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Opening
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Opening Music
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Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
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Sponsor: Blue Apron
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Blue Apron
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Blue Apron is the #1 fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country.
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Blue Apron’s mission is to make incredible home cooking accessible to everyone.
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Blue Apron achieves this by supporting a more sustainable food system, setting the highest standards for ingredients and building a community of home chefs.
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We've been enjoying Blue Apron meals for awhile now and we love it
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You get to pick your own choices each week from a variety of menus. In fact, recipes are not repeated within a year, so you’ll never get bored.
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The quality and freshness of the ingredients has been amazing. It's even guaranteed. Blue Apron’s Freshness Guarantee promises that every ingredient in your delivery arrives ready to cook, or they’ll make it right.
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Blue Apron sources ingredients locally and is committed to sustainable, responsible, and regenerative food sources.
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A huge advantage for us with Blue Apron has undoing the "what are we going to make for dinner" dilemma.
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The arrival of the shipment is an "event" and you get to pick the day of the week for your shipment that works best for your schedule.
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We are also becoming better cooks and learning about new flavors and spices from a variety of regions.
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It's helping my kids become less picky eaters because they are excited to explore and try new things
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Recently we had Elicoidali Pasta & Crispy Oyster Mushrooms with Arugula & Marinated Mozzarella Salad
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We all loved the Oyster Mushrooms and my kids would NEVER have even tried mushrooms before.
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Because the meals come with step-by-step, easy to follow recipe cards and ingredient lists we are expanding our families meal choices.
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We've already been remaking many meals. It's expanded our dinner menus tremendously.
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Best of all as a Maccast listener you can try out Blue Apron for free.
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You will love how good it feels, and tastes, to create incredible home cooked meals with Blue Apron, so don’t wait!
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Blue Apron. A better way to cook.
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Big thanks to Blue Apron for supporting the Maccast.
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News
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Apple's Q2 2017 Earnings
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The facts:
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$52.9 billion in revenue with profits of $11 billion / $50.6 billion in revenue with $10.5 billion in profit for the same quarter last year.
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50.8 million iPhones sold./ on 51.1 million iPhones sold Q2 2016
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8.9 Million iPads sold / 10.2 million iPads Q2 2016
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4.19 million Macs sold / 4 million Macs Q2 2016
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So revenues and profits were up slightly from the same quarter a year ago with iPhone and iPad sales down slightly and Macs up but almost flat.
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Interestingly iPhone revenue actually grew from $32.9 billion last year to $33.3 billion this year due to an increase in the average selling price.
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Cook noted that demand for the higher priced iPhone 7 plus was higher than Apple expected.
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Other items of note:
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Services revenue was over $7 Billion, up 18 percent year over year and consistent with the last quarter.
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App Store revenue up 40 percent year over year
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Apple Watch sales doubled year over year
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98 percent customer satisfaction on AirPods and they can't make 'em fast enough.
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Apple Watch and AirPods are part of the "Other" category which includes Beats Headphones and Apple TV too. Revenue in that category was up 31% year over year.
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Apple ended the quarter with $256 billion in cash, 93 percent of it outside the U.S.
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NPD data shows iPad with 81 percent share of tablets in U.S. priced over $200.
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I know one thing that can probably help increase sales and revenues, release new products.
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I know Apple knows this as well, but really?
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I say this a with a little seriousness, but also jokingly.
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I much prefer they release products when they are ready.
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New week, more iPhone 8 leaks
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Coming through several leaker accounts on Twitter and pulled off the Chinese social site Weibo.
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The latest leak is a schematic drawing and of course it's authenticity can't be verified.
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Show many of the same design elements we've heard leaked before
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Vertically oriented dual lens camera with flash in the middle
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A large circular area noted on the back possibly for the wireless charging receiver
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No TouchID cut out
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A later version of the schematic surfaced with callouts
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Labels the inductive charging pad as being a "Qi" (Chee) design
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Doesn't mean it will fully support the Qi standard. The Apple Watch uses a modified version of the Qi tech.
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Molds also surfaced from one of the same sources that seem to back up the schematics.
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A research note from Deutsche Bank claims an iPhone 8 won't ship this year
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The info seems to come from a different supply chain rumor about packaging materials arriving for only two iPhone models this year.
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It's the same info that was oddly interpreted by one cite as evidence that Apple would be shipping two iPhone 8 models and not iPhone 7s models.
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Likely packaging would be coming from multiple suppliers and the one from this one supplier could be just for the iPhone 7s models.
