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Essential Apple Podcast 174: A mixed bag of news and Jim’s new mic

This week I am joined again by MacJim and Mark to talk about Jim’s new microphone, the iOS 13.5 beta, Apple bugs, Apple’s earnings report, the NHS contact tracing app, and more.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Glenn Fleishman’s Working From Home book is completely FREE and can be downloaded here
  • Steve at Geeks Corner will be having more giveaways including Luminar 4 and Affinity softwares in the near future. Keep an eye on the site or follow him on Twitter @GeekCorner_uk

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 174: A mixed bag of news and Jim’s new mic

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How to stabilise your iPhone or iPad video

If you’re looking to up your video game and remove some of the bounce / stabilise your video footage, we’ve taken a look at Emulsio for iOS. We look at how well it performs and if you even need it with a newer Apple device with in built image optical stabilisation.

Emulsio is available on the App Store for free but does require an in app purchase for some features. The video stabilised in my youtube review was done with the free version.

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Setting up Firefox for Privacy

A guest posting by Andy J from his blog at doug.ee

My browser of choice for privacy is Firefox. There are browsers that are privacy and security focused, but I decided to stick with Firefox with some privacy add-ons (extensions) and some tweaking to the settings. Out of the box Firefox respects your privacy and security, with a few tweaks and add-ons you can improve the security of your browsing. In this article I will show you how to make use of these to help protect yourself.

Continue reading → Setting up Firefox for Privacy

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Helm Audio Tag a Hero Giveaway

HELM Audio is giving away 2 pairs of the HELM True Wireless 5 headphones each week until May 31st to heroes working on the frontlines to fight COVID19. We want you to tag your hero!

Everyone knows someone right now who is working hard to keep us safe in the middle of this pandemic. Maybe it’s a family member working in a hospital, or your neighbor is a paramedic, or a friend works at a food bank or is a member of the military, or your partner works in a local police or fire department. These heroes deserve some recognition for their courage doing what they do everyday.

Tag your hero with a short (one or two sentence) description of how your hero is working the frontlines for all of us, and tag them. We’ll randomly select two heroes each week up to May 31st for the free TW5’s. Winners will be announced on the Facebook page and we’ll notify them via DM.

Also Medical workers, first responders, or US military members stationed here in the US can already get a pair of TW5 headphones at a 50% discount with an ID.me account. Learn more about this program below the fold or at helmaudio.com.
If you’re putting your safety at risk to keep us safe, we truly appreciate your service. Thank you!

Continue reading → Helm Audio Tag a Hero Giveaway

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Thoughts on the iPhone SE (2020)

By James Ormiston (@MacJim)

For some years now, I’ve become ever more critical of Apple with each iPhone launch, where the entry level pricing rose higher and higher. We’ve seen those who are on a limited budget left with the choice either to pay more than they had planned, or choose an alternative mobile from the Android marketplace. Personally, I finally had enough when Apple launched the iPhone X which took the price into the stratospheric region of over £1,000.

Continue reading → Thoughts on the iPhone SE (2020)

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Essential Apple Podcast 172: Apple’s Super iPhone SE 2020

Apple launched the iPhone SE 2020 – and delivery dates have already slipped into May… Uncle Tim has been appointed to the Californian Economic Taskforce. Zoom in the press for the wrong reasons (again). Google warn Chrome users to update to latest version immediately. Simon is joined by Andy J, Mark Chappell and James Ormiston to try and make sense of it all.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Glenn Fleishman’s Working From Home book is completely FREE and can be downloaded here
  • You can get Ghostery Midnight free for 3 months with the coupon code ‘workathome’
  • Steve at Geeks Corner was having another giveaway for a little game called Trance X head over there to enter if it’s still running.

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 172: Apple’s Super iPhone SE 2020

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Essential Apple Podcast 171: Apple & Google Sitting in a Tree

Mark Nick and Jim join Simon to talk about another week in lockdown, the tech news from the week and whatever else comes up in the conversation.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Glenn Fleishman’s Working From Home book is completely FREE and can be downloaded here
  • You can get Ghostery Midnight free for 3 months with the coupon code ‘workathome’

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 171: Apple & Google Sitting in a Tree

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Apple Fan Tries Out Amazon Echo Dot For The First Time

As an Apple fan of course I’ve coveted the Apple HomePod and whilst it’s an expensive smart speaker, that’s not the only reason one hasn’t made it into my household.  Nothing much as happened with the HomePod since it’s release and HomeKit products are scarce, those which do exist seem to be disproportionately expensive when compared to Amazon Alexa compatible home automation equipment.

So I’ve dusted off my Amazon Echo Dot to give it a try and see if Alexa, despite all the privacy issues, can convert me away from my Apple idealism.

Originally this was supposed to be a plain ol’ run of the mill review but it’s ended up as more of a voyage and discovery of setting up and using the Amazon Echo Dot v2.

