanese Loop available for you. But if you have any bigger watch of the two sizes from any era it will work just fine I checked this by sticking it on my blue series 7 um and it did actually it worked um it looked a bit odd having the natural titanium but actually I think it works better on a an opinionated watch like a blue or a red one than it would on the silver colored one because the silver is just not quite the right color for titanium and so I think that would actually look worse to have sort of the brushed aluminium next to the titanium would probably look pretty bad whereas the titanium on blue or the titanium on red actually works grand actually looks quite nice.
[24:38]Okay so the second practical point is so that closure was absolutely terrible on the original melanese loop have apple done better on this one well they've completely redesigned it it is this how the strap works is a hundred percent different to the original melanese loop it's not a loop with a magnet and the magnet sticking to itself it is it is a loop um so you do end up making it longer sliding your arm through it and then tightening it onto your wrist um it is infinitely adjustable but you can lock the adjustment so you infinitely adjust it once and then you use a quick release to open it slide it on or off your arm and then you can quickly you know pull the loop tight and clip in the attachment so apple have called this attachment the parachute clasp and what you need to imagine is it's a two-part piece of metal one part receives the end of the loop and the other part is around the watch strap and there's a little sort of a little switch that you can flick up and when you flick it up the metal attachment is free to move along the Apple Watch app.
[26:03]So you put this, you put it where you need it to be and then you push it down to lock it in place and then the end of the loop just clips in.
[26:11]And so basically you unclip it and the watch is as big as possible. Then you put it over your arm, you pull it tight and then you dock into the little docking thing and you are locked. And the parachute clasp has two little parallel buttons on each side and you don't only push them. You push and pull back, which is actually the natural gesture to do because you basically push and pull apart.
[26:35]And only if you push and pull will it come loose. So if you are exercising or doing anything, you're not going to do this by accident. This mechanism is not going to trigger by accident. And yet, because it's pushed together and pulled back, it's completely natural when you really genuinely want to take the watch off.
[26:52]So I have found it to be an extremely clever design. I have zero doubt that this, or I have zero worry that this is going to come off when it shouldn't. And I have zero faffing about when I genuinely want it to come off. So I am really happy to have infinite adjustability which I've always liked with the Velcro bands but infinite adjustability with a memory so I basically set it once I don't have to worry about it it is extremely nice so the bottom line is I don't ever remember spending well no not you I don't remember I have never spent this much money on an Apple watch band but I'm really happy I did I do not regret this investment at all I have now turned you know my watch into an elegantly engineered piece of jewelry it is absolutely gorgeous I could wear it to a gala dinner I can wear it to a meeting and because it is titanium it doesn't mind getting wet so I have also worn it without exercising and stuff and it works just as well out there so it the same strap is as at home when I'm out getting a walk, when I'm on the bike, when I'm doing housework, when I'm just in work, or in the world's fanciest gala dinner. It's at home everywhere.
[28:06]It's kind of amazing that OneStrap can do all of that. So like I say, I actually consider it to be value for money given the high quality. It's not cheap, but it is good value in my opinion for what you get for your money.
[28:24]
Support the Show
[28:24]This week's list of heroes is long because of the new donation methods. In one week, donations came in from David and Lynn and Paul a second time, and Hans and Tom and John and Dave and Frank and Ian through Stripe, and then Klaus through Buy Me a Coffee. Oh, and Kevin wanted to play too, but he didn't understand the new assignment, and he used PayPal. Bless his heart. Well, how awesome are all of these people? If you'd like to be nifty like them, you know where to go, podfee.com slash donate, to use Apple Pay or any credit card of your choosing.