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Apple Music has more TV planned
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Jimmy Iovine told Bloomberg this past week that he's trying to "…help Apple Music be an overall movement in popular culture". A statement in-line with ones he made in interviews a few months back.
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He said those plans include everything from "unsigned bands to video."
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There isn't any details on specific new programs but he mentions possible projects and who he's been talking to
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A possible sequel to R. Kelly’s rap opera Trapped in the Closet.
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He mentions discussing ideas with Brian Grazer and J.J. Abrams. Reportedly though, at least the Grazer talks, have "fizzled out". There was a report that Apple was looking to possibly buy out Imagine Entertainment a company Grazer co-founded with Ron Howard.
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Says Apple will grow their plans slowly.
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The next version of the Music app will better showcase video.
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It's been said that Apple's lack of a consistent vision and message for video though is holding the company back in many talks.
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Rumors of Iovine having meetings and making arrangements for deals without telling anyone have supposedly frustrated some colleagues.
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Right now we only know a a few shows and documentaries that Apple has planned
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Carpool Karaoke was set for a May release and then an April one and now has been delayed until "later this year"
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Planet of the Apps, will release sometime this Spring as well.
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There is also a documentary about Clive Davis and one about Bad Boy Records planned.
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The Bloomberg piece says Apple could debut as many as 10 original shows and documentaries by the end of the year.
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Apple Music did a deal with music video app Musical.ly to supply songs for their App.
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The app lets your own videos singing along to popular songs and share it with friends.
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They will switch to Apple Music on Friday.
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Subscribers will be able to listen to full songs while non-subscribers will get clips.
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Apple Music will also let the app expand from 30 countries to 120.
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Apple Pay may get peer-to-peer payments
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Recode ran a report saying Apple is talking with payments industry partners about building its own money-transfer service
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The service would let users send money digitally with their iPhones and would presumably tied in as an extension of their Apple Pay service.
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We are far from an actual product or a launch date, but one Recode source said Apple could announce the new service "later this year".
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Supposedly this is not a new idea fro Apple. There were rumors they were having similar talks back in 2015, but nothing ever materialized.
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Person to person money transfers are becoming a pretty big deal with services like PayPal, Venmo, Square Cash, and even banks (Chase QuickPay).
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The piece also says that Apple has held talks with Visa about creating it's own pre-paid debit cards that would be tied to the peer-to-peer payment service
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Since Apple wouldn't operate as a bank you could use the debit card account to hold funds for P2P transfers and then tie the card to Apple Pay to use your balance for payments at retail locations that accept Apple Pay.
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The piece notes that Apple would likely not charge for the peer-to-peer transactions so they would only get a tiny transaction fee charge from retailers if users use the debit card.
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According to recode thought Apple might have trouble getting their own debit card. Banks are not happy about the idea of Apple moving into their territory and plan to mention those concerns to Visa.
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Would you switch to a pre-paid Apple debit card or still be more likely to use your bank card?
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I might treat it like my PayPal is now with a small balance to use when I want.
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Possible name for the new service? "Apple Cash"
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Apple Pay growth has been slow but not up to the expectations of many. The new P2P service is seen as a possible way to improve adoption especially among an younger audience.
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OSX/Dok slips by Gatekeeper
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Well, we knew it couldn't last forever. McAfee told us Mac malware grew by 744 percent last year, most of it Adware
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This week brought word of a potentially nasty malware called OSX/Dok.
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Nasty because the payload comes via a "signed" app.
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To be fair anyone with a Mac developer account can sign an app.
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The problem is unless you have Gatekeeper set to only allow apps from the App Store this malware would install on your Mac without any warnings from the OS.
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That said there are so many warning signs with how you would get this installed on your Mac you likely would not get infected.
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Comes as a ZIP attachment to an email claiming you have an income tax issue.
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If you would actually open the Zip and run the attach Dokument.app file it does some clever stuff.
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Installs a startup item called AppStore
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Then once running it gives you a fake macOS update window that can't be bypassed until you enter your admin credentials
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Once you do that the software configures an web proxy to route all your traffic through a remote web server and sets itself up with a fake security certificate.
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They can now monitor ALL your web traffic even traffic to secure sites.
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You've been pwned
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As Maccast listeners you have already seen the MANY warning signs, but to recap
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NEVER open attachments on a email that seems the least bit suspicious.
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Don't run a APP from an untrusted source
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Suspect EVERYTHING.
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When in doubt, however small, stop and Google.
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Plus Apple has already revoked the developer certificate, so this one is not a worry for now.
