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ExtraBITS for 25 September 2017

In ExtraBITS this week, Apple’s upcoming AirPower charging mat won’t work with older Apple Watches, Apple increased the App Store’s cellular download limit, the length of iTunes movie rentals has doubled, and we recommend the story of how a journalist tracked down a tech support scammer.

Apple’s AirPower Charging Mat Won’t Work with Older Apple Watches — Here’s some disappointing news from MacRumors about Apple’s promised AirPower charging mat, which Apple says will wirelessly charge the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, Apple Watch Series 3, and AirPods in a special charging case. Since the Apple Watch has always used inductive charging, there was hope that older models would also work with the AirPower mat. That turns out not to be true: the AirPower mat will support only the Apple Watch Series 3. Older models will have to stick with their existing chargers.

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Apple Ups the App Store Cellular Download Limit — Ever hit a situation where you couldn’t download iOS apps because you weren’t on Wi-Fi? (We haven’t.) If that has been a problem for you in the past, it should be less so now. Apple says: “We’ve increased the cellular download limit from 100 MB to 150 MB, letting customers download more apps from the App Store over their cellular network.”

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iTunes Movie Rentals Now Last 48 Hours — Here’s a small but welcome tidbit: you now have 48 hours to finish watching an iTunes movie rental once you begin streaming it. Previously, you only had 24 hours, even though competing services usually offered 48 hours.

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Turning the Tables on a Tech Support Scammer — Bothered by the ever-increasing prevalence of tech support phone scams? When you have some time to listen, check out the Reply All podcast’s two-part “Long Distance” show. It documents host Alex Goldman’s efforts to track down the company and people behind an Indian call center that tried to scam him.

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