[28:59]
Pat Dengler on Scam Experience (no blog post)
[28:59]You've all heard me mention before our good friend, Pat Dangler, who's a certified Apple consultant. I'm always telling stories about things she helped me with. Well, I've asked her to come on the show to tell us a story of something that happened to her friend and neighbor, Dorothy. Welcome back to the show, Pat. Hi, how are you? I'm doing good. So I've talked to you shortly after this incident, I think within an hour, or maybe it was right immediately after, but this is a pretty scary story you had to tell. So you're hanging out at your house, you were doing something, and you got a phone call. No, actually, my driveway is between Dorothy's house and my house. And so I was outside, she popped her head in the window and she said, I need your help. And I think she might have spent some time, I need your help sending and texting an image. And I said, okay. So I walked around and met her at the front door. I think you said, can I go change my clothes first or something like that? And she was like, no, now. Yeah. Oh, and I put my shoes on because I think I just had like slippers on and I'd come outside to check on the cat really quickly. So it, You know, it wasn't meant to be a longer thing. And she said, sure, but just come now. I was like, okay. All right.
[30:22]So I met her at the front door and in a quiet voice, she said, I'm not supposed to tell anybody. You're not supposed to be here, but I need you to help me send a picture of my driver's license to the IRS. And right away I said, Dorothy, it's not real. It's bogus. And she assured me she was very dead serious. She said, no, no, no. It's absolutely, it's 100%. It's the IRS. So I thought, all right, I'm going to give her the benefit of, you know, she's clearly been dealing with somebody on the phone. Maybe she called them. I don't know. So I walk in and she's got her iPhone, which I think is an XR maybe, something like that's an older iPhone, but she's got it connected to the bathroom outlet because she's trying to charge it at the same time. She doesn't use her phone very much, her iPhone.
[31:17]And part of my curiosity with this was also because I know that she knows how to text pictures because I've showed her before and she's done it successfully. But she was she had an existing text message chain text message with someone and she couldn't connect, texting the picture from her camera the camera app into that message she could initiate a new message but then she didn't have that person's phone and blah blah so so that's where she kind of got stuck and I was looking at it and I saw the phone number and while she was playing with it you know before she kind of let me in to to do it um yeah I tried to look up the number and it came to some very vague Maryland number okay and uh I could hear somebody in the background on the speakerphone starting to get insistent like can't you send me the you know the message blah blah And I thought, he's got the wrong attitude. If he's really from the IRS and if he's really trying to help her, he's being pushy. He had a small accent, not very much. So he spoke English very well, but he did have a slight accent. And I told Dorothy, I said, just hang up. And she did. She immediately, she went, she hung up the phone.
[32:38]And I said, this does not, you know, when the phone was disconnected, I said, yeah, I told her, I said, this does not sound right. And this, by the way, was about three in the afternoon And that's important because she started to tell me the story that it started at around 8 a.m She gets a phone call.
[32:58]And it's from Amazon telling, now I'm going to do air quotes on these, which I know nobody can see. But whenever I say a name brand or an agency brand, they're air quotes. All right. So Amazon's calling her to tell her that the $1,000 charge for the laptop that she ordered to be shipped somewhere back East did not go through. Now, hang on. It wasn't just $1,000. It was $1,279. So a very specific amount so it was it was a laptop being charged to account the the laptop that she had ordered to be shipped to new york and but it hadn't gone through somewhere yeah and and correct and who was it uh do we know the name of the rep uh from amazon, uh in this case yes yeah she because that so so i'm telling you the story but i i went back later with her in the evening to to get all of the details okay um so yeah her rep emily johnson okay uh called called her and and said you know that the charge didn't go through and of course dorothy says i didn't order a laptop this this is not correct and so emily very helpfully says well um who is your credit card through which bank.
[34:19]Dorothy answered Wells Fargo. And she said, okay, I'm going to transfer you to Wells Fargo because this is clearly fraud and you need to check your bank. So she transfers her to Elena Brown at Wells Fargo. Air quotes remember air quotes yeah um and then elena determined that yes this was indeed fraud and i need to transfer you to the feds because they did apparently use her social security number i'm not sure how this came into the conversation how this came up but there you go i don't remember putting my social security number into amazon when i purchased things but okay yeah all right this is what they told her all right so she transferred her to neil at the federal trade commission and he gave her his id number ftc number 10253 and um and we have the phone number and neil was going to run a hold check because he noticed and and by the way he repeated her full social security number to her she did not initiate giving that to anyone Wow. So this is, I think, part of the reason why she was convinced that this was legitimate is because, okay, maybe they could have the last four digits of her social, but they shouldn't have her full social.