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MalwareBytes also discovered a second variant of the OSX.Dok malware
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It is the same except it doesn't display the fake “OS X Updates Available” window and installs an open-source backdoor named Bella
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Bella is a Python script that attempts do things like expose iMessage and SMS chats and phish for passwords and give remote shell and screen sharing access.
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Luckily this variant also uses the same developer cert that Apple revoked.
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Thing is a some of these core ideas and components could resurface in other attacks and exploits.
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Good to be vigilant.
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Apple's Siri-based home assistant
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Many have been speculating for a while that Apple might use Siri to take on competitors like Amazon Alexa and Google Home
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Infamous Apple leaker Sonny Dickson thinks Apple could show off their offering at WWDC and claims Apple is "currently finalizing" the design.
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Claims a "cylindrical" design and looks like the Mac Pro
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Concave top with the controls on it
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Known internally at Apple by the codename "B238."
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The device will use Siri technology, have AirPlay support and include Beats speaker technology.
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No mention of HomeKit, but that would presumably come via Siri
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Ming-Chi Kuo says the product has about a 50 percent chance of being announced at WWDC.
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Says it will have "excellent acoustics performance" with one woofer and seven tweeters
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Computing power similar to iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s.
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Positioned at the high end of the market and cost more than an Amazon Eco (USD $179.00)
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Odds & ends
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Apple self-driving car spotted on the roads
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Bloomberg had the images
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As specified in their recently approved permits in CA the car was a modded white Lexus RX450h SUV.
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The exterior had a variety of "off the shelf" sensors including Velodyne LIDAR, radar, and lots of cameras
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The nature of the vehicle and test equipment support the theory this is a software and platform play by Apple.
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Apple partner Didi Chuxing recently opened its own self-driving lab near Apple in California
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Another report says Apple has asked the California DMV to alter the rules that require it to publish detailed public reports on it's self driving car tests.
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Apple extends Apple Watch (1st Gen) coverage for swollen battery issue
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Batteries that become swollen are normally covered for two-years. Apple extended this to 3-years on 1st gen Apple Watches
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Response to some users experiencing the problem.
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Economic Times says Apple has plans to start selling the iPhone SE online in India ahead of opening stores in India
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They are staring with the SE because will be only model made in the country which allows Apple to avoid hefty import duties
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Apple store prices going up in Denmark, Mexico, and all territories that use the Euro as currency
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The increases are due to ‘foreign exchange rate changes’
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They did at least offer some new "lower priced" tiers so developers could choose to adjust accordingly.
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Since the old €0.99 tier was increased to €1.09 devs now can choose a alternative €0.99 tier.
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Apple also offers a lower alternative €0.49 tier.
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Will not affect auto-renewable subscription prices.
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Sponsor: Atlassian
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Bitbucket
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Let’s be honest: your code is your world. You create it, tweak it, and lovingly obsess over it every day. So picking the right repository management tool is super important – only the best for your code, right?
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That’s why the team at Atlassian created Bitbucket.
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Bitbucket is the Git solution for professional teams helping over 5 million developers build with a purpose.
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Bitbucket gives teams of all sizes free private repositories with state-of-the-art features like:
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The world's best “pull request” algorithm,
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Built-in continuous delivery, and
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Integrations with your favorite tools like Docker, AWS, and Azure
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Because Bitbucket comes from Atlassian, it offers the best JIRA integration available, giving your team everything you need to take your code from concept to customer.
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I've used BitBucket with several projects to help keep my team and code organized, secure, and on-track
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I loved the ease of setting things up and the ability to easily integrate with AWS was key for my project.
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They also have some unique features like branch permissions that let you control who on your team can perform what actions on a branch, branch type, or branch pattern
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Bitbucket is for the code that takes us to Mars, decodes the human genome, or drives your next car.
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Visit: Bitbucket dot org / forthecode to start your free account.
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It will let you use Bitbucket for small teams of up to 5 people completely free. No credit card needed.
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Try Bitbucket today. What will your code do?
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Big thanks to Bitbucket and Atlassian for their support of the Maccast
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
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Mysterious case of moving location data
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Last week I told you about the photos taken by a listener at a NBA playoff game in Indianapolis that were tagged with location data from the visiting teams stadium.
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I threw out my theory that blocked cellular and GPS signals meant it defaulted to wi-fi location and probably globed on to a visiting team fans wi-fi hotspot that had a locally assigned IP that traced bay to their home town.
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I also asked for other theories.
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Overwhelmingly I got responses that "yes" it was a wi-fi location thing, but that it was probably Wi-Fi network equipment brought in by the visiting team so they could use it at the game to keep their devices safe.
