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Category: Networking

Adam Engst 3 comments

iCloud Private Relay Down: Here’s How to Turn It Off to Avoid Connectivity Problems

Apple’s iCloud Private Relay traffic anonymization service is down for some users, causing various connectivity problems in Safari and other apps. If you’re experiencing problems, turn off iCloud Private Relay temporarily.

Adam Engst 3 comments

Solar Inverter Connectivity Problem Reveals Weak Troubleshooting

After failing to reestablish Internet connectivity for his solar panel inverters following a spate of power outages, Adam Engst finally figured out the problem with the help of a support tech who made him break it down into its constituent parts. Read on to learn from his mistakes.

Adam Engst 12 comments

Apple Maps on the Web Appears in Beta

We may soon get better sharing of Apple Maps location links with Windows users thanks to the beta of Maps on the Web.

Adam Engst 25 comments

Why AI Web Scraping (Mostly) Doesn’t Bother Me

Despite the seemingly universal outrage about tech companies scraping the open Web to train their models, Adam Engst finds himself largely unperturbed. 

Adam Engst 2 comments

Fixing Slack for iPhone’s “Only Some People Can Post” Error

If Slack on the iPhone displays “Only some people can post.” in channels where you should have posting permissions, force-quit it to fix the problem.

Adam Engst 8 comments

Slack to Stop Storing Historical Content for Free Workspaces

Slack will be reducing its data storage needs and trying to incentivize free teams to upgrade by deleting data older than a year from free workspaces. Only the last 90 days of data is visible anyway; the change affects only those who upgrade to a paid plan and would previously have recovered all old data.

Adam Engst 6 comments

LittleBITS: Be Aware of TidBITS Server Changes

We’re starting the process of moving TidBITS servers to the Cloudways managed hosting service, so don’t worry if you see occasional hiccups in the next few weeks. 

Adam Engst 6 comments

Apple’s Wi-Fi-based Positioning System Reveals Access Point Locations

University of Maryland security researchers used a clever approach to querying Apple’s location API to determine the locations of more than two billion Wi-Fi access points worldwide. You can opt out.

Adam Engst 22 comments

Online Messaging Systems of Yesteryear

Want to wax nostalgic? This history of online messaging system is sure to trigger some memories of when the Internet was a smaller, kinder place.

Adam Engst 20 comments

Arc Search iPhone App Now Syncs Arc Sidebar Tabs

An update to the Arc Search app for the iPhone gives Arc users using macOS and Windows access to all their tabs and the ability to save pages from the iPhone to the Arc sidebar.

Glenn Fleishman 7 comments

Google Raises Privacy Bar with Its Crowdsourced Tracking Service

Google’s new Find My Device network works nearly identically to Apple’s Find My network with a few exceptions: Google’s design offers more anti-stalking and privacy features than Apple.

Adam Engst 18 comments

The Ineffable Importance of Undersea Cable Maintenance

This must-read from The Verge weaves background about the undersea fiber optic connections that make the modern Internet possible with the story of what one maintenance ship went through repairing cables in the aftermath of the 2011 undersea earthquake off the coast of Japan.

Adam Engst 16 comments

Arc Gains Instant Links, Tab Grouping, and Arc Search iPhone App

The Browser Company has been busy with its Arc Web browser, adding features to speed up searching, organize tab clutter, and more. Also new is an Arc Search app for the iPhone.

Glenn Fleishman 37 comments

Reconnect a HomeKit Accessory over a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi Network

After a network hiccup caused his HomeKit-enabled smart thermostat to lose its network connection, Glenn Fleishman had to do tweaky network reconfiguration to get it to rejoin his Home setup.

Adam Engst 15 comments

Do You Use It? Apple Services See Widely Varying Popularity

The results of our poll asking which Apple services TidBITS readers use are in, with iCloud+ proving the most popular by far, followed by a surprisingly strong showing from Apple TV+. Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness+ brought up the rear, but remember, TidBITS readers aren’t representative of the overall Apple audience.