[35:42]Yeah. So he asked her in part of the conversation, where do you bank? And she listed off the various banks. She's a teacher's credit union, and I think she's also at Chase and at Wells Fargo. And uh And he said he did a search and found that someone was taking out $67,000 a week against her social security number. This was the words that she used to tell me the story. Okay. From those bank accounts. Okay. Yeah, from some or some bank account somewhere. And what they need to do is run an investigation and they need to prove that Dorothy is not responsible for this.
[36:33]And in order to do that, oh, and there's some sort of section number that he quoted, 19A, regarding money laundering. And so that she needs to freeze or suspend her banks and prove that she's not responsible and that she needs to get a new social security number and what is going to happen is a federal trade commission officer is going to come to her house and um uh we'll have some forms for her to fill out some questions uh and then ultimately what they're going to do is they're going to go in front of a judge and prove that this isn't her. And part of this process is they need her to go to all of her banks and withdraw $25,000.
[37:23]In cash. From all of her banks in cash. Just, I want to stop you for a second. This is incredibly elaborate. We have somebody pretending to be Amazon, somebody pretending to be Wells Fargo, somebody pretending to be the FTC, somebody pretending to be the uh uh the f yeah oh sorry the ftc this is the treasury department yeah wait so wait we got we're going to go to the treasury department next yeah and then and then there's the irs is going to get involved an attorney at the irs specifically this is apparently Apparently.
[37:55]She apparently then left the house, went to Chase and, you know, withdrew $25,000. And at Chase, they did have the manager come over and talk to her and say, listen, we're not really sure that this is legitimate. Oh, let me just preface. When they told her to go to the bank and take out the cash, they said, don't tell them what it's for. Just make up a story like it's for you know you're you're doing a renovation or you're doing landscaping or something and you need to pay in cash so she did that she goes to she goes to the bank and the manager came over and she said no no i i need the cash this is you know it's legitimate this is what i you know i need and the the bank manager emphasized just so you know if this is fraud, you are not protected. You will not get this money back. And she told him, I get it. And she got her $25,000. And then she went to one of her other banks. I want to say it might have been the credit union. And at the credit union, they actually said, the most we're going to let you take out is $5,000. So they did limit her there.
[39:10]And my understanding is after she went to those two banks, she came home. And, uh, she either, she called them back or they called her back and they said, okay, what we need now is a photograph of your driver's license sitting next to the cash.
[39:27]So that was the picture that she was trying to text to this phone number. And this is where she got stuck. Now, I, when I first looked at, you know, this whole, um, situation, the picture that she was trying to text, I thought, boy, it's a really lousy picture of her driver's license. because it was small in the picture, but it didn't register what anything else was. You weren't noticing the cash in the photo? It was really small. It was on the phone, right? But after we hung up, this is when she walked me over to her kitchen counter, which is where she had the cash laid out and her driver's license there. And I realized, oh, this is what she was trying to text them. So I'm glad we stopped it at that point. Thank goodness she didn't know how to send the text message. That's a hundred and she does know how to send a photo over text she's done it millions of times with her family because i've shown her how to do it yeah but it was the like replying to an existing because they right they weren't in her address book yeah that phone number she wasn't initiating it from photos she had gotten and share she was starting from messages trying to reach back and get a photo and didn't know how to do that don't teach her so yeah yeah that's Yeah, I haven't taught her.
[40:41]So, of course, by the way, the instant that I had her hang up on whoever was on the phone with her, the phone just kept ringing and ringing. They were calling back. I think you've skipped a step here. Okay. Let's see. I'm looking at Pat's notes.
[40:58]So, let's see. The Federal Trade Commission officer said they'll come to her house. You talked about that part. Oh, yeah. And he called back, and now it's gone to the U.S. Treasury Department, and an attorney is going to take over, and the call was transferred.