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That must be the wi-fi network the listeners phone used.
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this theory makes a TON of sense EXCEPT…
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I got an email from Kurt who was at the same stadium, Banker’s Life Fieldhouse, in Indianapolis.
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In his case he was there for a concert. His photo data and also started off in the wrong location.
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It said the photos were taken at Marcus Amphitheater in Milwaukee (remember for the NBA story the GPS was in Cleveland).
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That was the location the band had been at the night before.
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He was actually able to quickly fix the issue at the venue by restarting the phone.
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I guess it's possible the band may also have been traveling with their own wi-fi system, but seems unlikely?
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In case you're thinking why do we even care?
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This comes up in another situation especially with Apple TVs or Macs which have no GPS and rely on wi-fi location data.
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If you've enabled 2-factor authentication when you attempt to log into your account your other devices will receive a notification with the location of the device that's attempting to log in.
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Sometimes this location will be WAY off. Typically it's the location of the main data center for your ISP.
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Crops up in families when accounts are shared and other family members attempt to log in.
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Older Apple TVs and 2-Factor Authentication
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If you ever enabled 2-Factor authentication fro your Apple ID, and you should, you might know that some older devices/OSes are supposedly not supported.
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Older Apple TVs can be one of them, but Paul offers this tip.
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Play tip from Paul
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A comment on the adding the code to the end thing.
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It actually should work, but may be a timing thing if you have a long or difficult password to type in with the remote.
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Typically the 2FA codes are only valid for 30-60 seconds.
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You'll have to try the login and let it fail the fist time which will trigger the 2FA alert on your device.
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Don't hit "allow' right away to get the 6-digit code.
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Type in your password on the Apple TV, then tap Allow on your device, then when you get the code add it onto the end of the password and log in.
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It should work at that point.
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Deceptive Genius Bar advice
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David wrote in to tell me about a positive experience he had with Apple Support at the Genius Bar,
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He had an iMac that was 60-days out of warranty with a failed Logic Board. he had not purchased Apple Care for this iMac.
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The logic board replacement was $600.00, but the Genius advised him calling Apple Care to see if they would offer a discount on the repair. Fine and good advice, but then it got weird
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The Genius also "advised" him to "make up a good story about why I was 60 days past the warranty period"
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Like he had been out of the country traveling and just returned or he had been dealing with a a sick family member.
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David being an honest person and a Maccast listener did NOT take that last bit of advice. He was honest and was still offered and got the discounted repair rate.
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He did oddly have to return back to the Apple Store to get the discount
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When he did there was some discrepancy in the notes on if the discount would cover just labor or the entire repair. The Genius opted to cover the whole repair for free.
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David was of course pleased with the result.
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Great story, but what bothered me was the advice of the Genius to lie directly to Apple Care support.
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It bothers me most because this one of many times I've heard of a Genius recommending to a customer that they lie to get better service or out of warranty repairs.
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My theory is this seems to be happening more as Apple has tightened the reigns on the discretion Geniuses have at the Store to decided to cover or not cover out of warranty repairs.
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I actually experienced this first hand when I had a small crack in my iPhone screen from dropping it. The genius "hinted strongly" that if I would just confirm the screen just cracked on it own that they could do the repairs at no cost. This despite me saying from the beginning that I had caused the damage. I did have Apple Care and so it was one of my covered $99.00 accidental damage repairs.
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|
Beware lightning bunnies
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|
|
So a recent topic of discussion has been iPhone's getting wireless charging.
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Members of the community have differing opinions of the benefits or not benefits
|
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|
Jason wrote to say he's a fan of the idea because he started having issues with the Lightning connector on his iPhone 6 not making a secure connection.
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I seems as though the constant plugging in and unplugging had worn out the bits that "lock" the connector securely in place.
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I asked if he was sure it was the connector and not the cables he was using
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I had an Amazon basics MFi cable that had a pin fall out.
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He said no, and I asked if he'd taken his phone into Apple to have a look. He did and turns out his trouble was "bunnies"
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Dust bunnies. The Lightning port had a wad of lint and dust jammed at the bottom.
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Jason is not alone. I've rousted many a dust bunny out of my lightning ports with a tooth pick.
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Not sure it's the best implement for the job, maybe a plastic "pick" would be better?
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Just be gentle and avoid pressing too hard and breaking the tip of the wood of fin your port.
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I feel like we've discussed this issue long ago, but I think it's worth repeating.
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Your Lightning cable should fit flush with the bottom of your phone. If it doesn't or there is a gap chances are it's rabbit season.
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Closing
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