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Essential Apple Podcast 170: Insane Sandwich

Mark returns to the show and we’re joined by Donny Yankellow and Guy Serle to talk about the iPad turning 10, iCloud folder sharing, AirTags, Zoom, video conferencing and more.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Glenn Fleishman’s Working From Home book is completely FREE and can be downloaded here
  • You can get Ghostery Midnight free for 3 months with the coupon code ‘workathome’

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 170: Insane Sandwich

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Essential Apple Podcast 169: LOCKDOWN!

You may notice some difference in the sound this episode – Simon’s Mac had a kernel panic right at the end of the show and wiped out his recordings… Luckily Nick records a backup but his set up is a simpler Piezo recording with no Audio Hijack wizardry. However without him there’d have been no show at all. So we aren’t complaining. Also we need to get Jim a mic that doesn’t “rustle”!

This week news of any great consequence (well non COVID-19 news anyway) was a bit thin, but as we’re all in lockdown guests weren’t! In a bit of a houseparty Simon is joined by Nick Riley, James “MacJim” Ormiston, special guest Ronnie Lutes and eventually Donny Yankellow… to make a fist of what they could dig up to chew over.

And the amazingly brilliant interlude is “stolen” from Daniel Matarazzo

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Glenn’s book is completely FREE and can be downloaded here
  • You can get Ghostery Midnight free for 3 months with the coupon code ‘workathome’
  • Steve over at Geeks Corner is having an Apple Watch Strap giveaway… Why not pop on over and enter and get the chance to win an AppleWatch strap of your choice?
  • I didn’t mention this on the show but Serif have made all their Affinity apps on Mac/PC and iOS available on a 3 MONTH free trial and reduced the priced by 50%… If you were even remotely interested now is the time to try and buy!

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 169: LOCKDOWN!

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Essential Apple Podcast 168: Working from home special

Apple launch and all new MacBook Air, iPad Pros with LiDAR, a keyboard with backlighting and trackpad for the new and previous gen iPad Pros, updated MacMini with more storage, new iPhone cases and watch straps. iOS 13.4 got a demo from Craig Federighi and more. BUT before we get to that I am joined by special guests Glenn Fleishman (author, journalist, 2x Jeopardy champion and more) and Pete Knowlton (from Ghostery) and we get led down a path of talking about WFH, COVID-19, and a whole load of associated matters.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Glenn’s book is completely FREE and can be downloaded here
  • You can get Ghostery Midnight free for 3 months with the coupon code ‘workathome’
  • Steve over at Geeks Corner is having an Apple Watch Strap giveaway… Why not pop on over and enter and get the chance to win an AppleWatch strap of your choice?
  • I didn’t mention this on the show but Serif have made all their Affinity apps on Mac/PC and iOS available on a 3 MONTH free trial and reduced the priced by 50%… If you were even remotely interested now is the time to try and buy!

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 168: Working from home special

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GDPR In Simple Words – Finally Understand What Is GDPR

A Guest Post From NameEstate.com

From an original post by: Daren here

 

There are over four billion internet users in the world. This means that each day, billions of people log onto sites, download apps, or use other online resources that collect data about them simply by clicking their links. Cookies, IP addresses, locations, and much more can be collected without users even realizing they’ve provided this information.

When companies can store and utilize user data at their leisure, there is potential for misuse. To mitigate the risks associated with using the internet, the European Union has developed GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulations, to protect its citizens and keep companies honest about how they use consumer data.

The following is a thorough breakdown of GDPR, the history of data protection, who GDPR applies to, and how GDPR affects internet users and businesses. By better understanding GDPR, it will be easier to navigate registering domains, set up new websites, and adhere to all legal obligations that apply to business sites.

Continue reading → GDPR In Simple Words – Finally Understand What Is GDPR

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Smarty Mobile Internet £20 Unlimited Data Reviewed

Smarty is a relative newcomer in the mobile data provider space, shaking up the industry with it’s £20 for unlimited data offering.  Having been on the road for the last few months I decided to do a small video to see how it performs.

This is not a sponsored but…

If you fancy a FREE month on your mobile, use this code to sign-up with SMARTY. Here’s my link: https://referme.to/3aG1OLe with the added bonus of I will also receive a month free.

Is there a contract?

What I failed to get across in the video is that it’s a one month rolling contract.  If you look at the competitors quite a few of them will try to tie you into a 12 or 24 month contract.  Feel free to cancel at the end of the month and there’s no penalty.

Finally, facebook has decided to show me nothing but adverts for other mobile data deals and on the face of it some of them look a lot cheaper but, as always, be savvy.  Check the terms and conditions as some work as a cashback scheme which is ok if you have the cash to start with.

 

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Not all Magic Mouse 2 gestures work on iPadOS 13.4

Before you get all excited about the new, exciting trackpad & mouse support and go ahead and order a Magic Mouse 2, you might want to hold on.  As exciting as it might be to use all the gestures on your mouse it appears not everything is supported.

iPadOS 13.4 only supports vertical and horizontal scrolling gestures. Just wanted to let you know.

Can you connect a Magic Mouse to an iPad?