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Category: Tech News

Josh Centers 3 comments

Walmart.com Listed Fake 30 TB SSDs For Sale

A security researcher discovered a 30 TB SSD on Walmart’s website for under $18. He bought one and cracked it open to learn just how it was too good to be true.

Adam Engst 1 comment

Free Two-Month Membership in Online NMUG Mac User Group

One of the most vibrant Mac user groups in the world is the Naples MacFriends User Group, which has been drawing hundreds of members from around the world to its weekly online meetings. NMUG is offering two free months of membership for anyone who signs up in September.

Adam Engst 66 comments

Claris’s Plans for FileMaker Bode Well for Individual Users

Claris has announced that it will be changing the name of FileMaker Pro to Claris Pro and integrating it with a modern, Web-based development environment called Claris Studio. Even better, it will be free for personal use—a license fee is necessary only when deploying a solution to additional users.

Adam Engst 88 comments

Facebook Change Ensures Tracking by Preventing URL Stripping

If you use Brave or Firefox to protect your privacy from the social media sausage machine, note that Facebook has just changed its URL scheme to prevent privacy tools from stripping URL tracking parameters.

Adam Engst 49 comments

Elon Musk Buys Twitter for $44 Billion

Billionaire Elon Musk has purchased Twitter for $44 billion and will take the social media company private.

Glenn Fleishman 47 comments

Understand Cryptocurrency, but Don’t Invest in It

Cryptocurrency is volatile, expensive to trade, illiquid, and rife with scams and account hijacking. Yet it contains kernels of technology and principles that likely will dominate financial markets in the future.

Jeff Porten 5 comments

CES 2022: Another Year, More Tech Trends

Jeff Porten virtually attends CES for the Consumer Technology Association’s annual Tech Trends to Watch forecast for 2022.

Josh Centers 30 comments

Missouri Likely to Prosecute Reporter for Viewing Web Page Source

The State of Missouri may pursue criminal charges against a reporter for discovering (and ethically reporting) Social Security numbers in the HTML source code of a state website. The mind boggles.

Josh Centers 5 comments

More Standards Confusion, This Time with HDMI 2.1

We recently covered the dizzying confusion of USB standards, but HDMI standards for displays are even more confusing and even misleading. Read on to see what we mean.

Adam Engst 10 comments

Judge Rules for Apple over Epic Games, Strikes Down App Store Anti-Steering Policies

In Epic Games v. Apple, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has come down strongly in favor of Apple, rejecting nearly all of Epic’s claims and fining the company millions of dollars. But Apple suffered a blow too, with the judge determining that Apple’s in-app purchasing policies are anticompetitive.

Josh Centers 5 comments

Remember, Communication Services Cannot Guarantee Privacy

No matter how private a communication service may claim to be, it’s only as private as its weakest link, as two recent stories illustrate.

Josh Centers 6 comments

New South Korean Law Mandates Alternative App Store Payment Options

A new law in South Korea will force Apple and Google to let developers offer alternative payment methods in their apps.

Adam Engst 74 comments

New CSAM Detection Details Emerge Following Craig Federighi Interview

In an interview with Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal, Apple software chief Craig Federighi said the company would be applying “multiple levels of auditability” to its controversial child sexual abuse material (CSAM) detection system. What are they? Another new Apple document explains.

Adam Engst No comments

Wall Street Journal Video Explores TikTok’s Troubling Algorithm

The social media service TikTok is known for how it algorithmically decides which videos you want to watch. The Wall Street Journal created dozens of automated accounts to see how it works so well, or rather, how it tends to send people down rabbit holes that may not be healthy.

Josh Centers 47 comments

FTC Votes Unanimously in Favor of Right to Repair

Responding to President Biden’s executive order, the Federal Trade Commission has voted 5-0 to go after companies that make repair difficult.