Archive for the ‘Tech’ Category
What is your phone and your internet connection blabbing about you?
Early in the second part of PBS’s (highly recommended) ‘United States of Secrets‘ documentaries, The Guardian‘s reporter Ewan Macaskill recalled Edward Snowden’s reaction in his Hong Kong hotel to a simple question: Do you mind if I record our interview on my iPhone?: Ewan Macaskill — excerpt from PBS ‘United States of Secrets’ part 2 MP3 […]
Snowden on intelligence agencies ‘owning’ your smartphone
Here’s a clip from the Brian Williams/NBC interview with Edward Snowden on the vulnerability of smartphones to intelligence agencies … (as we discussed in Oh. The NSA ‘owns’ iPhones (but only if it can get its hands on them, for now). It’s worse than I thought. excerpt: Edward Snowden talks to NBC’s Brian Williams re […]
About that Blackshades RAT computer malware thing in the news …
Here’s a line that recent news reports about this worldwide malware infestation might usefully have mentioned more prominently … Blackshades malware affects Microsoft Windows-based operating systems. But I guess they got hung up on the Shock! Horror! ‘Miss Teen USA nude photos’ angle, huh? Click to read the FBI bulletin here. – P
A useful video about iPhone photography apps
Courtesy of The Guardian via John Gruber (again!) Update: Here’s a list of the apps in the video and extras, plus, in comments, some Android alternatives.
Talk about image and editing power in your pocket!
Watch this short video ad for Bentley Motors, and watch the ‘making of’ feature at the end (starts 3’15”). Wow. Yeah, sure they use a bunch of accessories, but look at the quality of the images. – P via John Gruber @daringfireball
Et tu, RTF? (WTF)
See this article by UK-based computer security specialist Graham Cluley Just previewing an Outlook email could infect your computer. Microsoft warns of zero-day flaw. Just previewing it? Gah! I remember when Microsoft Office macros were shown to be able to be exploited to infect computers. I ran my (since departed) MS Office suite with the […]
iOS7.1 features
These are nice improvements, in my view… I did the upgrade immediately.
Snowden’s statement to European Parliament Surveillance Inquiry (Read it for yourself)
In situations like this, I like reading the original statement. Available here as a PDF via the European Parliament. (Drop me a line at the email address here if this suffers from link rot. I have made an archive copy.) A good review (with an appropriate amount of modulated outrage) from Glyn Moody here: Snowden […]
What could be behind Apple’s unwillingness to pass the ‘Spy Lockout’ shareholder resolution?
See: Now, I hadn’t upgraded to OSX Mavericks, so the ‘GotoFail’ bug didn’t affect my desktop, but it appears that ‘error’ was a factor in my iPhone and iPad since iOS6 sometime. The awful coincidence of Apple appearing (according to Edward Snowden’s ground-shaking disclosures) to have joined the NSA’s PRISM ‘direct access to user data’ […]
What? A headache warning for Google Glass?
See this article Google Glass enthusiast: It’s not worth the headaches by C|net’s Chris Matyszczyk recording PR man Chris Barrett’s falling out of love with the Google Glass … in fact suggesting they should carry a health warning (!) … I think there should be a warning that comes with Glass; that if you start […]
Oh. The NSA ‘owns’ iPhones (but only if it can get its hands on them, for now)
It appears the FBI’s assessment (‘assume that [your communication] will be intercepted and retained’) was based on reality … including the remote control of your phone’s microphone & camera. According to leaked documents, the NSA claims a 100 percent success rate when it comes to implanting iOS devices with spyware. The documents suggest that the […]
Stop motion and plasticine always remind me of Wallace and Gromit*
Apparently for this LeAnn Rimes music video, “All Footage and Stop Motion Filmed Exclusively on the iPhone” … wow. From Jim Dalrymple LeAnn Rimes new video shot entirely on iPhone – The Loop via TUAW.com – P * www.wallaceandgromit.com
The place of ‘character’ and ‘voice’ in business
While I generally get on well with most people I meet, I can sometimes be socially clumsy, or gauche, and fail miserably in my communications from time to time (as some people are wont to point out here now and then, bless them), but I try to (a) be consistent — the same person in all […]
Fooling the devilishly-clever stitching-up process that creates a panorama photo
This morning at the Golf Club, I took this panorama shot on my phone. Whether it was that action that prompted it, the guy in the blue shirt decided to finish warming up on the practice tee and walked to his bag. Look at the result … Generally, the panorama ‘effect’ is pretty good. But […]