[41:12]So the coming to her house part was after she sent them the text with her ID, which obviously was going to have her address on there, and then they were going to send somebody. But your note said it went to the U.S. Treasury Department and an attorney was going to take over and the call was transferred. We have yet another person, Alvaro. Yeah, and this was the person who was going to, he's running the investigation now, and he's the one that's verifying about the assets in all of her accounts, and part of this was he was going to get the cash in order. He's the one that directed her to send the cash, okay. Yes. And his ID number is PN1156. I mean, every single person's making this sound so freaking legitimate. Yeah, and the great thing is she took notes. I mean, you know, when she does this, when she's on the phone with whoever she's asking for help with, she takes really good detailed notes about who she's talking to and so on. Now, I will say that when I went back and I had her tell me the story from top to bottom, probably three different times in the story, she looked at me and shook her head and she said, I should have known this was bogus right here, you know, at this point. I hope you made her feel not stupid. Oh, completely. You know, I, I told her, I said, this is, and, and, and this is what I tell everybody. Because I get a lot of calls from clients who says, I think I've been hacked.
[42:39]Probably not. More than likely, if anybody is getting access to your accounts, it's using something called, oh my God, it just escaped me. Social engineering. Yeah, social engineering for phishing. Yeah, it's a person who has convinced you to give them some of your information in some way, whether that's a password to an email account. Right, it's not what we see in the movies, you know, where somebody's sitting in a van with a computer. And they're, I mean, now, and I've turned off the security cameras. That's very rare. Yeah. So, you know, I told her, I said, look, this is, you know, it happens to everybody. And honestly, in my experience, it happens to my most educated clients. Oh, I see. The ones who have the PhDs. It's the weirdest thing. I don't know if it's their, the level of, you know, being able to sniff out bogusness is not as good or something. I don't know what that is, but that's just my little observation.
[43:47]So, the good news is that years ago. They were going to send a lawyer to her front door, and she was going to hand them the cash. Right. That was the, you know, what was going to happen. Now, I am pretty sure I've seen a news report on this, and I don't know if it was 60 Minutes or Nightline or one of these news reporting things where they actually arrested the person who came to the door who was more on the level of an Uber driver that was sent to pick up something, and they may not have known what it was. Okay. So I don't know if this is how this would have played out or, you know, some actor would have come or somebody pretending to be somebody official would have come to pick up the cash from her. But, yeah, so it ended well, thankfully, because as soon as I left her, she got in her car and went back to the bank and deposited the money.
[44:47]Now, a follow-up with Chase, with the bank, they, on their own, called the Los Angeles County of...
[44:56]Something in aging and it's people who deal with elder abuse oh and that person called her came to the house once she wasn't home the second time he arrived i happened to be there um i was just leaving i was standing on her front porch with her and he shows up and he has an id you know which i of course was extremely yeah right right yeah i'm like uh-huh i bet you are um but he was really nice yeah he offered to uh help her file a police report and um he wanted to be assured that no that she didn't actually lose any money and uh you know and that sort of thing so he was um that whole thing was initiated by the bank which i'm really proud about yeah for that and and i like that they tried really hard to help her not be uh trusting yes i almost said stupid exactly and that's not Not the right word, trusting. No, yeah, it's really that sort of, you know, that false sense of trust in there that somebody convinced in her. And, you know, she retired from her work life as an assistant principal, so she's not a dumb person. She's traveled the world. She's taken many over. You know, I've known Dorothy since I was seven when we moved in the house next door.
[46:17]And over those years, she's traveled a lot. she's not dumb by any stretch of the imagination. But it's an emotional thing when somebody is convincing you that you may be at risk of having to go to jail if we don't prove that you didn't do all this.
[46:39]So it's definitely unfortunate that this keeps happening because clearly they must have a certain amount of success if they have enough people to get involved and do this kind of a five separate representatives faking five separate organizations i think what the reason i was really interested in having you on about this is because it's almost like we have to just keep reminding ourselves that this is out there and this can happen yeah and i've told this story many times since it happened. Pretty much every client that week had me sit down and tell them the story. And of course their first reaction, well, that would never happen to me. But you know, you can't think that because it may be in a slightly less obvious form.
[47:31]We all get emails, this is an invoice of $400 to PayPal that you need to pay for for this service that you bought. I mean i'm i'm getting those probably once a week yeah yeah and you know i got caught i also get them from clients i got caught up twice on the same one it was a a plugin that i used to use for wordpress and i didn't even use it anymore but i was like i use so many different things that i've got and i was like oh let me click through this link and luckily it didn't work but i fell for it twice two years in a row it's like oh geez you know i i have clients that send me these emails. And I always tell them, please do. I mean, I'm not going to charge you for this. Just send them to me and ask me if I think that they're legitimate or not. And I've got another client whose email service, her company's email service is through a vendor.
[48:25]And the email came from that vendor saying, click here, you need to update all your passwords because if you don't, your email is going to stop working in the next month. And it was not legitimate. If you look at the who it's actually from if you hover over it and see the yeah and and but the email looked authentic it had their logo and you know the wording seemed correct it had a button on there to click and with ai the uh all those emails look a lot better than they used to used to be able to spot them a mile away because they were misspelled and they had all these goofy characters in them and everything emojis yeah they get the subject line yeah they're getting better and better i i think the two things that I like to keep in mind on this is one is all of these breaches we hear about you don't immediately get hacked but the the amount of information that exists about you the fact that they had her social security number well of course they did that's been hacked from somewhere I mean mine happened to be the federal government who gave it away accidentally and but there's.
[49:30]A treasure trove of information. I mean, I'm sure they know my kid's name, where my kids live, you know, my grandkids' names, my dog's name. Your maiden name. My maiden name, yeah. Well, again, the government gave that one away. But the wealth of information that's available that they could make you think they know they're coming from a place of authority because they have this information is vast. And the only thing you can do is never trust anything. Initiate everything on your own. Had she thought to say, wait a minute, $67,000 a week is being pulled out of my accounts. I should be able to log into my accounts actively on my own and see what my balance is. And if it's negative now, $67,000 a week. I don't know if Dorothy's heir to the Hearst Foundation money wouldn't notice that.
[50:18]I think in that case, it was that they had used her social security number to open up a line of credit at a different bank or something that she didn't have control over. Ah, okay. Of course. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, this is a good story to keep telling. And I think, you know, we had Ed on to talk about his sister-in-law and how she's been scammed and is continuing to be scammed to this day because she is convinced that that gentleman that writes to her is her boyfriend.
[50:48]And telling these stories over and over again helps us keep it front of mind, you know, so that whenever we're talking to somebody. I'm so happy with Steve's parents. The minute anything looks even the teeniest, tiniest bit weird on screen, they pick up the phone. And they always say, oh, sorry to bother you. No, keep bothering me. Keep bothering me. And their spidey sense is really good now. They spot all kinds of weird stuff. So telling these stories is important. And I appreciate you coming on to tell us about it. Oh, sure. Sure. Anytime. All right. Well, if you're in the Los Angeles area, you should contact me if you need someone who is intelligent, resourceful, educated on everything about Apple stuff and networking, and will not make you feel stupid, which, by the way, I always tell people that's your superpower, especially with female clients. I don't want to diss all men or anything, but there are times when men will maybe be a little dismissive, perhaps, in talking to some women. Pat is the person you want to call. Whether you're male or female, if you're in the LA area, you should definitely contact me to get a hold of her unless you want to give out contact information directly pat sure you can reach me by email at pat at dengler consulting and it's d-e-n as in denmark g-l-e-r consulting.com uh anything else if you really need my phone number you can get that from allison and uh just send me 1,279 and i'll send that to you all right thanks for your credit card.
[52:12]Yeah all right thanks for coming on on the show pat thanks for having me well that's going to wind us up for this week did you know you can email me at alison at potfi.com anytime you like i bet you knew that but you can always send a question or a suggestion right to that email remember everything good starts with potfi.com you can follow me on mastodon potfi.com slash mastodon if you want to listen to the podcast on youtube with nothing interesting going on you can go to podfeet.com slash YouTube. If you want to join the conversation, you can join our Slack community at podfeet.com slash Slack, where you can talk to me and all of the other lovely Nosilla castaways. You can support the show at podfeet.com slash Patreon, or with a one-time donation at podfeet.com slash PayPal, or podfeet.com slash donate. And if you want to join in the fun of the live show, head on over to podfeet.com slash live on Sunday nights.
[53:04]Music.